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Attacking Strategies for Club Players by Michael Prusikin 2021 New in Chess 192pp
It seems these days that there is no shortage of treatises on attacking, including ones directed specifically at club players. Therefore, I always have some trepidation when picking up a new one to read. Often it seems that the themes and material overlap. With the themes, that’s mostly to be expected, but with the materials it can often be a sign of laziness.
For instance, we’re often treated to Fischer – Benko 1963 with 19.Rf6, or we see the “Marshall Swindle” of Levitsky – Marshall 1912 with 23…Qg3, concluding the alleged “Gold Coin Game.”
Thus, it was refreshing when I opened this book, flipped through it, and saw that there were new themes and that the games were mostly games I had never seen.
The book is broken up into 18 chapters. They are as follows:
- Prerequisites and rules for attacking the king
- King in the centre
- Obstruction sacrifices
- Attacking the king without the queen
- Pawn storm with opposite-side castling
- Pawn storm with same-side castling
- The Steinitz ‘battering ram’ – using the h pawn against a finachetto
- The Alekhine ‘battering ram’ – using the g pawn to destroy your opponent’s king protection
- The nail in the coffin
- Doubled g-pawns
- Using pieces to attack the castled position
- The Grand Prix Attack
- The Chigorin ‘outrider’ – the knight on f5
- Long bishop on b2
- Interference
- Breakthrough on the strong point
- Test your attacking skills
- Solutions
As you would expect, many of these chapters cover themes that we’re all familiar with, such as a king stuck in the center or pawn storms, or sacrificial breakthroughs. However, when was the last time you saw an explanation of doubled g-pawns being used for attack?
By doubled g pawns the author is referring to positions with pawns on f2/g2/g3 or f7/g7/g6. Examples of when those positions can be a weakness are given, including this example from the game Oll – Chernin 1993
Here white plays 27.Qg4 Rfd8
Now White wins with 28.Nxe6 Rxd3 29.Nxc5 Rxc5 30.e6 and White goes on to convert.
As you can see from this example, these aren’t all straightforward wins, but rather positions where one side is simply better. My first instinct was some mild disappointment, but after some reflection I decided that tactics books are really the place for the straightforward wins to reside. It’s OK for attacking manuals to focus on the process of creating the attacking chances.
That doesn’t mean that none of the games feature brutal breakthroughs and firework finishes. Take Spassky – Geller 1968, for instance. Here we see the position after 22…Rc8
Here Spassky decisively crashes through with 23.Rxf6! exf6 24.Qh7+ Kf8 25.Nxf7!! Rxc2 26.Bh6! Rxc1+ 27.Nxc1 Kxf7 28.Qxg7+ Ke8 29.g5! f5 30.Qxg6+ Kd7 31.Qf7+ Kc6 32.exf5+
All in all I found this book to be a pleasant surprise. Most of the examples I had not seen prior, and I enjoyed the new twists on attacking themes.
I will say that I did find the first chapter of the book, “Prerequisites and rules for attacking the king” to be a bit overly dogmatic and pedantic. The author tries to give some specific rules, along with some tips, but they feel a little forced.
The rules:
- Lead in development/uncastled opposing king
- Space advantage on the side of the board where the opposing king is located
- Few defensive pieces around our opponent’s king
- Lack of/weakened pawn protection for the king
The tips:
- Everyone must be invited to the party
- Open lines
- Have the courage to sacrifice
- Time is key
While some of those points are clearly applicable and prudent, it felt too much to me like an effort at forcing a list, ala those types of “Five Simple Rules for ___” articles about almost any subject.
Having said that, I did get a lot of enjoyment out of the book overall. It felt like a nice solution for either someone looking to improve their own game through a better understanding of attacking play, and also is something that can be enjoyed by those simply seeking to play over enjoyable games for pleasure.
Til Next Time,
Chris Wainscott