Attacking Strategies for Club Players

Book excerpt: Attacking your opponent’s King is not just a short-cut to victory, it’s also one of the most enjoyable and gratifying experiences in chess. If you want to win more games you should become a better attacker. Studying typical attacking motifs and ideas easily brings dividends while you are having a good time. Michael Prusikin presents the prerequisites and the rules for a King attack in a lucid and attractive manner. In 15 thematic chapters he teaches you how to assess the nature of the position, identify the appropriate offensive patterns, find the preliminary moves and conduct your attack in a clear and effective way. Battering rams, pawn storms, deploying your pieces and striking the castled position, obstructive sacrifices, opening up the g-file by sacrificing a Knight on f5, Prusikin demonstrates the most important patterns of attack with lots of clear and well chosen examples. Prusikin next tests your newly acquired insights and your attacking intuition with exercises covering all the themes and motifs. You will find that studying Attacking Strategies for Club Players is both rewarding and entertaining.