Improve Your Attacking Chess

This is not a teaching manual, as one might think by reading the title, but yet another in the long line of chess puzzle books that have appeared in recent years. To be fair, it does say on the cover that the book contains "250 puzzle positions to train your kinghunting skills", so you are left in no doubt as to the nature of the book. The author has grouped the positions under six thematic headings, each comprising one chapter. The chapter headings are self-explanatory - Attacking the King Caught in the Centre, Attacking the Castled King, Strike in the Centre etc. Each chapter begins with a short explanation of the kind of ideas to look for in the puzzles, but it is the puzzles themselves that form the bulk of the book. Each position is accompanied by a brief description of the essentials of the position, and it is up to the reader to use his/her skill and imagination to find the winning continuation. Solutions are found at the end of each chapter. I like books of this genre because they act as a constant reminder to me in my own games that if you look long and hard enough even the most innocuous positions often contain the seeds of a winning combination. It is just a pity that other people's games contain far more fertile seeds than my own! This review first appeared in the magazine En Passant.