The Art of Defense in Chess (McKay Chess Library)

The Art of Defense in Chess is an excellent book. Along with The Art of Attack, this book will help any serious chessplayer round out his/her style. Most books focus only on attack and the few books that do focus on defense usually turn toward counterattack as the only method. This book helped me to understand the principles of defense, which helps when you're being beaten and when you're beating someone. I can't emphasize enough how important the strategies that are discussed in this book are. You will not always be attacking, I guarantee it. Note that this is written in English notation, ie, KN7 and so on. If you only know algebraic, you'll have to practice this older system, but it will be time well spent since many books that one can find are written in this format. Also note that this book, if read correctly, will take a great deal of time to plow through. Basically, you need to have a board out and thoroughly analyze each and every position in order to get the most out of this book. I highly recommend this to intermediate and above players.

This book helped push me from a mid ranking player (ca 1500) to an advanced amateur (ca 1800). This book helped me learn how to hold onto a busted position and more so, learn how to shore up weaknesses and survive powerful attacks. It's a terrific learning tool, though not for the casual reader. I constantly used a set when reading this book, to analyze positions.If openings like the Modern Benoni and the Sicilian appeal to you, then this book will eventually help you play more competitive chess and win more games.

Most of the books I've read deal only when you're on the attack, but in my games this does not happen very often. After reading this book my game improved as I learned how to defend well when I'm under attack and my attacking play became more precise as I am aware of my opponent's defense.

If you can stand English notation and you like challenging positional study - then you will like this book. The exercises are very hard but they help you recognize the issues. This is a good book.