The chess world has witnessed a great number of wonderfully gifted attacking players, geniuses who have dazzled enthusiasts with their brilliant masterpieces. Everyone has their own favourites, and in this book Colin Crouch chooses three of his own: Garry Kasparov, Mikhail Tal and Leonid Stein. Chess legends Kasparov and Tal need no introduction, while Stein was a highly creative and intuitive player with the ability to destroy the world's best players with his vicious attacks.
Crouch examines phases of these players' careers, compares their differing approaches and styles, and highlights key attacking themes. A study of this book will help you to enhance your skills in one of the most crucial elements of the game.
- An entertaining and instructive guide to attacking chess
- Learn from the greats of the game
- Discover how famous chess minds work
Chess Secrets is a new series of books which uncover the mysteries of the most important aspects of chess study: strategy, attack, classical play, opening play, endgames and preparation. In each book the author chooses and deeply studies a number of great players from chess history who have excelled in a particular field of the game and who have genuinely influenced those who have followed.
Dr Colin Crouch is an International Master, an extremely experienced tournament player and a highly regarded chess writer. His previous books for Everyman Chess include Queens Gambit Declined: 5 Bf4! , which has been highly acclaimed for its thoroughness and originality.
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It has been several years since I last wrote a full-length book, on How to Defend in Chess, based on the games of Lasker and Petrosian. I am now writing on the attack, on games by Tal, Kasparov and Stein, and in some respects there is a similarity in format.
This is in part accidental, as a serious illness, including partial loss of sight, has made it difficult for me to contemplate until now writing a full-length book.
In my book on Lasker and Petrosian, I worked without computer analysis. I wanted to see what the great World Champions would have been able to think about over the board, and also I wanted to work on my own playing strength. In addition, I did not like the idea of an anachronistic arrogance, trying to pretend that, with a few clicks on the computer, any ordinary player can have the authority of a world champion. Naturally there were going to be mistakes, but at least they were, I hope, honest mistakes, and I felt reasonably confident that I was adding something to each game.
These days, with my mind slowing down through brain damage, I no longer quite trust my analysis with my own head. It has forced me to reconsider my thoughts about the role of the computer and the human in chess analysis. I have found that the use of computer analysis is just as time-consuming as traditional analysis, but that more variations can be covered in a given time. Probably there will be serious mistakes in my analysis, but these are now more likely to occur at move 10 in a variation rather than move 3. Most of the time, this would be beyond the horizon for practical players.
I also need to add a small point. Just after my stroke, I was close to being blind, and I could not read. It is still difficult to cover large texts. Meanwhile, the multi-volume collection by Kasparov has been published. My eyesight is gradually improving and I hope very much to go through Kasparov's comments and analysis in detail, for pleasure and information. But this is for the future. For my own book, I have covered only two games annotated by Kasparov, on Tal versus Spassky and Velimirovic, and some of Kasparov's notes on Stein. Mostly, though, I have written this book as if it were, in effect, written in 2002. So please do not regard any comments on history as definitive.
My thanks to my mother, for her understanding and company when suddenly I encountered a life-threatening illness. Also, my club colleagues, particularly from Harrow, the Braille Chess Association, and Drunken Knights, and, at an early stage of my recovery process, the encouragement I received from Hilsmark Kingfisher.
Colin Crouch
Harrow Weald
London, 2009
Content:
004 Bibliogaphy
005 Preface
007 Introduction
014 1 Garry Kasparov: 1975-78
068 2 Leonid Stein: 1972-73
121 3 Mikhail Tal: 1978-79
195 4 Garry Kasparov: 1978-82
265 Postscript
267 Index of Openings
268 Index of Players |
