Attacking Chess: Aggressive Strategies and Inside Moves from the U.S. Junior Chess Champion (Fireside Chess Library)

Attacking Chess: Aggressive Strategies and Inside Moves from the U.S. Junior Chess Champion (Fireside Chess Library)
by Josh Waitzkin

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Book Summary Information

Author: Josh Waitzkin
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1995-08-01
ISBN: 0684802503
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: Fireside

Book Reviews of Attacking Chess: Aggressive Strategies and Inside Moves from the U.S. Junior Chess Champion (Fireside Chess Library)

Book Review: Searching for Josh Waitzkin
Summary: 4 Stars

This book is part primer on attacking chess, part autobiography. IM Waitzkin hasn't played competitive chess for almost ten years (even though FIDE still shows him as the 69th highest rated player in the USA as of 2009). He now focuses on martial arts, and indeed has been successful in that arena as well. Josh wrote a subsequent book in 2007 which expands on his own personal growth and offers life lessons.

But what about Attacking Chess? I liked it. Josh writes very openly about his approach and provides many examples from as far back as 1983 (a game against his dad). Many people have seen "Searching for Bobby Fischer" and this book gives insight into some of the stories featured in the film. On losing the 1985 National Primary Championship, he writes:

"Although I was only eight years old, this one game changed me. For weeks afterwards I felt physically weak. I didn't want to play chess again for half a year. I had lost my direction. Chess had been so big in my life and now, deeply disappointed, I not longer wanted it. I had to learn that you can lose a big game, that losing is an integral part of any competitor's life. I had to learn to endure the misery and somehow get back on top. Ultimately I believe that the loss gave me a new and different kind of strength."

Ultimately, I think he got burned out. The fame he found because of the movie probably didn't help. "The problem with chess is that it can mess with your mind," he said years later on his retirement from active, rated chess. Kudos to him for finding happiness away from the chessboard. And we still can enjoy learning from his experiences. His was an appealing, aggressive style of play. Many good examples (not all wins for Josh!) up to 1994 are included here.

Compared to Pandolfini's "Chess Target Practice" (both books are part of Pandolfini's Fireside Chess Library, and came out in 1994/5), the diagrams here are actually too large. While the same ChessBase software was used to create them, these have been enlarged a bit too much and the resolution suffers. I also wonder: did the hardcover (was there a hardcover?) include the missing four pages at the beginning?

This is not a heavy book, and as such it should be required reading for youth chess players. Josh is a good chess tutor, and I hope he returns to the game in the future, perhaps following in his old friend Bruce Pandolfini's footsteps. There's plenty of books on how to play chess, but it's always nice to learn something personal about the few people who do it well. Describing a tournament in Philly: "A love of chess hung in the air with the smell of stale french fries and Big Macs."

3.75 stars

For more on Josh, see
The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance

For more on aggressive chess, see
The Art of Sacrifice in Chess

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Summary of Attacking Chess: Aggressive Strategies and Inside Moves from the U.S. Junior Chess Champion (Fireside Chess Library)

The subject of the book and movie Searching for Bobby Fischer, Josh Waitzkin has long been the top-ranked player for his age in the United States and a role model for chess-playing kids everywhere. Now, for the first time, Waitzkin reveals the aggressive tactics and psychological techniques that have propelled him to the forefront of the chess world. His unique introduction to the game combines solid instruction with stories about his personal experiences that capture all the excitement and tension of playing chess at the championship level.

Josh Waitzkin's Attacking Chess presents nineteen different offensive strategies, progressing from the most elementary, including forks, pins, skewers, and double threats, to the more advanced and sophisticated moves used by the world's best players. Chapters such as Minor Traps, The Seventh Rank and the Pig, Mating Nets, and Quiet Moves in Attack show how anyone can develop a more aggressive and creative style of play. Each strategy is illustrated with examples taken from actual games Waitzkin has played, described with all the gusto and competitive intensity this young master brings to his craft. You can feel the heat of battle throughout this action-packed manual -- it's guaranteed to entertain and inspire all students of chess who want to learn how to emerge victorious from the black and white jungle.

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