The Art of Checkmate (Dover Chess)
by Georges Renaud, Victor Kahn
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Book Summary Information
Author: Georges Renaud, Victor KahnEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); French (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1962-06-01
ISBN: 0486201066
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Dover Publications
Book Reviews of The Art of Checkmate (Dover Chess)
Book Review: One of the best chess books ever!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a classic and quite frankly, its hard to find chess books being written today that are this useful (with a few minor exceptions). Yes, it is in descriptive notation which makes it somewhat difficult. Yes, some of the commentary about the games is dated (see, e.g., the commentary about Bc4 as being a poor move in the sicilian defense) and there are a few errors. Despite all of this, the book is absolutely brilliant. The book categorizes many of the common mating patterns and then gives several examples and quizzes which are usually taken from actual game (or variations from games and occasionally a study or two). In my opinion, next to learning the basic endgames (to which too many amateurs don't pay enough attention -- quick, do you know philidor's and lucena's position cold?), studuing mating patterns is the most important step to improvement. How often have you gotten a really good attacking position against the king and had no idea how to proceed? An attack against the king is more dangerous than an attack elsewhere only because of the possibility of checkmate. If you cannot finish your opponent off then the attack fails. Often a sacrifice is required to finish off an enemy king. The best way to see the possibilities for such sacrifices is to know the mating patterns. Knowing these patterns will allow you to start looking for combinations, or play moves that set them up. Even if your opponent defends, it's not always the ability to conduct the mate itself, often it's the mere threat of delivering checkmate that allows a player to force positional (or material) concessions from an opponent. Maybe all you get out of a mating threat is a pawn, but that pawn may be enough to win the game! Maybe you win the exchange, or maybe all you have is a positional advantage heading into the endgame. Regardless, the ability to conduct an attack on the enemy king is important to all aspects of the game. The fundamental skill required to successfully attack the king is knowledge of the basic mating patterns and their variations. And there is no better source to learn these patterns than "The Art of the Checkmate."I have very fond memories of this book. When I first started to learn how to play chess 12 years ago, my father suggested this book to me. After reading the first chapter concerning legal's mate (a queen sacrifice that occurs very early in the game and, if accepted, allows checkmate typically by 2 knights and a bishop), I went to my father and told him that the book was useless because there was no way that this checkmate would occur in a real game. My dad smiled at me and suggested I keep reading. I had been playing a friend and we were pretty evenly matched. We both knew the basics, but nothing more. The very next game I played (after telling my dad how useless the book was) I GOT LEGAL'S MATE!!! I couldn't believe it... my friend was in shock! Absolutely true story! Needless to say, I devoured the rest of the book (but still haven't learned to accept the fact that my dad is correct occasionally).
While not everyone will have quite the experience, I am sure that studying this very easy-to-read book will improve your game, both when you are on the attack and when you are on the defense. A serious study of this book, along with Vukovic's "The Art of Attack in Chess" should make you a terror when attacking the king. On the positional side, I would suggest reading Pachman's "Modern Chess Strategy" and/or Silman's two middlegame books, "the Amateur's Mind" and "How to Reassess Your Chess." Reading these books and studying the games of Alekhine (primarily to study brilliant attack in action) and Capablanca (primarily to study brilliant positional and endgame play) should make you a very solid player!
Summary of The Art of Checkmate (Dover Chess)
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