Attack with Mikhail Tal

[Javier]

ISBN : 1-85744-043-9

Edited : 1rst ed 1994, reprinted 1999 by EVERYMAN CHESS

pages : 183

 

As a poor tactician, even among my clubmates, I never felt like studying M. Tal's games, even if I keep a very nice image from him at Candidates Tournaments held in Montpellier, 1985. As he was going out from the playing hall, together with Vassily Smyslov, a fan came to him with a collection of Tal's games, asking him to sign it, what Tal did very kindly. But before giving back the book to its owner, he had a quick look at it, and at some page, suddenly stopped. A broad smile appeared on his face, and,as happy and excited as a child, he caught Smyslov's elbow. I was too far for the scene to see what game it was about, but it's easy to imagine it was one of their many fights. Giving a friendly push on Smyslov's arm, he told him something who probably meant "hey, do you remember that one ??". Smyslov had a look at the game, then at Tal, and both bursted into laughing !

 

But I imagined for some reason, that the brillancies of such a tactical genius were to be admired, but could hardly help average players to progress.

 

During the last winter, I discovered this book,probably well-known by many of you... In 9 chapters such as "The Assault Ratio", "Lines of Communication", "Destroying the Fortress Walls", Tal and Damsky give a fantastic lecture on tactical play. The examples (in major part from Tal practice) are well-chosen, and explained so clearly you wonder why you just can't play like that in your own games ! Moreover, the style is entertaining, and I found difficult closing that book everytime I opened it ...

 

My main discovery is this book (don't smile ...) is that Tal was a very logical and rational player after all. OK, in some cases, he let his positional feeling and attacking instinct speak, but what I found striking is how methodically he build most of his attacking games. And that's probably why there is so much to learn in this excellent book!

 

The best I can say is that, since I read this book, I added 4 more books about Mikhail Tal on my bookshelves!

 

Very warmly recommended, even for tactical fraidy-cats!

 

 

 

(Originally edited by jeansaulnier, Oct. 08 2002)