The Attacking Manual: Basic Principles | Jacob Aagaard | Typical High Quality Aagaard Product

The Attacking Manual: Basic Principles | Jacob Aagaard | Excellent Author / Poor Publisher

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The Attacking Manu...

	The Attacking Manual: Basic Principles Jacob Aagaard Quality Chess, 2008 - 264 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Typical High Quality Aagaard Product

This book is the first volume of a 2 volume Attacking Manual. By attack, Aagaard refers to attacks against the King. He has analyzed a large number of attacking games and established 7 "global principles" and the chapters are arranged around these principles. Since Aagaard (and John Shaw) is the publisher and editor, it looks like Aagaard has not skimped in any explanatory prose. The games are described in complete and beautiful detail making the requisite connection to the "global principle" involved. In my experience, this is about as good as chess instruction gets.

I will admit I have not read the entire book (that will take awhile). At the time I am submitting this there is only one other review and in that review the book is given only 2 stars. The author of the review complains about the tight spine which causes the pages to disappear into the centerfold. That was true with my book also, however the construction of the book is excellent and the spine is very strong. I found it an easy matter to merely bend the pages open. You don't have to bend each page. Several strategic bends will convert the book to normal. As Aagaard often points out, don't give up too easily.

I wanted to submit this review quickly because I didn't want anyone to avoid buying this excellent book because of the page issue.

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Excellent Author / Poor Publisher

I have enjoyed reading Jacob Aagaard's previous books. In those books he has often stressed that to improve in chess one must be willing to do plenty of work and put in some real effort. I believe that he is right. As I have worked my way through his previous efforts, I have been rewarded. Consequently, I had looked forward to the release of his "Attacking Manual" for some time. But now that I have it in hand, I am disappointed. While the content of the book is excellent, vintage Aagaard, the production value of the book is so seriously flawed that it makes his work virtually inaccessible. The binding is good; the heaviness of the paper used is good; the clarity and size of the many diagrams is good; the sharpness of the print is good. The problem, and it is a surprisingly big problem, is the lack of margins. They virtually don't exist. The pages are laid out in a double column format. While the very small margins don't present a problem reading the lines of the lateral columns of the book, they do make the pages unattractive. Far more importantly, the lack of margins medially makes it very difficult to read the book as lines of print literally bend into the central crease of the opened book. While I had expected to be challenged by the book's content, I had not expected to have to fight the book itself.

I feel bad ranking this book with only 2-stars. The Aagaard content deserves better. But a chess book is to be enjoyed. The layout of this book, with its lack of central margins, is simply so bad that it makes this work not only disagreeable, but essentially unapproachable. The content isn't worth the fight. Aagaard deserved better, but then again, so did I. I spent almost $30 for this book. I will never fully read it though. Poor production value trumped good content. It is not worth the fight. It is not worth the money. Aagaard needs to find himself a competent publisher.

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