Contents Symbols Preface by John Nunn Introduction The attack against the uncastled king The attack on the king that has lost the right to castle On castling and attacking the castled position in general Mating patterns Focal-points The classic bishop sacrifice Ranks, files, and diagonals in the attack on the castled king Pieces and pawns in the attack on the castled king The attack on the fianchettoed and queenside castling positions Defending against the attack on the castled king 11 The phases of the attack on the castled king 12 The attack on the king as an integral part of the game SowmrdsHveune Index of Players Index of OpeningsSymbols theta 0-1 (n) (D) check checkmate capture brilliant move good move interesting move dubious move bad move blunder championship candidates event olympiad the game ends in a win for White the game ends in a draw the game ends in a win for Black nth match game see next diagramPreface by John Nunn Attacking the enemy king is one of the most exciting parts of chess, but it is also one of the hardest to play accurately, Every chess player has had the experience of seeing a promising-looking attack crumble into dust, whereupon the enemy counter-attack sweeps aside everything in its path. Vukovié’s excellent book The Art of Attack in Chess is a thought-provoking attempt to explain why some at- tacks succeed while other fail to reach their goal. The author himself points out that not everything in chess can be reduced to a set of rules, but the general prin- ciples he establishes in this book provide excellent guidance on when to launch an attack and how to ensure that it has the maximum chance of success. As usual with classic books I have edited, I will take a little time to explain ex- actly how I have prepared this new edition. First and foremost is the conversion to algebraic notation. In addition to this, I have added 128 extra diagrams and in some cases, where it seemed appropriate, I have added further moves from the quoted games (for example, by giving the actual finish instead of ‘and White won in another ten moves’). I have lightly edited the rather ponderous English of the original translation, and brought the method of displaying variations into line with current practice. The index of the original book included only complete games, but I have also indexed the game excerpts. In two of the complete games, Alekhine-Asztalos and Alekhine-Kmoch, I have brought the moves of the game into line with the move-order given in the original tournament books. There are also a fair number of analytical footnotes (readers should note that where there is no room for a footnote on a particular page, the footnote appears on the following page). I hope readers will not form the opinion that Vukovi¢’s analysis was especially unsound - this is certainly not the case. The fact is that most authors are prepared to quote the annotations of famous players uncriti- cally, but Vukovié brought his own talents to bear and subjected all the positions tocareful analysis. Quite often the results were startling; in the well-known game Alekhine-Botvinnik, Nottingham 1936 he found a flaw which had eluded the many annotators who simply accepted the version of events Alekhine gave in the tournament book. Inevitably, the high percentage of original analysis implies a greater risk of the occasional slip, but personally I far prefer original comment to a bland recital of the ‘party line’. In any case, it is Vukovié’s general principles which will prove of most value to the practical player, and here there can be no argument about the enduring quality of his work.