Vukovic Vladimir. Art of Attack in Chess

Everyman Chess, 2009. — 352 p. — ISBN13: 9781857444001.The title of the the book under review at the moment is somewhat deceptive. While Art Of Attack In Chess is, indeed, about attacking play in chess, it is specifically about attacking the opponent's castled King. That's it. Almost the entire 350 pages of it!At first this may seem a bit improbable. However, as I progressed through the book, it was clear that the author, Vladimir Vukovic, was drawing me into to a treatise of precision and depth, the likes of which I have not previously read, at least as far as chess literature is concerned. That may sound daunting, but Art Of Attack is actually an amazing work to read.The chapters elucidate the minutiae of the attack on the King, leaving no stone unturned, and yet each follows logically from the previous, slowly binding all the concepts into a cohesive whole. It is sometimes the case that Vukovic leaves issues incomplete when they are only tangential to the current chapter, but he returns to them in later chapters when the previously hanging topic is more relevant, and then all questions are answered.