The Art of Sacrifice in Chess

by Rudolf Spielmann and J. (Translator) Spielmann, Rudolf; Du Mont

Book Overview

"The beauty of a game of chess is usually appraised, and with good reason, according to the sacrifices it contains. On principle we incline to rate a sacrificial game more highly than a positional game. Instinctively we place the moral value above the scientific. We honor Capablanca, but our hearts beat higher when Morphy's name is mentioned." -- Introduction.
Perhaps the strongest Austrian-born grandmaster of the20th century, Rudolf Spielmann...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486284492
• ISBN13: 9780486284491
• Release Date: November 2011
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Great Classic- An art taught by an expert...

This classic is something every chess player should read at least once. Spielmann, a great attacker and sacrificial player, shows you the thoughts, ideas, and methods of sacrifice. It's amazing how he was seemingly on the lookout for sacs at all times whether for positional or attacking gains. Great read.

Great clasical Player.... and great book

This is a kind of book, after read it, you can feel how your game was developmented. I loved this book, Great concept, there are a particular chapter i remenber, hole chapter of exchange sacrifice. Just for positional iniciative or domained strategics. Some games survive the computer analysis. You won't regret if you buy this book, the only thing is the notation's book is not in algebraic, and some younth or beginer player will be dificult to read the games. For me is not dificult but met some people leave a book for this. The book is great, too bad that the games are not writen in algebraic, but this will not be a issue for a player who loves chess. After reading you will leard this: Iniciative, development pieces by sacrifices, exchange sacrifices. Is your choice, i just want to be clear about the book. i hope i could help anyway.

Sacrife your pieces

Excellent book, this dover edition is a mirror of original edition. GM Spielmann show how sacrificies your pieces for win.

This is not another "hacking" manual, but gives ideas about how to think about sacrificing.

Rudolf Spielmann's work is not perfect, but if read in the right frame-of-mind can be an extremely rewarding read. This is not a manual on the mechanics of kingside attacks, in the vein of Vukovic's "Art of Attack in Chess," or Znosko-Borovsky's "The Art of Chess Combination." Neither is it a tactical workbook, such as Fred Reinfeld's works or Fred Wilson's works or, for that matter, Laszlo Polgar's magnum opus "Chess: 5,334 Problems, Combinations, and Games." Every one of those books/authors mentioned is worth reading, but this is a DIFFERENT KIND of work. The book that readily comes to mind as being in the same "family" as this work is Tal and Damsky's "Attack with Mikhail Tal," but unlike that (masterpiece!) Spielmann's work does not require a Master's Degree in Attacking Chess! :-) Now that I've compared "The Art of Sacrifice in Chess" to other types of attacking books you may be thinking of purchasing, let me finally speak about the book itself! Yes, Spielmann's choice of classification and terminology may be called into question, but that does not in any way detract from the book itself. What Spielmann does in this book better than any other intermediate book I can think of, is reveal HOW THE SACRIFICE AFFECTS THE REMAINING PIECES ON THE ATTACKING AND DEFENDING SIDES! For example, one of his games begins 1.e4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.e5 Nfd7 and now Spielmann plays 4.e6!? After 4...fxe6, Spielmann brilliantly demonstrates (through his play and especially through the annotations!) how White was able to win the game by constricting the Black forces behind the e-pawns on e7,e6. The line of thinking runs: if there is a pawn on e6 (extra though it may be), the bishop on c8 cannot really come out, which in turn entombs the rook on a8! There are other similar examples of this thought process throughout the book. You will also notice how, for example, minor piece sacrifices in the center suddenly cause the attacking side's rooks and queen to spring to life with decisive force! Many of the examples in the book are complex, but in nearly all cases you can see Spielmann's THOUGHT PROCESS, and you understand why he made the decisions he made. To me this book has a lot of value, and thank goodness it is a departure from all those insipid Morphy games with "sac, sac, mate" on f7 against an uncastled king.

A must read

Spielmann was a great combinative player from the first half of the 20th century. He played against Capablanca, Alekhine, Lasker, Tarrasch, Rubinstein etc. In this fabulous book he explains the foundation of combinative play: deep positional understanding, and not necessarily calculation power. In practical play it is most of the times not possible to calculate all the ramifications of a "real sacrifice" (this is Spielmann's therminology for those sacrifices which do not yield an immediate check mate or recovery of the material sacrificed). In such cases the sacrifice is based on positional understanding, not calculation power. Tal used to play like this; Shirov comes to mind as another example. A classic book. For this price do not think twice: buy it!