Alexander Alekhine: Master of Attack

Alexander Alekhine: Master of Attack
Reviewed by Mark Houlsby

"Intelligence is quickness to apprehend as distinct from ability, which is capacity to act wisely on the thing apprehended." -- A. N. Whitehead (1861-1947). Dialogues, 135

"The true genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction." -- Samuel Johnson (1709-84) Lives of the English Poets, ‘Cowley’

Alekhine: Master of Attack is billed upon its cover as part of a series entitled: "The Masters". At the time of writing it appears that there is only one other book in this series: "Mikhail Tal: Tactical Genius", which was written by the same authors. Raetsky and Chetverik have also written books on the Petroff Defence and the Benoni, also published by Everyman.

A number of time-honoured traditions exist with respect to writing books about great chess players of the past. One approach is to include all the available games of a player in chronological order, usually annotating a subset of these. Another approach is to include only 100/200/300/... of the best games with annotations, perhaps adding a selection of tactical puzzles from the player's career in a separate section. A third approach is to present a biography, with a few selected "best games" added in an appendix, often without any notes. In such books the games almost seem like an afterthought. Finally, some game collections present a contemporary appraisal of the strategic/tactical innovations, which may have been discovered or developed by the player in question. Such books typically concentrate solely upon the games' more salient aspects (overall strategy, tactics, endgame play, etc.). No doubt, dear reader, you can think of other approaches that you have encountered in your reading.

Raetsky and Chetverik's book leans most heavily in the direction of the second of the abovementioned approaches, but a short biography is included near the start. As a sort of appetizer, three of Alekhine's most famous games with light annotations are embedded in this biography. These are games that have been thoroughly dissected and disseminated over the years, viz.: Bogoljubow-Alekhine, Hastings 1922; Réti-Alekhine, Baden-Baden 1925; and Alekhine-Euwe, Wch17 Delft (22), 1937.

So why publish yet another book about Alekhine? If one wants to get to know his games first hand, then one need look no further than My Best Games of Chess, or, with respect to a few of the examples chosen by Raetsky and Chetverik, 107 Great Chess Battles 1939-1945, both written by Alekhine himself. And if, instead, one wants in-depth and up-to-date analysis that reads like an issue of Informator, then there is Chess Stars' three-volume collection of Alekhine's games, or Huebner's ChessBase CD-ROM monograph (both of which, incidentally, are thoroughly recommended)....

Here is an extract from the self-advertisement printed on the book's back cover:

In this book Alexander Raetsky and Maxim Chetverik take a look back at how Alekhine defeated his opponents in dazzling style. They carefully select and analyse some of Alekhine's most famous attacks and glorious combinations...

The title of this book does betray what was, apparently, its authors' main purpose in writing it. It is a book about attacking, and particularly about tactics. The fact that the only other book in this series focuses on perhaps the only former world champion aside from Alekhine who is remembered, above all, for his tactical and attacking prowess, namely Tal, rather confirms this perception. Indeed, in the book's introduction, the very first example (evidently intended to whet the appetite of the curious reader browsing the bookstall at a tournament) is a tactical masterpiece taken from the game Alekhine-Koutny, Prague (simul) 1935:

The book is essentially divided between on one hand complete games containing (clearly identified) critical positions that lead to a tactical dénouement of greater or lesser complexity, and on the other hand the simple presentation of such critical positions, intended as tactical puzzles for the reader to solve. For the tactical puzzles, one is offered hints ("Alekhine Tips") which of course need not be consulted, yet which may nevertheless prove helpful to any confirmed patzer such as your intrepid reviewer :-P. With reference to the above position, the "Alekhine Tip" is: "Do not have too much respect for material." In case you do not know the game, or have not worked out what Alekhine played, the solution is 30.Qh5+!, which wins on the spot.

One of the more unusual (and therefore intriguing) chapters in the book is titled: "Beating Alekhine". It features a small number of examples where Alexander Alexandrovich lost convincingly to a selection of illustrious opponents. My personal favourite example hereof is taken from the game Keres-Alekhine, Margate 1937 (after 22...Qb4):

Keres played the wonderfully aesthetic 23.Qxd7+! Few players ever beat Alekhine in such a fashion...

There is a chapter devoted to Alekhine's far-from-inconsiderable endgame prowess, which makes for especially absorbing reading, considering that endgame theory is, on the whole, less subject to change than opening theory is. Here is an especially fine example, taken from Alekhine-Tartakower, Vienna 1922 (after 35...f3):

White played 36.Rd5!! e4 37.Rf5 and went on to win. This is impressive and instructive not only from a theoretical, but also from a practical point-of-view, since we have all found ourselves in endgames being the exchange up or down.

The penultimate chapter is dedicated entirely to listing the aforementioned "Alekhine Tips". One of these reads: "Calculating a long variation is quite easy if almost all the moves are forced." Oh, really?! :-) Many of the hints presented in this chapter are somewhat perfunctory, e.g.: "Expose the King." or "Don't be materialistic." Mind you, it's difficult, in such cases, to find some better advice.

This review copy is not without a small number of typographical errors, one of which is contained in another "Alekhine Tip": "Don't settle for a good move, find a win. Black had to unpin with 36...Kb8, though his positin (sic) remains difficult." Also, a particular bugbear of mine is the poor standard of grammar in much of the prose. Split infinitives, prepositions ending sentences, etc., the usual suspects. These, however, are very minor complaints, which are clearly unrelated to the chess content that interests us the most (or at least it should).

If, like me, you know and love Kasparov's growing "My Great Predecessors" series, which is also published by Everyman, you should immediately recognise the style and typeface used in the present book.

Audible U.S.A

Audible UK

The solutions to the puzzles are presented in the final chapter, in the form of the complete scores of the games from which the critical positions were taken. The critical positions are clearly presented within the body of the text of those scores. Often, embedded within the annotations, Raetsky and Chetverik offer sound, general ideas or advice, such as: "White has a very favourable 'piece count' on the kingside." which is the annotation appended to 20.Bxh7+! in Alekhine-Drewitt, Portsmouth 1923 (a game in which black, despite his name, resigned a little prematurely). Another example: "In major piece positions the initiative is everything. Given one move Black would be fine, but... 37.Qxh6+" (this in the annotation to Alekhine-Teichmann, Berlin m (4) 1921).

This final chapter occupies 81 of the book's 176 pages, a fact which reaffirms the authors' principal intent, i.e. to write a puzzle book based on Alekhine’s exploits. With a few exceptions, the only annotations in these games are of the critical positions, and even then, only the principal variations are examined.

So, what we have here, is a biographical tactical overview, which, as such, works reasonably well. This should not suggest that it could not have been improved in any way. One would have liked a more careful organisation of the material presented, for example, grouping the puzzles by tactical theme. That said, Raetsky and Chetverik’s deliberate avoidance of complexity in their explanations of strategy and so forth, make the book a diverting bedside read. In short, it does what it purports to do on its cover, no more and no less.

To sum up: if one already has any of the abovementioned collections of Alekhine's games, Master of Attack adds only little. If it is by no means novel in its approach, this little book does have considerable merit, notwithstanding. Who among us can say with honesty that we know and understand tactics so well that there is nothing left to learn about them? This is perhaps not an essential book, but nevertheless it could make a welcome addition to any serious collection of volumes devoted to tactics, or, indeed, the question of how properly to conduct an attack such that it will have the greatest possible effect.

"Houlsby Tip": no matter whether you are a patzer or a master, if you are an aficionado of tactics books, or of anything Alekhine-related, or both, then you should definitely buy this book. If you're not quite as enthusiastic as that, it still may be worth considering, nevertheless. If, however, you have several other books about tactics, or about Alekhine, you may not be missing out on too much if you decide to be diverted elsewhere. It's a good book, certainly, but perhaps not a classic.

Soucer: archive.org