ESSENTIAL CHESS SACRIFICES by David LeMoir is a modern successor to Vladimir Vukovic’s groundbreaking THE ART OF ATTACK IN CHESS (click to see Watson’s review of the Vukovic book). Mr. LeMoir, who has authored two other books for Gambit, may not be as well known as some of the other writers for this publishing house, but he is quickly making a reputation for himself. His newest book is a methodical look at different sacrifices. The material is set up schematically with chapters devoted to different themes, like sacrifices on e6, Nf5 and Nd5 in the Sicilian, Bxh7+, etc. Mr. LeMoir does a good job of describing the conditions that make these sacrifices work successfully. There is plenty of prose to explain the ideas, as well as many exercises to test what the student has learned. The examples are a mixture of classics from the past, as well as new examples. It was nice to see the game Filatov-Mayer from Philadelphia 2000 included as a new example of the double Bishop sacrifice on h7 and g7, as NM Filatov recently passed away.