Storming the Barricades by Larry Christiansen has been met with well-deserved praise. It functions mainly as a book that teaches about tactics and combinations--when and how to look for them and vital considerations relating to various types of attacks. Chapter titles include "Ripping Apart the King Position," "How Not to Attack," "Creating and Exploiting Weaknesses" and the like. But Christiansen's introductory remarks describe the essence of his work: "I consider this book as mainly inspirational in content...my goal is to instill the sense of adventure and spirit that is important that is important to successful warfare on the chessboard."

How better to describe this panoply of fighting games with sacrifices, king hunts, and general mayhem? For my money, this book provides a better way to learn tactics than any "structured" book I've seen, including Vukovic's Art of Attack, because it is so tied to the practical world of chess. Although the essence of the book comes before the end, I especially like the last section on Christiansen's favorite attacking games of the 1990s. Kasparov-Topalov, Wijk aan Zee 1999 will be included in the very greatest games in history (Christiansen duly ranks it #1). But the intricate details of the other choices will amaze you. I was completely unfamiliar with #6, Serper-Nikolaidis, St Petersburg 1993, a fantastic display of sacrifices in which, at every juncture, one could find move after defensive move that seemed to refute the attack. Needless to say, they are met by another spectacular idea. I might have ranked this #2. Take a look.

I would like to add something that is not evident in this book. I have been watching Christiansen's games on and off for 25 years, and I think only players who have seen him throughout that time truly realize what an attacking genius he himself is. It's sad that we have no record of weekend tournaments and even national events here in the U.S., quite apart from invitationals and such, because of the incredible attacking games Christiansen has consistently produced in such events. At least in this country, I have never seen anyone who approaches him in the ability to wander around the room in the middle of a tough game and come up with such amazing ideas on other boards. Furthermore, in the post-mortems of games by IMs and GMs, Christiansen will come by and, after a short think, suggest a move that neither player has considered, and which looks laughable and refutable by 3 or 4 moves. Yet after lengthy analysis the move proves to be best, or at least unclear. While Christiansen's preparation and positional mastery does not match those of the very best, I think that a strong case could be made that he is the best attacking player in U.S. history. Not by reason of a quick eye alone (see Fischer) or of a natural style (see Morphy, Fine, Reshevsky, and again, Fischer); but by his daring, imaginativeness, and his willingness to speculate, in the tradition of Tal.

YOU CAN FIND THIS BOOK AT