“It is true that the material is not easy: even a GM can’t solve them without some effort. On the other hand, I’ve been solving the exercises [in ‘Attack & Defence’ and ‘Endgame Play’] during 20-minute train trips to work with a pretty good success rate so they are certainly not at the impossible scale of things. My experience is that there is a pretty good mix of easier and harder exercises.”
GM Matthew Sadler, New in Chess
“Exercises, exercises and yet more exercises. That was what was characteristic for the old Soviet school of chess, which placed them on top after World War 2. Danish GM Jacob Aagaard continues this tradition in the series Grandmaster Preparation on Quality Chess, where you can find enough exercises for several years, sorted by theme.
Obviously you will not get the same position in a game. Luckily chess is too rich for this. You cannot study everything in chess as though cramming for an exam. But you can train your head and this is exactly what you achieve with this type of exercises. It worked for the Russians – and it should work for the rest of us as well.”
GM Simen Agdestein
“He has a very nice collection of exercises.”
GM Vidit Gujrathi, ChessBase India (full review)
“Each chapter starts with a prose explanation of the theme, backed up by illustrative examples of it in action. Then the reader must be ready to do some serious work on the test positions. Aagaard has chosen his material very well. Apart from being extremely instructive, the positions are taken mainly from very recent games (the years 2012 and 2013 figure prominently), giving them a certain freshness.”
Sean Marsh, CHESS magazine
“Gaining 100 Elo points with one book! By reading this book you will increase your chess skills, not only in attack and defence but also it benefits your level of calculation…. The text written by Jacob Aagaard is what makes our general chess understanding richer and inspires us to work hard… I could feel the difference in my level of play after reading this book.”
Aanjaneya Phatak, ChessBase India (full review)
“It’s for the serious player. For those of you who still keep dreaming about their master titles and want to work for them…
The style in which [it is] written truly reflects the high level of writing Quality Chess is known and famous for!”
Lukas Wedrychowski (full review)
“With Jacob Aagard’s book, Attack & Defence, part of a five-volume series, you immediately feel that it will bring you more than any opening book. It is particularly welcome that in this book not only the popular ‘attack’ but also the unpopular ‘defence’ is given space.”
André Schulz, ChessBase (full review in German)
“Attack & Defence is not a beginners book, but for the reader who is already pretty strong, it can certainly make him even better.”
Uwe Bekemann, Fernschachpost
