GM Ivan Sokolov is known to everyone who follows top-level chess. Despite being a successful player himself, who’ve beaten the very best players in the world, he still takes a rest from time to time and puts his glasses on just to write another highly instructive chess book! Some of his books received highest credits and not without reason: As a top chess player this man certainly has the experience, knowledge and data needed to conduct a quality chess book. As he proved with his other titles such as “The Strategic Nimzo Indian” or “Winning Chess Middlegames” he does also own good writing skills and the ability to arrange material so it fits club players as well as title holders.

In his most recent book, Mr. Ivan Sokolov presents you a topic which is of crucial importance in chess: Initiative – Despite the book title including the tag ‘sacrifice’ I would bravely say that it’s all dubbed under the theme of Initiative. An attack is in general kind of an initiative and it’s therefore important to study this topic along the other themes. Before starting my review of this book, please let me show you the content so you can follow the inner structure of this chess book:

Content:

007 Preface

011 Part 1 Initiative

012 Chapter 1 Ignoring the Threat

023 Chapter 2 Keeping the Momentum

032 Chapter 3 Standard Attacking Plans

048 Chapter 4 Pawn Breaks

053 Chapter 5 Sensing the Moment

060 Chapter 6 Developing for Attack

074 Chapter 7 The Fight for the Initiative

083 Part 2 Sacrifice

084 Chapter 8 The King Chase

093 Chapter 9 The Castled King

142 Chapter 10 The Decoy Sacrifice

154 Chapter 11 King in the Centre

180 Chapter 12 The Sacrifice for Development

212 Chapter 13 Clearance Sacrifices

218 Chapter 14 Pawn Structure Sacrifices

229 Chapter 15 Unexpected Sacrificing Motifs

236 Chapter 16 Intuitive Sacrifices

249 Conclusion

250 Bibliography

251 Index of Names