NEW BOOK | Become a Chess Assassin! Learn to play the best chess opening attacks ♟️🥷😼

#book #romanticism #openingattacks #chessassassinMy new book, Become a Chess Assassin! has finally been released and is now available for sale worldwide on Amazon, in both paperback and hardcover!

Become a Chess Assassin! Learn to play the best chess opening attacks. Paperback: USD $15.99, and Hardcover: USD $24.99 (or the equivalent in your local currency).

Buy on your regional Amazon store! US | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | NL | PL | SE | JP | CA | AU

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This book is a celebration of the Romantic style of chess. It is for people who love early aggressive attacks, who enjoy playing gambits, who are thrilled by daring piece sacrifices, or are curious to know more…!

Chess has, and always has been, a form of art and human expression. In that vein, being a Chess Assassin is one of the best ways to play chess. There is something compelling in mercilessly defeating your opponent in the opening stages of a game, especially with a brilliant display of swashbuckling tactics. Playing a shocking sacrifice and subverting your opponent’s expectations is exhilarating!

So, how does one Become a Chess Assassin? We must explore and learn to play the best chess opening attacks!

This book will teach you how to play some of the most lethal openings in chess using the best and most beautiful exemplar lines from chess history, including popular greats such as the Blackburne Shilling Gambit Trap, the Légal Trap, Fried Liver Attack, and the Traxler Counterattack, and many more!

• Every chapter includes in-depth descriptions of the opening attack or trap, with full move-by-move board diagrams for the entire line! No more having to use a physical board with the book, or trying to hold multiple positions in your mind's eye. The tactics and logic of the trap will be explored, including how it could be refuted, and the variants of the opening.
• The book is full of funny stories designed to place the chess into a historical context. The people who have played the chess, lived the chess, in days gone by, have woven together the vibrant tapestry of our modern shared community of chess. This book hopes to share with you a glimpse of the many narratives of those who have played.

This book is founded on the philosophical stance that the best chess opening attacks inspire us, and capture our imagination. They surprise us and delight us. They elicit emotions like awe and wonder, feelings that we might not have thought possible in simply moving pieces on a square board. The best chess opening attacks are evocative. And the purpose? This book will take you on a journey exploring these marvellous lines, so that you’ll see chess in a brilliant new light. And in doing so, that you’ll be motivated to play more chess, especially creative and exciting chess!

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What's the book like?

I've included a sample of the Become a Chess Assassin! that includes the Introduction section, along with the full chapter on the Fried Liver Attack! Check it out!

Further, see below for a book reading of the Introduction. Don't miss out on your copy!

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Foreword

Probably the most important part of a chess game is the opening. The opening in a game of chess is complex and almost infinite. It is easy for chess players to fall for chess traps in the opening when they are not so familiar with an opening variation and lose their way. Michael Tam has selected some of the best chess opening attacks and traps that inspire and capture the imagination. These instructive examples show the beauty in chess combinations and tactics. Michael demonstrates and explains many common tactical themes during the opening phase.

At the amateur level, most games are won or lost in the opening through mistakes in development or falling for a known book chess trap. It is important to study the chess openings and know what traps may arise from a particular opening variation, either to spring it on an opponent or to avoid a chess trap that your opponent is trying to spring on you.

Every chess player should be aware of typical chess traps and opening attacks. My first chess book was a book on chess openings.  A few weeks later, my second book was Irving Chernev’s The 1000 Best Short Games of Chess.  It taught me how to play trappy chess as well as how to avoid such traps.  And all of the greatest chess players have fallen for a chess trap. Vishy Anand lost in 6 moves. Paul Morphy was mated in 12 moves. Anatoly Karpov lost in 12 moves. José Capablanca lost in 13 moves. Emanual Lasker lost in 14 moves. Gary Kasparov lost in 15 moves.

For most average chess players, they should concentrate mainly on opening moves and principles.  The chess opening is always the most significant part of chess, followed by the middlegame and the endgame. You are not going to reach the middlegame or endgame until you master the opening and avoid the opening traps.

To play good chess, one needs to exploit erroneous play in actual chess games.  One needs to analyze chess openings and see why some moves are recommended, while other moves are not considered. Michael Tam’s book provides this analysis as he examines the best opening attacks.

Amateurs rarely play the best moves. Their mistakes tend to occur repeatedly.  One should be able to recognize an opponent’s poor opening play and take advantage of setting up an opening trap or how to counter illogical opening play. Follow the principles of quick development, controlling the center, and protecting your king. You can play gambits for fast development of your pieces or look for sacrifices to open up the position or expose the enemy’s king. Opening mistakes are almost always the result of violating opening principles.

Chess should be fun and pleasurable to play. You don’t have to win to enjoy a game. Use your imagination and creativity when playing chess. I try to play a different opening or opening variation every time I play chess. I try to experiment and not play the same variation again. With the internet, one can play thousands of games and always have a new opponent. I have a list of what to play as White (20 different first moves – I’ve played them all), and what to play as Black (a response to 20 different first moves for Black). I’ve seen them all.

As an author of over 60 chess books on opening traps and unusual openings, I am always looking for traps and short games, as well as unusual openings. I make a list of newfound opening ideas and then try to play them online.  Most of the time I win, but I lose some as well. I chock it up to experience and move on. With large databases, I always look for the theoretical novelty in my games and see what traps are associated with the opening. I also use a chess engine after a game to see where the losing move was, and then try to play an alternative move if I ever repeat this position.

I hope that Michael Tam’s work inspires you to play creative chess and perhaps you can use some of his ideas in your own games.

NM Bill Wall
October 2024