Review: A Killer Guide to Attacking Chess

Michel HoetmerLeave a comment


Jacob Aagaard is certainly no stranger to writing. He has already written roughly 25 to 30 chess books, covering countless topics along the way. Yet, as far as I can tell, he didn’t write many books about this fascinating subject. There is a book titled Attack & Defence (out of print), and if we dig further back into history, we encounter older material: “Attacking Manual 1 and 2″, but those books are out of print as well. So it was high time for something new.

Something new? It is turning into a completely new series. Regarding this book, Aagaard writes that he kept the number of variations limited and intended for it to be easily readable without a chessboard or computer—hence, with plenty of diagrams. As far as I am concerned, he succeeded brilliantly in this regard. The problem with many writings by strong chess players is often that they drown you in a sea of variations while offering far too little verbal explanation. To them, things are often self-evident, but not to the average club player. The author did not fall into this trap. I can easily follow it all without a board myself.

Another positive point is that he makes a clear distinction between various aspects of the game. For example: is tactics the same as attacking?

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In the spotlight: CM Can Kabadayi

Michel HoetmerLeave a comment

Can is a Candidate Master and FIDE Instructor based in Sweden. If you’re active on Chessable or YouTube, his name likely rings a bell. As one of Chessable’s most popular authors, you might even own one of his courses.

His track record speaks for itself: he won the 2022 Community Author of the Year Award, his course Fundamental Chess Calculation Skills was voted Best Tactics Course of 2023, and he was crowned Chessable’s Author of the Year in 2024. Need I say more? Let’s dive in and see what this remarkable coach—with his unique chess background—has to share about coaching, training, Chessable and much more.”

From your biography on Chessable, I gather that you started playing chess relatively late. What triggered your interest, when did you begin and who taught you?

My cousin taught me when I was eight. She attended a private college in Istanbul where they offered chess lessons, but my school didn’t. So, one summer, she taught me the rules and I became interested in the game. I remember finding the game absolutely fascinating when she explained it to me. I played a little against my grandfather, but those were just casual games; nothing serious at all. I still remember some of the games we played in his old place in Ankara. Sadly, he died when I was 11.

Later, around the age of 15 or 16 in secondary school, we played against friends during breaks. A couple of people brought chess sets and we would play. It was still very casual, but competitive. Around the age of 17, I got my first book: Capablanca’s Chess Fundamentals. My grandmother bought it for me. I started reading chess books and became more serious about the game, though I still wasn’t playing in any tournaments.

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In the spotlight: Anish Giri

Michel HoetmerLeave a comment
Foto: Frans Peeters

Anish Giri has had a very busy schedule over the last couple of months. He was very successful in the FIDE Grand Swiss and qualified for the Candidates. He had a shot at the World Cup, but that didn’t go as planned, like with several other top players. It’s a hard and ruthless event. In this interview, Giri talks about his experiences in both tournaments, his ideas about chess, and much more. Let’s give the floor to Anish Giri!

Could you share some of your experiences from the Grand Swiss?

For sure. It’s been a while ago, and I am still enjoying the consequences of that since I am now going to prepare for the Candidates. The freshness of the tournament has faded. The Grand Swiss was a very interesting event. I thought the format of such a strong open, where only two people qualify, is the worst format there can be for me to qualify because usually I don’t lose many games, but I don’t win as many games as some of my competitors do.

Normally, this is not my format, one would think. But I still had to try because why else would I come if you don’t want to try? I was trying to play as aggressively as I can and try to score as many wins as possible.

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Review: Preventing Blunders in Chess

Michel HoetmerLeave a comment

If I didn’t make so many mistakes, I would be…?

You sometimes hear chess players sigh, “If I didn’t make so many mistakes, I’d be a much stronger player!” One or more mistakes in a game are acceptable. We all make them, and they aren’t always fatal. But blunders? They hurt. A lot.

It has happened to me far too often. It’s hilarious to think that I once blundered against Can Kabadayi, the award-winning author of this excellent training course (among other things, Chessable Author of the Year 2024). It was at a weekend tournament in Malmö in 2015. I blundered a bishop for no reason at all. If I remember correctly, it was a classic case of what the author calls “mobility restrictions.”

With the knowledge I have now, that was easy to prevent. The point of this training is to avoid such big and unnecessary mistakes. We can do this well if we teach ourselves to perform a short blunder check every time we’re about to move. This Chessable course teaches you how that works.

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