One of the first chess books I ever owned was one of those potboilers, Attack and Counterattack in Chess, published by Barnes & Noble in 1958. I still have a copy and as I remember, I never got much out of it, but that may have been because at that stage it was too advanced...about all I knew was what I had picked up in the Encyclopedia Britannica.
For me it's annoying that the names of the players, the event and the date are not given, only the game scores. Reinfeld says little about the openings, but gives explanations behind the moves at critical points. Needless to say, as with almost all books written before engines, there are mistakes in the analysis and his notes are a bit lacking in depth. However, he was trying to teach principles by example not dissect the games to the nth degree.
I honestly can't say beginners would find this book totally without value, but there are plenty of more modern books that do a better job of teaching the rudiments of attack.
The book is divided into two sections.
Part 1 looks at how white attempts to make use of the first move by taking advantage of typical mistakes by black. Conversely, part 2 shows how black succeeds in seizing initiative when white errs.
The first seven chapters cover how control of the center, exploiting superior mobility, how to exploit black’s premature opening of the position, exploiting premature counterattacks, how to exploit weakening Pawn moves, taking advantage of errors in judgment and, finally, how take advantage of irregular defenses.
The last five chapters are from black's point of view and cover how to seize the initiative, how to play against gambits, how to defend against an attack, how to counterattack and how to exploit unusual openings. Many of the games are miniatures, so at least they are entertaining!
Reinfeld explains the following game as one in which black sees his opportunity to seize the initiative when white condemns his B to lasting inactivity and black then continues to build up the pressure on white's position in an instructive manner.
That said, it turns out that black's win was not the one sided strategic thumping Reinfeld claimed and it should not be a surprise because Stockfish reveals hidden resources. I don't want to be too harsh on Reinfeld because he was a stronger player than I will ever be. However, we armchair Grandmasters, armed as we are with Stockfish and Komodo, are privy to resources in every position that Reinfeld was not.
Speaking of the initiative, what is it? According to Wikipedia, the initiative belongs to the player who can make threats that cannot be ignored. He thus puts his opponent in the position of having to use his moves responding to threats rather than making his own.
A player with the initiative will often seek to maneuver his pieces into more and more advantageous positions as he launches successive attacks. The player who lacks the initiative may seek to regain it through counterattack.
[Event "Unknown"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Anonymous"]
[Black "Anonymous"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A00"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 14.1"]
[PlyCount "70"]
{Sicilian Najdorf} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 {
This is the Opocensky Variation of the Sicilian Najdorf and it remains popular
even today .Back in the 1950s and 1960s, more aggressive variations such as
the Fischer-Sozin (Bc4), the Main Line (6.Bg5) and 6. f4 were favored. Over
time sufficient sources of counterplay for black were discovered and so in the
early 1970s Karpov began to have success with the positional Opocensky
Variation. In his games play revolved around the strategic dominance of the
d5 square. In the 1980s and 1990s, Kasparov demonstrated that black could
maintain good chances by playing for rapid activity on the Q-side and in the
center. As in this game black attempts to take the initiative with the
thematic ...b5 and ...d5 breaks.} e5 {Playable with about the same results,
though much less popular is 6...e6.} 7. Nb3 Be6 8. O-O Nbd7 {Much more
frequent, but not necessarily better, is 8...Be7} 9. f4 {Frequently seen is 9.
Be3, but white's best move is probably 8.a4} (9. a4 Be7 10. a5 O-O 11. Be3 Rc8
12. Qd2 Qc7 13. Rfd1 {with equal chances. Voitsekhovsky,S (2527)-Alexikov,A
(2384)/St Petersburg 2002}) 9... Qc7 10. f5 {Reinfeld was quite critical of
this move because with Ps on the white squares e4 and f5 white has reduced the
mobility of his light squared B to an alarming extent. Another disadvantage to
this move is that it releases the pressure on the center and enable black to
eventually play ...d5. However, this move is the most often seen and in
practice the results favor white by better that two to one! That said both 10.
Be3 and 10.Kh1 give even better results!} (10. Kh1 b5 11. a4 b4 12. Nd5 Bxd5
13. exd5 {Oll,L (2625)-Labuckas,A (2435)/Vilnius 1997. WHite is a little
better.}) (10. Be3 Be7 11. Nd5 Bxd5 12. exd5 Rc8 13. c4 b6 14. Kh1 O-O 15. Rc1
{White is slightly better. Kravtsiv,M (2653)-Rozhok,A (2135)/Lvov 2017}) 10...
Bc4 11. Bd3 (11. a4 Be7 (11... Rc8 12. Be3 Be7 13. a5 h5 14. Bxc4 Qxc4 15. Ra4
{White is considerably better. Geller, E-Najdorf,M/Zuerich 1953/Candidates})
12. Be3 O-O 13. a5 b5 14. axb6 Nxb6 15. Bxb6 Qxb6+ {is equal. Unzicker,
W-Fischer,R/Varna 1962}) 11... b5 (11... d5 {is premature.} 12. exd5 Bxd5 13.
Nxd5 Nxd5 14. Qf3 {is equal.}) 12. Be3 (12. Bxc4 Qxc4 13. Be3 {is equal after
either 13...Be7 or 13...b4, byt absolutely not...} Nxe4 14. Qf3 d5 15. Na5 Qc7
16. Nxd5 Qxa5 17. Qxe4 {and white is winning. He threatens 18.f6 with a
terrific attack.}) 12... Be7 13. Qe2 Rc8 14. Rac1 (14. Nd2 d5 {Better was 14...
Bxd3 followed by ...b4} 15. exd5 Bxd5 16. Nde4 Bb7 17. Nxf6+ Nxf6 18. Bg5 O-O
19. Rae1 {Black is better. Jurcisin,I (2129)-Mitura,V (2258)/Tatranske Zruby
SVK 2003}) 14... O-O 15. Nd2 d5 16. Bxc4 {This move, whuch Reinfeld did not
comment on, is not quite correct and black now gets the advantage.} (16. exd5
Bxd5 17. Nxd5 Nxd5 18. Ne4 {keeps black's advantage at a minimum.}) 16... dxc4
(16... d4 {was tricky, but a little better.} 17. Bxd4 exd4 18. Nd5 Nxd5 19.
Bxd5 Bg5 {and black stands well.}) 17. a3 b4 18. axb4 Bxb4 19. g4 {White makes
a gesture at a K-side attack, but black is prepared to meet it. At the same
time black will later on exploit the weakening of white's Q-side. Better was
moving the R to a more active file with 19.Ra1 although black still retains
the better chances/} Bxc3 (19... Qc6 20. Qg2 Bxc3 21. bxc3 $15) 20. bxc3 {
As it turns out the passed P on a6 plays no part in the game.} Qc6 {Black is
attacking e4} 21. Qg2 Nc5 22. Bxc5 Qxc5+ 23. Kh1 Rfd8 {This rather slow R move
gives white some hope. Black should have advanced the a-Pawn with 23...a5} 24.
Qe2 {Here, too, at this critical junction Reinfeld makes no comment. Black is
better, but rather than this passive move white should try 24.g5} (24. g5 Nh5
25. Nf3 Re8 26. Rcd1 Nf4 27. Qg4 a5 {In this situation the a-Pawn becomes
important...it's black's only asset!} 28. Nxe5 Rxe5 29. Rxf4 a4 30. g6 f6 31.
Rd7 Re7 32. Qd1 {and miraculously white has equalized!}) 24... h6 {This
passive move throws away most of his advantage.} (24... Nxg4 {and wins...} 25.
Qxg4 Rxd2 26. Qg5 Rf2 {leaves black with a dominating position.}) 25. Ra1 Qd6 (
25... Nxg4 {is still playable but less effective now.} 26. Qxg4 Rxd2 27. Rg1 {
and black has to tend to his K and loses the a-Pawn in the process.} Qf8 28.
Rxa6 {with a equal position.}) (25... a5 {this keeps the advantage after} 26.
Rg1 a4 {Watch this...} 27. Rxa4 Rxd2 28. Qxd2 Nxe4 29. Qd7 Nf2+ 30. Kg2 Nxg4
31. Kh1 Nf2+ 32. Kg2 Ne4 {and black is only slightly better.}) 26. Rfd1 Qc6 {
The threat is 27...Rxd2 28.Rxd2 Nxe4 with, according to Reinfeld, the threat
of a nasty discovered check. Actually it's not as nasty as it looks!} 27. Kg2 {
The losing move.} (27. h3 {This is just to demonstrate the threat of taking on
d2. Actually, black's best move is 27...a5 after which he is slightly better.}
Rxd2 28. Qxd2 Nxe4 29. Qd5 Nf2+ 30. Kg2 Nxd1 31. Qxc6 Rxc6 32. Rxd1 {with the
better ending, but it may not be winnable because all the Shootouts were drawn.
Still, we have to remember humans would be playing the ending, not engines!}) (
27. Re1 Ra8 28. Nf3 Re8 29. g5 {Black's defensive resources are adequate, but
he must play carefully.} hxg5 30. Nxg5 a5 31. Rg1 a4 32. Qg2 Re7 {And this
position is unclear! In Shootouts all five games were drawn (played at 15-23
plies).}) 27... Rd6 (27... Rxd2 {only equalizes after} 28. Rxd2 Nxe4 29. Rxa6
Qxa6 30. Qxe4 {and black's advantage, if any, is minimal.}) 28. h3 {This and
the next few moves are to passive and they allow black time to further
strengthen his position. Stockfish was able to offer a better defense and
while the game technically won for black, as you can see from engine analysis
the process is a difficult one and practically it seems white may have drawing
chances.} (28. Nf1 Rxd1 29. Rxd1 Nxe4 30. Qf3 {The idea for white is,
hopefully, to ease his defense by exchanging Qs.} Qa8 31. Re1 Nxc3 32. Rxe5 a5
33. Kf2 Qxf3+ 34. Kxf3 Ra8 35. Ke3 a4 36. Kd4 a3 37. Re1 Nd1 38. Kxc4 a2 39.
Rxd1 a1=Q 40. Rxa1 Rxa1 41. Ne3 Kf8 42. Kc5 Ke8 43. Kd6 Ra6+ 44. Kd5 Ra3 45.
Kd4 Ra1 46. h4 f6 47. c3 Kd7 48. Kd5 Rc1 49. Kd4 Kd6 50. Nc4+ Kc6 51. Na5+ Kd7
52. Nc4 Rd1+ 53. Ke4 Rh1 54. h5 Rg1 55. Ne3 Kd6 56. Kd4 Ra1 57. Ng2 Ra4+ 58. c4
Ra3 59. Ke4 Rg3 60. Ne3 Kc5 61. Kd3 Rg1 62. Ke4 Re1 63. Kf3 Rc1 64. Nd5 Kd4 65.
Nb6 Rf1+ 66. Kg2 Rb1 67. Nd7 Ke4 68. Kf2 Rb2+ 69. Kg3 Rb3+ {[%eval -699,19]
[%emt 0:00:02]} 70. Kf2 Kf4 71. Ke2 Kxg4 {with a clear win for black.}) 28...
Rcd8 29. Kf3 Qd7 30. Ke3 {Now, how does black finish off his opponent? White
has rushed his K to the center to help his defense, but black has a terrible
pin on the d-file that has white tied up. As a result black has time to carry
out a winning maneuver with his N.} Ne8 31. Ra5 Nc7 {Black's position is so
strong that the loss of his e-Pawn is irrelevant.} 32. Rxe5 Nb5 33. Rd5 (33.
Qxc4 {doesn't change anything.} Rc8 34. Qa4 (34. Qe2 Nxc3 35. Qe1 Nxd1+) 34...
Qa7+ 35. Kf3 Rxc3+ 36. Kg2 Qe3 {[%emt 0:00:08] mates in}) 33... Rxd5 34. exd5
Nxc3 35. Qf3 Nxd1+ {Having no compensation for the exchange, white resigned.}
0-1
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