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.
Anonymous–Anonymous0–1A00UnknownStockfish 14.1
Sicilian Najdorf 1.e4 c5 2.f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.xd4 f6 5.c3 a6 6.e2
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.b3 e6 8.0-0 bd7 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 e7 10.a5 0-0 11.e3 c8 12.d2 c7 13.fd1 with equal chances. Voitsekhovsky,S (2527)-Alexikov,A
(2384)/St Petersburg 2002 9...c7 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.h1 b5 11.a4 b4 12.d5 xd5 13.exd5 Oll,L (2625)-Labuckas,A (2435)/Vilnius 1997. WHite is a little
better. 10.e3 e7 11.d5 xd5 12.exd5 c8 13.c4 b6 14.h1 0-0 15.c1 White is slightly better. Kravtsiv,M (2653)-Rozhok,A (2135)/Lvov 2017 10...c4 11.d3 11.a4 e7 11...c8 12.e3 e7 13.a5 h5 14.xc4 xc4 15.a4 White is considerably better. Geller, E-Najdorf,M/Zuerich 1953/Candidates 12.e3 0-0 13.a5 b5 14.axb6 xb6 15.xb6 xb6+ is equal. Unzicker,
W-Fischer,R/Varna 1962 11...b5 11...d5 is premature. 12.exd5 xd5 13.xd5 xd5 14.f3 is equal. 12.e3 12.xc4 xc4 13.e3 is equal after
either 13...Be7 or 13...b4, byt absolutely not... xe4 14.f3 d5 15.a5 c7 16.xd5 xa5 17.xe4 and white is winning. He threatens 18.f6 with a
terrific attack. 12...e7 13.e2 c8 14.ac1 14.d2 d5 Better was 14...
Bxd3 followed by ...b4 15.exd5 xd5 16.de4 b7 17.xf6+ xf6 18.g5 0-0 19.ae1 Black is better. Jurcisin,I (2129)-Mitura,V (2258)/Tatranske Zruby
SVK 2003 14...0-0 15.d2 d5 16.xc4 This move, whuch Reinfeld did not
comment on, is not quite correct and black now gets the advantage. 16.exd5 xd5 17.xd5 xd5 18.e4 keeps black's advantage at a minimum. 16...dxc4 16...d4 was tricky, but a little better. 17.xd4 exd4 18.d5 xd5 19.xd5 g5 and black stands well. 17.a3 b4 18.axb4 xb4 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/ xc3 19...c6 20.g2 xc3 21.bxc3 20.bxc3
As it turns out the passed P on a6 plays no part in the game. c6 Black is
attacking e4 21.g2 c5 22.xc5 xc5+ 23.h1 fd8 This rather slow R move
gives white some hope. Black should have advanced the a-Pawn with 23...a5 24.e2 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 h5 25.f3 e8 26.cd1 f4 27.g4 a5 In this situation the a-Pawn becomes
important...it's black's only asset! 28.xe5 xe5 29.xf4 a4 30.g6 f6 31.d7 e7 32.d1 and miraculously white has equalized! 24...h6 This
passive move throws away most of his advantage. 24...xg4 and wins... 25.xg4 xd2 26.g5 f2 leaves black with a dominating position. 25.a1 d6 25...xg4 is still playable but less effective now. 26.xg4 xd2 27.g1
and black has to tend to his K and loses the a-Pawn in the process. f8 28.xa6 with a equal position. 25...a5 this keeps the advantage after 26.g1 a4 Watch this... 27.xa4 xd2 28.xd2 xe4 29.d7 f2+ 30.g2 xg4 31.h1 f2+ 32.g2 e4 and black is only slightly better. 26.fd1 c6
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.g2
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. xd2 28.xd2 xe4 29.d5 f2+ 30.g2 xd1 31.xc6 xc6 32.xd1 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.e1 a8 28.f3 e8 29.g5 Black's defensive resources are adequate, but
he must play carefully. hxg5 30.xg5 a5 31.g1 a4 32.g2 e7 And this
position is unclear! In Shootouts all five games were drawn (played at 15-23
plies). 27...d6 27...xd2 only equalizes after 28.xd2 xe4 29.xa6 xa6 30.xe4 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.f1 xd1 29.xd1 xe4 30.f3 The idea for white is,
hopefully, to ease his defense by exchanging Qs. a8 31.e1 xc3 32.xe5 a5 33.f2 xf3+ 34.xf3 a8 35.e3 a4 36.d4 a3 37.e1 d1 38.xc4 a2 39.xd1 a1 40.xa1 xa1 41.e3 f8 42.c5 e8 43.d6 a6+ 44.d5 a3 45.d4 a1 46.h4 f6 47.c3 d7 48.d5 c1 49.d4 d6 50.c4+ c6 51.a5+ d7 52.c4 d1+ 53.e4 h1 54.h5 g1 55.e3 d6 56.d4 a1 57.g2 a4+ 58.c4 a3 59.e4 g3 60.e3 c5 61.d3 g1 62.e4 e1 63.f3 c1 64.d5 d4 65.b6 f1+ 66.g2 b1 67.d7 e4 68.f2 b2+ 69.g3 b3+
70.f2 f4 71.e2 xg4 with a clear win for black. 28...cd8 29.f3 d7 30.e3 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. e8 31.a5 c7 Black's position is so
strong that the loss of his e-Pawn is irrelevant. 32.xe5 b5 33.d5 33.xc4 doesn't change anything. c8 34.a4 34.e2 xc3 35.e1 xd1+ 34...a7+ 35.f3 xc3+ 36.g2 e3 mates in 33...xd5 34.exd5 xc3 35.f3 xd1+ Having no compensation for the exchange, white resigned. 0–1
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