"What's in a name?  That which we call a rose,
by any other name would smell as sweet"
- Shakespeare

The title of this book bewildered me initially.   I realize that the output of new books in this new millennium seems to cover subjects in ever increasing detail, but a book to simply offer the way to win games by hacking your poor opponent seems outlandish.  After all, a book on how to win a few more games would seem to be enough.  Still, I opened the book and began to read.

There have been some classic books written on how to play attacking chess (Art of Attack by Vukovic comes to mind) that have taken an approach that attacking chess can be explained in a compartmentalized or academic fashion.  How to Crush Your Opponents has a different perspective, giving a more pragmatic or at the board feel.  There are 30 well-annotated games that are the meat of the book and they are all very entertaining games.

The seven chapter titles are the first indication of a different look:  Keeping the Initiative, Harmonizing the Army, Changing the Tempo and All-In are titles that carry the feeling of being at the board.  The annotations to the games elevate some underlying points to the surface, things that many of us fail to realize or simply don't know.

Along the way what is delivered is a sense of how to play with the initiative or carry out a plan of attack, aspects that can best be appreciated in the context of whole games.  There are several comments in the introduction or at the beginnings of chapters that are not part of the annotations; these carried a lot of weight with me as they resonated with my own thoughts.

The author explains in the intro that he had two aims in the book.  The first was to offer some games that he found fascinating and enjoyable; the second, to help the reader play attacking chess.  I fully appreciate this as I enjoy attacking play as much as anything.

While the games are entertaining, I got the feeling of the book being somewhat disjointed.  There were places where I felt a lack of continuity.  For example: the first chapter "Opening to Middlegame" has five games.  The first three are all very nice sharp games, but they were more on the order of opening blunders than else.  The fourth game is a fine example of carrying sharp play from the opening to a conclusion, and the last game in the chapter ends with Black winning two pawns up in a bishops of opposite color endgame.

Any of these would be a fine example of what it was, but only one of the games feels to me like it is deserving of "Opening into Middlegame."  I suspect that part of the problem is the arrangement of chapters, as the final chapter "Playing to Your Strengths" has four games in which the winner gave best effort whether attacking or defending.

I found some interesting points in this book, mostly observations from the author, GM Simon Williams.  For a young player he seems to have put considerable thought into this game.  I enjoyed his thoughts and annotations, but could not get past the title or the incongruity in some places.  My feeling is this book would best serve an aspiring 1950 - 2100 strength player who is planning a train trip and wants some entertainment along the way.
 

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