All chess-players love to play a smooth attacking game, flowing from start to finish, and sprinkled with spectacular ideas and sacrifices. However, few can do so regularly, and for most players, their collection of brilliancies missed far outweighs their creative successes.

Innate talent plays an important role, but many of the skills needed for attacking chess can be learnt by study and practice. Here, one of the world's most experienced annotators has selected 33 superb examples, and explained them in a way that strips away the mystery. We see how the decision to attack is made, and which positional factors led to that decision being justified. We observe either a gradual build-up, or a lightning-fast storm, and understand why one approach or the other was necessary. Finally, we witness the final execution of the tactical blows.

To check that we have truly grasped the ideas, Franco presents us with plentiful exercises, where it is we who have to perform the heroics.

Zenon Franco is a grandmaster from Paraguay who now lives in Spain. He is an experienced chess trainer, his most notable former pupil being Paco Vallejo, now one of the world's top grandmasters.

Download a pdf file with a sample from the book.

Gambit books by Franco: The Art of Attacking Chess, Chess Explained: the English Opening, Chess Explained: the Modern Benoni, The Giant Chess Puzzle Book, Grandmaster Secrets: Counter-Attack!

"Playing through these carefully selected and well-analysed master games will give you a lot of pleasure" - Dr. W. Schweizer, Rochade Europa

"Excellent training material. Highly recommended." - Paul Dunn, Australasian Chess

"You can't learn successful attacking chess overnight, but with this book you can at the very least make a start." - Martin Rieger, www.freechess.info

"The chapter on Horwitz Bishops (two Bishops raking adjacent diagonals often arising from positions with hanging pawns) is excellent and the game Gulko-Ehlvest, Horgen 1995, particularly instructive" - IM John Donaldson, www.jeremysilman.com

"The beauty of this book is that one can use it simply as a games collection and enjoy the games as masterpieces in their own right, or one can go further and utilise it as a self-improvement tool. Whichever you choose you will not be disappointed." - Alan Sutton, En Passant

"Sparkling games and amazing combinations abound in this fine work. Playing through the astonishing illustrative encounters could well inspire you, dear reader, to look a little deeper in your own tactical battles. The exercises reach an advanced level and provide excellent study material for keen students. They would work best with a friend or trainer revealing the answers move by move." - Sean Marsh, marshtowers.blogspot.com

"I have seen seldom a more instructive [book] than this work from Franco!" - John Elburg, chessbooks.nl

"This large-format work by a very experienced Spanish grandmaster contains 33 deeply annotated games, some with supplementary game fragments, ranging from historical classics, through less well known games, to modern masterpieces." - John Saunders, British Chess Magazine

"'33 inspirational and instructive masterpieces' is what the book cover mentions, but it's actually a lot more. Many of these 33 games have 'supplementary games' that contain examples of the same theme as shown in the main game. ... Franco also offers many exercises, for the serious chess student. ... Franco's book is a pleasant addition to the abundance of available material that focusses on attacking chess. Firstly, because the game examples are almost all taken from recent tournament practice: no less than 26 of the annotated games were played after the year 2000. The most recent examples include Carlsen-Radjabov, Biel 2007 and Karjakin-Van Wely, Foros 2007. Secondly, Franco gives high-level analysis with lots of verbal explanation, even about small, positional details - and such are the parts I always enjoy most in chess books." - Peter Doggers, chessvibes.com