Sokolov, I. Sacrifice and Initiative in Chess, seize the moment to get the advantage, NIC, 2013, 255 p NIEUW, vaste boekenprijs

Sacrifice and Initiative in Chess is an entertaining and instructive guide, packed with useful advice and sparkling examples.

The sacrifice is one of themost beautiful and complex elements of chess. Giving up material in order to get an advantage is often the most difficult decision a player has to take during a game. It can also be the most rewarding.

Ivan Sokolov, a true grandmaster of attack, presents a set of practical tools that will help you to master the art of the sacrifice. He concentrates on the aim you are trying to achieve, and he teaches you how to develop your intuition and how to arrive at a reasonable risk assessment.

A sacrifice, Sokolov argues, is the natural product of the initiative. This explains why the author devotes a substantial part of the book to this most elusive element of our game. With great clarity he teaches when the initiative is at stake and how you should grab it.

Ivan Sokolov is an International Grandmaster who was born in Bosnia in 1968 and rose to the number 12 spot in the FIDE world rankings. He was Yugoslav champion in 1988 and Dutch champion in 1995 and 1998.

In his rich career Sokolov has beaten world chess champions Garry Kasparov,Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand. His previous books The Strategic Nimzo-Indian, The Ruy Lopez Revisited and Winning Chess Middlegames were widely acclaimed bestsellers.