Daniel ODowd wrote on 05/26/08 at 09:42:42:
I'm weighing up rather a big decision, between buying both volumes of The Middlegame, against The Art of Attack.
Ok, sounds like you're a much better player than I (~1300Elo). However, I own both Euwe and Vukovic, so my 2c:
As I'm sure you're aware, Vukovic is rather narrow, dealing with attacking the king position. Euwe is obviously a general middlegame text. Euwe is very good, but quite dense and requires a lot of effort from the reader (you're not really spoon fed). General structure is some introductory prose on the topic, then several heavily annotated games - it's probably a lot more digestible to a player on your level than me, but I personally found some sections heavy going. Euwe's 2nd volume has several chapters on attacking the king, but it doesn't do it in the level of detail that Vukovic does.
To my inexpert understanding it sounds like you achieve a good position, but then thingy it up - thus, you would benefit from improving your ability to conceive a plan based on the position in front of you OTB - ie "ok I'm better here, but what now?". In other words assessing strengths & weaknesses, and working out how to proceed from there. In this sense, Silman's "thinking technique" from
How to Reassess Your Chess (suggested above) may be what you're looking for. It's not for everyone, but highly rated by many.
As for a choice between the 2 books, I'd go for Euwe - simply because it covers more than the attack on the king position.