Attack the Castled King

“I used to attack because it was the only thing I knew. Now I attack because I know it works best.” – Garry Kasparov

Hello, this is my first blog on Lichess. I blogged a lot on Chess.com, and I've decided to provide blogs to this community as well. This blog has won two blog competitions on Chess.com, so I've chosen this to be my first blog.

Going for the King

When the king castles, that usually makes it is safe from harm... but we can break through the king's guards and challenge his majesty.

A well-known way of doing this is called the Greek Gift Sacrifice. If you do not know what it is, here is an example:

But sometimes, there no Greek Gift Sacrifices or any immediate tactic you can do. So you need to start an attack. For a more attacking game, castle the opposite side as your opponent, so that you can march pawns towards their king without exposing your own king. While this allows you attack easier, it also allows your opponent to attack easier, so be wary.

Tips for Attacking

Your pawns are the most vital attackers. When working together, they can tear the opponent's defenses to the ground. Push them in sync and they will do great damage.

Often, pins are used to attack the king, by pinning a pawn to the king. Here is an example.

Another part of attack is focusing on a weak square. This way you can coordinate your pieces and aim at that square.

The most important part of attacking the castled king is to bring all pieces into the attack. If the opponent is skilled, you'll need all the attackers you can get.

Here is a game that showcased these four points.

And that ends the blog! Make sure to do these things while attack, but don't attack

prematurely. I hope you enjoyed the blog, and I'll see you next time.