Attack or be attacked

DISCLAIMER: My blogs are intended for beginner to intermediate chess players.

Every time I see a book or blog entitled ‘Attacking Chess’, I think about my younger years playing golf. I used to hit my (golf) driver a long way back in the day. In fact, every time there was a ‘long drive’ hole, during a tournament, I knew if I could keep the ball in the fairway (off the tee) I had a good chance of winning the long drive contest.

Whenever I played a par 5 hole in golf, regardless of the distance or layout, I was always looking to reach the green in 2 shots (versus the normal 3 shots that most people require to reach the green). I remember guys I played with asking me, “Are you going for it?”, after my tee shot. (Meaning, am I going for the green in 2 shots?). My normal reply was, “no guts, no glory”, or “I didn’t drive 2 hrs. to this course to play safe and lay up”, before I pulled out my 3 wood (or driver) and hit the ball off the deck (fairway). Many times I didn’t reach the green or I would hit the ball in a water hazard or Out of Bounds (OB) on my 2nd shot. But, a lot of those times, I was still able to par the hole and sometimes even birdie the hole. And, many times when I did reach the green, I was putting for an Eagle (2 under par). I’ve probably had more than a dozen Eagles (in golf) in my lifetime. Some golfers who have been playing golf a long time, have none. Granted, it helps when you can hit the ball a long way off the tee. Hey, you still have to make the putt once you reach the green in 2 shots. I missed a lot of Eagle putts- close ones too. But the point is, if I never played aggressively (attacking golf) I would never have had the opportunity to score as well as I did in some games.

If you haven’t seen the golf movie “Tin Cup”, at least watch this 4 minute YouTube of the ending. Also, read the caption under the YouTube video which explains ‘the final shot’. This is an example of ‘attacking golf’ also showing the risks involved..a score of 12 on the hole..lol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8e8vSiLrVU&t=224s

Ok, maybe you don’t like golf or get my point. How about American football? American football is America’s most popular sport. Sorry Soccer fans. Speaking of Eagles! My Philadelphia Eagles football team won the Superbowl this year. Yes, they’re MY Philadelphia Eagles since I was born and raised in the Philadelphia suburbs. The Eagles were ALWAYS my team growing up, even when it was cool to be a Dallas Cowboys fan (aka ‘America’s team’). I’m not one of those bandwagon jumpers like most Cowboy fans are. The Eagles won the Superbowl this year with an “Attacking” defense. Granted, their offense did well too behind running back Saquan Barkley and MVP of the game, quarterback Jalen Hurts. But, the difference in the game (and the reason they won) was the Eagles relentless ‘attacks’ on the Kansas City Chiefs star Quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Patrick got intercepted twice in the game and got sacked six times. When Patrick wasn’t throwing interceptions or laying on his back (sacked) he was running/scrambling for his life- literally. He was completely taken out of his game plan and comfort zone. The Eagles not only won the Superbowl, they won BIG.

So how does ‘attacking’ in sports relate to chess? Attacking in chess is similar to attacking in golf and attacking in football because ‘attacking’ not only presents opportunities, it puts pressure on your opponent. It forces your opponent to react and often leads to THEM making mistakes. The more mistakes your opponent makes, the better chance you have of winning. During a halftime interview with a football coach, you’ll always hear the interviewer ask the trailing coach what they need to do better in the second half. The first thing you always hear the coach say is, “well, we have to eliminate our mistakes”. That’s because the coach knows how critical it is, to eliminate mistakes, if they want to win the game. How true, even in chess! If you don’t believe me, read my chess blog entitled, “Err less and win more”: https://lichess.org/@/mullerrj/blog/err-less-and-win-more/hxZoock7 In this blog, you'll see that the winner of most (if not all) chess games is the person that doesn't necessarily play the best, but who makes the fewest mistakes.

The best way to attack in chess is by creating a threat with every move. If your move possesses a threat, your opponent will have a much harder time realizing his own plans since he/she would have to utilize their resources to deal with the threats first. Always try to find a move that threatens your opponent’s safety.

I tell the kids that I teach in elementary school that chess is a ‘war’ game. Albeit, it is an abstract and strategic representation of war rather than a direct simulation of war. The game is deeply rooted in military tactics and strategy, mirroring key principles of warfare such as positioning, sacrifice, and initiative. And, in war, it’s either attack or be attacked where the aggressor is normally the successor. Sure, you can sit back and play a good defense in war, but the successor in war is usually the aggressor. Ok, I know you history buffs are going to vehemently disagree with me and say, “well, that wasn’t the case for Nazi Germany, or Napolean’s invasion of Russia or Japan’s aggression in WW II. The aggressor was not the successor in those wars.” I agree, but there were good reasons why these aggressors were not successful. In these wars, the aggressor overextended themselves or underestimated their opponents.

Let me give you another analogy if you don’t believe me- that the aggressor is normally the successor. I’m sure we’ve all witnessed a school yard fight in our lifetime, where two kids face off (let’s assume of equal strength and equal capability). If not in person, perhaps you’ve seen it on television or in a movie. Do you remember who won the fight? I do. It was almost always the aggressor, the kid that threw the first punch. Why is that? Because usually if/when that first punch landed, it was usually a debilitating or knock-out punch. It’s kind of hard to defend yourself when you’re lying on the ground, either knocked down or knocked out. It’s the same in chess. If you can keep your opponent constantly on the ropes (boxing metaphor) in chess, or better yet knock him/her out (by checkmating), you’ll win!

So, how do you play attacking chess? Here’s my 7 Steps with an example of a game I played recently:

1. Control the Center

We all know you can control the center by grabbing space with either 1. e4 or 1. d4 on your first move. So, do it! But, you can also control the center from the flank with an Opening such as the King’s Indian Attack (KIA). Instead of playing 1. e4 or 1. d4 you play 1. Nf3 followed by 2. g3 and 3. Bg2. Here’s a recent game where I played the KIA Opening and my opponent played the Caro-Kann Defense. 1. Nf3 c6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 Bg4 4. O-O Nf6 5. d3 Nbd7 6. Nbd2 h6 7. h3 Bh5 8. e4 e6 9. Qe2 Bc5 10. e5 Nh7 11. g4 Bg6 12. h4 h5 13. g5 Nhf8 The KIA is not really considered an aggressive/attacking Opening, but it can be if you played it the way I did. i.e. setting up a pawn storm on the kingside.

2. Develop Pieces

I’m sure you’ve heard this ad-nauseum by now if you’ve been playing for a while. I know my elementary school kids (that I teach chess to) have. After, you control the center you want to develop your pieces. In general, you want to develop your knights before your bishops. Sometimes, you can develop your bishops before the knights as in the London System Opening or Bishop’s Opening. When you develop pieces, you want to develop them toward the center. Remember, knights on the rim are dim. You also want to avoid moving the same piece multiple times, unless it’s to attack and/or capture. With my KIA Opening, I do a good job of developing pieces in the Opening.

3. Safeguard the King by Castling

Before launching an attack you want to make sure your king is safe. Castling is the best way to do that- ensure king safety. That’s not to say that you MUST castle. Sometimes the king is safe behind what we call a closed center. That’s where/when the central pawns, the d-file and e-file pawns, are locked and attacks on the opposing king are difficult to obtain. However, later in the game, if attacks on the king are imminent, it’s a good idea to castle. You can see in my game (below) that black hasn’t castled after 13 moves. That’s because there’s really no imminent attack by white on the black king. That and the fact that white has been playing aggressively and black has been forced to play passively reacting to white’s moves with zero time to castle.

3. Open the Position for Your Pieces!

The best way to open the position for your pieces is either to push pawns to break open files for rooks or to sacrifice pawns or pieces to destroy your opponent’s structure. In this same game, on move 17, I advanced my c-file pawn to do just that- push a pawn to open a file for my rook: 1. Nf3 c6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 Bg4 4. O-O Nf6 5. d3 Nbd7 6. Nbd2 h6 7. h3 Bh5 8. e4 e6 9. Qe2 Bc5 10. e5 Nh7 11. g4 Bg6 12. h4 h5 13. g5 Nhf8 14. Nb3 Bb6 15. Be3 a5 16. Nbd4 Bh7 17. c4 Ng6 18. cxd5 cxd5 19. Rac1

4. Use Tactical Weapons to Attack

Tactics such as Pins, Forks, Skewers, etc. are a great way to attack. Sacrifices, giving up material, are even better because your opponent usually doesn’t see it coming as easily as a pin, fork or skewer. In the same game, on move 23, I sacrificed my knight. 1. Nf3 c6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 Bg4 4. O-O Nf6 5. d3 Nbd7 6. Nbd2 h6 7. h3 Bh5 8. e4 e6 9. Qe2 Bc5 10. e5 Nh7 11. g4 Bg6 12. h4 h5 13. g5 Nhf8 14. Nb3 Bb6 15. Be3 a5 16. Nbd4 Bh7 17. c4 Ng6 18. cxd5 cxd5 19. Rac1 Bxd4 20. Nxd4 Ndxe5 21. Bh3 0-0 22. f4 Nd7 23. Nxe6

I knew that on black’s next move, they would capture my knight with their pawn: 23...fxe6. But then, I would counter with 24. Bxe7+. Black would most likely move 24...Kh7. And, I would follow up with 25. f5. Black’s up in material (+2.0) but I (white) have better board position and I’m slowly putting the pressure on black.

6. Keep Up the Pressure and bring in more Pieces if/when you can

Now that I have the pressure on black, I need to keep it up. I continue to do that on my 26th and 27th move. 1. Nf3 c6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 Bg4 4. O-O Nf6 5. d3 Nbd7 6. Nbd2 h6 7. h3 Bh5 8. e4 e6 9. Qe2 Bc5 10. e5 Nh7 11. g4 Bg6 12. h4 h5 13. g5 Nhf8 14. Nb3 Bb6 15. Be3 a5 16. Nbd4 Bh7 17. c4 Ng6 18. cxd5 cxd5 19. Rac1 Bxd4 20. Nxd4 Ndxe5 21. Bh3 0-0 22. f4 Nd7 23. Nxe6 fxe6 24. Bxe6+ Kh8 25. f5 Ra6 26. Qxh5 Ne7 27. Bd4

I’m also bringing more pieces into the fight too, with my queen on move 26. Qxh5 and my bishop on move 27. Bd4.

7. Deliver the knockout punch- the mortal blow!

Now that you have the pressure on, and more pieces to support the fight, it’s time to deliver the knockout punch/blow. This is NOT the time in the game to be over-confident or to rush any of your moves. If you do, you’ll most likely blunder, lose a critical piece and ruin your chances to checkmate the opposing king. So, take your time and make the best move.

I found that ‘best move’ on move 30. Rc8 sacrificing my rook and hoping the queen would take it. Here are the moves up to this point: 1. Nf3 c6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 Bg4 4. O-O Nf6 5. d3 Nbd7 6. Nbd2 h6 7. h3 Bh5 8. e4 e6 9. Qe2 Bc5 10. e5 Nh7 11. g4 Bg6 12. h4 h5 13. g5 Nhf8 14. Nb3 Bb6 15. Be3 a5 16. Nbd4 Bh7 17. c4 Ng6 18. cxd5 cxd5 19. Rac1 Bxd4 20. Nxd4 Ndxe5 21. Bh3 0-0 22. f4 Nd7 23. Nxe6 fxe6 24. Bxe6+ Kh8 25. f5 Ra6 26. Qxh5 Ne7 27. Bd4 Nxf5 28. Bxf5 Rxf5 29. Rxf5 Qg8 30. Rc8

I know you shouldn’t play ‘hope chess’, playing a move and hoping your opponent is going to make the move you hope they do. But, after my move 30. Rc8, even if the black queen didn’t capture my rook on its next move, I was still in a great position to win.

If the black queen captures my rook (30...Qxc8), I would move: 31. Bxg8+ and it’s mate in 1 or 2 depending on black’s move. If the black king moves 31...Kg8, I move 32. Qf7# and game over. If the black king moves 31...Kxg7 instead, I move 32. Rf7+. At this point, it doesn’t matter whether black moves 32...Kg8 or 32...Kh8 because it would get checkmated on white’s next move: 33. Qxh7#. So, you can see, the move 30. Rc8 was really the ‘knockout punch’.

By the way, even if black didn’t capture my rook with its queen, its only other ‘best move’ (according to Stockfish) would have been to play 30...Nf6. But, even if it did play this move, checkmate was imminent for white within 7 moves.

Here's the computer analysis of my game. I played with 93% accuracy and an ACPL of 20 which is pretty good. No blunders and no mistakes. You can see it was a really close game up until my opponent blundered. But hey, I'll take it.

Here's the game if you want to follow it move-by-move in Lichess:

The most important bit of advice I can give you for playing ‘attacking chess’ is to build a solid foundation first- before you attack. You do that by following Steps 1-3 (control the center, develop pieces and castle to safeguard the king). If you can develop your pieces while being aggressive and attacking, all the better! Also, it's important to always keep the iniative/tempo. As the great Grandmaster Wilhelm Stenitz said, "Only the player with the initiative has the right to attack".

I’m not going to say that playing ‘attacking chess’ is easy or doesn’t come without its risks- because it does. I mostly play chess to learn. I really have fun learning. But I also play to win when I play competitively. When I want to win, I play fearful and I play aggressively. I’d rather lose playing aggressively than to lose playing passively/defensively. That’s why when I play golf, and I play a par 5, I know I’m going for the green on my 2nd shot (provided I hit a good tee shot and I’m in the fairway). I’m like Kevin Costner in the movie, “Tin Cup”. That, however, doesn’t mean to play carelessly or recklessly.

To get better at playing ‘attacking chess’, I recommend you read the following books which will give you more insight on how to better ‘do it’: “The Art of Attack Chess”, by Vladimir Vukovic and “Attacking Chess”, by Josh Waitzkin. Once you’ve read these books, practice (by playing) what they preach.

Here are some of Josh’s quotes from his book “Attacking Chess”:

· I think that playing fearful drawish chess is a waste of time.
· In life would you want you prefer to be bold and adventurous or passive and fearful?
· As you learn the rules of aggressive play you will also learn to keep an eye on your own king, even when unleashing a mate attack.
· Checkmate is the hardest thing to do in a chess game, so it is essential for a player to be willing to take risks in order to achieve that goal.
· Again and again in chess we see examples of players achieving winning positions and then wimping out at the very moment that a mortal blow is called for.
· Chessic explosions are thrilling but they are also scary. As a player, it is quite easy to fall into a pattern of making timid choices, but if you avoid moves that entail risk you will surely lose out on experiencing the high art of the game.
· It is virtually impossible to checkmate a king that is well defended. The trick is to do away with the defense and reap the benefits of abandoned royalty.
· Because a pawn has such a small value, it instills fear in everyone it meets. It has the power of a kamikaze!
· Never let fear govern your play!
· Keep in mind that advancing the kingside pawns should ALWAYS be done cautiously. You don’t want to recklessly throw the cover away from your king, as this can backfire.
· The center is the most important part of the board and so in many cases you should try to place your pieces there. But sometimes you want to control the center, not necessarily occupy it.

As Molly (Rene Russo) said to Roy (Kevin Costner), in the movie “Tin Cup”...LET ER RIP!