3 Tips To Attack In Chess
The ability to attack successfully is a necessary skill for the ambitious chess player. Here are three tips to help you with launching your attacks:
- Try to involve as many pieces as possible into the attack. The more pieces you have lined up against your opponent's king, the more likely your attack is to succeed.
- Choose an actual target for your attack. Instead of randomly placing your pieces on the kingside, choose a specific pawn or square to concentrate your attack against. Look for weaknesses (squares that cannot be protected by a pawn) and maneuver your pieces to directly exploit them.
- Exchange key defensive pieces. While the attacking side should generally try to avoid exchanges in order to keep more attacking forces on the board, sometimes the most effective attacking idea is to first trade off your opponent's main defensive piece. Is one bishop defending all the critical squares? Trade that bishop off and leave your opponent with a weak color complex.
The attack is one of the most critical elements of a chess game. By following these three principles, you will soon be checkmating your opponents in future games.
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Bio
IM Kostya Kavutskiy is a professional chess author, journalist, coach, commentator, and player. As a part of Chess.com's content team since 2009, Kostya has recorded many video lectures, covered elite tournaments, written instructive articles & blogs, and has done many live commentary shows for Chess TV. Kostya has also written a number of articles for Chess Life magazine and Chess Life Online, and is currently an instructor for Chess University. In 2015, Modernized: The Open Sicilian was released, which Kostya co-authored with IM Zhanibek Amanov. Kostya's tournament accomplishments include winning the 2014 Southern California Closed Championship, as well as achieving his IM title in November 2016. In April 2017, he placed 6th in the star-studded 2017 Reykjavik Open. He currently resides in Mountain View, CA, and his plans are to pursue the GM title while working actively as a coach.
