Don't Give Into Temptation...or Should You?

A few years ago, I noticed a big problem in my (chess) game was playing the tempting, aggressive move too soon. I would have a commanding positional advantage, but still I went for a crazy, attacking finish; instead of just playing the nice and simple move that would have slowly increased my advantage. I think the problem is it's so nice to have those games that end in a massive attack; afterwards all your friends tell you how brilliant you are...and so on, and so on. What those same friends don't point out is, that you could have risked very little and won without the risk that your sacrificial attack brought on.

At the same time, there's the quote, "opportunity doesn't knock twice." That is your opponent is not going to tempt you over and over; he or she may stop your attack the very next move. There's a fine line whether you should go for the gusto or prepare your threatened attack; and that's why I (and others) have problems with this aspect of the game.

Below are some puzzles to help you test out whether you have the correct "prepare/attack" ratio. Good luck!