Out for Blood

Today, I don't know what happened.  I can't tell if it was because I took a long refresher in tactics and combinations or if it was because, well, I decided to stop beating myself, but my online games erupted in victory after victory after victory.  I know what part of it is.

It is said that many people play much, much better offensively than defensively.  I must be the exception to the rule.  I can almost always see the tactics the other guy is begging me to walk in to, but I have a hard time creating them for myself until I have given a fitful routing of someone elses attack.  My over-the-board friends have called me a counter-puncher.  The basics are always there, to beat a flank thrust you counter-thrust in the center, if your opponent has the bishop pair, try to close the center and choke his bishops.  I've always been a student of the great Nimzowich's ideals of enticing the other player into overextending himself.  Perhaps that is how I win.  I am not afraid of combinatorical attacks.  I usually invite them.  The psychological breakdown someone has when their tactics, for only one move, goes to the trash can is amazing.  Using that moment of hesitation, I can often find ways to not only slow them, but beat them.  Most people are not used to defending their own attacks, and because most people play poorly on the defensive, I can usually break them.  Perhaps that's what I should always do then, wait for them to give the opening...