Attacking the uncastled king - Principles of Chess Middle Games

"Without the element of enjoyment, it is not worth trying to excel at anything."

- Magnus Carlsen

Hi chessbros, Welcome to the series where we learn the middle game concepts. Before introducing you to our today's topic, you need to know that this series has already completed the following topics before this blog is uploaded,

Blockade & Restriction ( https://www.chess.com/blog/siddharth026/blockade-restriction-principles-of-chess-middle-games )

Greek Gift sacrifice ( https://www.chess.com/blog/siddharth026/greek-gift-sacrifice-principles-of-chess-middle-games )

Opposite Side Castling ( https://www.chess.com/blog/siddharth026/opposite-side-castling-principles-of-chess-middle-games )

Weak Square & Outpost ( https://www.chess.com/blog/siddharth026/weak-square-outpost-principles-of-chess-middle-games )

The Bishop Pair ( https://www.chess.com/blog/siddharth026/the-bishop-pair-principles-of-chess-middle-games )

Prophylaxis ( https://www.chess.com/blog/siddharth026/prophylaxis-principles-of-chess-middle-games-2 )

Clearance sacrifice (https://www.chess.com/blog/siddharth026/clearance-sacrifice-principles-of-chess-middle-games )

Weak Colour Complex (https://www.chess.com/blog/siddharth026/weak-colour-complex-principles-of-chess-middle-games )

Pawn structure (https://www.chess.com/blog/siddharth026/pawn-structure-principles-of-chess-middle-games )

 Isolated Pawn (https://www.chess.com/blog/siddharth026/isolated-pawn-principles-of-chess-middle-games )

If you want to improve at chess it is important to increase your winning attack potential – and the art of attacking the castled king is one of the most important aspects of all. Generally, My advice is to the castle as early as you can, certainly within the first 10 Moves. It is a natural way to make the king safer. If we castle and our opponent doesn’t, their king will be easier to attack, and there will be more opportunities to play for a checkmate. We will see several games and understand how we can execute them in the best way possible.

Attacking the uncastled king -

An uncastled king signifies the lack of king safety. In general terms,' chess opening' is categorised into three part piece activity, Pawn structure and king safety. An uncastled king calls an attack upon oneself.  It should be the main focus of your attention and most of your play should be based around how to punish it! 

The player with the uncastled king will often look for attacking chances and a quick initiative to compensate for the lack of development, and the other player must adjust his play too. The way to play against a lack of development and a king in the centre is quickly, aggressively and mercilessly! 

Now you can follow this basic step before creating any kind of chaos on the chessboard,
1. Ensure your pieces are developed and your king is safe first.
2. Prevent your opponent from casting.
3. Open all the lines to the king!
4. Use your whole army.

These were the general actions but in practical games, It is very difficult to find moves with all the pieces around. So I would love to share a few games and give you some informative aspects you need to know in this position while playing.

Paul Keres vs Jaroslav Sajtar
Amsterdam Olympiad Final-A (1954), Amsterdam NED, rd 10, Sep-23
Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation (B94)  

This position you are watching is a very common theoretical Najdorf Sicilian setup. According to theories Qa5,h6 and Qb6 are the moves but black here plays Qc7. 
If you are a 'Sicilian' player and know Najdorf lines, you will immediately identify it as a mistake. How? Right this might be most of your question. Well, to help you, I will give you a hint. The hint is against Najdorf there are sacrifices on e6, which are very common. 
So with the hint, What will you play? 
If your guess is Bxe6, then you are correct. The idea behind such a sacrifice is to take a roof away from the king. 
Bxe6 - fxe
Nxe6 (attack on the queen) - Qc4
Nd5( attacking c7 weakness ) - Kf7 ( moving away from fork )
Bxf6 - Kxc6
Bc3 - Nf6
Bxf6 - gxf
Nb6( Forking rook and queen ) 

Now as I said in starting Qb6 is the theoretical move what change it makes from one square? 
Here is the same sacrifice in that line,

This looks bad for black, but the sacrifice becomes less effective in this case. With a greater understanding of piece play and position, You can play such a line. Moreover in Sicilian white will always be at a slight advantage. 
Now if you notice, This game did not involve any prophylaxis or outpost. It was just an aggressive game. While playing in such a position with an uncastled king you need to be aggressive.

...Match 2 ...

David Navara vs Mircea-Emilian Parligras
European Championship (2015), Jerusalem ISR, rd 2, Feb-25
English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense. Flohr-Mikenas-Carls Variation (A18)

Position -

Here black is about to castle and go to safety and play a normal game. Here we play a game you have to find every move which doesn't let the opponent castle. In this sense, the first move becomes fairly obvious Qc2 creating battery against h7. 
( I would highly suggest watching every move on the engine. The engine here is trying to castle and go to safety first.)
But is it really necessary? We don't have an immediate threat to bring our king to safety so we can break some rules since his king is under pressure at this moment. g6 protects the h7. Now we play e6 a sacrifice of a pawn to permanently stop his plan of kingside casting. How here is it,
e6 - fxe 
bh6

Now he needs at least 4 Moves for queen-side castling. 

Bf6 is played for having piece mobility. Now here is a move you did not believe what our protagonist played. He long castled here with the idea to bring rooks since his opponent has a long way to go for the castle.
Qe7, is played maybe trying to castle also force bishop trade by Bg7.
Rhe1 is played. (The principle move to bring all the pieces into attack.)
Nc5 is played attacking the bishop and gaining tempo. Here white doesn't rush for attack since he knows every tempo counts, He plays g4 intending to play g5. Bg7 is played to the castle. 

Now as we see in this position opponent is about to castle. The only move to avoid it is to sacrifice the bishop. But the question is it good to sacrifice it? We have seen bishop pair is vital for endgames. This is where we need to break the rules. Our light square bishop is not able to participate in any sort of attack on the king since both sides are covered. So it is better to sacrifice it. Also, we are getting three pawns in return. All this theory but he didn't play this move. 

He played a tempo-gaining move g5. Bg7 is forced. Now he sacked his bishop on g6,
Bxg6 - hxg
Qxg6 - Kf8 
Rxd5- Bxh6 
Rf5 -exf5
Rxe7.This game involves the factor of taking a risk, Breaking the rules. As GM Daniel Naroditsky would say, "Risk it for the biscuit."
If you use the engine on this play you will find black at an advantage but if you really use your brain and see humanly possible logic it's a fairly obvious move. 

This game is useful knowledge of when to break the rules and how to not rush for the idea but to make use of every tempo. 

...Match-3...

Mikhail Tal vs Georgi Tringov
Amsterdam Interzonal (1964), Amsterdam NED, rd 23, Jun-21
Modern Defense: Two Knights. Suttles Variation Tal Gambit (B06) 

Position -

Part 1 - ( King safety )
This game arises from modern defence. Here black took the sacrificed pawn on b2. Mikhail Tal here showed the perfect example of how to play against an uncastled king. So here next move is obvious,
Rb1 - Qa3
Bc4 
This is what we say compensation in chess for a pawn Tal has his pieces developed.
Now Black played Qa5 since the queen doesn't play many roles from the corner of the board. Tal here castles and gets his king to safety.
Now you can see Tal has so much lead in development but he doesn't rush for an attack which is the total opposite of the previous game and is the most effective way to play this.

Part 2 - ( Piece development and strategy) 
 Here black plays e6. This is what people used to do at that time. They use to wait for the opponent to overextend and then punish him for his mistakes. Tal played Principled move Rfe1. His opponent again plays a6. Now Mikhail Tal is not the one who will take such a troll on him. He is a sensational player of the century. He lays a trap by playing Bf4, Trying to provoke the move e5. The opponent fell for that, He played e5.
dxe-dxe,
Qd6 ( Infiltration of the queen )

Part 3 - ( Finish the game )
Here, If you notice tal has left two pieces hanging where none of them could be taken.
Qxc3 - Red1 ( Threatning mate in 1 )
Nd7 - Bxf7
Kf7 -Ng5
Ke8 - Qe6 
This is mate in 2 now. 
This is generally how you should play when you start breaking rules is generally for the higher-rated players who understand the games and positional manoeuvring. 

Now to the part where did left two pieces hanging why opponnet was not able to take it.

Qxc3 fails as seen in match but how does exf4 loses? 

This looses due to following moves,

List -

• Paul Morphy vs Theodor Knight
  "A Knight Can't Mate" (game of the day Jul-05-2004)
  Rook and Knight Odds game (1856) (unorthodox), New Orleans, LA USA
  King's Gambit: Accepted. King's Knight Gambit (000) 
• Volf Bergraser vs Maxwell Charles Salm
  4th Correspondence World Championship (1962) (correspondence), corr ICCF
  Formation: Hippopotamus (A80) 
• Henry Bird vs Wilhelm Steinitz
  "Caged Bird" (game of the day Aug-21-2008)
  Bird - Steinitz (1866), London ENG, rd 6, Sep-??
  Bird Opening: From Gambit. Mestel Variation (A02)
• Graham Clayton vs Michael Preussner
  WS/O/508 (2012) (correspondence), ICCF, Jan-10
  Bird Opening: From Gambit. Lasker Variation (A02)
• Herbert Weil vs Alexander Alekhine
  "Al's well that ends Weil" (game of the day Jul-14-2020)
  3rd General Government (1942), Lublin POL, rd 6, Oct-18
  Zukertort Opening: Quiet system (A04)

I hope you love this blog and if you love reading such informative content do let me know in the comment section I will be happy and motivated to write more such blogs. 
Till then,
Let us all grow at chess together.

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...The End...