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Attacking chess (Part 1)

Attacking chess (Part 1)

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sirmasterr
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In this blog I'm going to write about good attacking positions, give analysis of them, and give attacking tips. If you have nice attacking games, feel free to put them in the comments and I might do posts about them later. 

Edit - I got the idea of the phases of attack from Vukovic's "Art of Attack in Chess".

The phases of attack

The first phase of attack is simply putting pieces on natural squares that aim at the enemy king, getting good control of the center, and getting your king to safety. 
Next, black continues to build the attack with more powerful pieces.

In the second phase of the attack, the pieces start to commit themselves to attacking on the kingside. It's important to watch out for counterplay, since some pieces are moving away from the rest of the board and can't help to defend it as easily. In this position, white doesn't have any central counterplay, and counterplay on the queenside will be too slow. 

Here white has many options: 

If white takes the sacrificed pawn, see if you can find the win for black - 

White can try to defend against the sacrifice in two ways:
In the third phase, black starts to threaten checkmating the enemy king, which prompts white to weaken his position with pawn moves. Sacrifices are frequently used to open up the kingside, so it's important to be aware of them. 

All three phases work together to bring home the attack. Once pieces are aiming at the enemy king, more commitments can be made for the attack, and then sacrifices become valid.
 
 

To conclude, attacking has three main phases - 

1. Developing pieces naturally in a way that puts pressure on the king, getting good central control, and getting the king to safety. (In this game, the first phase involved developing the bishop pair and the knight on e4, all of which put pressure on the kingside)

2. Beginning to commit pieces to kingside attack while keeping control of counterplay. (In this game, Re8-e6-h6 and Qf6-g6 are some commitments)

3. Creating and taking advantage of weaknesses in the enemy king's position with sacrifices or threats. (In this game, the threat of Bxh2!! provoked the weakness 14. h3 or 14. g3)

Good luck attacking in your games!