Attack together with Paul Keres
Attack in the Example of Keres’ Games, Part One
Many great books have been written about attacking in chess. From the first and best, The Art of Attack in Chess by Vladimir Vuković, through Aagaard’s Attacking Manual, to Boris Gelfand’s Dynamic Decision Making in Chess (which generally discusses dynamic chess but includes many attacking games). In this and several upcoming articles, I intend to introduce readers to the main principles of attacking and illustrate these principles through the games of Paul Keres. This way, we achieve two goals: we learn the principles of attack and familiarize ourselves with the work of one of the most creative players of all time.
For an attack to succeed, certain prerequisites must be met. What are the prerequisites for a successful attack? Here are the most important ones:
- For our attack to be successful, we need to have a sufficient number of active pieces. Chess books often state that we should have more attacking pieces than the opponent has defenders, but this is not entirely accurate. The most important factor is that our pieces are active—more active than our opponent's.
- The center should either be closed or under our control. It is particularly important that we either attack through the center or control the center with our pawns. This is crucial because it either makes our attack more decisive or prevents the opponent’s counterplay.
- An attack usually concludes with a combination, often involving a temporary or permanent sacrifice of material. This is where the risk of attacking lies—if our attack fails, we are left with less material and lose the game. On the other hand, this is also what makes our game beautiful—many of the most famous chess games in history are brilliantly executed attacking games.
All of this highlights the special importance of preparing for an attack. Rudolf Spielmann, a great attacker of the 19th century, once wrote that the strength of Alekhine (then world champion and perhaps the greatest attacker of all time) was not in executing attacks. "Give me any of his combinations, and I will find the solution. Alekhine’s strength lies in the preparation of the attack (as well as in its execution, I would add)." Therefore, in this and several upcoming articles, we will examine examples of both attack execution and attack preparation through Keres’ games. Some of these games are not perfect—there are mistakes. But what does a mistake really mean? A missed attacking opportunity? A miscalculation? In reality, our game exists because mistakes exist. Moreover, in complex positions, mistakes are entirely natural.
There is also a psychological aspect: the attacker generally has an easier time playing, while the defender faces many problems. The attacker knows what he wants, while the defender must discover how to respond.
A well-commented game (not overloaded with analysis, but rich in explanations) helps us greatly, both in improving our own play and in understanding the game itself. That is why, in the games I analyze, I will strive to explain the most important moments, helping readers better grasp the essence of attacking play. I have tried to select lesser-known games (at least to the general public) to avoid repeating games that are frequently reprinted in chess books. However, when I do present a well-known game, it will always include something new—something that, as far as I know, has not yet been published in chess literature. This is how I conduct my lessons—I always try to give my students something new. I also believe that learning chess through classic games is particularly valuable.
In this article, we will discuss attacking a King that has not castled.
Although one of the first pieces of advice given to beginners is to castle as soon as possible, even great players sometimes fail to castle on time for various reasons. Sometimes they believe their King is safe enough, sometimes they consider another move more important than castling, and sometimes they want to capture material first and only then castle.
Paul Keres’ games contain many beautiful examples of exploiting the weaknesses of an uncastled king. This type of attack must be energetic, and we must not stop halfway. Sacrifices are often required to break through to the opponent's King. The game Keres–Winter is so well-known that I will not include it here. Instead, I have selected a lesser-known game in which Black prioritized developing his queenside pieces over castling—and was duly punished for it. Pay special attention to Keres’ precise (10. Qh5!) and energetic play.
Let’s take a look at the game:
To be continued...
