Who doesn’t like an attacking chess masterpiece? We get excited when we see a devastating attack hit home, perhaps with a piece sacrifice along the way.
These attacks don’t just happen by throwing pieces up the board and hoping for the best. Super GM Romain Edouard explains that most of the best-attacking games in history were won by optimizing the position of all the pieces, putting them on their best squares, before launching an attack in the first place.
Romain puts his chess success down to the continuous development of a particular set of skills, some learned by analyzing the very finest examples of grandmaster play and others honed on the battlefield of pro-level competitive chess.
In this preview, Romain uses this approach of learning from grandmaster play by examining some of the best-attacking chess masterpieces from history and showing us the lessons we can take from these beautiful games to ensure our own attacks are successful and don’t run out of steam halfway, leaving us with a poor position and unable to stop our opponent winning.
By examining these games, we get to see practical examples of why, for example, we should not bring our queen out too early. Often the opponent can develop their pieces with a threat that forces the queen to be moved again – losing tempo.
You’ll also learn that it is important to be patient. Don’t rush! Take the time to prepare for your attacks. Sometimes an attacking move can be easily repelled, so take time to set them up to ensure they have the maximum impact.
Learning from the Attacking Chess Masterpieces
https://cdn1.ichess.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/attacking-chess-masterpieces-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cdn1.ichess.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/attacking-chess-masterpieces-1-100x100.jpg 100w" sizes="(max-width: 330px) 100vw, 330px" style="border-style:none;vertical-align:middle;height:auto;float:left;margin-right:1.5em;">The first game that GM Romain Edouard looks at was played between Rotlewi and Rubinstein in 1907. It began in a very symmetrical fashion with 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 e6 3. e3 c5 4. c4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Nf6, which reaches the position you can see on the left.
We reach the first important decision of the game, and White opts to play 6. dxc5. Interestingly, it was possible to play a waiting move such as 6. a3 in the hopes that Black develops the bishop with 6…Bd7 before capturing on c5, thus costing Black a tempo.
https://cdn1.ichess.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/attacking-chess-masterpieces-2-100x100.jpg 100w" sizes="(max-width: 331px) 100vw, 331px" style="border-style:none;vertical-align:middle;height:auto;text-align:center;float:right;margin-left:1.5em;">The problem is, though, that Black would not need to play 6…Bd7 but could play 6…cxd4 7. exd4 dxc4, and only then develop the bishop with an isolated pawn position. You can see this resulting position in the diagram on the right.
Back to the game, however, and Black played 6…Bxc5, lucky enough to be able to develop the bishop in just one move, directly to c5.
7. a3– White wants to play b4 and Bb2. 7…a6 8. b4 Bd6 9. Bb2 0-0. It’s a normal enough position, but now White makes the first bad decision:
10. Qd2. A rare move. It would have been better to play something like 10. cxd5 exd5 11. Be2 and then the castle, and the position is about equal. Of course, the pawn would not be hanging on d5 because if 11. Nxd5 Nxd5 12. Qxd5, Black plays 12…Bxb4+ and wins the queen!
So how does Black continue the game after 10. Qd2? How did Rubinstein get an attack going? You’ll have to watch the video to find out!
Who doesn’t like an attacking chess masterpiece? We get excited when we see a devastating attack hit home, perhaps with a piece sacrifice along the way.
These attacks don’t just happen by throwing pieces up the board and hoping for the best. Super GM Romain Edouard explains that most of the best-attacking games in history were won by optimizing the position of all the pieces, putting them on their best squares, before launching an attack in the first place.
Romain puts his chess success down to the continuous development of a particular set of skills, some learned by analyzing the very finest examples of grandmaster play and others honed on the battlefield of pro-level competitive chess.
In this preview, Romain uses this approach of learning from grandmaster play by examining some of the best-attacking chess masterpieces from history and showing us the lessons we can take from these beautiful games to ensure our own attacks are successful and don’t run out of steam halfway, leaving us with a poor position and unable to stop our opponent winning.
By examining these games, we get to see practical examples of why, for example, we should not bring our queen out too early. Often the opponent can develop their pieces with a threat that forces the queen to be moved again – losing tempo.
You’ll also learn that it is important to be patient. Don’t rush! Take the time to prepare for your attacks. Sometimes an attacking move can be easily repelled, so take time to set them up to ensure they have the maximum impact.
Learning from the Attacking Chess Masterpieces
We reach the first important decision of the game, and White opts to play 6. dxc5. Interestingly, it was possible to play a waiting move such as 6. a3 in the hopes that Black develops the bishop with 6…Bd7 before capturing on c5, thus costing Black a tempo.
Back to the game, however, and Black played 6…Bxc5, lucky enough to be able to develop the bishop in just one move, directly to c5.
7. a3 – White wants to play b4 and Bb2. 7…a6 8. b4 Bd6 9. Bb2 0-0. It’s a normal enough position, but now White makes the first bad decision:
10. Qd2. A rare move. It would have been better to play something like 10. cxd5 exd5 11. Be2 and then the castle, and the position is about equal. Of course, the pawn would not be hanging on d5 because if 11. Nxd5 Nxd5 12. Qxd5, Black plays 12…Bxb4+ and wins the queen!
So how does Black continue the game after 10. Qd2? How did Rubinstein get an attack going? You’ll have to watch the video to find out!