One of the most fundamental ideas in chess is to castle early to protect the king. But that begs the question: How can we attack the King if it hasn't castled yet?
The basic point is that the king is too weak to defend itself, especially when there are pieces flying in to attack it. The weakest square on the board is f2/f7. The only thing defending it is the King. So, the attacker looks to attack on f2/f7. But also, the attacker seeks to open up the e-file, the file that the King is on. Let's see some of those ideas in action.
First of all, let's see the fastest checkmate possible. This is known as the Fool's Mate, and BLACK is the one who delivers checkmate!
Of course, the above opening is given its name because "only a fool would play this way".
The next mate is the Scholar's Mate. Here, it takes someone who knows something about developing in the center to fall into the mate. But again, we see the attacker taking advantage of the weakness on f7.
It's important to learn this famous checkmate, and how to stop it.
The next famous mating net is called "Legall's Mate" (or "Legal's Mate"). It was invented by the French master, Legall de Kermeur. Legall was probably the best player in the world around the year 1730, and taught Philidor, the most dominant player of all time. (Philidor was the best player in the world from 1747 until his death in 1795. No player dominated his contemporaries as thoroughly or for as long as Philidor did.)
Legall's mate again takes aim at the key f7 square, but it requires precise timing to work.
Here's a cute checkmate idea, taking advantage of the open e-file
But perhaps one of the most famous attacks against the opposing uncastled King on an open file occurred on the d-file. Here is Reti-Tartakower:
There are many more examples of successful attacks on the uncastled king. Next time, we will look at another famous game attacking the uncastled King.
One of the most fundamental ideas in chess is to castle early to protect the king. But that begs the question: How can we attack the King if it hasn't castled yet?
The basic point is that the king is too weak to defend itself, especially when there are pieces flying in to attack it. The weakest square on the board is f2/f7. The only thing defending it is the King. So, the attacker looks to attack on f2/f7. But also, the attacker seeks to open up the e-file, the file that the King is on.
Let's see some of those ideas in action.
First of all, let's see the fastest checkmate possible. This is known as the Fool's Mate, and BLACK is the one who delivers checkmate!
Of course, the above opening is given its name because "only a fool would play this way".
The next mate is the Scholar's Mate. Here, it takes someone who knows something about developing in the center to fall into the mate. But again, we see the attacker taking advantage of the weakness on f7.
It's important to learn this famous checkmate, and how to stop it.
The next famous mating net is called "Legall's Mate" (or "Legal's Mate"). It was invented by the French master, Legall de Kermeur. Legall was probably the best player in the world around the year 1730, and taught Philidor, the most dominant player of all time. (Philidor was the best player in the world from 1747 until his death in 1795. No player dominated his contemporaries as thoroughly or for as long as Philidor did.)
Legall's mate again takes aim at the key f7 square, but it requires precise timing to work.
Here's a cute checkmate idea, taking advantage of the open e-file
But perhaps one of the most famous attacks against the opposing uncastled King on an open file occurred on the d-file. Here is Reti-Tartakower:
There are many more examples of successful attacks on the uncastled king. Next time, we will look at another famous game attacking the uncastled King.