Sacrifice for position

I mostly try to keep development pretty straight forward and watch my flanks. Sometimes you just get an idea in your head to go for it if you think you see an opportunity. Here I really think I pulled it off, up until the surprise ending where I lost! I think a great deal of sacrificing defense posture for an attacking mode of play depends on keeping momentum on your side. What do you look for in a chess game that signals to you that you should go on an agressive attack?

It looks like a blitz game and in those instances I think that 'sacrifice for position' can sometimes lead to a time advantage & sometimes more, unless an opponent returns the compliment or simply outplays you. In the illustrated game I believe you deserved a win, given the c pawn advance idea. On move 39 the exchange of a big piece gives a won ending, also 46 Kh3 instead of f3 was the final straw.

My preference in terms of aggression is to build up by small advantages until a favourable combination or even a mate is available & this is my method with white often 'sacrificing a pawn in the opening for a positional' advantage which I try to eventually turn into material gain, eg Scotch gambit, Morra gambit. With black I use unbalanced setups for tactical opportunity eg Sicilian dragon with reliance on opening book theory.

Thank You.

John Boy

very entertaining, thanks for sharing:))

after move 18, i think you should go cxb6, Kd7, Rc7+, that will set up a powerful attack before having to move your Q.

33. Qa8+ Kb7 Qxc8

45.Kh3?? all you needed was 45.Kg1 and you win easily

What signals an attack should be made. 

There are lots of signals.  They don't always mean you should but here is a short list of things that say I should look for an attack.

All my pieces pointed at his king

Not any/or many pieces defending his king

All his pieces on one side of the board(maybe an attack on the other side)

Am I able to force pawn moves around his  king(creating a new weakness) or anywhere for that matter.  Sometimes forcing someone to push a pawn creates an outpost for a knight etc. 

Are there hanging pieces(even if they are not immediately attacked by one of my pieces)

Are there weak squares around the opposing king(and minor pieces converging on that square)?