Being A More Threatening Person

"6. Play agressive and sacrifice alot of pieces...even if they arent sound moves."

I wouldn't need to read my chess books anymore. Funny stuff. Thanks.

I didn't know that Fischer was known to have an attacking style. I've heard that his win percentage was quite high with the King's Gambit. Please direct me to a few of his best attacking games. Thanks.

1. This thread was started after a blitz session where I got killed by attacking players. My positional style was not working and the threats from my opponents came after the first few moves.

2. Yes. I do need to know the common threats and themes associated with 1.d4.

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I am committed to playing 1.d4, but am not fully commited yet to my first move after White plays 1.e4.

I've tried 1...e6 - The French Defense, 1...d5 - The Scandinavian and now 1...c5 - The Sicilian. 

I am currently frustrated with The Sicilian, since White never plays d2-d4.  What am I supposed to do with my pawn at c5 when White does not play the common dxc5?

I may return to The French Defense, since 1...e6 discourages White from playing 1.e4, 2.Qh5 and 3.Bc4 - targeting the f7 square. I see those three moves from White more often than anything else.

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Here's one example where I was attacked on move two, played defense the entire game and lost. The wheels really came off after I played 21...e5, inviting a nice hole for White to fill with 22.Nd5.

from what i have seen (which is only a few games) you seem to have a tendency to hem all of your pieces in behind your pawns.  after move 21 none of your pieces could get out.  all but one out for the knight was covered by your own pawns. 

perhaps making a few earlier pawn trades would open up the game and at least give you lines to attack. 

just looking at the first 4 moves though, 1...c5 would have let your queen out, although it is a bit early for that.  2...d6 lets the LSB out but will trap your DSB.  3...e6 then blocks in your LSB.  i would have played 3...g6 instead.  blocking the mate threat and chasing off the queen one move earlier.  also, it wouldn't have closed you in. 

it is too bad that you didn't notice NN hung the queen on move 5. 

Instead of styles and attitudes, I think you should still focus on the "how to stop hanging pieces" bit.  You played some aggressive moves, you weren't defending this whole game.  In fact you were equal or winning until you hung your rook.

e5 wasn't so bad, it got rid of the backward pawn.  A few moves earlier f5 was very aggressive (and weakening) but not bad if you follow it up with g5 and continue to push and open lines on that side to justify your rooks being there.

1. I see what you mean. At move 20, my plan was to pawnstorm kingside, supported by my rooks, breaking through White's castled position. White stopped that attack with 20.f4. After 21...e5, I invited 22.Nd5 and was never able to push those kingside pawns.

2. Yes. I missed the easy QxQg5, winning White's queen.

This game was picked to illustrate my weaknesses in making threats, almost always playing defense, especially with the Black pieces.

you want to attack and threaten your opponent?

i've got two words for you:

KING'S GAMBIT!

Aggressive might be thought of in different ways.

Are you thinking in terms of when one player reacts to another's threats?  Because that's spot on.  It's very important to ignore everything you can get away with   Some authors called it "jumping at ghosts" (reacting to threats that aren't really there) or talking about how top players try to impose their will on the board.

In your previous post you said f5 stopped your kingside push, but does it really?! :)  21...g5 seems perfectly playable to me.  And sometimes even if it sacrifices a pawn it's worth it to actively pursue the moves that give you play -- such as opening lines where your pieces are.

One player reacting to another player's real threat is as Dan Heisman would say, Real Chess - not Hope Chess. I do need to get better at recognizing my opponent's threats.

My style/personality is positional, not attacking. However, while I go about my business quietly playing positional chess, how can I insert threats that over the course of the game become a pain in the royal behind for my opponent?

Karpov was known as a positional player, whereas Kasparov was known as an attacking player. When Karpov beat Kasparov, what kinds of problems/threats did he create that this genius attacking player could not solve?

Leather with metal spikes?

The King's Gambit has been brought up more than once. I play blitz chess at a rating where opening lines are not known. What common mistakes do beginners make with the Black pieces? Do they usually accept the gambit?

Thanks for a great post on Karpov!

Question - What do you mean by a critical variation? I've heard players describe certain variations or lines as being sharp.

I found an article by Dan Heisman titled Critical and Principal Variations, and found the article difficult to understand, and I usually can understand his Novice Nook articles.

Dan lost me right here:

From a practical standpoint, primarily considering your opponent’s dangerous replies is fundamental – it is the basis for what I call Real Chess (see Real Chess, Time Management, and Care: Putting It All Together).

Importantly, it means that you are often not concerned with your opponent’s theoretically best move if that reply does not attempt to force something; you are most concerned with his forcing and/or winning attempts.

Analyzing these forcing attempts is therefore considering the main lines of dangerous replies to your candidate moves. Let’s call these dangerous lines Critical Variations, or CVs.

Link to the full article: http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman83.pdf

Lasker quantified 3 advantages...material, position, and tempo. Sac. material for the latter and you'll involuntarily become aggressive. The defensive part shuts down(think fight or flight)....Have you tried gnashing your teeth or battle cries? These affect your opponent psychologically! Randy the helpful pineapple says,"Thats the gist!"

I played some aggressive moves?    It must have been what I ate for dinner or something.

Thanks for looking at the game and also your positive and encouraging comments. It is very much appreciated.

Yes. I still hang pieces. Tonydal thinks I've got some kind of support group thing  going for those who hang pieces. That gave me quite a chuckle.

In this topic: Anyone got a cure for the chronic piece droppers?

tonydal wrote:

"Yep, they and Musikamole can form a support group..."

High level players aren't bound by a style.  If I blundered tactically against Karpov he'd find that mate in 10, or if I blundered strategically against Kasparov he'd be more than happy to maneuver 30 moves to an easy win.  It's just when they have the option (for example in an opening) we see their preference and label them.

So usually they meet somewhere in the middle.  It's not a wild game, but it's not completely positional either.

cute

No problem.  I think you saw a lot more than you missed in that game.  Never walking into a nasty knight fork from that annoying d5 knight for example :)

Oh. Thank you.

Here's Karpov-Kasparov, World Championship Match 1984, Tarrasch Defense: Classical. Carlsbad Variation (D34),  1-0

 56. Rf8#

My favourite way of attacking is to castle Queen-side then attack my opponent's King with a pawn storm or such.

Yes, that would've done it!
It's about producing CheckMate, not collecting superfluous virtual chess pieces!

I've been inspired by the challenge of becoming a more aggressive player, 5 min chess offers this opportunity. Forget the rating and enjoy the game!