How do you attack?

Okay fairly silly question, so let me explain.

I'm a fairly simple player. I like the games of Capablanca, Smyslov and Kramnik. Simple, straightforward and usually primarily positional. However, these players are known for, once they get going, becoming fierce attackers.

I play in a similar style but the problem is attacking feels awkward. It doesn't come naturally to me and I often find the attack falling away and losing momentum. The 3-move tactical cheapos are only taking me so-far.

Does anyone have any advice or tips to help me include more of an attacking element to my game?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

You need to work on developing your TACTICS. Tactics should come before learning positional play. Its through tactics (or more commonly the threat of tactics) that allows you to control the position and set forth your plan.

By focusing on tactics it will naturally get you in a "attacking" mode. You need to know tactics like the back of your hand. Thats when you will be dangerous, cause at any moment you can explode a position, exploiting your opponents weaknesses.

Start studying 'Mating Patterns', that will help your "vision" so you can have a plan of attack. Once you know what all the common mates look like, you will know better how to create them in a game.

And like I said, learning a more tactical side of chess (pins, forks, double attack etc) will fuel your attacking fire... This is the meat of chess, the excitement!

Tactics, Mating Patterns... maybe take a look at the classic book "Art of Attack in Chess" by Vladimir Vukovic.

Thank you for your comments stalkingwolf.

I'm working very hard at the moment trying to improve my tactical prowess and I'm making some headway. While it may sound like I'm trying to be a positional genius, I'm not. I just try and find the best move I can every time and my games come out as slightly more positional.

I think my main weakness is knowing where and when to attack and how to keep one rolling. Can anyone offer any further comments?

Well now days with so much great thoery and defense techniques, positional play is usually the way it goes... But to understand whats going on in a postion you have to understand the tactical side of the game. Plus if at any moment your oppenent slips up a little bit and leaves you a chance to pounce, or you create one, then POUNCE!

You must always have a strategy; a plan of action. And tactics are simply the tools you use to make your strategies come to life.

 And as far as knowing when and where to attack... well the art of attack is very creative in general, that is why its considered an art form. Sometimes weird ideas, intuition, or pattern recognition will let you know when its time. Then you gotta start calculating, using tactics and position to make it happen. 

So I suppose just starting getting more creative and keep adding more tactical strength to your ammo! Practice and Experience.

Good Luck! Would like to see what others say on the subject. 

Thank you, stalkingwolf.

I'm also anxious to see what other people add to your comments

you should also study some games of tal. he opened up a whole new perspective of things for me

So how do you attack? Well tactics has already been mentioned which you should practice hard. Also study the games of the attacking players. However, there are some general rules to the "strategy' portion of the attack. You want to attack something that is hard for your enemy to defend. If both sides are castled and you have some attacking chances, you're probably not going to want to attack the solid f7 square covered by at least two pieces (rook and king) and easy to defend. You usually want to attack g7 or h7. When you have a pawn on e5, that can give you attacking chances because it cramps your enemy, especially the f6 square for a knight which would normally defend h7. By double attacking these points in the castled king you are trying to weaken its position to make more holes for your attacking pieces to come into. This can be achieved either by a double attack or more brutally by a sacrifice (that is where the tactics come most into play). So if you, for example, have a Queen on d3 and bishop on c2 and a pawn on e5 threatening h7, you would gain something if black was forced to play ...g6, because it weakens the dark squares. Then you could put a bishop on h6, force a rook to e8, and suddenly your attack plan is to dominate the dark squares around his king and attack f7 since the rook will have trouble guarding it now. You could consider opening the f file to increase the pressure on that weak point. In opposite side castling positions you play to open files for your rooks, which normally have trouble getting into play.

Thank you for your comments VinceyPoo and Elubas.

It is inthe 'strategy' portion of the attack I think I'm most laking. I have no idea where to point my peices and what/where to attack. So your comments Elubas are very helpful.

It can never hurt to study master games of any sort so thank you also VinceyPoo.

"Smyslov and Kramnik. Simple, straightforward"

Smyslov was famed for his abilty to connect openings to their respective endgames, kramnik along with pretty much all modern GMs do this as well.  Capa had some incredibly deep moves as well, but at least they are easier to understand.

On topic I would suggest doing chess tactics, I personally recommend a book that goes over all the basic tactics.  Forks, pins, skewers, x-rays, and whatever.  Two suggestions from me are "Winning chess tactics" by seirawan, and "predator at the chessboard", which is also available online (mostly) at chesstactics.org.