Chess Academy Attacking Guide Written by Fal#5202 and Moebius#1191

Attacking Guide
Overview
This Chess Academy guide focuses on attacking principles. The basic terms are defined and examples of
sound and unsound attacks are discussed to examine the reasoning behind the players’ decisions.

Contents
1 Definitions and Terms 2
Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Counterattack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Tactic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Combination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Sacrifice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2 How to attack 11
Example attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Longer attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Unsound attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

If you have more questions or would like to join a dedicated and active chess community please come find
us!

Let’s begin!

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1 Definitions and Terms

Attack: Attacking in chess is defined as making a threat or a series of threats. These threats can be an
immediate threat against the opponents king (for example threatening a one move checkmate) or a threat
against a weak pawn. A piece is said to be attacking another piece when the attacking piece threatens to
capture the attacked piece. A piece is said to be attacking a square when it threatens to take control of the
said square. Below is an example of white’s knight attacking black’s king and queen at the same time (see
fork):

Counterattack: Counterattacking in chess is defined as an attack created by a defending player to counter

the attack made from the opposing player.
Sometimes a counterattack would be a desperate last attempt to save a lost position; other times a counterattack
occurs when your opponent overreaches himself or herself in their attack and leaves themselves vulnerable
to a counterattack.
Below is a position like that, where black starts to counterattack white because white left herself open to the
possibility of a counterattack. It is black to move, Judit Polgar (white), versus Viswanathan Anand (black):

Here, as you can probably tell, black played the move 1...b3. This is a great counterattacking move; white was
attacking the knight on d5 but black ignores this threat and creates his own threats (he is now threatening
to take the bishop on c2 with check). This is a great example of a counterattack.

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Defense: Defense in chess is defined as a move, a series of moves, or a plan meant to counter an attack (I
am talking about defense in general, not about openings).
Defense isn’t just a piece defending another piece or defending an attack; you could defend weak squares in
your position too. A piece is said to be defending an attacked piece when it supports the attacked piece.
This could be directly supporting or indirectly supporting the attacked piece (check out discovered check for
an example of indirectly supporting a piece).
A piece is said to be defending a weak square when it attacks the said weak square, taking control of the
square. There are 4 different ways of defending:

1. you could defend by playing passively, making sure all of your squares and pieces are defended. This
is called passive defense

2. you could defend by counterattacking your opponent (see Counterattack).

3. you could defend by mobilizing your pieces to great squares where they both defend your pieces/squares
and are prepared to launch a counterattack

4. you could defend by making the position as complicated as possible. This would make it hard for your
opponent to figure out which way would be the best way to attack/win the game. This is often used
as a last resort because it is a double-edged sword. By making the position complicated you are not
only giving yourself chances but you are also giving your opponent more chances as well.

Below is an example of a piece defending another piece to deliver checkmate:

The queen on d7 is defending the queen on c5, which attacks and checkmates the white king. If the queen
on d7 didn’t defend the queen on c5, white could just take the queen, but that is not the case here.

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Initiative: Initiative in chess can be defined as forcing the course of the game according to your will.
You have the initiative when you are making threats and your opponent is reacting to them. An attack
usually can not succeed if the attacker doesn’t have the initiative; for example look at the example used in
counterattack. White was trying to attack black but lost the initiative as Black instead started attacking
white. White’s attack stopped because she lost the initiative. If you have the initiative, you are basically
forcing your opponent to react to your moves and plans.
Sometimes the initiative is a feeling you have rather than something concrete such as a threat. This is hard
to explain, as it is very psychological. I am sure though that we all have had times where we feel like we are
under pressure when we are actually not, but we play passively because we feel pressured; in these types of
situations the initiative is not on the board but in your mind.
Because white has the first move of the game, it is usually white who gains the initiative, yet if he/she is
not careful black can gain the initiative. I am not saying that white gets the initiative all of the time; rather
because white has the first move it is easier for him/her to gain the initiative. To gain and keep the initiative
you have to play not necessarily aggressively but actively, forcing your opponent to react to your moves.
You lose the initiative though when your opponent stops reacting to your threats and forces you to react to
his/her own threats.
In my opinion, initiative is similar to momentum. When you are attacking and have the initiative, momentum
is going your way; but if your opponent starts counterattacking or your attack fails, then your opponent
gains the initiative and momentum swings towards your opponent instead.
Below is an example of me gaining the initiative, me (TheChessFalcon1, white) against timalovechess (Black):

With his last move, Bb4+, black gains the initiative, at least for a bit. White now has to react to black’s
move, because he is in check. Black retains the initiative by continuing to make threats that white must
respond to.

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Tactic: Tactics in chess can be defined as a singular or sequence of moves that aim to achieve a goal; this
goal could be checkmate or the win of a piece or a pawn or some other advantage. There are certain elements
which are almost always present when a tactic happens. Those elements are:

1. a weak or poorly defended square

2. an undefended or a poorly defended piece

Tactics are most evident in combinations (see combinations). It is said that tactics is a matter of pattern
recognition and that strategy is when you actually think about the game. I don’t agree with the last part
but it is true that tactics are mostly pattern recognition. There are different types of tactics; later we will
look at a bunch of them. An example of a tactic is the position below, taken from the game between me
and timaloveschess above: It is black to move, can u find the tactic?

the tactic is 8...Nxe4! which wins a piece due to the threat of checkmate on f2, as shown below:

If white moves his bishop to e3 to defend the checkmate on f2, black can move his knight back to f6 and be
up a piece (because Black took a knight on e4 threatening mate on f2). White is lost here.

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Combination: combinations in chess can be defined as a sequence of moves, almost always forced (see
forced moves/checkmates) and involving sacrifices (see sacrifices), that lead to an advantage for the player
mounting the combination.
That advantage could be a forced win of material or a forced checkmate. Combinations are usually hard to see,
can be surprising for the opposing player, and they almost always involve tactics (see tactics). Combinations
can be easier to refute (basically to refute something is to prove that the something either isn’t as good as it
was thought to be or to prove that it was wrong) than sacrifices, because combinations consist of a sequence
of moves that can be refuted while sacrifices can put the opposing player under pressure for a long time. I
am not saying that combinations are bad or worse than sacrifices, I am just saying that combinations are
able to be refuted easier than sacrifices are. Below is an example of a very famous combination which leads
to checkmate. Can you find the mate in two?

The mate in two begins with 1.Qb8+!:

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Then Black is forced to play 1...Nxb8 because he is in check and thats the only move:

But then white checkmates with 2.Rd8#!:

Note how White couldn’t play Rd8# immediately because the black knight blocks the file. White sacrificed
his queen with a diversionary tactic (see diversion) to deliver checkmate. Black was forced to take the queen
sacrifice because he couldn’t move his king up and couldn’t block. Then white delivered checkmate

Sacrifice: sacrifice in chess can be defined as voluntarily giving your opponent material; this material could
be given up in order to gain either space, development, some sort of positional gain, or an attack.
Not all sacrifices are good, though. Some sacrifices can be refuted with accurate defense while other sacrifices
objectively should not work but work out okay for the player sacrificing because the opposing player couldn’t
find the best defense.
Whether you should or should not sacrifice depends on a couple of factors such as position, time on the
clock, and psychological factors. For example, if your opponent is low on time, you could sacrifice material
and make things as complicated as possible hoping that your opponent would mess up, or, if you have a
great position and a sacrifice is the best way to win, then that would be a good time to sacrifice.
There are some risks you have to take when sacrificing, as you probably know. Miscalculation and not seeing
the best defense are two of those risks.
There are two ways to classify sacrifices. A sacrifice is said to be ”sound” if it can not be refuted; a sacrifice
is said to be ”unsound” if it can be be refuted with accurate defense.

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All the following examples and games can be found here: https://lichess.org/study/nQqD2qTj.
To sum up sacrifices: you do a sacrifice to remove defenders or add attackers in the attack. In the following
position, white hopes that he can attack a ”naked” black king after a small sacrifice.

In this position, white went for 13. Bxh6? gxh6 14. Qxh6, hoping for Ng5 and mate on h7.

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But black could grasp the initiative and counter white’s attack with 14... Nf5! (attacking the white
queen) 15. Qh5 Qf6!

Suddenly, there are a lot of black pieces defending the black king, and white has no compensation for his
sacrificed piece.

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And here is an example of a sound sacrifice:

In this position, white played 15. Ba3! This allows black to play 15.. Bxa1 16. Qxa1. Black has won
a rook (5 points) for a bishop (3) points. This is called winning an exchange. It is neither a tactic or a
combination, since white is not winning anything back. However, his compensation is obvious. Blacks pawn
structure is bad (c6 and c7 are doubled), black cannot castle and the knight on g4 is going to be misplaced.
White hopes that he can checkmate the black king before black can defend everything and use his extra rook
to some advantage.

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2 How to attack
In the 19th century, everybody just attacked all the time. However, then the first world champion, Steinitz,
figured that for an attack to be successful, you need to have an advantage where you are attacking. As an
example, look at the following diagram:

It is white to move. The first question you need to ask yourself before you start an attack is: ”Do I have
more attackers than defenders?”. In this position, black has almost no pieces on the kingside. Just the
knight and the pawns realistically defend the king. The black bishop on d6 is not doing its duty, and the
queen on c2 is quite far from home. White has 3 pieces who can easily come into the attack. The knight on
f5 is already placed extremely well, the queen on f3 is attacking the and the bishop on e3 can at some point
attack the dark squares. White now has to decide how to conduct the attack. The obvious point is g7. The
knight on f5 is attacking it, the bishop on e3 can go to h6, and if the queen arrives on g7, it is checkmate.
How to attack it? Well, if white plays Qg3, black can play g6, and remove the immediate danger. White is
still attacking, but there is no checkmate. So we have to prevent g6. One move could be 16. Bh6!, which
attack g7, and if black takes it with 16.. gxh6, white plays 17. Qg3+ and 18. Qg7#. However, in the game
white started the attack by another sacrifice: 16. Nxg7

The concept is to remove the pieces defending the black king. If black now does nothing, he has lost a very
important defender around his king, so he played Kxg7. But instead he should have brought more defenders

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by playing 16... Qxe4! The point is to insist on trading queens, since without the queens, the attack is not
that dangerous. But black missed that opportunity (and this is why 16. Bh6 is stronger, since it allows the
rook on e1 to defend e4). After 16... Kxg7, white played 17. Bh6+!

The game concludes with a combination. If black goes 17... Kg8, he is checkmated after 18. Qg3+ and
eventually the queen reaches g7 with mate. After 17.. Kg6 18. Qf5+, he has to take the bishop anyway, and
it would end the same way as the game.
So black played 17.. Kxh6 3. Qxf6+ Kh5 4. g4#
Notice how it is hard to distinguish between attacks and combinations. If you want to be an excellent
attacker, you need to be very good at finding these short tactics.
The next example is a much longer attack. It is again white to move.

Why should white be able to attack? First of all, all the black pieces are on the queenside. So from a
practical perspective, it will take a long time for black to bring his pieces to the kingside, especially since the
white pawn on e5 blocks everything. But that is not enough. We also need a reliable way to quickly bring
the white pieces to the queenside. Again the attack starts with a sacrifice: 11. Bxh7 Black has to take it,
else he has just lost an important pawn, so he goes 11... Kxh7. White now brings in his knight with 12.
Ng5+. Here black has plenty of options. He can go to g8, h8, h6 and g6 with his king.

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In the game, he went for Kg8, which is the best move. In general you do not want your king to wander up
the board, because you run a serious risk of getting checkmated. For example if black plays 12.. Kh6, white
can win with 13. Qd3! (threatening to go to h7) g6 14. Bxc5! Qxc5 15. Qh3+ Kg6 16. Qh7#. To avoid
humiliation, the black king tries to run back to safety with 12.. Kg8 13. Qd3 (trying to bring the queen
to h7. Now black cannot play g6, because he is checkmated after 14. Bxc5 and 15. Qh3-h7-f7), so he tries
to run with his king with 13.. Rd8 14. Qh7+ Kf8

Now, white can win a pawn with Qh8+ and Qxg7, but it will bring the black king closer to the queenside,
and allow black to defend f7 with Rf8. This does not give white more attackers, but it allows the rook to
become a defender of the king! The real trick is to realise that white is attacking, and the natural square to
attack is f7! Thus to attack successfully, you do not just give a bunch of checks, you have to make sure that
your pieces attack the same together by going for the same squares. Since the knight is the most stationary
piece (it cannot move as easily around as the queen), it is easier for the queen to help the knight than vice
versa. Since we have to attack f7, the best move is 15. Qh5!. Black cannot easily defend his f7-pawn, since
g6 is just answered by Qh7, so he chooses a typical strategy, to give back material. He went 15.. Ndxe5
16. fxe5 Nxe5

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What has black achieved for his sacrifice? Well, the knight remaining is an excellent defender, since it defends
f7. White no longer has the pawns on e5 and f4 to restrict the black pieces, and in a few moves, the black
pieces can harmonically defend everything, and the king can maybe find safety on the queenside on b8. Also
the white bishop on e3 is under attack, so white maybe has to do something about it. And all of a sudden,
white no longer has more attackers than defenders. White only has a knight and a queen in the attack, while
black has a few pawns, a knight on e5 and soon his queen can return. So first we need to check the checks.
Qh8+ seems good at first, but after Ke7, both the queen and the bishop on e3 are attacked. If white begins
to react to such threats as Bxe3, he might lose the initiative, since a move like Bxc5 trade pieces, and Bd2
gives black time to add defenders with for example Qc7. So white needs to calm down and bring in more
pieces to the attack. The loss of the f4-pawn actually just opened a file, and the attacking point is still
f7, so white played 17. Rf1! Notice that castling short would be a mistake, since then Bxe3 would be with
check. Now Bxe3 is met with Rxf7, which very shortly will end in mate. So black has to do something to
defend f7, and that is not easy. A move like 17.. f6 would result in Qh8+ and Qxg7+, and could actually
end just like the game. 17.. Rd7 runs into 18. Bxc5+ Qxc5 19. Nxe6+, forking the black king and queen
(using that the rook on d7 blocks the bishop on c8). And 17.. Qc7 does not defend f7, since white can just
play 18. Bxc5+, and the queen would be reminded that her duty was to protect the bishop. Black chose to
try to run, but it ended very shortly. 17.. Ke7 18. Bxc5+ Qxc5 19. Rxf7+ Nxf7 20. Qxf7+ Kd6
21. Nce4+

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Black can take the first knight, but then the second knight would appear on e4, not only winning the queen,
but the king on c5 would still be out in the open, which would spell disaster for black. Instead black resigned.
This example started with a sacrifice, which allowed white to bring in both the queen and the knight to the
attack. By making mating threats every move, black was soon forced to sacrifice back. However, when the
position opened up, white just brought more pieces into the attack. Notice that the attack did not end in
checkmate, but in material gains for white. This is quite normal, especially when your opponent defends
well. On high levels, it is not unusual that an attack ends with winning a pawn, and then a long endgame
has to be played for the full point.

As an last example, I will show what happens when an attack goes wrong.

White to move.

We should start by asking why should white be attacking? Well, it is clear that white is not going to
checkmate anytime soon, but black has firm control of the queenside. The bishop on e6 is well placed, black
is ready to play Rc8, Qc7, b5 and has clearly more pieces over there. So white has to do something on the
kingside. A typical manouvre is to attack with the pawns. So white went 11. g4 Nb6 12. f4 Qc7 13. f5
Bc4.

It looks quite dangerous for black, since the pawns are going to be felt. A very typical rule is that an attack
on the flank should be met by a counterattack in the center. Since the center of the board is the

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most important, black should try to open it up, then white will not have time for aggresive intentions on the
kingside, and he would be left with nothing but weaknesses on the kingside. Notice that right now, black
has no pieces attacking the white king, so he is not in danger. However, if the center is opened, the white
king would feel that there is opened up. Black can ”open up the center” with the pawn push d5. To prevent
d5, white has to play 14. g5!, and then perhaps b3 to trade the bishop on c4 for the knight on e2. However,
white played 14. Re1?. This does not generate a threat, so black is ready to take the initiative and make
threats. He started immediately with 14.. d5! 15. g5 (one move too late) Nxe4 16. Nxe4 dxe4 17.
Nc3 Rad8 18. Qg4

Black has to think in a counterattack, so he has to think about what defends the white king. And he would
realise that all the minor pieces are just in the way. Naturally the bishop on g2 is a defender, but a knight
on e4 and a bishop on e3 would also make it difficult for black to attack. So he should play Bb4, pinning the
knight to the rook, and make the trade. Then eventually trade the lightsquared bishops, and end up with a
wide open king on g1. Of course black also has to be careful of his own king, but white does not really have
many attackers except the queen, so if black is careful, he will not be mated. Instead black created a bad
bishop for himself: 18... f6? 19. gxf6 Bxf6 20. Nxe4 Kh8

What a great knight on e4!

21. Nxf6???? This move is just wrong on so many levels. White has still under the imagination that he

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was attacking. Instead he had to figure out a way to bring the bishop on c1 into the game (develop your
pieces before you attack!). Black has just tucked his king to safety on h8, and is ready to kill on the g-file.
21... gxf6! 22. Bh6?? Rg8
White now realised that he had made a great mistake. The king on h8 could not have been safer (maybe
with a teleport to a8, but lets be realistic) Black is now counterattacking the white king! The game should
not last long.

23. Qh4 Qc6 White cannot really defend g2 in a nice way 24. Re4!? Bd5 25. Rd1

Black to move and win.

Black could have ended the game immediately with 25... Rxg2+, which wins basically all the pieces. Bxe4
will come with check, and then Rxd1 and the only thing that is missing is a fast checkmate. Instead, black
somehow squandered his advantage and even lost in the end, but that is chess. If you are not ready to do
tactics, your great attacking skills will not be shown. This game started with white making a good decision
to start a rather slow attack on the kingside, but black took the initiative, opened the center and in the end
he was the one attacking. Using the attack is a double-edged sword, so don’t use it without precaution.

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