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A Collection of Chess Wisdom
Attack and Defense
Collected & Organized by Kelly Atkins
“The true sweetness of chess, if it can be sweet, is to see a victory
snatched, by some happy
impertinence, out of the shadow of apparently irrevocable disaster.”
H. G. Wells
King safety is always paramount. Avoid exposing him to
attack. Protect your king at all times.
Keep pieces and pawns defended. Unguarded pieces and pawns are targets.
Avoid tactical and positional weaknesses, and remedy any weaknesses
promptly. Especially avoid knight forks, double attacks, and discovered
attacks. Avoid being pinned or skewered, and break pins early.
Defend only as required, and avoid cramped and passive positions.
Always analyze variations with double checks very carefully, no matter how
improbable they look.
Active counterplay is better than passive defense.
When your opponent turns defense into counterattack, don't panic. Calmly
reassess the position and look for the best continuations.
Once you've started an attack, especially one that involves a sacrifice,
there may be no turning back. Your only hope is usually to press on, no
matter what.
Don't automatically capture a sacrificed piece. Look first for a zwischenzug
that can be played, or another strong move.
The elimination of defensive pieces is often the key to a successful attack.
When under attack, always try to find the most active, constructive
defensive moves.
Don't be intimidated by extremely messy positions. The play still tends to
be based on simple tactical ideas – just a lot of them.
Don't automatically recapture material if doing so distracts you from your
attack.
When mopping up after a successful attack, don't get carried away trying to
force mate. Just concentrate on finding a clear, efficient way to win or a
way to consolidate your advantage.
The more combinational patterns you are familiar with, the easier it will be
to recognize them at the board.
It's not the material on the board that counts, it's the material at the
scene of the action. If your opponent's pieces are far away from the area of
your attack and unable to participate in the defense, especially when you're
attacking the castled king, sacrifices are almost always warranted.
When you have sacrificed material to seize the initiative, don't rush to win
it back. Crank up the pressure and force more concessions.
Try to analyze all forcing sequences to the end. There may be a "sting in
the tail."
Even when your main plan is a direct attack, it is good to keep other
options available as long as possible.
When you are under pressure, don't panic. Tackle each problem in turn, and
don't be in a hurry to try to solve all your difficulties in one fell swoop.
Such solutions rarely exist.
Sometimes, you have to rely on your intuition when you can't calculate a
combination clearly to the end, especially when a sacrifice is involved.
Just knowing that a win is there, somewhere, is all you need.
When defending, always be on the lookout for a zwischenzug or a chance to
counterattack. Tactics are not the sole possession of the attacker.
When all else fails, fall back on stubborn defense instead of lashing out
with desperate tactics.
If the enemy king is cut off from most of his defenders, it may be well
worth sacrificing a lot of material to get at him. It is the local
superiority of force that counts in a successful attack.
Offside pieces should be brought back into play as quickly as possible.
In a direct attack on the king, what matters is not the overall material
count, but how many pieces are in the actual battle area.
Be careful with clever little tactics and finesses. After your opponent's
reply, you may not find them quite so clever.
In general, attack in the direction your pawns are pointing.
Whenever possible, attack. If you must defend, try to defend actively and
while counterattacking.
Control of the center gives you the freedom to operate on either side of the
board. You can safely and easily shift your pieces and thus your attacks
from one side of the board to the other. Your opponent, having less room to
maneuver, will find it difficult to defend both sides, due to his inability
to move easily from one side to the other.
An attacking complement of four pieces will generally be sufficient to force
the mate, allowing one of them to be sacrificed along the way.
If attacking, avoid the exchange of attacking pieces, except to eliminate
important defenders or to expose the enemy king. If under attack, swap off
some of the attackers.
An attack on a wing is usually best met by a counterattack in the center.
Close the center before embarking on a wing attack.
When kings are castled on opposite wings, pawnstorms to open lines toward
both kings are the usual method of attack.
Successful attacks are based on weaknesses in the opponent's position.
Identify and target specific weaknesses to attack.
The usual sequence to attack a king is: open lines, penetrate with pieces,
restrict the opposing king, eliminate key defenders, and then deliver
winning checks.
Open lines (with pawn exchanges and sacrifices or, if necessary, piece
sacrifices) when attacking. Close lines when defending.
Try to expose and restrict the opponent's king. Move your pieces into its
vicinity, and then penetrate with your pieces to weak squares around the
enemy king.
Attack with several pieces, rather than only one or two. Bring every piece
you can into your attack. Invite everyone to the party!
When attacking, play forcing moves (checks, captures, and threats to check
and capture) to limit - and increase the predictability of - your opponent's
moves.
When meeting a threat with an in-between move, make certain that your threat
equals or exceeds your opponent's.
Play to maximize your advantage. Win all you safely can.
Attacks are only justified by existing or potential weaknesses. Avoid
useless checks and premature attacks that waste time and scatter pieces.
In tactical situations, always analyze each candidate move to a quiet
position – one in which all checks and captures have been exhausted or
neutralized (your “horizon”).
If your opponent attacks on the flank, counterattack in the center.
In most cases, attack with pieces not pawns.
Every successful tactic, combination, sacrifice, and attack is based on one
or more weaknesses in the opponent’s position.
Sometimes, defending a weakness, such as a weak pawn, can ultimately cost
you more than simply letting it go.
Logical sequels are often fatal, but on the whole it pays, once you have
embarked on an unsound attack, to carry on regardless. If you shilly-shally
you are almost sure to lose, whereas an unsound attack boldly executed will
often fool the defender.
An attacked piece cannot be relied on as a protector.
In general, during a tactical exchange, take with the least valuable piece
first.
Overcaution in chess is the height of recklessness. The gods do not forgive
those who scorn their favors. It is unforgivable to throw away good
attacking chances.
Do not release pressure on any point unless you can see a certain gain. If
you transfer pressure from one point to another, you are generally using up
a move without improving your position
A wing attack will usually not succeed unless you can control the center or
clog it up.
A powerful knight, centrally posted in the enemy camp, pawn-supported, and
immune to being dislodged by an enemy pawn is a deadly weapon for an attack.
It’s usually a bad idea to attack a fianchetto castled position without
first exchanging off the fianchetto bishop to weaken the squares it was
protecting. If you can force the fianchetto bishop to retreat to R1, that is
almost as good, as it leaves you in control of his R3 and restricts the
bishop to only one diagonal.
A common error is refusing to sacrifice the exchange for a pawn in order to
get out of trouble. This is such a very small sacrifice in a position
without any fully open files (therefore, not yet good for rooks) that it is
almost always better than getting pushed around.
Refrain from passive defense involving retrogression of pieces if there is
some way of ending the pressure by a small sacrifice. Of all sacrifices, the
smallest is a minor piece for three pawns.
Rooks work best with bishops, and queens work best with knights. These
combinations of pieces compliment each other’s strengths instead of
overlapping. This only holds for normal pawn formations. Against a king
entirely without pawn shelter, the bishop may be the stronger partner for
the queen.
Many opportunities of avoiding disaster by giving up the queen for some of
the enemy’s attacking forces are missed because the queen is so much
overrated.
When a queen and bishop battery is looming, you should move the rook to give
your king flight squares. Avoid playing pawn to knight 3 if possible, as
this only weakens the castled position unless there is a fianchetto bishop
there.
When you have superior attacking forces aimed at the enemy king, it’s often
well worth the sacrifice of one, or even two pieces to strip the king of his
pawn cover.
An attack against the king is an end in itself, but an attack in another
part of the board is only a means of gaining space or mobility.
An open a-file is rarely enough for a Q-side attack, which requires a
general breakthrough in order to be effective.
A Q-side attack usually has no greater goal than a gain in space or
mobility, so that it is the height of folly to push ahead with one without
securing your king first.
Be ultra careful when you lack pieces on your castled side.
Do not rely on slow routine development to nullify a coming kingside attack.
Counter-attack is rarely a desirable defense unless the thing
counter-attacked is more valuable than the thing being attacked.
Having your opponent’s king exposed (especially if he’s in the center of the
board) and under attack is usually well worth a piece.
Passive defense is futile in a game of opposite side castling. A pawn storm
is also useless if your opponent’s is already well under way. The only hope
is to expose the enemy king, usually by a piece sacrifice.
Good judgment and stiff defense in lost positions are two of the hallmarks
of a master.
In chess, the threat is stronger than the execution.
If your opponent offers a sacrifice, accept it, unless you can see clearly
that it would be bad to do so.
The best defense is a good offense. Look for counterattacks. If you must
defend, try to combine protection with counterplay, making sure to reply to
all enemy threats. Issue threats of your own to seize the initiative. The
best way to upset your opponent’s plans is to become menacing.
The best way to stop an enemy threat to your own king is to attack his.
When preparing an attack, bring the distant rook into the attack.
It can be well worth the sacrifice of a pawn to gain a superb square for a
piece, especially if it is near the enemy king.
Great ingenuity is needed to break through a defensive wall. It may be
necessary to loosen the opponent's position by play on both wings, and to
sacrifice material to divert crucial defensive pieces.
When facing a massive sacrificial attack, keep calm and try to find ways to
interfere with the smooth operation of the attacking pieces. This may mean
striking at the reinforcements, rather than the advanced units.
A queen on an open board can often overpower a large number of uncoordinated
pieces, especially if one of them is a king.
In wild complications, piece activity is often more important than a
material count.
If your opponent has sacrificed material for an attack, it may be possible
to blunt his attack by returning the extra material.
When defending, developing your pieces is usually more important than
grabbing material.
If your opponent's position is hanging together by a thread, use all your
ingenuity to find a way to cut that thread.
If your opponent is building up an attack, it is essential that you take
defensive measures in good time.
Positional superiority is almost always a necessary prerequisite to decisive
tactics.
The introduction of a queen into an attack often has a devastating effect.
An attack based on the gradual advance of a central pawn majority may take a
long time to develop, but generates tremendous force.
Defend actively, rather than passively. When attacked, consider
counterattack first.
Be certain that your defenders are not pinned, overworked, unstable, or too
valuable.
Defend against short-term threats with moves that promote your long-term
goals.
Proper timing is often the key to effective defense. Defending too soon
dissipates the initiative, defending too late is ineffective.
Defend as economically and permanently as possible, and remember that a pawn
is the cheapest defender.
Close lines, and keep lines closed, when defending your king.
When in check, always consider all three escape methods – capture the
attacker, interpose, or move the king. Do not automatically move your king.
Brilliant defense can be just as powerful and imaginative as brilliant
attack.
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