No matter your style of play, you will not win a chess game without attacking. Even positional players need to attack at some point in the game or risk losing any advantage they have gained.
Here are seven factors you can use to launch devastating attacks in your games.
1) Keep the Enemy King in the Center
Every beginner gets advised to castle early in the opening to bring the king to safety. One of the best ways to ensure you get to attack the king in the center is to use a gambit opening.
Gambits ensure you develop your pieces faster than your opponent, so you can launch attacks in chess before your opponent can ready his defenses.
However, it would be best to choose your gambits wisely because today, most chess players have stronger defensive skills than chess players a hundred years ago.
Be sure you know your goals before you sit down at the board or start your online game. Do you want to use your gambits to launch early attacks or to draw your opponent into unfamiliar positions?
If you know your opponent likes to play positional chess with lots of maneuvering, you can use gambits to create open positions where you engage each other's pieces early.
Remember, keeping the opponent's king in the center is often worth sacrificing a piece.
So long as you have enough pieces to deliver checkmate, it doesn't matter how much you are behind in material.
The position above is how IM Richard Pert's game against Zi Han Goh ended. Notice that after seventeen moves, not a single white kingside piece is developed.
Zi Han Goh - Richard G Pert, 2019.11.30, 0-1, London Chess Classic Open Round 2.13, London ENG
2) Activate Your Rooks Before Your Opponent
Rooks do best on open files but are also extremely powerful on semi-open files, especially if those files are in front of the enemy king.
Another advantage of the rook is that it can travel across the board in one move. Connected rooks are excellent at defending each other and cutting off the king's escape.
Rooks can control squares from a long distance and lend support to other pieces.
Creating mating threats is an excellent way to win material.
It is essential to always look for ways to open a pathway to the enemy king. When you have bishops, you want to open diagonals, and if you have rooks, you want to open files.
You will need to sacrifice material to open lines against the king in many instances. When your opponent's back rank is defended by their rooks, look to open up ranks in front of the king.
Rittner sacrificed a knight to remove the f and g-pawns from in front of the castled king. The mate threats on g2 helped him regain the sacrificed material and more.
When Vollmer blocked the checkmate threat with 19.f3, Rittner responded with 19…Nxf3+ forking the rook. Giving up the exchange does not help White because the black rooks will dominate the position on the f and g-files.
For example, 20.Kf1 Rg8 21.Qf6 Nxe1 22.Kxe1 Rdf8.
Both the black rooks are active, while White's only remaining rook is on its starting square – a1.
Black activated both rooks before White got his rooks into the game, and this cost him the game. The black king was not only safe behind the black pawns, but the white pawns on the queenside blocked the white rooks.
T Vollmer - S Rittner, 1999, 0-1, Hassloch op-B Round 6, Hassloch GER
3) Direct Your Attack at Weak Squares
The majority of chess pieces are excellent at attacking a particular color complex. The bishops and queen are especially dangerous on diagonals if no opposing bishop of that color exists.
Knights can move onto squares of either color, but they always attack a square of the opposite color to the one they are on.
If you have exchanged or captured one of your opponent's bishops, it makes sense to attack the squares that the bishop defended.
Exchanging the bishop is not always necessary since pieces often get stuck on one side of the board. In such cases, it is clear why Siegbert Tarrasch said, "If one piece is bad, the entire position is bad."
When your opponent's light-squared bishop is on the queenside, an excellent strategy is to provoke a weakening of the light-squares on the kingside. Creating this weakness usually means getting your opponent to advance the pawns.
Creating a weak color complex is usually necessary for a successful attack in games with same-side castling.
In many openings like the Ruy Lopez, King's Indian, and Grunfeld Defense, Black will fianchetto a bishop on g7. This bishop is an excellent defender of the dark squares – h6 and f6.
However, the bishop cannot defend the light squares – f7, g6, and h7. If you cannot exchange the fianchettoed bishop, direct your attack at the light squares.
Conol Alexander did this to great effect in his game against Ludek Pachman by sacrificing a knight on f5. This sacrifice is a common attacking motif against the kingside fianchetto.
Alexander, Conol Hugh - Pachman, Ludek, 1947, 1-0, Hilversum zt Round 9, Hilversum NED
4.) Make Good Use of Harry the H-Pawn
Advancing the h-pawn is an excellent way to attack the enemy king if you have both castled short. After you have advanced the h-pawn up the board, your castled king remains relatively safe.
In many instances, the h-pawn will sacrifice itself in return for opening lines against the enemy king.
If your opponent wisely resists the urge for material gain, you will likely induce some weaknesses when he advances the pawns in front of his king. There might not be an immediate win, but these weaknesses can tie down pieces to defend the weak squares.
The more pieces you can keep tied down, the less potent your opponents' attacks will be, even if they can generate any. In the meantime, you can keep the initiative by attacking the weaknesses brave Harry has created in your opponent's position.
The advance of the h-pawn is particularly effective against a kingside fianchetto. Combining the advance of the h-pawn with an exchange sacrifice on h5 can give you a winning position early in the game!
1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.e3 Bg7 5.h4 0-0 6.h5 Nxh5 7.Rxh5 gxh5 8.Qxh5
Even though he was rated 2280 Elo, Patil could not hold this position with black and lost in only 25 moves.
Sadhwani, Raunak - Patil, Pr2, 2018.08.11, 1-0, 25th Abu Dhabi Masters Round 5.40 Abu Dhabi UAE
5.) Embrace the Excitement of Opposite-Side Castling
In the endgame, getting involved in a race to promote a pawn is always exciting. Both sides are pushing their pawn forward as fast as they can, and if you are lucky, you will promote on a8 in time to cover the h1 promotion square.
Reaching the endgame with opposite-side castling is quite an achievement as both sides go king hunting in the middlegame. The fight is about controlling the initiative so your attack gets home first.
Many players prefer to castle on the same side to ensure their king's safety rather than experience the excitement of opposite-side castling.
It is always best to accept the chance to launch attacks in chess. Choosing openings like the Sicilian Dragon, where there is often opposite-side castling, will ensure you are well-prepared to deal with attacks.
Even better, you are sure to know the best way to carry out your attack with the minimum wasted time!
Another advantage to choosing such openings is that you will learn what your opponent intends and how to defend against attacks in chess openings.
One of the enjoyable parts of attacking on opposite sides of the board is you can fearlessly advance your pawns against the enemy king. There is no need to worry about weakening the position in front of your king.
Opposite-side castling ensures you can more easily coordinate your rooks in the attack because your king will not get in the way.
It is important to remember that not all your attacks in chess will end in checkmate. Sometimes you must settle for a positional plus or decisive material advantage.
Magnus Carlsen was a queen up and about to promote another pawn when Radjabov resigned.
Radjabov, Teimour - Carlsen, Magnus, 2008.04.28, 0-1, Baku FIDE GP Round 7, Baku AZE
In Conclusion
Attacks in chess are lots of fun, and sometimes both players get to launch attacks at the same time. Do not get so caught up in your attack that you forget to defend against your opponent's threats.
The best part of learning to conduct deadly attacks in chess is that studying different attacking plans is almost as much fun as playing them.
When learning how to attack in chess, take it slowly and gradually build up your toolbox.
Playing through master games will help you learn different attacking strategies you can use in the middlegames that arise from your chosen openings.
You can improve your defensive skills when playing through these games by taking note of where one of the players went wrong. If you know when a specific attack works and when it doesn't, you can defend against the attack in your games.