ATTACKING THE CASTLED KING!

Hi everyone! Welcome back to "Chess Battle Strategy". In this article we will study the basics of the principles involved in attacking the castled king and how to employ them in our own games. You will learn about ideas like "When your position warrants an attack", "What factors we should take into consideration in planning the attack", "How to lure king defenders away", and "How to spot combinations." The attack is one of the most exciting aspects of chess. Until the 20th century, almost ALL high-level chess games were played in order to impact the audience with the most beauty and most viscious attacks possible. Who wouldn't get pleasure from making a sound sacrifice who nobody expects for a decisive attack that leaves your opponent breathless? :) However, to burst a few bubbles, we must note that many attacks were "incorrect" in that day and age because the position did not warrant the attack. In other words, not until Steinitz came along with new positional ideas did! we find out how to perform the most successful attacks. It's illogical to think we can put most of our major pieces on the queenside and then attack the opponent's king on the other side of the board with a knight and a bishop. There is much planning that needs to be involved. For instance all our pawns, open files, major pieces, minor pieces need to work together to be the most effective. Chess is a team game!

What kind of position warrants an attack on the king and what factors should we take into account when planning for an attack?

1. You must have (or be able to create) a lead in development on the side of the board that the opponent's king is on. In other words you must have more attackers than he has defenders otherwise he can defend everything you throw at him. A queen is the most powerful chess piece on the board, but she cannot hassle a king who has a whole army defending him.

2. Also, you must have a space advantage. If you have a space advantage, by default your opponent has less space. And if you have a space advantage you automatically have more active pieces. What I mean by space is the amount of squares you control on the opponent's side of the board (i.e. the first four ranks for white or the last four four black). Why are open files so important? Because a rook back in the barracks can attack many squares in the opponents territory. A knight outpost? Aha!  Space. Open bishop diagonals? More space in the opponent's territory!

3. You must have better center control. You must control the center squares by balancing the pressure on the center or by influencing it MORE than your opponent. The reason? Because if you don't control the center squares your opponent can simply place pieces there where they stand actively and can both attack AND defend. So that brings easy defense and counterattack into the mix. Something that can easily spoil a good looking attack. Therefore you must at the very "least" control the center AS much as your opponent. The most dominating attacks have the attacker dominating the center as well! And that's no accident. Strive to control the center!

4. You must ask yourself if you can create open lines by advancing pawns on the kingside. Pawns are the most effective attackers. None of the flashy pieces can stand in their way. A good old-fashioned pawn storm always brings fright into the defenders eyes. "Where do I place my pieces? How can I stop them from being driven back? How do I stop him from opening a file at my king?" Those are some of the questions the scared defenders ask when confronted with a flow of peasants coming at his majesty. If you're castled on the same side as your opponent you must ask yourself if any pawn moves will weaken your own king. If so, then your attack will be primarily executed with your pieces (i.e. Rook lifts are more common).

These principles are of "paramount" importance in executing a successful attack. Let's see how they work in action in games and how we can put them to work in our own games. This first game is a recently-played one by one of the best attackers in history (arguably THE best). This, of course, is Garry Kasparov. No stranger to any of we chess enthusiasts. He "had" to have been a successful positional player in order to play all the dominating attacks he's been known for.

Before we examine this great game, a word about combinations. When I initially read Silman's "Rules of Combination Recognition" I was skeptical at the simplistic view. But in my tournament practice I have found that I've done those same things unconsciously!

Rule 1: Look for undefended pieces

Undefended pieces are subject to double attack. For instance a queen could attack a piece while making a mating threat for instance.

Rule 2: Look for inadequately guarded pieces (Equal attackers and defenders)

Here's where the tactics decoy and deflection come about. If you can "lure" a piece away from a pieces defense when there's equal pressure, then you should be able to win it!

Rule 3: (The most important) Spot a weakened king

This means looking for when we can create an open king situation (usually via sacrifices) or when the king has very few defenders. Whenever a king is currently wide open, checks are possible. Aside from checkmate, the check is the most serious threat in the game. Therefore, as long as many checks are possible so are tactics involving the double attack. Sometime we need to sacrifice a piece in order to get the king to the opened situation. Once it's there however we can use all the tactics associated with the open king to get our material back and in greater amounts!

If one or more of these rules is present there's "got" to be a combination in the position no matter how hidden. I admit I have been unconsciously using a system like this all throughout my tournament career without even realizing it! Kudos Mr. Silman and many other writers who originated when a combination can exist.

White: G. Kasparov (Elo- 2838)
Black: S. Movesian (Elo- 2631)

Kasparov vs. Czech Team of Grandmasters in the Prague Castle. This was arguably one of the strongest team of Grandmaster's Garry's ever played (along with the Israeli Team headed by GM Boris Alterman) and he won very convincingly.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6

The legendary Paulsen Variation of the Sicilian. Black strives to get the d5 foothold in the center and develop his kingside pieces faster than in the 2...d6 variation leading to the Najdorf or Scheveningen.

5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. Nxc6

Garry deviates from the main line of the Paulsen. The typical move is 7. Be3 maintaining the knight at d4. White exchanges here to prevent the black knight from finding a useful defensive maneuver Ne5-g6 to help defend the kingside. The drawback? Now black has a strong grapple on the d5 square.

7...bxc6 8. 0-0 Nf6 9. Qe2!?

The best theory. This targets a6 to keep the c8 bishop and a8 rook pinned down  for the time being, while at the same time overprotecting white's important e4 pawn and getting out of the way for the rooks to get developing. This is a flexible move. White has superb center control. Black has balanced the pressure quite nicely however with his strong hold on d5.

9...Bd6

This looks dubious at first glance, but it's really forced. The c8 bishop isn't going anywhere for the time being anyway unless it comes out on b7 that is and this move dissuades f4 while rushing to get the king to safety. If 9...d5?! first then 10. Bg5 Bb7 11. Rae1 Nd7 12. f4 and white has an excellent position.  He has a lead in development (Pt. 1), more piece activity (i.e. space  Pt. 2), Better center control (Pt. 3), and has two pawns already flowing towards the black king ready to create open lines (Pt. 4). This has become a nicely-planned attack and black's king is still in the center! GM Movesian rushes to get his king to safety despite the lack of "asthetics" of his move.

10. f4

Starting to gain space and push pawns towards the opponent's king.

10...e5 11. Kh1!?

Obviously a natural move. I give this the interesting mark because Garry always finds the most disconcerting move order for an opponent to face. Instead of playing 10. Kh1 which is just fine first, he plays Kh1 AFTER f4 and hopes for black to take the f-pawn where white has a strong attack with e5 pushing black's king defenders back from useful positions. 11. Kh1 maintains the tension in the center simply to tell black to find a move! The queen and bishop battery can't go anywhere and exf4 is suicide. How is black to develop? It's totally stalled right now. This move order seems very psychologically effective against a human opponent.

11...h6N

This is a very natural defensive move that turns out to be a novelty according to my Chessbase Database. The idea is because after the usual f5 solidification by white, the c1 bishop could come to g5 to further annoy the black coordination. 11...exf4?? loses immediately to 12. e5! Bxe5 13. Bxf4 d6 14. Bxe5 dxe5 15. Rae1 0-0 16. Qxe5 where a positional game continues with white superiority. Also possible was an attractive combination 16. Rxf6!? gxf6 17. Qh5 f5 18. Qg5+ Kh8 19. Qf6+ Kg8 20. Re3 e4 21. Bc4 Be6 and white retains the better endgame after 22. Rg3+ Qxg3 23. hxg3 Bxc4 24. Qg5+ Kh8 25. Qxf5 Rae8 26. Nxe4 f6 27. Nxf6 and game is over for black.

12. Bd2!?

A true master of the attack, Garry Kasparov makes sure all his pieces participate in the battle. Also very attractive was 12. Bc4. However, more natural seems moving a different bishp out! Bb4 was a threat that black could ensue with some annoying things for white to deal with. Bb4 doesn't "need" to be defended against, however this move does it just the same while allowing the a-rook to transfer to the center to play its role in white's lead in development.

12...0-0 13. f5

Finally this move is played. All through-out it seemed attractive to end this tension and embarrass the black battery of Queen and Bishop while gaining space for the attack with pawns as well as opening the c1-h6 diagonal for white's use. But, very annoyingly (typically to Kasparov's nature), he retained the tension just as long as he's able without disadvantage in order to annoy the opponent. :) But now it's clear white has a promising attack. As an exercise, use the four principles of attack to determine what attributes Garry has in this attack thus far.

13...Re8?!

A dubious decision. There's no doubt about this one. It's natural to try to create an escape square for the king, but this leaves f7. Garry picks up on this key weak point to make the basis of an amazing combination. Much, much better is 13....Be7 (Better than Bc5) 14. Rae1 Rb8 etc. and black awaits some developments as he's holding things together. This basically forces white to defend the b-pawn else his position shatters. White "could" try 15. Bc4!? Rxb2 16. Bb3, but it looks doubtful because of 16...d5! and black can get his rook out of trouble after 17. exd5 cxd5 18. Na4 Rxc2! 19. Bxc2 Qxc2 with a fine position for black.

14. Bc4!

Natural and beautiful timing. This is a direct punishment for Re8. All throughout, notice how the f7 point makes possible the up-coming combination. The compare the space the bishop controls at d3 with that of c4!

14...a5?

An outright mistake. Black's plan appears to be Qa7 and Ba6 exchanging off the beast at c4. Also, this a5 move continues the annoying threat of Bb4 which was outlined earlier. The only useful move in the position is 14...Bc5 preventing Qe3 with a subsequent buildup of Rf3-g3 with shots on g7.

15. Rf3!

Garry doesn't waste any time. He also correctly sees that the tempting 15. g4!? Be7 16. g5 hxg5 17. Bxg5 d5! (striking in the center) 18. Bxf6 Bxf6 19. exd5 Bb7! and his own king isn't that safe. I'm reasonably sure white could still win this, but why take a risk? Kasparov is playing safe by not weakening his king by playing the pawn storm.

15...Bb4 16. Rg3

Nothing can be done by black. His Qa7 and Ba6 plan will never come to fruition.

16...Kf8 (forced) 17. Qe3!!

The beautiful crushing blow all based on f7! This deep plan has the goal to open the f-file and use f7 as the decsive threat. The intermediate blow is the sacrifice on g7 however what allows this to be done is the f-file which the advanced f-pawn opens. The immediate 17. Bxh6?! gxh6 18. Qe3 doesn't have the same impression because 18...Bxc3! 19. Qxh6+ Ke7 and the king escapes and there isn't enough artillery to back up the white sac.

17...Ng8

GM Movesian admitted that after 17. Qe3 he simply missed that his original plan of 17...Qa7 loses to 18. Rxg7!. The immediate defense that struck me was 17...d5, but after 18. Rxg7! Kxg7 19. Qxh6+  Kg8 20. Qg5+ Kh7 21. exd5 Qd6 22. dxc6 Bxc3 23. Qh4+ Kg8 24. Bh6 Nh5 and the key blow at f7 25. Bxf7+! with mate to follow after the conversion of the f-pawn. 17...Bxc3 also immediately loses after 18. Rxg7 and there's nothing else to think about. Therefore I believe GM Movesian's choice is the best 17...Ng8 covering h6. However, this allows Garry's original plan of opening the f-file to hit f7.

18. f6!

Immediately the game is over.

18...gxf6 19. Rf1!!

The quickest finish.  Also possible is 19. Rxg8+.

19...Bxc3 20. Rxg8+! Kxg8 21. Qg3+!

No need to take back the bishop!

21...Kf8 22. Rxf6 d5 23. Bxh6+ Ke7

And now the f7 blow, the thing that make the whole combination with Qe3 possible to complete.

24. Rxf7+ Kd6 25. Qg6+ Be6 26. Rxc7 Kxc7 27. exd5 cxd5 28. Bb5 Reb8 29. a4 Bd7 30. bxc3

Now Garry quietly takes back his bishop. :)

30...Bxb5 31. axb5 Rxb5 32. h4! a4 33. Bg7 d4 34. Qf7+ Kb6 35. Qe6+ Kb7 36. Bxe5 Rxe5 37. Qxe5 a3 38. Qd5+ Kb8 39. cxd4 a2 40. Qb3+ Kc7 41. Qc3+ Kd7 42. Qa1 Kd6 43. c4  1-0

A wonderfully-executed, smooth, and still error-free kingside attack by the world champion and this was played in a simul. with 4 strong GM's!! White has two pairs of siamese twins and a queen vs. a rook. Needless to say, this endgame is hopeless. :) Garry Kasparov has mastered using his attacking principles.