The defending side must be prepared to defend and make concessions,
or take a risk and try a counter-attack.
Vukovic's Guidelines for attack
- If you attack the king, make sure that either your opponent cannot
counterattack, or at least that your attack is more quick or more
dangerous.
- So, you must look at the whole board, and the chances for both
sides, when deciding whether to attack or not.
- Security in the centre lends support to a wing attack. A central
pawn blockade prevents or limits counter-attacks, and makes a pawn
attack easier.
- This is particularly true of attacks with pawns, which must creep
forward more slowly than other pieces. If you can make an attack with
pieces alone, leave your pawns at home.
- If you already have a pawn advanced, e.g. to f5, which may block
your bishop on the diagonal b1-h7, then you might be better off going
for a pawn storm by advancing the g-pawn.
- As a rule, it is difficult to break through with pawns against the
unweakened castled king's position. This is because the pawn wave can
be blockaded.
- So, it is usually important to weaken the castled position first
(e.g. by ganging up on h7 you might force ...g6 or ...h6).
- Pawns don't half get in the way of rooks. If you cannot open a
file, you can often get your rooks into action in front of your pawns,
for example, by playing them to the third rank.
- Pawn advances loosen your position, and may be a disadvantage in
the ending.
- Although you must be careful before starting an attack, once you
have started you must go in as hard and fast as you can. This is even
more important if you realise you shouldn't have started the attack
quite yet - if you try to back out you will only make things worse.
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This document (attack.html) was last modified on
by
Dr. Dave