Online Chess Lesson #10 -- How To Build An Attack

Lesson #10

How To Build An Attack

We hear that calculating moves is very important in chess. This is especially important when you are building an attack. So, what kinds of moves does the attacking player make? I find that there are four kinds. And, the way you put these four kinds of moves together often determines if your attack will fizzle out or blaze ahead.

The player that is attacking is said to have the initiative. He "initiates" the action. He does this with Preps, Threats, Combos and Collects.

Prep — Many chess moves are simply preparation. They prepare you for making better moves later. Natural exchange of material are preps. Many developing moves in the opening are also "preps".

Threat — A threat is an attack on something valuable to your opponent. This could be a piece, his king safety, his pawn structure, etc. Threats are important because the defender usually has to answer the threat. This limits the defender’s options while the attacker has lots of choices.

Combo — In its simplest form a combo (or combination) is a double threat. For this reason, combos are harder to meet than a single threat. Often, a simple combo will force the win of material.

Collect — After your combo is successful or if your opponent ignores your threat you can "collect" some material. When you do this you need to be careful because you are moving a piece to a square that might not be a good one. As a result, you may lose the initiative. I call this "cashing in".

Here is a game I played (as white) against Larry Christiansen when we were both teenagers. Larry went on to become a International Grandmaster and a U.S. Champion.

1. c4 Nf6 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. Nf3 0-0 5. 0-0 d6 6. Nc3 Nbd7 7. Rb1 e5 8. b4 Nh5 9. e4 a5 10. a3 Nb6 11. d3 axb4 12. axb4 f5


	White to move

Larry has played aggressively and has hopes of a kingside attack with 13. ... f4. But I proceeded to use threats to build a strong initiative.

13. exf5 (Prep, opens the long diagonal) gxf5

14 Ng5 (Threat on the knight on h5) Nf6

15. c5! (Threat and opens a2-g8 diagonal) dxc5

16. Qb3+ (Threat, develops queen) Kh8

Now I could play the 17. Nf7+ combo (forking king and queen) but after 17. ... Rxf7 18. Qxf7 I would have "collected" the exchange but lost the initiative. I played for more. Sometimes it’s better to keep the threat in your pocket instead of cashing it in for material.

17. bxc5 (Combo, now I’ve got two threats) Nbd7

18. c6! (Combo, now with three threats!) Nc5

Notice that the black knight goes to c5 but does not get to collect the pawn there. Now Larry has set a trap. If 19. Nf7+ Rxf7 20. Qxf7 Be6 traps my queen. But, I add more threats and divert his bishop.

19. cxb7! (Combo - 3 threats vs. black’s one) Bxb7

20. Nf7+ (Combo at last) Rxf7

21. Qxf7 (Collect, the queen is happy here) Bxg2

22. Kxg2 (Prep, typical after a collect) Qxd3

Now black appears to be attacking and white must defend the knight on c3. Or do I? This is the critical point in the game. How does white continue to make threats?

White to move

23. Bh6! (Threat, bigger than black’s) Ne8. If black tried 23… Bxh6 then 24. Qxf6+ Bg7 25. Qc6 and white’s combo wins a piece.

24. Bxg7+ (Threat, checks threaten royalty) Nxg7

25. Qxc7 (Combo, two threats vs. one) Nce6

26. Rb8+ (Threat, keeps the attack going) Rxb8

27. Qxb8+ (Yet another threat) Qd8

The black queen never got to take the white knight on c3. White’s threats were simply too powerful and had to be answered.

28. Rb1 (Prep, gets the rook in the game) h6

29. Qxe5 (Threatens 30. Rb8) Kh7

30. Rb8 (Threat, clears the bank rank) Qd3

Rb7 (Threatens the knight at e6) Black Resigns

Here is a tally of the last 19 moves by white:

Prep 3 times
Threat 10 times
Combo 5 times
Collect 1 time

The threats just kept coming. I didn’t cash in too quickly but waited until the right time to collect. That way I didn’t lose the initiative.

May you have many strong attacks filled with threats and combos. Just don’t collect too soon.

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