Attacking the king

A game on lichess.org, 2014. The black king on e8 has never castled. White already has a knight on d5 and a bishop on c4. Only the king protects the f7-pawn. White to move.

This game lasted only fourteen moves. Black spent time on moves with the a- and h-pawns and did not get to castle, while White brought a knight, a bishop and the queen to their king. A king that stays in the centre is the best target for an attack. The longer it stands there, the more lines open up around it. In this chapter we look at when an attack on the king is possible, how to conduct it and how to defend against it.

When to attack

An attack on the king is not a gamble. Wilhelm Steinitz formulated a rule that players still repeat: attack when you have an advantage, and attack where that advantage is. An attack without an advantage does not get through: the defender beats it off, and the attacker is left with weakened pawns and pieces that have wandered away from the centre.

What kind of advantage does an attack on the king need? Usually one of three. Superior force: more attacking pieces near the king than defenders. A weakened pawn shield: the pawns in front of the king have moved or been traded, and there are weak squares around it. A king stuck in the centre while the central lines are already opening. If none of these conditions holds, the attack is most likely premature.

Count the pieces in the king's zone. The attackers are those that hit the squares around the king or can get there in one or two moves. The defenders are the pieces next to the king and the pawns in front of it. If there is at least one attacker more, the attack usually has chances. If there are fewer, it is better to bring up reserves first. Every extra piece in the attack is valuable: often it is the last one brought up that decides.

An attack takes time, and time in chess means tempi. Every move spent on defence the attacker uses to bring up another piece. So an attack is conducted with moves that demand something of the opponent: checks, attacks on pieces, threats. If the opponent manages to regroup calmly, the attack loses its force. Players call this the initiative: while you have it, the opponent answers your threats and has no time to make their own.

The king in the centre

At the start of the game the king stands on e1 or e8, right behind the central pawns. While the central pawns stay in place, it is safe there. But once the centre opens, the opponent's pieces come at the king along the e-file and the diagonals. That is why the opening rule is to castle early. If the opponent is late with castling, your task is to open the centre as quickly as possible, even at the cost of a pawn.

Against a king in the centre, f7 and f2 are especially vulnerable. Only the king itself protects them, and a bishop on c4 or the queen is often aimed at them. Mate on f7, as in the game at the start of the chapter, is one of the most common in short games. Another target is the open e-file: a rook on it checks the king or pins the piece that shields it.

How do you open the centre? Most often with a pawn strike: d4 or e5, and for Black …d5 or …e5. A pawn is traded for an enemy pawn, the e- or d-file opens, and the rooks go there at once. Sometimes a pawn or even a piece is sacrificed for this: if the opponent's king cannot castle for another two or three moves, the material comes back with interest. Such positions arise in the open games covered in the chapter “Open games”.

A king in the centre is dangerous for its owner while the queens and many pieces are on the board. In the endgame everything changes: there the king is a strong piece, and the centre is just the place for it. So the side whose king is stuck in the centre often tries to trade queens. Without the queen the opponent's attack usually loses most of its force, and the king calmly stays on e8 or e7.

Opposite-side castling

When the kings have castled on opposite sides, a race begins. Each side attacks the enemy king with pawns: pawns that advance do not weaken their own king, since it stands on the other wing. Such an attack is called a pawn storm: the pawns drive away the defending pieces, open lines, and the rooks and queen come along them.

In such a race time decides. Whoever opens lines at the enemy king first usually wins. So every move must work for the attack, and defensive moves are put off until the last moment. Look at a typical scheme from the Sicilian Dragon: White castles long and marches the h-pawn at the black king, and Black answers with play on the queenside.

To make the storm faster, the pawns are pushed with gain of tempo. A pawn that attacks a piece wins a tempo: g4–g5 drives the knight away from f6, the main defender, and the opponent spends a move retreating. The pawns go forward in pairs, so that after an exchange one of your own stays on the line. And the rooks are placed in advance on the files that will open: on the g- and h-files if the storm is on the kingside.

Deciding to castle long when the opponent has castled short is a decision to play a sharp game. Before you make it, compare: whose pawn attack will be faster, who has more pieces on the right wing, whose king is better sheltered. If the answer does not favour you, it is better to castle on the same side and play more calmly.

When the line to the king is open, the attack often ends with a sacrifice. A rook gives itself up to drag the king into the open or to remove the last pawn in front of it, and the queen finishes with mate.

Castling on the same side

If the kings have castled on the same side, a pawn storm is dangerous for the attacker as well: advanced g- and h-pawns weaken their own king too. Here the attack is made mainly with pieces. The rooks go to open and half-open lines leading to the king, the queen and bishops line up in batteries, and the knights go to squares near the king. A pawn storm is possible only if the centre is closed and the opponent cannot answer with a blow in the centre.

The main target of a piece attack is the pawns in front of the king. If even one of them has moved, weak squares appear next to it, and the attacker's pieces settle on them. If the pawns are intact, they are broken up with sacrifices. The best-known such sacrifice is the bishop sacrifice on h7.

There are also typical set-ups for a piece attack. The queen and bishop on the b1–h7 diagonal are aimed at h7. A rook is lifted along its rank, for example Re1–e3–h3, and switches to the h-file. A knight goes to f5 or g5, from where it hits squares near the king. Each such set-up adds an attacking piece to the king's zone, and the opponent often cannot bring up as many defenders in time.

The Greek gift is a bishop sacrifice on h7 with check. After Bxh7+ Kxh7 the knight checks from g5, the queen comes out to h5, and the king finds itself attacked by queen and knight. For the sacrifice to work, conditions are needed. Black must have no knight on f6: it protects h7 and keeps the queen off h5. The white knight needs a way to g5. And the queen must be able to reach h5 or another square nearby in time.

The bishop sacrifice is not the only one. A rook is sacrificed on h6 or g7, a knight on f7 or g6, the queen on h7 before mate. The idea is always the same: remove a pawn in front of the king or drag the king out of its shelter so that the other pieces can reach it. More about such sacrifices is in the chapter “Sacrifice and combination”.

In such positions the defender is often one move short of bringing up a defender. So the attacker hurries: each of their moves must either add a piece to the attack or stop the opponent from bringing up one of theirs. If the opponent has managed to put a knight on f8 or a bishop on g7, the attack can die out at once.

When more pieces have come up to the king than defend it, a sacrifice can almost always be found. See how the doubled rooks on the h-file and the knight on f5 settle matters in two moves.

How to defend

There are several proven remedies against an attack on the king. The first is trading attacking pieces. Every exchange reduces the attacker's force, and an attack that has one piece fewer often runs out of steam at once. It is especially valuable to trade the opponent's most dangerous piece, usually the queen.

The second is a counterattack in the centre. An old rule says: a flank attack is best met by a blow in the centre. While the opponent's pieces have gone to the wing, the centre is left without them, and a break there opens lines to their own king. Black often plays this way in the Sicilian Dragon: Black answers White's pawn attack with the central strike …d5.

The third is not to create weaknesses yourself. Move the pawns in front of your king only when necessary: each one that goes forward leaves weak squares behind. Keep at least one minor piece near the king, preferably a knight on f6 or f3: it protects h7 and h2 and keeps the opponent's queen off h5 and h4. And remember the escape square: a one-square move of the h-pawn saves you from mate on the back rank.

Beware of poisoned pawns too. Taking a pawn on the other wing while the opponent is already gathering forces near your king is a common mistake. A queen that has gone after a pawn stops defending, and the opponent gains an extra tempo for the attack. Before grabbing material, look at how many of the opponent's pieces stand near your king and how many moves they need to mate.

Finally, sometimes the best defence is to give material back. If the attack already threatens mate, an extra piece or pawn is worth nothing. Returning the sacrifice at the right moment, trading queens and going into an endgame where there is no attack any more is the usual way to escape.

How do you learn to attack? Solve mate and sacrifice puzzles in positions with a castled king: the patterns you saw in the chapter on mating patterns come up in attacks all the time. Go through your own games: where you could have attacked and did not, where you attacked without an advantage. And count the pieces at the king before every sacrifice: if there are fewer attackers than defenders, the sacrifice will most likely not get through.

What's next

An attack is one kind of plan. But in most positions mate is far away, and you have to decide what to do in general: where to send the pieces, which pawn to play with, how to hinder the opponent. That is the subject of the next chapter.