Hi there.
In this lecture, I want to talk about success in the combination or phase of attack.
So the attacking plans are great at combinations, especially for example, ALEKHINE Geismar.
But there's also other plans you might not have heard of.
Like this medicine, of which this example I'll show you soon is from.
He was a brilliant master of combinations.
In fact, Mikhail Botvinnik said no one saw combinations like this mentioned off.
So basically, in the combination phase of attack, we have to realize our calculation skills are very
poor, especially compared to modern chess engines.
They can see millions of positions in microsecond.
We can't.
So we have to keep things fairly simple.
So you'll see this concept in my complete Guide to Chess Tactics that I recommend prioritizing forcing
move variations.
So you get an attacking position where the king is exposed and you've got to deliver the final combination.
So here the king is exposed, for example.
So how do we do that?
We've unlimited, you know, calculation capabilities.
I say to all my teammates, at least chess and my students in general, this golden phrase, which is
easy to remember to use in your own games, check all the checks, check all the captures and check
all the major threats, especially in mating one.
So with this advice, it helps prioritize forcing move variations.
And it's good to invest in relatively forcing move variations which are more likely to come up and may
yield something within those calculations.
There might also be tempo gaining resources, which is important on the chess board to gain time, to
be swift, to not allow defensive resources to build up.
And also quite often, if you're calculating quite a bit in chess and they don't seem to do anything,
they're ridiculous variations.
It does sometimes highlight clarify weaknesses within the position which you might be able to tap into
later if the circumstances even slightly change.
So that kind of measures your enthusiasm.
It's like a test of your enthusiasm and alertness.
When you calculate forcing variations which are weird and wonderful, you'll find that on days you're
able to find combinations.
That kind of is very helpful and it's not something computers would do.
They wouldn't like be calculating completely junk variations.
But for us, it shows that we are actually awake.
So basically, yeah, within full signal variations.
If you can make, for example, two moves in succession, it's often going to be winning.
So you can see that the importance of tempo gaining, which is talked about a lot in chess circles for
winning games, it is important.
Just take that very simple mathematical example.
Imagine two moves in a row.
You could be often knocking out the opponent.
So within the combinations, the forcing with variations.
There's also the notion of gaining tempo, gaining time.
So hitting the opponent's queen, which leads to a checkmate, that's important as well.
There's also sometimes it's the case that checking, checking on checks, sometimes taking priority.
Four escape squares.
Sometimes you get rid of the opponent's king.
Escape squares.
A quantum move may be more important than a check because it makes all the checks much more effective.
Quite often when you take away king escape squares.
So this isn't the main emphasis of this course, but I thought it was essential to mention it.
So if you want to improve your tactics, The Complete Guide to Chess Tactics My Tactics Training Course
The Art of Checkmate is a fun one for checking or checkmate combinations in particular, where you'll
be testing that balance of taking away escape squares versus playing forcing move checks.
So, yes, it's kind of it's very, very helpful to be a tactics and commentary player because when
you get those attacking positions like this, then you can play a beautiful combination.
So here, what happens here?
What do you think Black played in this position?
Let's have a look at this example.
Blacks are playing plays, actually a beautiful queen saying, Rook, thanks for so Rook takes age,
too.
And we have a forcing move.
Double check and double checkers forced the king to move.
So the king's been dragged down the board, you know, King D fall.
And now, believe it or not, a quiet move is in order here.
Bishop G7.
So and White really has trouble with the king in the center here we have a fall and it's actually a
force mate in eight here.
So.
But can you actually work it out?
I mean, I'll give you a few seconds to pause the video.
You might want to work out the force mate in eight.
It's definitely good to be good at mating the opponent's king in the final phase.
Otherwise, what's the point in building up attacking positions?
So.
It's good to know how to get those positions, and you've got to know how to exploit those positions.
But yeah, I have some other more concrete courses on how to exploit such positions and calculations
in general.
So the Complete Guide to Chess Tactics talks about this a lot.
But here the mating, the attacking pattern fundamentally is bringing the king down the board.
But we are now in actually a technical combination as well.
And in fact, the move played here is C five check.
We have D tanks.
D tanks and black is French thing now C five checkmate.
The knight controls the E5.
So we have Bishop de Free Knight.
E takes the free shank.
The king's been brought down the board after D five.
Check it out.
See tanks can be five and now Rook B eight.
Check King 85.
I hope you can spot the final make pattern night C six Check White resigned on King 86 we'd have.
For example, 93 to b4 is checkmate, but also Rook B six is checkmate as well.
So there's two in the end.
So it's better not managed to weaken the opponent's king but is absolutely brilliant and combinations.
So an attacking player who's not brilliant accommodations would be a rare bird.
That would be an unfortunate thing.
Yeah.
As attacking players, we do have a certain skill set to to kind of evolve looking at the ingredients
for attacking chess, especially King's safety king safety issues and then being able to exploit them
with forcing moves, variations and the Art of Checkmate, which is sometimes making quiet moves to
take away escape squares to make checks more important.
So, yeah, within the whole art of attack, we do have quite a few phases, but in the commentary phase
we will get a lot of compensatory tests in this course because we're looking at attacking games and
they are nice to test to make sure you're awake at least.
But it's the attacking patterns as well.
The how to get there, which is key in this course.
We really want to know how to get to these attacking positions.
Okay, So I hope you enjoyed this example.
So in a nutshell here, this isn't a major focus of this course.
It isn't nuts and bolts tactics.
This course.
It's about the attacking patterns in general for how to get amazingly good positions where you can finish
off the opponent with beautiful tactics and combinations.
So I hope you got a few points here.
And yeah, we've got to, as humans recognize we're humans, we have weaknesses, we have to keep things
simple.
We can't calculate like millions of variations.
So keeping things simple when we calculate stuff is also, in my experience, it shows how awake I am
If I'm calculating even junk stuff that's valuable.
Junk stuff is often valuable.
Data gives you insights into the possession probes being sent into the position.
You're getting insights as well.
So yes, calculations are important and basically, yeah, we're in for a really fun ride with the master
game examples both in how to get the positions and how to exploit the positions with beautiful combinations.
Okay.
And so much.