Attacking the Uncastled King

Attacking the Uncastled King...by, Mrs Jessica E Prescott (aka BoundingOwl)

Happy New Year!  Here's to an exciting new year of chessdom and happiness!  Do you castle when you play chess?  Well, 99% of the time you should.  I'm sure your coach has told you that.  Let's see what happens if your opponent doesn't castle!

Watch what black is doing.  What is his plan?

Now, can you finish the plan to break open the center and checkmate white in two moves?  Do you see the pin?

 

Material is nothing compared to checkmate!  

In the next puzzle, look at black's queen and rook:  they are lined up beautifully on the d and e files.  Now all you have to do it open up the e file where the white king is!  It's okay if you have to give something up, you will get something back for it...

 

Excellent!  Here is what happened in the game.  White declined the sacrifice but was still busted in a few more moves.

In this puzzle, the focal point is e2.  Hello, bishop!  Go ahead and make a big sacrifice to uncover more pressure on e2.  Then white's queen is lost to a nice deflection pin!  If she takes your pinning piece, you will checkmate on e2!

In this next puzzle, take with the more forcing piece, then RE-PIN!  Add more attackers!

Black will soon unravel since you OWN e7!  Nice work!  In your games, look for focal points, especially if your opponent doesn't castle.

 

Tip of the week:  CASTLE!!!