Student Game: How to Attack the Weakest Square

Buenos dias!  Today Mrs Jessica E Prescott (aka BoundingOwl) will share with you a game she found in the archives...one of her student's games!  Derek had white and got to play his favourite opening at the time, the ITALIAN!  This led to some delicious Fried Liver like attacks on the weakest square, f7.  Can you find the best attacking move?  CHARGE!!

White starts out developing quickly with the Italian, also known as Giuoco Piano. (Pronounced like "Jee-yoko pee-ahno")

 

 

 

 

 

Now white makes an early attack!   Find the best move here.

 

 

 

 

 

Excellent!  White wants to aim at f7, the weakest square on the board.  He can do this while the knight on f6 blocks the queen from attacking g5.  What would happen if black had played Bc5 instead?  Could you still safely play Ng5??

 

 

 

 

 

This is not the best response.  Even though d5 was good!  Better would have been Nd4 or Na5 attacking the bishop.  But you will catch people falling into this trick all the time!  It's very easy to just re-capture.  Can you find the sac here?  Follow it up with a fork!

 

 

 

 

Ke6 is the only move that saves the knight...for now!  I like how white continues to develop his pieces with initiative and get his own king safe.  Watch!

 

 

 

 

 

This last move was a huge mistake!  Don't develop your pieces just anywhere...Find the best move for white.

 

 

 

 

 

White could let his attack dwindle here, if he's not aggressive about it.  Watch how he continues to bring in more pieces.  He is definitely taking advantage of the pinned pieces!  Remember, pp on the pp!

 

 

 

 

 

Now find the checkmate in two!  What kind of checkmate is it?

 

 

 

 

(Answer:  Swallow's Tail Mate)  Great work!  Do you have any games as stellar as this one?  Click on the links for more practice!

Tip of the week:  Develop all your pieces to good squares, and attack the king with the whole army!