How to Play More Aggressive Chess

I have been playing chess for more than 25 years, and in all my journey I met players of all kind. I came to one big conclusion: it's the one playing more aggressively that usually wins. You know, it's just like in many other fields of life!

Chess is perhaps the most powerful and wonderful mind game that you can play with others, and thankfully, I have a lot of tricks I want to show you today in order to make your chess game a lot more aggressive and powerful.

Attack when you're under attack

Let's say your opponent threatens your rook with a pawn or bishop. Rooks are among the most powerful pieces in chess, so you clearly don't want to lose one! Instead of going for one of the most common and comfortable moves, such as simply moving your rook out of danger, why not create an even bigger threat for your opponent? For instance, you could respond by threatening his queen. In other words, if he takes your rook, you will just greedily take his precious queen, the most powerful piece from the chess board. Ain't that a great deal? You're not only playing more aggressively, you're also saving precious time! If you would simply move your rook out of danger, that gives your opponent the opportunity for another move. But if you respond with a counterattack on another powerful piece, you're not in the defense anymore and you're not giving your opponent more chances to try to crush you.

Of course, this won't work all the time if your pieces are simply not in the correct positions to perform such an attack on your opponent's queen. But if you can do it, go for it without hesitation!

Put the king in check as often as possible

It's always a good idea to put your opponent's king in check, even if you think there's a simple way of defending than to simply move a pawn or a knight forward simply because it's your turn to move. Go ahead and put that king in check as much as possible, launching everything you have at it, whether it's pawns, bishops, knights, rooks, everything! In that rhythm, it'll be just a matter of time until the checkmate occurs!

Look for forks and discovery attacks

Forks and discovery attacks can be devastating in chess. Putting the king in check with the knight while also threatening the queen will make your chances of winning the game soar! Of course, it's no secret that experienced chess players usually know how to stay away from forks performed by the knight, but from time to time they even make some serious blunders.

As for discovery attacks, you may know the drill already: one good example is checking the king with the knight that you moved out of the rook's trajectory that will now threaten the queen. In other words, you'll automatically grab your opponent's queen since he has to get away from check for his next move.

Chase the queen around the board

Many times one of the chess players involved in the match will simply get his queen out too early in the game, which can be a risky maneuver. This gives the opponent the chance to develop multiple pieces while chasing the queen around the chess board. In other words, if your opponent pulls his queen out as the second or third move, don't be afraid to come at it with all you have! Push a pawn further, bring out a knight, fianchetto a bishop, you name it! The possibilities can be endless! Even if the opponent retreats his queen back to safety, meaning its original square, you'll still be in advantage since you've developed a few of your pieces in the meantime, while he had only been dancing around with the queen trying to avoid your attacks.

Don't be afraid to use your king in combat

Too many chess players simply forget that the king is also a piece and therefore can be used in combat. I know, it's pretty static compared to a rook or not to mention the queen, but in chess every piece can contribute to winning a game. Most chess players simply keep the king out of danger for the whole game, cramped beneath the pawns and eventually a rook, but you can also put that king to work if you get the chance! Did you know that you can checkmate someone with just the king and the queen or even with the king and a rook?

Another great and pretty common way to use the king in a non-defensive manner is to support a passing pawn as it tries to promote into a queen. Hey, if there's no other piece able to protect that passing pawn, there's no use hesitating to use the king simply because you're afraid of checkmate!

Chess is an endless source of entertainment, mind training, and more! A lot of times, it's the one who plays more aggressively who wins, not necessarily the one who plays better!