Attack!
In the start position, only one piece is vulnerable: the King. For the simple reason that the King is vulnerable by default. It is the only target in the start position.
It is reasonable to go after the King's throat from move one. That is what the Art of Attack is about. Of course, an attack might provoke your opponent to create other weaknesses. Other targets may arise. The natural secondary targets are the pawns. When there are pawns that are vulnerable, it might be easier to go after them at the moment that the King hunt peters out.
After having acquired a few tactical skills, the next step is to apply them for a King hunt. The Art of the Attack provides a guide for this.
I lack a gene for art, so I don't know about the art part, but the system that Vukovic provides for the kill, has a lot of resemblances with the PoPLoAFun system. His focal point is the same as my PoP (point of pressure). Vukovic does his theory no favor with a somewhat complex nomenclature. But his focal point is my PoP and his auxiliary point is my pivotal point. Let us not be distracted by semantics.
The PoPLoAFun system is developed with tactical chess puzzles in mind. The AoA (Art of Attack) is about creating the LoA landscape (lines of attack). How to create the right open lines and diagonals towards the King and how to dominate them. Hunting the King is a much broader application than just solving a puzzle. It is basically a guide for the opening and the middlegame. Just what I was looking for. I'm very excited! Finally everything falls in the right place.
From the original text:
ReplyDelete"If the attacker threatens mate or actually mates on these squares, they are mating focal-points, but if he only harries the king from them or uses them as points from which to break into the castled position, they are called strategic or auxiliary focal-points. It may be that there is more than one mating focal point, and in that case, we speak of compound focal-points. If there are many focal points (both mating and strategic) on squares of the same colour, we speak of a network of weak squares.
Generally speaking, every focal point is a weak square in the defender's territory and a potentially strong one for the attacker. In addition to the focal points, there are also other squares in the castling area which have a specific function, e.g. blocked squares, particularly those occupied by the defender's pawns, and also any weak squares on which the attacker can safely post his pieces."
Not very clear, is it?