Temposchlucker

 Finite amount of LoAs There is a finite amount of lines of attack. This already cuts down the amount of things to think about drastically Moving target All LoAs are geared around the king. That is because a LoA ends near to the king. But when the opposing king hasn't castled yet, you don't know where to aim your attackers to. Only in rare cases you are able to force the king to stay in the middle. This means that when the target hasn't stabilized, you can only go so far when it comes to placing your attackers. Once the king has castled, you can go all out. Pawns The role of the pawns is paramount. Their effect is twofold. They drastically cut down the amount of LoAs that are usable They increase the approach time of both attackers and defenders, but in an unbalanced way Pawns come in two flavors. Your own pawns and your enemies pawns. Pawn breaks can alter the LoA landscape in a moments notice. All of a sudden, other attackers, other defenders and other squares become rele

 The following diagram is intended to show that the amount of LoAs is finite. I left out the knights to keep the amount of arrows in check. A line of attack ends near the opposing king. An assault on the enemy king must make use of a LoA. This way, you can prune the things you have to think about. The pawn landscape cuts down the amount of LoA's to consider even more. As you can see, the pawns are limiting both your own attackers AND can prevent the defenders from reaching the LoAs. We must grab any opportunity to get rid of thing to think about. Hence, focus on the LoAs and the typical scenarios that belong to the battle of the LoAs! White to move r4rk1/pbqn1ppp/1p1bpn2/2ppN3/3P1P2/1P1BP3/PBPN2PP/R2Q1RK1 w - - 0 1 Here the line of attack b2 g7 looks very blockaded. But that is an optical illusion. With moves like Nxd7 and dxc5, the long diagonal is cleared all of a sudden. While Bxf6 removes a defender of the focal point h7. Look at the same time at the black defenders that are bl