How can I be more aggressive?

Any suggestions? Thank you in advance.

All agressive attacking players have one thing in common: Their tactical eye is sharpened and 20/20. And attack is really just a long series of threats and tactics linked together (an oversimplification, but very true to and extent) to weaken and eventually just destroy the opponents king position. You can't play sharp attacking chess without being able to calculate and play ambitious chess. 😀

Quite succinct. Thank you.

Don't worry about how aggressive you're playing. In fact, it looks like you have a tendency to attack before you've even developed all of your pieces. If anything, I'd say you're playing too aggressively (or at least being aggressive too early in the game). Instead, concentrate on the basics - tactics, general opening principles (developing all of your pieces before attacking, controlling the center, etc.) You might want to read some of the improvement threads.

Originally posted by Mad Rook
Don't worry about how aggressive you're playing. In fact, it looks like you have a tendency to attack before you've even developed all of your pieces. If anything, I'd say you're playing too aggressively (or at least being aggressive too early in the game). Instead, concentrate on the basics - tactics, general opening principles (developing all of your piec ...[text shortened]... king, controlling the center, etc.) You might want to read some of the improvement threads.

Yeah this is also true. It's also excruciatingly important to know when to attack and when not to, and to bring every piece you physically can into it.

Originally posted by Mad Rook
Don't worry about how aggressive you're playing. In fact, it looks like you have a tendency to attack before you've even developed all of your pieces. If anything, I'd say you're playing too aggressively (or at least being aggressive too early in the game). Instead, concentrate on the basics - tactics, general opening principles (developing all of your piec ...[text shortened]... king, controlling the center, etc.) You might want to read some of the improvement threads.

Yes...but I find often I am defending myself over and over, and never getting ahead. Your advice about controlling the center is valuable...thanks! Will do.

Originally posted by !~TONY~!
Yeah this is also true. It's also excruciatingly important to know when to attack and when not to, and to bring every piece you physically can into it.

My problem seems to be that I always find myself in the defensive.

Not to put this harshly, but that's what happens when you are low rated, you take beatings and get mated, and then you learn. Then soon enough you will be attacking people, and look at your old games and think, "Wow, I sucked."

Originally posted by Evey Hammond
Yes...but I find often I am defending myself over and over, and never getting ahead. Your advice about controlling the center is valuable...thanks! Will do.

Interesting - you find yourself defending over and over - this means that you have learned to recognise the threats and you are making less seemingly aggressive but ultimately futile attacks - so this is a big improvement. Just doesn't feel great being squashed all the time. Maybe a couple of games against a lower ranked opponent might remind you of how far you've come.

Next up is to go through you're own completed games, ideally with the help of an engine or even better - a stronger player and study - learning from your mistakes.

Jump on the chess tactics server - www.chessemrald.net and sharpen your tactics.

Also, in a game you might want to look more carefully at your opponents threat - how real is it - do you need to deal with it now or can you ignore it and make a threat of your own. Even better can you deal with their threat and create a threat of your own with the same move. Ask yourself if this position was a tactics puzzle in a book called - "find the best move" - what would your solution be and why.

Originally posted by Mahout
...your opponents threat - how real is it - do you need to deal with it now or can you ignore it and make a threat of your own...

That's an excellent point, I remember being stuck in defensive mode a while back, then a friend of mine said the same thing to me and it made a huge difference. You can't attend to every threat on the board "aggresively", chess just doesn't work that way.

To me, playing aggressively means looking for tactics. When your opponents pieces look like they are not placed well, look for a weakness and exploit it.
I just finished this gameGame 3433662 against a player who, in the 2 other games we played, plays positionally. However, in this game, he moved his king to a strange square (11 Kd2?). It took a few moves but I figured out a way to make him pay for the mistake (14...Ne4+) and followed up on the attack.

Of course, it's possible to get blinded by tactical strikes. In another game (still in progress) I made a clever move to win a pawn, and instead of backing off afterwards, I stayed on the attack, which could have cost me the game. Fortunately, my opponent missed a killer move and I'm still winning. In this case, a quieter move would have been better.

Originally posted by Evey Hammond
Any suggestions? Thank you in advance.

Wow, that's a strange question. Not bad, but strange because I've never asked myself that. I suppose it really is the player's choice to play strategic or tactical games. I probably fit into the tactical category, and I suppose it's because I try to create as many threats and imbalances whenever I can.

Stop Droping Peices

That is even more important than development

Originally posted by Evey Hammond
Any suggestions? Thank you in advance.

All very general, but...

1)Study tactics

2)Use attacking/imbalancing openings

3)Pay attention to your pawn structure - don't cause long term problems by making advances you can't take back later. Don't needlessly add "ears" to your pawn structure with moves like a3/h3 or a6/h6 as it can be a time-waster & tempo/rapid development are key features of attacking play

4)Put you pieces on their most active squares. As a very general rule, bishops will be of marginally more use in open games - bear this in mind

5)Get your king safely out of the way

6)Be prepared to sac material. Bishop sacs on a weak castled kingside is a classic attack strategy, as is a sac preventing castles by forcing a king re-take

7)Try to dominate the center - either directly or from afar

Originally posted by Squelchbelch
All very general, but...

1)Study tactics

2)Use attacking/imbalancing openings

3)Pay attention to your pawn structure - don't cause long term problems by making advances you can't take back later. Don't needlessly add "ears" to your pawn structure with moves like a3/h3 or a6/h6

4)Put you pieces on their most active squares. As a very genera ...[text shortened]... es by forcing a king re-take

7)Try to dominate the center - either directly or from afar

tactics + Reassess Your Chess by IM Jeremy Silman