Kingside attack

When the two kings castle on opposite sides of the board, is it better strategy to lead the kingside attack with pawns or with pieces? Thanks.

For which position? Generalizations never get too far in chess.

Originally posted by exigentsky
Generalizations never get too far in chess.

True, but here is an attempt 🙂

Move some pawns first if you don't have any open files against your opponents king. This will often help your pieces to join in the attack.

Originally posted by basso
When the two kings castle on opposite sides of the board, is it better strategy to lead the kingside attack with pawns or with pieces? Thanks.

generally with pawns.

When kings are castled on opposite sides, push pawns on the wing opposite your king, your opponent SHOULD do the same, and the game often finds itself a race to get their attacks off first, and the person who DOES start their attack first, often wins.

I'm no expert, but Silman, Seirawan, Pachman, and just about every other credible author suggest that you attack with pawns when castled on opposite wings. Of course, rules of thumb are not universal, and knowing when to break them is part of what makes great players great.

In general, it is easy to get your bishops, knights and queen to join in the attack weather there are pawns or not. If you can perform a rook lift, or otherwise get a rook involved pieces is usually faster and will suffice. If you cannot do this, push the pawns.

In all cases, calculation is superior to a general rule.

Art of Attack

It has a section which shows that attacking with pawns is wrong in some instances, while attacking with pieces in wrong in other instances.

Of course what you do must take account of the game situation but in general lead with pawns to open up positions for your major pieces. As someone else has said this might turn into a race, if you go first often your opponent will find themselves too bussy with your attack to proceed to far with their own. There again maybee not. that's what makes chess such a wonderful game!

Originally posted by Sicilian Smaug
.. in chess by Vukovic ? I was thinking about buying that. Is it good?

Such a great book! Ya that's that one. Buy it, it's going to be the best $40 canadain( I don't know what your currency would be) you spent on a chess book, 300 some pages though so it might take a while. I learnt lots of neat ways to attack and defend which I am starting to use slowly.

kings on opposite sides of board = use pawns on side opposite your king (if you castled kingside then push queenside pawns, and the other way around) in order to open up files in front of the enemy king so you can get an attack off