Attacks on the castled king follow patterns: the Greek gift sacrifice on h7, the pawn storm with opposite-side castling, and piling more attackers than there are defenders. This lesson teaches the patterns and the defensive rules that stop them.
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A bishop on d3, a knight on f3, a queen that can reach h5 and no black knight on f6: when all four are present, Bxh7+ is worth calculating. Attacks on the castled king are patterns before they are calculations. This lesson teaches the three most common and the habits that stop them.
What you will learn
01The four conditions of the Greek gift and how to check them.
02The pawn storm with opposite-side castling: h4 and h5 against a fianchetto.
03Counting attackers against defenders.
04The defensive rules: keep the pawns in front of the king still, keep a knight on f6, make luft in time.
Where it goes wrong
Section one has a white bishop on d3 and a knight on f3 ready for g5, the full Greek gift setup. Section two is a Sicilian Dragon where White has castled long and pushed h4, with h5 coming to open the h-file against the bishop on g7. Section three counts: two bishops on c2 and c3 plus a queen against a king guarded by pawns alone. Section four is a rook ending where the black king has no luft and one pawn move fixes it.
Club players sacrifice on h7 because it looks like a game they saw, without checking whether the knight can be taken on g5 or the king can walk to g6. The conditions are a checklist, not a mood. Defenders err by pushing a pawn in front of the king to chase a piece, which opens the line the attacker needed, and by forgetting luft until a back-rank check ends the game.
How to practise it
The two quiz positions mirror the first two patterns: in one, every ingredient of the Greek gift is present and you are asked to sacrifice; in the other, the kings sit on opposite wings and you start the storm. Give the move by voice or tap. This is a Pro lesson; Prophylaxis covers the defensive half.