Today we are going to see one the greatest examples of attack from the World Champion Magnus Carlsen. He played this game as White against Vladimir Potkin, who is a coach of Sergey Karjakin. Therefore, it’s a very interesting clash.

Potkin was a European Champion; therefore, he is a strong grandmaster too. Therefore, it is even more interesting to see how Carlsen managed to totally destroy his castling and create a devastating attack seemingly out of a standard position.

You can watch the video lesson below:
 

 
It is such a beautiful game, where Carlsen managed to totally destroy Black’s position. We saw a couple of interesting tactical motifs and attacking patterns. Here are the things we can learn from this game:

• When under attack, instead of retreating or playing a defensive move, try to play actively. Whenever you can counter-attack, it is usually the best thing to do.
• To take is a mistake: Instead of exchanging pieces, try to maintain the pressure.
• Having the bishop on d3/d6 helps you attack the castled king (d3-h7/d6-h2 diagonal).
• Don’t hesitate to sacrifice your piece on the side where your opponent has castled, when you have the initiative.
• A pawn on f6 creates the dark-square weakness around the castled king – it creates mating threats.
• Opening up the position by sacrificing a pawn helps you destroy the opponent’s pawn cover in front of the king.

I would recommend that you go through this game a few times as it will help you capture these patterns and incorporate the same in your own games. You can download the PGN of this game below:

P.S. How did you like this video lesson? How much did you enjoy this beautiful piece of attacking game? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.