Building Attacking Intuition in Chess Rel 24 Jan 2025

Sharpen Your Killer Instinct and Seize the Initiative

Have you ever watched a grandmaster play out an attack that just flows like water, as if every piece knows where it wants to be? That ability doesn’t come from nowhere. It requires a deep understanding of attacking techniques and concepts. Once you understand these ideas, attacking just feels… easy.

Building Attacking Intuition in Chess is WGM Thalia Cervantes Landeiro’s guide to attacking like a master. Inside the course, you’ll learn about the decision-making process that gives you great attacking opportunities. You’ll develop your killer instinct and create chances to sacrifice.

You’ll work through instructive and spectacular examples. WGM Cervantes breaks down each position to help you understand how even the most stunning ideas can be broken down into clear, actionable steps.

Nezhmetdinov’s amazing queen sacrifice demonstrates how important it is to be alert for attacking opportunities

Just like Nezhmetdinov, you’ll learn to recognize the potential to attack on color complexes, even if that costs you a piece – or even a queen!

The pressure was too much for Black to defend

The course uses beautiful examples to illustrate key concepts. Even though the games are complex, WGM Cervantes takes extra care to unpack every idea, so you aren’t left guessing “what’s the point of that?” and you can see how to incorporate the ideas into your own games.

The initiative is such a powerful tool that seizing it can turn a whole game on its head. Despite being down material, White managed to use annoying checks to force a checkmate sequence.

The Queen will come to h3 with checkmate

The Final Test will reinforce your understanding of the initiative and encourage you to put your new skills into practice. This gives you a complete, systematic path from zero knowledge to having a keen eye for attacking prospects.

Thalia Cervantes Landeiro is a Cuban-American Woman Grandmaster with a peak rating of 2338 and one International Master norm. She was part of the US Online Olympiad team in 2021, helping the team to a silver medal. She currently resides in Saint Louis, and she regularly delivers lectures at the Saint Louis Chess Club and competes in the US Women’s Championships.