Crush Black with the Lethal Pillsbury 💀 Attack! - GM Susan Polgar

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Crushing Black with the Pillsbury Attack!
The Pillsbury Attack is an aggressive line played in the Queen's Gambit Declined and is named after it's inventor, Harry Nelson Pillsbury, who was one of the top players at the end of the 19th century.
In this video, a free preview of The Art of Attack (Advanced), GM Susan Polgar demonstrates how to play the Pillsbury Attack by going right back to the source, the superb 1900 game between Pillsbury and Marco.
The game starts in the normal way for the Queen's Gambit Declined (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6) and Pillsbury plays 4.Bg5, attacking the Knight. Black unpins and we get a few more developing moves.
The key position comes after Black fianchettoes his Queen's Bishop and White captures 8.cxd5 exd5 (3 minutes into the video). Now comes the Pillsbury Attack. White jumps his Knight into e5 with the idea of supporting it with f4. Now, if Black were ever to exchange the Knight off, the f-pawn would recapture and kick away the f6 Knight - a critical defender of the King position.
In the game, Marco claims some space on the Queenside with c5-c4, a6 and b5 while White castles and brings his Queen over to f3. Pillsbury maintains his Bishop on the b2-h7 diagonal when attacked. Then comes the move characteristic of the Pillsbury Attack: Qf3-h3, eyeing h7.
This sets up a winning combination if Black doesn't defend well. White would exchange pieces until the f6 Knight either moved or was captured, then mate on h7. Black is left with an unpleasant choice, whether to play ...h6 or ...g6. The first of these is met with Bxh6!, ripping open the King's defensive cover. Mate will follow soon.
The power of the Pillsbury Attack is shown after 14...g6 15.f5! when White opens more lines against the enemy King. We see another weakness of ...g6 a move later - the f6 Knight is no longer supported by a pawn and comes under heavy fire from Rook, Bishop and Queen.
The Pillsbury Attack is complete a few moves later with a devastating sacrifice and instructive follow-up.
Enjoy this video and check out the complete course The Art of Attack (Advanced) here.