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Is attacking the queen side inferior to attacking the king side?

I'm just wondering because attacking the king side seems to be more forcing than attacking the queen side. I mean, if your opponent (concentrating on the queen side) is threatening to grab material or promote, what does it matter if you (on the king side) are threatening mating attacks? Also, the king side lends itself to more K-O tactics. Is tackling the queen side more passive? Can someone explain the differences/advantages of both sides? Thanks, I am a learning player.
According to one book I read (DB Pritchard's "The Right Way to Play Chess", which isn't very good), generally speaking, kingside attacks are more direct attacks on the king. Queenside attacks are very indirect by comparison, or not actually attacks at all. All this of course assumes the king castled kingside.

The bigger problem with queenside attacks is psychological (again highlighted in the book), because you can go grab the pawns there but you will still be very far from mating. You may also be far from promoting your own pawns on the queenside and have no prospects of reaching an endgame just yet.

The goal of the game is to deliver checkmate on the opponent's king. Opening your opponent's queenside may be a waste of time, and indeed, may help your opponent arrange their remaining pieces for an attack on your own king.
I'm no master, but personally I believe that controlling the center is better than having all of your pieces on one side of the board, unless you have a mating attack or something.

Still, it only makes sense that your pieces should try to focus on the side of the board where your opponents king is, rather than the queenside. If you focus an attack on the queenside, you are only weakening and vacating your kingside, and your opponent would be wise to fill that vacancy with his own pieces.

Nothing technical there, just common sense.
"If your opponent (concentrating on the queen side) is threatening to grab material or promote, what does it matter if you (on the king side) are threatening mating attacks?"

If you are being threatened with mate or king exposure, then what does it matter that you can gain material on the irrelevant side of the board?
Thanks for your insight!!! One of the problems I am facing is determine when and when not to start a queen side initiative.
maybe also someone would attack on the queenside because they have a space advantage their
While it may be true that attacking on the king side may have a psychological advantage associated with it, I do not think there is any inherent edge to attacking on that side unless there are concrete tactics or a mating attack, which often take a while to get drummed up. I don't think attacking on the queenside should be underestimated even if it often has a more structural motive. Take the mar de plata or bayonet variations of the KID for instance, in which both sides are castled kingside and black is also attacking on that wing. Often the speed of of the attack is hampered slightly by the placement of black's own king there, and white's space advantage on the queen side often leads to either a successful breakthrough there, or just tying blacks pieces down to defensive roles. Obviously both sides have chances in these lines, and I think it's best to evaluate this type of things on a concrete case-by-case basis, but a queenside space advantage or a queenside minority attack can be just as powerful as a kingside charge.
Yes queenside minority attacks are a common idea and are often played in queen's gambits and qp games.

The best advice that applies to the majority of situations is simply to control the center, then attack his weaknesses on either side while always keeping in mind potential ways to weaken the king safety or mate.
Although it may not be as flashy with fewer chances for sacrifices and mating patterns, queenside attacks are just as important, and deadly, as kingside attacks. You don't always get to choose where you're going to attack, things like development, king safety, pawn structure, etc. will always dictate where you can and can't attack. Minority attacks, where you try to create a weakness in the enemy pawn structure and then exploit it, are common on the queen side and will often lead to strong attacks and an advantageous position.

You often can't rely on just the kingside, and if attacked properly, the queenside can give you the advantage you need to go for the king.
This game demonstrates a nice queenside attack, http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1026975
as well as this game, http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1069995
which shows the importance of gaining an advantage on the queenside before moving to the kingside.
In addition to what's been said, I'd like to mention that one of the dreaded Sicilian Dragon's main characteristics is its fast queenside attack, which is why the main White attack against it (the Yugoslav) has the queenside castling to speed White's kingside storm (both rooks ready to support the kingside) and better defend against this Sicilian variant's super fast queenside attack (by having the king there to help his minor pieces stop the pawn storm), thereby creating very sharp tactical games where it's a race to see who gets the better attack first.

I'd also point out that in general, if your pieces are mobile then generally your king is safe until weaknesses are created, and this applies to the opponent as well - in other words, the kingside attack is a futile effort in some games. I've won a great many games on the queenside over the years in the Ruy Lupez after successfully holding out against very intimidating looking kingside attacks from White that eventually puttered out.

Also, as White, a great deal of closed game play lends itself to queenside assault due to the inability to hack at Black's solid kingside because the center is tied up. In these games, White has more space on the queenside and generally is able to castle and connect rooks with many minor pieces on critical diagonals that eye the kingside waiting for a break. A queenside attack can therfore become quite deadly as the open files will likely break on the queenside (bringing the major pieces into direct play) and can lead to a slower, but every bit as dangerous attack on the king in the late middle game.

tl;dr - It depends on the manner in which the pieces open and the resulting position as to where you should attack, and there are millions of games out there won on the queenside, go look for 'em.

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