Top 8 chess tactics and 4 key concepts all ( 100 ELO - 800 ELO ) and ( 801 - 1200 ) should master.

Top 8 chess tactics and 4 key concepts all beginners and intermediate players should know. Especially ( 100 ELO - 800 ELO )

Introduction

You are about to read a blog on 8 chess tactics and 4 key concepts that you will learn and that was published on Friday June 27th 2025, 7:35 AM PST :

Tactics

1. Forks

      A fork is when 2 pieces are being attacked by one. For example the knight on f4 is attacking the queen on e6 and the rook on d5. You can protect both but the knight is worth less then the rook or queen. So once you move the queen out of danger the knight will capture the rook and then black will be loosing material. Same thing if the rook moves out of danger, the knight will capture the queen and black will be loosing more material then. Here's an example:

 2. Pin (Absolute)

      Pins are like when you glue a piece stuck on the square. So lets start with a: Pin (Absolute): A absolute pin is where the piece can't move at all. Lets say white's bishop pins the knight to the king. The knight can't move no matter what until the pin is blocked. Here's an example of white's bishop pinning black's knight to the king.

      The knight on c6 can't move at all because the bishop on b5 pins it to the king. Moving the knight is an illegal move because it reveals the queen and capturing the king can't be done in chess. You can't let your opponent capture your king thats illegal. 

3. Pin (Relative)

      A Pin (Relative) is basically a Pin (Absolute) Accept the piece can still move. Like if the piece is pinning the piece to a king. The pinned piece can't move. But if the piece is pinned to a piece that is not a king, then it is a Pin (Relative) Here's a example. The bishop pins the knight to a piece that is not a king so it can move. But it reveals another piece behind for the bishop to take, attack, trade.

Here is an example where the bishop pins the knight to a queen.

       The knight can move but if the knight moves out of the way, the bishop will capture the queen and win material. So white will just have not blunder the game and then white will probably win later then. 

4. Skewer

     A Skewer is when you attack a piece, and when the high value piece moves out of the way, it reveals another high value piece for the attacking piece to capture. For example the rook skewers the king, and when the king moves out of the way, the queen get captured by the rook.

5. Zugzwang

      A  Zugzwang is where a player is forced to make a move that will worsen their position or loose advantages, pieces, and loose the game completely. Zugzwang is a German term that is translated to “move compulsion” in english. In these positions, if the player makes any move, they usually will lose material. It is a tactic that is normally used in the endgame and can be extremely powerful in choosing the outcome of a game/ who will win the game. Here is an example of a zugzwang:

     If white plays: Kf5 it is an auto win for white no matter what. Only way black wins is if white blunders the game, and according to stockfish evaluation this is +M18 for white so white has a big advantage.

6. Zwischenzug

      Zwischenzug is when the insertion of an "in between" move, usually is a very forcing move played before the expected or obvious move which would be played after afterward. 

Here's an example, you are white team, and you want to win black's bishop on D4: 

      Black blunders when the queen captures the pawn because the knight can be removed as the only defender of the queen. When the bishop captures the knights they have to capture back because it's check, and when they do, the queen undefended and captured freely. The obvious part would be to capture the queen but there is a better move, Zwischenzug. It's similar to remove the defender tactic which is the next topic we will discuss about, but that's just one position.

7. Remove the defender

      Removed the defender tactic is where lets say you are attacking a piece defended by a bishop. You would first capture the bishop if you could, and when they take back, you take the piece that is no longer defended. For example your white team, you want to win black's bishop on D4:

8. Deflection

      Deflection is where you sacrifice a piece to remove a piece from the square it used to be on and when it was on that orignal square, it was the only piece defending the piece that you are trying to win. So you can win the piece in someway, that's one way to use deflection. This example will explain what the tactic Deflection is, well at least 1 of the reasons we use deflection:

Highlight the black shadowed text to see the answer.

The answer is 1. Bb7+ Rxb7 2. Qd5+ Kf2 3. Qxh1. The reason it works is because the rook was the only defender of the black's queen, white could've played the skewer before but that is just a forced queen trade and black will win. But instead the better move is the play Bb7+ a brilliant sacrifice. Reasoning is that if the rook takes the bishop, nothing defends the queen, then white would skewer the king to the queen by playing Qd5+ and win the queen instead of making a forced trade.

Key concepts

9. En passant

      En passant is a special type of pawn capture. For example:

      If white's pawn moves 2 squares and there is a pawn beside the pawn that just moved and is the opposing team, the opposing teams pawn can capture white's pawn by moving behind it. Strange move huh. White can do the same:

White can do the same thing.

10. Backward pawn

      A Backward pawn is when all pawns have advanced ahead of the backward pawn, and the backward pawn can't advance forward safely. 

     

      In this position all pawns have advanced except the highlighted backward pawn, and the backward pawn can't advance forward safely either.

11. Isolated pawn

      A  Isolated pawn is when there is a pawn standing alone and there are no same colored pawns in the adjacent files or no pawns in the adjacent files, the adjacent files can have enemy pawns and it's still an Isolated pawn. For example: 

      The highlighted yellow squares are all the adjacent files squares. There are no white pawns there only enemy pawns. Making it an Isolated pawn.

     

Conclusion

      Thanks for reading blog on "Top 8 chess tactics and 4 key concepts all beginners and intermediate players should know. Especially ( 100 ELO - 800 ELO )"