Chess Tactics for Beginners
Chess Tactics for Beginners
The quickest way for a beginner to improve their chess, is to learn the basics of chess tactics. On this page you will learn the most important tactical motifs that a beginner should know.
What Are the Tactics of Chess?
The tactics that typically appear in chess games often resemble recognizable patterns. In chess circles, such patterns are also referred to as themes, motifs or tactical ideas. It’s useful for a beginner to study these tactics because it teaches you how to exploit the targets in your opponent’s position. If your opponent makes a mistake, it’s your tactical skill that will help you take advantage of it.
5 Chess Tactics Patterns a Beginner Should Know
It becomes a lot easier to win more games when you know a few common chess tactics. Here’s examples of the 5 most important tactical motifs a beginner should know.
Pin
A pin occurs when an attacked piece can’t move since doing so would expose another, more valuable, target. Because of it’s limited (or no) mobility, you can often find a way to take advantage of a pinned piece.
White’s bishop on e5 pins the black queen to the king. The queen can’t escape because it’s illegal to leave your king in check. White will probably capture black’s queen on the next move.
Skewer
Skewers are related to pins, but they aren’t the same. In the case of a skewer the higher-valued piece is first in the line of attack. Moving the skewered piece will expose a lower-valued piece (or target) behind it. A skewer tactic is sometimes referred to as a “reversed pin”.
White plays 1.Qh8+ and demonstrates a skewer tactic. The black king must move, then white’s queen will capture the black rook on a8.
Double Attack (Fork)
A fork, or double-attack, occurs when you make 2 or more simultaneous threats. It’s a very useful tactical idea because it’s hard (or sometimes impossible) for your opponent to defend against multiple threats at the same time.
Black moves their knight to f4 and attacks the white king and queen at the same time. This idea is known as a double attack (or fork). Note that white’s pawn on g3 is pinned by the black queen on g6. Similarly, the white pawn on e3 is pinned by black’s rook on e8. So, if white captures your knight, e3xf4, then you will capture their queen, Rxe2.
Removing the Defender
When a piece or important square is defended, then that piece or square can become vulnerable once you remove its defender. This is usually done by a trade, threat or sacrifice that removes the defending piece
White’s king can’t capture the knight on f2–else their king would be in check by the black queen on f7 (the defender). However, white can first remove the defender by playing 1.Qxf7+ Kxf7, followed by capturing the knight on f2 with their king.
Discovered Attack
A discovered attack occurs when moving a piece reveals a strong threat from a piece hiding behind it. The power of a discovered attack often lies in the fact that you can use it to set up a double attack.
Black can “discover an attack” on white’s queen by moving the bishop. By playing 1… Bxh2! black checks the white king. White must get their king out of check and then black will capture the white queen, Rxd3.
Decoying
Decoying is the tactic of luring an enemy piece to a vulnerable square, where it will be ambushed.
Diverting is the tactic of deflecting an enemy piece away from the squares or units that it was defending.
These two themes are very often found combined into a single tactic. For example: from one of my over-the-board tournament games:
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