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Overloading It often happens that a piece may protect two or more objectives at the same time. When this happens we refer to that piece as being overloaded. Usually, when your opponent has an overloaded piece you can use it in your favor by performing powerful attacks on his position (more exactly on the overloaded piece). Here is a common mistake found throughout many beginners game. White moved Rc3-c6 ?? and the position below resulted. This was a very bad move because the rook from c1 has been overloaded (it now protects both the rook from c6 and the checkmate on the back rank Re8-e1). That is why Black wins the rook 1...Rf6:c6 and of course, with that, he wins the game! Look at the example below. The black queen from c3 is protecting both the possible checkmate Q:e7 and the black rook from c6. With Rc1! White performs both an attack on the black queen and an x-ray attack on the black rook from c6. Black will have to give up his rook in order to protect the g7 square. Look at the example below. You can see that the white queen protects the white rook from a4 and the knight from e4. Black tries to take advantage of this by attacking the queen 1... Ra8-c8 but White can easily defend with 2. Ne4-c3. With this White stopped the rook's range of action and got the knight from the exposed square e4. This proves that attacking an overloaded piece (and generally using any other tactical procedure) won't always bring you the advantage if your opponent has enough resources to protect himself. This was an example of how you can protect your position against certain attacks of this kind.

Pinning Pinning it's a tactical procedure common to many games. You can use it in any phase of the game; in fact many openings use this tactic to disturb the opponent's piece development. Pinning involves the participation of three pieces: a piece is attacking another one which is being protected by a third one placed between the two. In the following position we have more than one of these tactical procedures. The white pawn at b4 is pinned by the black rook at a4. Now you can understand why it's called pinning: the pawn is unable to move because then the white rook would be captured with 1. Ra4:c4. The white pawn at f3 is also pinned because it's placed between the king at e2 and the black queen at h5 (the pawn can't be moved because then the king would enter under the range of action of the queen). Some of Black's pieces are also pinned. If it were Black's turn to move then he wouldn't be able to capture the rook at f6 with the knight from d5 because the knight is pinned by the queen from d1. As a side remark: capturing the pawn at b4 with the rook 1...Ra4: b4 is wrong because after Rc4:b4 Black is unable to capture the white rook with the knight from d5 . The black rook at e5 is pinned by the bishop from g3. You can see, of course, that if a piece is pinned to the king, it is unable to move; if it's pinned to another piece it can move. The following moves are common to the queen's Gambit 1. d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 and with 4. Bg5 White pins the black knight to the queen; the resulted position is shown in the next example. In the example below after 1... Rg8:g4 White is unable to capture the rook because the pawn at f3 is pinned by the bishop from b7. In the next example White pinned, with his queen, the black knight at g5 which was protected by his queen. But with 1...Nf3+ Black checks the white king and after g:f3 Black captures the unprotected white queen : Q:d2 . In the next position White moved the queen at g3 and pinned the pawn from g7. Black didn't give much attention to this and took no actions. That allowed the following move: 1.Bc1:h6. Black can't capture the bishop with his pawn because that would place his king in check from the white queen. Now White won a pawn and not only that: he now threatens checkmate with the queen at g7. This type of pinning (the pinning of the pawn in front of the castled king) is quite frequent so pay attention to it in your games. Here is another example of pinning the pawn in front of the castled king: Example of pinning combined with discovered attack This example shows you the full power of tactic. You'll see here how a few combined tactical procedures can help you win the game. It's Black's turn to move. You can see that the pawn in front of the white king can be pinned by the black rook from g7 if that knight from g5 wouldn't interrupt the rook's range of action. Black moves: 1... Ng5-h3!! This is an excellent move as it allows the black rook to pin the pawn and perform a double attack over the king and queen.(Remember the pawn in front of the king is unable to capture the knight because it's pinned.). But this is not the end! A less careful player could be tempted to capture the queen and miss out on a much greater gain. If you look more careful you can see that the f2 square is under the control of the black queen . White is unable to move his king at f1 because then it would be checkmated. The only place where he can move is 2. Kg1-h1 Now Black takes advantage of his superior position and 2... Nh3:f2+ The white king has nothing to do but to go back to the exposed square 3. Kh1-g1 Now White can check the king by an discovered attack with the knight: 3... Nf2-h3+ double check from the knight and queen (notes how the white king is constrained only to the exposed squares h2 and g2). What follows it's a great execution that brings out the artistic side of chess : 4. Kg1-h1 Qb6-g1!! 5. Re1:g1 Nh3-f2 Checkmate. This type of checkmate is called etouffe; the term comes from french an means suffocated. (The king is obstructed from moving from the attacked position because he is suffocated by it's own pieces).

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The Philidor Position The Philidor Position is another one of those fundamental rook ending tactics, you must know, to do well in endgames. Understanding this position, may help you get a draw, instead of a lost game the next time you play a good game of chess.Fortunately the position is rather easy to learn. Arriving in the endgame, the opponent has a rook and pawn against a lonely rook. This has been illustrated in figure 1. Figure 1 In this case, black is the opponent who is up a pawn. Notice how black is cutting off the white king on the back rank. What white must do now, is move his rook to the third rank, keep it active there, and wait for black to eventually advance his pawn, as shown in figure 2. Figure 2 As black moves his pawn to e3, the draw is within sight. White should now move his rook to the eighth rank, and from this position he can give an endless amount of checks, as black's king has nowhere to hide (see figure 3).Thus the moves getting from figure 2 to figure 3 would be: 1. .. e32. Ra8 Kd3 Figure 3 Again, white's rook can now go on giving black checks, as illustrated with the white arrow in figure 3.The Philidor Position is also called the Philidor Defense. It was named from François-André Danican Philidor, who analyzed this position back in 1777.

King Opposition An important concept in chess is opposition. Opposition refers to the situation when two kings face each other on a row, with only one square in between them. The player not having the move is said to have the opposition. It often happens in endgames with only pawns and kings.Not having the opposition can be a huge advantage and can mean the difference between winning and a agree to a draw. Take a look at this figure: It all comes down to who is in the move. If it is white's turn to move (black has the opposition) then all white can hope for is a draw. All black needs to do is keep the opposition. So if white goes Ke5 or Kg5, black would reply with Ke7 or Kg7 respectively. If however white steps back with either Ke4 or Kg4, opposition is kept with black's king going to Ke6 or Kg6 respectively.If however, black is to move (white has the opposition), things will look at little brighter for white. There are several ways for white to win. Here is one, as shown in the diagram The starting moves are: 1. .. Ke72. Kg6Nothing black can do at this point. Here is one example of how the endgame may continue. 3. .. Kf84. Kf6 White will finish the game by showing the way for his pawn. 5. .. Ke86. Kg7 You don't want to lose a good game of chess not knowing about opposition. So study hard, and go win that next game.

King and pawn endings - King Triangulation In this article we will look at a classic king and pawn endgame, where a bit of tactical sense is needed for white to win the game. Have a look at the figure below, where white is in the move. The problem for white is, that he will not be able to promote either of his pawns, as advancing a pawn to c6 will only lead to a capture by blacks pawn, leading to a draw.What white needs to do to win the game is using king triangulation to loose tempo. That is, by moving the king in a triangle, both parties will end up in similar initial positions, but black will be in the move, which makes it a win for white. Have a look at this figure, showing the triangulartion leading to a win. Thus, the moves for white are: 1. Ke5!2. Kd43. Kd5Now black will need to step away from the action (Ke7), leaving enough room for white to advance his c6-pawn as shown here. White will easily win the game from here!One variation of this game can be seen, when black instead tries to move around the pawns on c6. This is still a win for white. The variation is shown in the below figure.Do not advance your c5 pawn yet. Go remove black's pawn on b7 first using your king.You will see this sort of endgame quite often, so make sure you study the triangulation method.

10 Tips for Your Endgames 1. Calculate your next move Many players believe that tactics and calculation only belong to the middlegame. But especially with the minor pieces, you need to accurately calculate your moves. This can be simple calculations, such as counting a passed pawn race in a king and pawn endgame, or it can be some of the more complex variations which need deeper calculations. 2. Activate your king – when it’s time The king is a perfect piece for attacking the opponent’s pawns and defending your own pieces. The player with the most active and centralized king will often be winner of the game. But if there are too many pieces on the board that impose a threat, it may not be the time to move your king into the battle field yet. 3. Exchange rooks with care Rook endings have a tendency to often lead to draws. So if you’re in a hopeless position, consider it one more time, before you exchange rooks. 4. Keep pawns together Try to avoid isolated and doubled pawns as they are difficult to protect. This requires a great deal of planning in the middlegame and sometimes even in the opening repertoire. 5. Push your pawns with care Unless it is absolutely trivial to queen, plan your moves towards the 8th rank carefully. Have the king lead the way, and move it as far up the board as possible, while advancing the pawns. 6. Pawns for tempo Sometimes you are in need of an extra move. This can for example be the case, if two kings stand in front of each other, and the king to move will lose territory. Having a pawn standing by for these “dead” moves can be quite handy in situations like these. 7. When to exchange pieces If you have a material advantage, it is good endgame tactics to exchange pieces. But keep your pawns though, because the further you get into the endgame, the more important these pieces become. 8. Use both sides of the board Approaching the endgame, your opponent might not have enough pieces left, to properly defend both sides of the board. So to place pawns on both sides of the board, might be a good strategy for promoting one of your pawns. 9. Use the rook as support Consider keeping the rook behind the passed pawn to support its advance. The Tarrasch rule goes: “Always put the rook behind the pawn.... Except when it is incorrect to do so”. An exception to this rule can be, when the pawn is blocked by the opposing king, and the rook needs to support the pawn from the side instead. 10. Knight or bishop If you have an open position, the rule of thumb is that the bishop is the stronger piece. For a closed position the knight is the better piece. This is because bishops move easier if there are open diagonals, while knights can jump over a cluttered landscape of locked pawns.

SCHOLAR'S MATE 1. e2-e4 e7-e5 2. Bf1-c4 Bf8-c5 Nothing special until now. 3. Qd1-h5 Closes in for the kill! 3... Ng8-f6?? This is a very bad move. This doesn't help Black at all. The right move is 3... Qd8-e7 to protect the f7 square or 3... g7-g6 to block to queen's path. But since none of those moves were done the queen has no problem and : 4. Qh5-f7. There are several ways this technique can be applied : using a knight instead of a bishop, moving the queen at f3 instead of h5 and so on.. Black can use this technique as well.

A set of rules you should follow in Chess opening: The main idea behind all openings is to develop your pieces as harmonious and as fastest as possible and in the same time to disturb your opponent's positional development. There are a few general rules you should follow when developing your pieces: Make one of your first priorities the control of the center of the board using the pawns and your other pieces. When moving the pawns you should have in mind a good structure for them. This is very important as the pawns dictate where your strongest squares are (Remember : the squares that are under the control of the pawns are your strongest ones). Don't move the same piece more than once in the opening unless it's necessary. This way you won't lose any precious tempo and you will focus on developing your pieces. Don't get the queen too fast in the game Activate the knights first and then the bishops Choose the best square for a piece and move it directly there. Don't waste your time by doing some intermediate moves. Castle as soon as possible Don't move too many pawns in the opening While deciding your move choose the one that is more active, that threatens something or that puts the opponent in difficulty Don't sacrifice a piece without a clear motivation.

Forcing stalemate This tactical procedure is used by the side which has the disadvantage and it usually involves a piece sacrifice. A player uses this maneuver when he realizes that he has no chance of recovering the gap between himself and the opponent. Black is in a lot of trouble. White has an extra knight and rook and the pawns from b5 and d5 are dangerously close to the promotion squares. But Black has the resources to end the game a draw. He moves 1....Q:d5!. White is forced to capture the queen 2. N:d5 (otherwise after the white king would move on the h column 3...Rh7 ). You can see now that the king would be stalemate if it weren't for the rook at f7, but that can be easily fixed: 2... Rf2+ 3.Kh1 Rh2+ 4.Q:h2 and now Black is not able to move any of the piece. Do you think is possible for White to end the game a draw? White has its turn to move. You can see that the black pawn is one square away from being promoted and that the white rook can't stop it by moving at c7. The answer is 'yes' and comes in the form of a very ingenious maneuver. 1. Rb7+ Kc8 (if 1... Ka8 than 2. Rg7 Qc1 3. Rg8+ Qc8 4. R:c8) 2. Rb5 Qc1 3. Rc5+ Q:c5 stalemate.

Decoying in chess Decoying, unlike deflecting, is not trying to lead pieces from certain positions but to lead them to certain squares in order to checkmate or gain material advantage. Black moves 1... Qb1! . This way the white king is forced to capture 2. K:b1. You can see how the king was lead to the b2 square (where he was exposed to checkmate) away from d1 thus making possible for the black rook to move 2... Rd1 checkmate. This next game was played between Holzhausen and Tarrasch at Berlin in 1912. As you can see White developed his position better than Black, his pieces having a greater range of action. Black has his pieces placed in a closed position and with a small range of action. White takes advantage of this and of the weakness from f7 and makes a beautiful combination of moves. 1. B:f7+ K:f7 2. Ne6 K:e6 (This last move is forced otherwise Black lose his queen) 3. Q:d5+ Kf6 4.Qf5 .

Chess Deflection Deflection is a widely used tactical procedure. It is a maneuver that seeks to guide away an enemy piece, which defends a position, in order to perform a checkmate or win a piece. You can see in the next game a simple example of how deflection is made. As you can see, White is under the threat of being checkmate on the back-rank; the only thing stopping this is the presence of the white rook form c1. Black moves 1... Qc2. With this move he is trying to deflect the rook from the 1'st rank by sacrificing his queen. This is a simple trick, as any intermediate player could spot the trap behind the move. The right move White must do, is 2. Qe1. This way he'll prevent the black rook from moving at d1. This next deflection is not so obvious. The game was played in 1934 between Esteban Cajal and an amateur. Black just castled on the queen side. This gave White the opportunity to perform a superb combination: 1.a:b4 Q:a1+ 2.Kd2 Q:h1. By giving away his two rooks, White lured the black queen away from file 'e'. After that followed yet another sacrifice 3. Q:c6 which forced the 3... b:c6 and then 4. Ba6 checkmate. This was yet another perfect example of how tactical maneuvers bring out the best in chess. In this next game (Botvinnik-Keres [1996]) White could perform checkmate at h6 with the queen if he were to get his queen on the 'h' column. But, as you can see, he is stopped from doing that by the pawn from h4 which is protected by the queen from d8. White moves 1. Rb1-b8 and now the queen is forced to give up the pawn because it has no where to move on the d8-h4 diagonal.

The Intermediate move The intermediate move is one of the most refined tactical procedures. This maneuver comes in the form of a move which interrupts an apparently forced sequence of moves, improving the position of the player making the intermediate move. It often comes in the form of a counterstrike when a piece is being attacked. This next example shows you a classic example of an intermediate move. You may have been in a similar situation before. The black knight from b4 performs a double attack on the white rooks from a2 and d5. Now White is forced to give up one of his rooks in order to save the other one. Not quite! White has a little trick: 2. Rd8+, check, and now Black must protect his king 2... Kg7. This way the rook was moved away from danger and allowed the move of the other rook as well 3. Rb2 . This way, using an intermediate move, White manages to save both of his rooks. In the following game White attacked the queen from d7 so that when Black captures the bishop 1... Q:f5 the knight will attack at c7 both the king and the rook and thus capture the rook. But Black is able to make the intermediate move 1...Nf3+ so that when 2. g:f3 the black queen captures the bishop with check and, at the next move, captures the knight from b5 with the pawn from a6. You can see in the example below that the white bishop from c5 is under the threat of being captured by the black rook. But before he defends it, White makes the intermediate move 1. Rd8+ Kg7 and with 2. Rd5 he defends the bishop and threatens 3.Bf8+ (a combination of a discovered and double attack followed by the capture of the black rook). Black gives up because after 2... Bd6 follows 3.Bd4+.

The X-ray attack The x-ray attack is implemented by attacking a piece through the body of another. Follow the examples below so you can better understand this concept. In the position below White moves 1. Bb3+ Kh8. With this move White placed the bishop in a position were he can execute the following x-ray attack :Bd5. Now you can understand why this attack is called x-ray: the Black queen and the rook from a8 are on the same diagonal; when the bishop attacks the queen she will be moved but the rook will, nevertheless, remain under the bishop's scope (It's just like attacking the rook through the body of the queen). After the queen is moved, the rook will be captured. In the next example Black moves 1... Qb4-e1+. The queen is supervised by the rook from c1 through the white rook's body. Therefor 2. Rd1:e1 Rc1:e1 checkmate! Here is a position you may run into in your endings. You probably know that usually, in the rooks and marginal pawns endings, the marginal pawns don't get promoted. The position below is an exception to this rule. Black moves 1...Ra3+. The white king can't move to the 4th rank because then with 2...Ra4 Black would perform an x-ray attack on the white rook over the king. The king can only be moved to the 2th rank; 2. Kc2 Ra1. Black is about to promote his pawn. White can't capture the pawn because Black would just apply the x-ray attack: 3. R:h2 Ra2 4.Ke1 R:h2 and Black loses the rook. As you can see, White has no defense; he will lose this game.

Freeing This tactical procedure involves removing your own pieces from certain squares in order to open certain directions or to occupy that square with another piece that may be more suited for the current position. In the next game White moves 1. N:b6+. If Black captures the knight with 1... a:b6 then White will move Re8+!; with this move White frees the queen's diagonal and stops Black from protecting himself by forcing him to capture the rook. So, after the e4 square is freed the queen is able to checkmate with Qa8 . That is why Black won't capture the knight and will have to move his king 1... Kd8 The move White should do in the next position is fairly simple. Nf7!. This freed the d8 square; now White threatens a powerful attack on this square and ,in the same time, capturing the rook from h8. Black has no way of defending both objectives and has to defend against the attack on the freed square (an attack which can end up with a checkmate after the black rook will be captured). 1... Kc8 2. N:h8 R:h8 and White wins a value (he won a rook and lost only a knight). If Black would have moved the rook from h8 then checkmate would have been possible with: 2. Rd8+ R:d8 3. R:d8 In the following game Black is able to move R:d3 because with this he frees the main white diagonal and threatens checkmate with the rook at h1. White is forced to defend against the checkmate and is unable to capture the black rook and therefor Black manages to balance the game.

Blocking the king's escape This tactical procedure involves blocking the square on which the king could escape. In the next game White has more valuable pieces than his opponent. But, Black compensates that by having the possibility of a good move. If Black were to check his opponent's king by moving the queen at a1 then the king could escape to b5 and then perform a powerful counterattack which would lead to White's defeat (the Black king is under serious pressure from both rooks and the knight). The Right move Black should do is 1...b6-b5+. This move blocked the white king's escape. Now White has no possibility of defending himself; even if he captures the pawn c4:b6 the escape square the king still remains blocked and Black can still perform the checkmate: Qe5-a1 What follows is a classic example of using blocking. White has his turn to move. He will force Black to block his own king by moving 1. Qg8! R:g8 (the only possible move) and now that the king is blocked he can be easily checkmated Nf7 . This type of checkmate is called etouffe; the term 'etouffe' is french and it means suffocated. It's called this way because the king is stopped from moving by its own pieces (he is suffocated).

Removing the defender As you may have noticed most of the pieces on the chess board are, at some time, under the protection of other pieces from the same team. This procedure is based on suppressing a piece which is protecting another piece or another square on which a potential attack could occur. The next examples should make everything more clear. The following game appears to be balanced: both sides have an equal number of pawns and two pieces with the same value. But things aren't always what they seem to be, h:g5!. With this move White has now an extra pawn. Black is unable to capture the white pawn f:g5 because he would remove the knight's defense and then B:e5. In the next example White attempts to remove the defender of the black rook from f5 with 1. Rf1:f5. But Black has a good response; he will make the intermediate move 1...Rd4:d1 2.Kc1:d1 Bc8:f5. So, in the end, Black has the advantage by having the extra bishop. White made a mistake when he removed the defender of the knight. This is another argument in favor of the idea that in chess you always have to pay attention to what you're doing. In the next example White moves 1. R:g7; this removed one of the black knight's defender. Now the next move is possible 1...B:f6 Qh7 2. B:h8 Q:h8. After his combination White won a pawn (remember that many times an extra pawn is enough to help you win the game). Look at the example below. Black moves 1...B:f3!. This is a good move because White has to capture the bishop in order to win back the lost value (the knight); but when he'll capture the bishop he'll leave the pawn from h3 defenseless. 2. g:f3 3. R:h3+ Kg2. White has now a bad situation: he's down a pawn and those two he has are on the same column! In the next game it's White's turn to move. If you payed attention until now you won't have many troubles in spotting the best move: 1. Qh8+ Qg8 (the only possible move) 2.Q:g8 K:g8, and now that the knight from c4 no longer has the queen to protect him, he will be captured and thus White will end up with an extra knight N:e4.

Interception Interception is one of the most astounding tactical procedures. It involves the blocking of a direction (rank, file or diagonal) in the idea of reducing the range of action of an enemy piece. It is often done with a piece sacrifice. In the next example the black king has a very bad position. The fastest way he can be checkmated is 1. Bg3-d6!. With this move White blocked the black queen (the a3-f8 diagonal); 1... c7:d6 2. Qh4-h8+Now the Black queen isn't able to move to f8; 2...Ke8-f7 3. Qh8:g7+ Kf7-e6 4. Qg7-e7 Checkmate! The game below was played in 1924 between Reti and Bogolliubov at New York. White played Rf1. With this move he threatens checkmate at f8. The black bishop can't be moved (if 1...Be7 then 2. Qf7+ Kh8 3. Qe8 ). The only thing left to do is to protect the f7 square. Black chose to move 1...Rd8; with 2. Bf7 the Black king is forced to the h8 square and with 3. Be8 White performs the interception. With this final move White manages to isolate the bishop's defense. Even if the black queen comes to protect her bishop is too late: 3...Qe7 4. Q:f8 Q:f8 R:f8, checkmate! (The same thing happens if Black chose to capture the white bishop from e8.) Had Black chosen to protect the bishop using the queen 1...Qe7 then Bf7+ Kh8, and this time Bd5 would interrupt the black rook which could come to protect the bishop. In the next ending White has a good move. A less careful player could be tempted to move 1. Bd4; that would be wrong as it would give Black the chance to better control the transformation square. The right move is Bf8; this interception allows White to promote his pawn. If the rook captures the bishop then the pawn will capture the rook and will be promoted into a queen or rook (the only pieces with which Black can be checkmated) The next position is interesting. Black moved his knight to e4 in the idea of threatening the double attack on c3 over both white rooks. But White has a surprise! The only thing protecting the knight is the queen. With 1. Nb4-c6+ White has intercepted the direction over which the black knight was protected and checked the opponent, so that he is forced to move the king: 1... Kd8-d7. Now White performs a double attack over the king and knight 2. Qh5-f5+ e7-e6 3. Qf5:e4 and White wins a knight.

What is the discovered attack The discovered attack is a very effective tactical procedure. It involves the use of two pieces; when a piece is moved, it frees the direction of the second one so that this one can attack its objective. The power of this procedure lies in the fact that it can attack two places at the same time: first, it attacks with the piece whose path has been released and second, it could attack with the piece that has been moved. That means that if the attacked player can't defense both objectives he will lose something. That is why, sometimes, the player who performs this procedure can sacrifice a piece knowing that he will recover it with an advantage or that he will checkmate the opponent! A particular form of this attack is the discovered check (when the piece whose path is freed, checks the king) or the double check (when both pieces checked the king). I will show you a few examples so you can get a better idea how this is done. In the next example Black moves 1... Re1. With this move he released the queen's path, which is now threading checkmate at a1, and in the same time moved the rook to the strategical square e1. Now White is unable to take the black rook 2. R:e1 because of the checkmate 2...Qa1 nor he is able to protect himself from the queen's checkmate with Kb1 because then R:d1 checkmate. White has, however, the move c2-c3; and with this he manages to defend his position! In the next example the pawn from c4, when moved, will create a lot of troubles for Black: 1. c4-c5. This way he frees the b3 bishop and attacks the black bishop from b6. The queen is unable to move because she's pinned to her king by the white bishop; the only move that can save the queen is 1... Ne7-d5, and so the queen is made safe. But, unfortunately, this didn't save the bishop: 2. c5:b6 and White wins a bishop. The following game was played in 1934, at Hastings, between Euwe and Thomas. White plays 1.Bd5. This is a good move; not only it threatens to capture the queen but also to checkmate at the second move with R:f8. If Black tries 1... R:f2 then 2. Qg8. Black has no escape from this nasty situation! I said earlier that a particularized case of the discovered attack is the discovered check. The next position shows you what this mean. Black makes a surprising move: 1...Qb5:f1!. The white king has no choice but to capture the queen 2. Kg1:f1 and thus entering under the potential range of action of the rook from f8. Now Black performs the discovered check 2... Bf7:b3+ 3. Qc2-f2 Rf8:f2 4. Kf1:f2 Bb3:a4 and ends up with an extra bishop and an extra pawn. The first move Black made is a part of a tactical procedure called deflecting. We'll talk about it later. In the next position White takes advantage of Black's bad position and makes a discovered check 1. Rf3+ (or Rb1+) and black loses the rook.

The double attack This tactical procedure is very common in many games. As you might have guessed this procedure involves attacking two (or more) pieces or squares simultaneously. In a normal attack a player could defend by moving the piece, exchanging it or protecting it. The double attack has bigger chances of causing a weakens in your opponent's game. You can use the double attack in any phase of the game. Because the queen is the piece with the greatest range of action and mobility it can execute this procedure more easily than the other pieces. Checkout the following games to understand how to apply this procedure. In the next game it's Black's turn to move. With 1...Qe5! he attacks both the bishop from f5 and the rook from a1. But White has an escape; he can capture the knight at d7 with check : 2. B:d7+ and Black is forced to protect the king 2... K:d7 giving this way, his opponent the chance to move the rook 3. Rd1. This time White found resources to defend himself. In the next example White has its turn to move. From this position he has no way to perform a double attack. But if you watch more carefully you can see that he has this move: 1. Qb3. Now the knight at f7 is under attack; Black has to protect him somehow: 1... Rf8. The first's move purpose wasn't only to attack the knight. White wanted to bring the queen in such a position that he can perform the following double attack : 2. Qf3!. Now the queen threatens two places : the knight at f6(which is also attacked by the bishop from b2) and the checkmate at a8 so.. it's obviously Black will lose the knight. Observe how the first move didn't allowed Black to protect himself against the double attack because it forced him to protect the knight at f7. This tactical procedure can appear in the openings too. These are usual moves in the Sicilian Defense : 1. e4 c5 2. d4 c:d4 3. Nf3 e5. And now the position from the next example resulted. If you are not careful you might be tempted to capture the pawn at e5 with the knight. That would be a mistake because after N:e5 Qa5+ the queen attacks both the knight and the king with check. (So you are forced to protect the king and therefore you lose the knight). The double attacks performed by the knights can be quite astounding. In the next game White moves 1. Ba3:d6!. Black can't capture the bishop 1... c7:d6 because 2. Ne4:d6+ with check and multiple attack over the queen and the rook; and of course after the king is moved 3. Nd6:b5. The fork You can also perform double attack with the pawns. In this case the double attack is called a fork. In the following example it's Black's turn to move. He currently has no possibility of a double attack. But that doesn't stop him from creating the possibility : 1... d5 2. e:d5 c:d5 3. Bb3 and now he is able to perform the fork: 3... d4 (the pawn attacks both the knight and the queen; White has to give up the knight). The double check The double check is another particularity of the double attack. It's called double check because the king is being checked by both the piece which moved and the piece whose path was freed. In this case the king can be made safe only by moving it. It can't be made safe by capturing a piece or by placing a piece between the king and the attacker. In the game below Black performs a double check with Nd4:f3++ and captures a bishop. The king can only be made safe by moving it because both the bishop from b6 and the knight from f3 are checking it. This allows Black to perform the next double attack over the queen and the two rooks: Nf3-d2 forcing White to give up a rook. Black wins because he now has an extra rook.