Introduction to Tactics

This problem shows us what a fork is. A fork is a case where two pieces are attacked at the same time by one opposing piece. This device is very handy and leads to the win of lots of games. Knights in particular are known for their annoying ability to fork much stronger pieces.

When a lone knight attacks a king, queen, and rook at the same time, we get what is known as a family fork.

A certain symmetry between two Black pieces exists on the board which makes a fork possible. It is wise to get used to such patterns, so that you can make use of them against your opponents and avoid falling victim to them yourself.

Knights fork on their strange "L" shaped patterns, bishops fork on diagonals, and rooks, of course, can fork on either ranks or files.

It's one of the curiosities of chess that the weakest of pieces can pose a threat to the strongest. Even harmless little pawns can attack two pieces at once.

The queen has the ability to move like a rook and bishop combined. Due to this versatility, the lady's forking powers are considerable.

It may surprise you, but even a king can fork pieces! In the present example we see the White king take matters into its own hands and fork the rook and knight.

Every piece on the board is subject to a pin, with the sole exception of the king. A king cannot be pinned to something of greater value because there is nothing of greater value! Pawns, of course, are not exempt to being pinned.

The two best pinners are rooks and bishops. Queens also make excellent pinners, since they mimic the movements of these two pieces. In this problem the White rook can initiate a very effective pin.

A skewer is like a backwards pin in that you threaten a piece, force it to move, and capture a less valuable piece behind it. In a pin you attack a piece that has a more valuable piece behind it.

Skewers are most commonly made by bishops and rooks. In this case a rook wins the game by itself.

Two rooks doubled on the seventh is a glorious thing to have! They are able to eat just about every pawn that resides there, and they pose a constant threat to the opposing king. Many mates can be conjured up when you have these two rooks. Even when everything else is looking grim, these two rooks can often save the game with a perpetual check.

Black has just played the rook to b2 and called check to the White king. Was this a good idea? What should White do?

Some pins win decisive amounts of material, while other pins are just of temporary nature and can be defused with careful play. Here we want to find a way to end the pin against Black's c6-knight.

This is one of the most important mates you will ever learn, because it is something you simply HAVE to know! It will come up often in your games, and if you can't do it, your only reward for your earlier good play will be frustration. Mating with a king and queen vs. the lone king should be a simple matter. Such simplicity, however, only comes with practice. Go over this problem several times until the ideas expressed here become second nature to you. Only then will it be time to move on to the...

White demonstrates how the king and queen can easily checkmate the lone Black king.

A king and rook can mate a lone king in fairly easy fashion, though it must be admitted that the process is longer and more tedious than a king and queen mate. Editor's note: This is a long challenge. It is intended to illustrate one method of accomplishing the checkmate. You may already have a checkmating method that you have been using; there are many. The important thing is to have a method that you are comfortable with and that you will be able to remember when the situation arises.

An invisible force exists between the kings that allows one king to outperform the other. This force is known as the opposition.

At times the opponent is pushing his pawn, and your king is far from the action. How can you tell if you can stop his pawn? Here we learn a shortcut that makes the whole process easy!

In general, you are supposed to pick a plan of action based on the state of your pawn structure. The pawn structure delineates whether a position is closed (the center is blocked by pawns) or open (few center pawns give open lines for the pieces). The pawn structure also determines whether one's pieces have good posts available to them or not. Most of all, pawn structure is thought of (among amateurs) in terms of passed pawns, doubled pawns, isolated pawns and backward pawns. This problem gives a...