Chess is a game of strategy and foresight, where understanding and applying tactical patterns can significantly influence the outcome of a match. Recognizing these patterns allows players to capitalize on opportunities and effectively anticipate their opponent's moves. This article delves into the 5 essential chess tactics, providing clear explanations and examples to enhance your gameplay and strategic thinking.
Pin
I personally find the Pins very annoying, Generally, the threat is not to capture the attacked piece but it is a threat to capture a piece behind the pinned piece and hence it restricts the movement of the pinned piece. In the below position, the knight on f3 is pinned by the Bishop on g4 because if the knight moves the bishop will capture the queen on d1, hence this pin restricts the knight's movement.
There are two kinds of Pins, let's check them both
- Relative Pin: These pins allow the pinned pieces to move, although you will end up losing material, it's not illegal to move the pinned piece. In some cases moving the pinned piece actually gives you a better position, as maybe moving the pinned piece attacks the opponent's piece of equal value. For example, just imagine the above position where the queen is not on d8 but on c8, White can capturef7 pawn with check sacrificing itself, and after Kxf7 White plays Ng5+ and suddenly the pinning piece the bishop who was pinning the knight on f3 is completely exposed. After the king moves away from check the queen captures the bishop on g4 and white wins a pawn also the castling right of black is gone. So there are a few things to consider while pinning or when you get pinned.
- Is there any intermezzo: Like in the previous example, given the queen was on c8, white could gain a significant advantage after 1. Bxf7 Kxf7 2. Ng5+Ke8 3. Qxg4, You will have to see all such intermezzos.
- Can the Pinned piece attack the opponent's piece of Equal advantage: Another thing to consider, Can you move your pinned piece to attack the opponent's piece of the Same value, as in the above example if we move the knight the bishop will capture the queen, now consider, the black queen is on d7 and the knight is not on c6 (let's say on b4), white could play Nxe5, attacking queen and after dxe5 white can capture the bishop on g4, although it won't be very good for white as Qxd2 won't be very pleasant for white.
- Does moving the pinned piece threaten a bigger problem: Now consider a situation where moving the pinned piece delivers a check to the opponent's king, or threatens the checkmate. in those cases pinning is not useful.
- Can the pinned piece move and defend the attacked piece: Suppose you pinned a knight to rook with your rook, so if the knight moves you can capture the rook. Since the attacking piece and the attacked piece are of the same value, if there's a way to move the knight to a square from where the knight protects the rook, the pin will have no value.
- Absolute Pin: Absolute pins are a real deal. In Absolute pin, the piece is pinned to the king. In the below position, Knight is pinned to the king. And moving knight will be an illegal move and hence it's called an absolute pin. White must move king to f4 or e3 to free up its knight's movement.
How to take advantage of Pin
Usually in Pin, the threat is to capture the pinned piece since it's Immobilize. The best way to exploit a pin is to first Pin the piece and then attack the pinned piece with a pawn. If the Pinned piece can't be attacked by a pawn then keep on increasing pressure on the pinned piece to capture it.
The threat could also be to damage the structure, In the first position, the knight on f3 was pinned to the queen on d1. If white moves the queen away to break the pin then black could simply capture the knight on f3 to damage the king's side pawn structure.
Fork
Fork is a tactical position where one piece attacks two or more pieces in such a way that forked side is forced to lose at least one piece
In the above position, the knight is attacking both rooks together. This is called a fork. Now let's look into some premature fork patterns where the forked side can save both pieces.
Premature fork
Premature forks are positions where the forked side has the option to avoid the fork by applying the below tactics
- Attacking a piece of better value: Imagine your rooks are forked but you can attack the opponent's queen with one of the rooks, opponent will have to save their queen and since one rook is out of the for, you can later save your other rook,
- Checks: If you can deliver a check with one of your forked pieces, the opponent will have to save their king first and later you can save your other piece
- Pin: If possible, pin the forking piece with one of the forked pieces, the forking piece will become immobilized and you can save your other piece on the next move,
Discovered Attack
Out of all chess tactics, this is one of the most dreaded tactics in my opinion. To understand why it is the most dreaded, first, you will understand the “what is discovered attack in chess?”
Consider the above position, Black played his queen to f5, to threaten Capture on f2 followed by the back rank mate, but forgot the discovered attack. White can simply push the d3 pawn to d4, which blocks the bishop's support on f2 while threatening to capture it and at the same time, the bishop on b1 starts attacking the f5 queen. This pawn push opens the bishop's diagonal which was previously blocked to unleash an attack on the queen. This is called a discovered attack, where a piece is moved to open another piece's path to attack one of the piece's opponents.
The discovered attack is usually applied when the moved piece also threatens to capture another piece or it controls the escaping squares of the attacked piece. This attack is more deadly when the discovered attack is made on the king, The best way is to simply avoid such a position where your, higher value piece comes in the line of fire of a smaller piece, like in the above one black shouldn't play Qf5 otherwise, black will loose immediately.
Deflection
Deflection is a sneaky tactics that deflect your opponent's piece which was previously guarding a square or piece so that you can take control of that guarded square or capture the guarded piece. Take a look at the below position
Black plays Qb4, asking white to exchange the queen, thinking it has an extra piece, but it becomes a blunder at brings black from winning to an equal position. White plays Re6+, and after Rook captures white rook on e6, the queen becomes undefended, and white grabs the queen. So white sacrifices his rook to deflect the b6 rook from the queen's defense, this is called deflection.
The deflection tactics are also used against a piece that is guarding the mating square, We try to deflect it or capture it so that the mating square becomes undefended.
Attraction
Attraction is usually a surprising sacrifice (not necessarily but usually) that forces you to move a piece to such a square that becomes prone to other deadly tactics like fork, skewer, etc.
Look at the above position, white has a queen for a rook and knight, but not for long. It is black to play and black employed the attraction tactics. Black plays Rf1+, completely sacrificing its rook to bring the king to f1 square which becomes prone to fork, and black will play Ne3+ forking the king and the queen. Eventually black will end up with a knight and two pawns whereas white only has 2 pawns. Black will win the game eventually.
So these were the 5 Chess tactics that you must know. I recommend you play chess puzzles on these themes to understand and recognize these patterns. Recognizing patterns is important, otherwise just knowing these tactics theoretically will not help. You must identify the possibility of such tactics over the board and that is possible only if you recognize the patterns, So keep practicing.
Leave a Comment: