Most games below master level are decided by tactics: a short forcing sequence that wins material or gives mate. You do not need to calculate ten moves deep to use them. You need to recognise a small number of patterns quickly. This article covers the five that come up most: pins, forks, skewers, discovered attacks and double check.
Before you look for tactics
Tactics appear when pieces are undefended, lined up, or the king is exposed. A useful habit before every move is to look at:
- Checks: every check you can give, even ones that look silly.
- Captures: every capture, and what is left undefended afterwards.
- Threats: every move that attacks something.
Looking at these forcing moves first, for both sides, is how strong players find tactics. Many beginners only look at the moves that seem natural.
Pins
A pin is an attack on a piece that cannot move, or should not move, because a more valuable piece stands behind it on the same line. Only long-range pieces (bishops, rooks and queens) can pin.
- An absolute pin is a pin to the king. The pinned piece cannot legally move off the line.
- A relative pin is a pin to something else, such as the queen. The pinned piece may move, but you lose what is behind it.
A simple example comes from the Ruy Lopez: after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 d6, Black's c6-knight cannot move, because that would expose the king on e8 to the bishop. A piece pinned to the king is a poor defender: it cannot recapture on any square off the pin line.
The strongest way to exploit a pin is to attack the pinned piece again, especially with a pawn.
White: pawn on d4, rook on e1, king on g1. Black: king on e8, knight on e6. White to move.
After 1.d5, the knight cannot move off the e-file and is attacked by a pawn. White wins a whole piece.
Breaking a pin: move the piece behind out of the line (for example ...Ke7), put another piece between them (...Bd7 in the Ruy Lopez example), or attack the pinning piece with a pawn (...a6).
Forks
A fork is one piece attacking two or more targets at once. The opponent can only save one. Every piece can fork, but knights are the most famous forkers because their attack pattern is hard to see, and pawn forks often win a whole piece for nothing.
White: knight on b5, pawn on a2, pawn on b2, pawn on c2, pawn on f2, pawn on g2, pawn on h2, rook on a1, king on e1, rook on h1. Black: rook on a8, king on e8, rook on h8, pawn on a7, pawn on b7, pawn on f7, pawn on g7, pawn on h7. White to move.
After 1.Nc7+ Black must move the king, and 2.Nxa8 wins the rook. A fork that includes a check is especially strong, because the opponent has no time to defend both targets.
How to spot forks:
- Look for enemy pieces that are a knight's move apart from a single square, typically the king and queen, or king and rook.
- Look for two pieces side by side in front of your pawns: a pawn push can hit both.
- Queen forks often combine a check with an attack on a loose piece somewhere else on the board.
Skewers
A skewer is a pin turned around: the more valuable piece is in front. When it moves out of the way, the piece behind it is captured.
White: pawn on g2, bishop on d1, king on g1. Black: queen on e8, king on c6. White to move.
After 1.Ba4+ the king on c6 must step off the diagonal, and 2.Bxe8 wins the queen. Skewers are common in endgames with rooks and queens, where kings stand on open lines. A typical case is a rook check along a rank that has the king in front and an unprotected rook behind it.
Tip: whenever the enemy king and another valuable piece stand on the same rank, file or diagonal with nothing between them, look for a check along that line.
Discovered attacks
A discovered attack happens when one piece moves out of the way and uncovers an attack by another piece behind it. The moving piece is free to create a second threat at the same time, so the opponent faces two problems in one move.
If the uncovered attack is on the king, it is called a discovered check, and it is one of the most powerful tactics in chess: the moving piece can go almost anywhere, even to a square where it can be captured, because the opponent must deal with the check first.
A well-known trap in the Petroff Defence shows the idea: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nxe4? 4.Qe2 Nf6?? 5.Nc6+. The knight moved from e5 to c6, opening the e-file for the queen on e2: that is check. At the same time the knight attacks the queen on d8. Black must answer the check, for example with 5...Be7, and 6.Nxd8 follows.
For Black: after 3.Nxe5, the safe move is 3...d6, driving the knight back before recapturing on e4.
Double check
In a double check, the king is attacked by two pieces at once, usually because a discovered check is combined with a check from the moving piece. There is only one defence: the king must move. You cannot block two lines or capture two pieces with one move. This makes double check the most forcing move in chess, and it often leads directly to mate.
White: bishop on d8, pawn on a2, pawn on b2, pawn on c2, pawn on f2, pawn on g2, pawn on h2, king on c1, rook on d1, bishop on f1, knight on g1, rook on h1. Black: rook on a8, knight on b8, bishop on c8, bishop on f8, rook on h8, pawn on a7, pawn on b7, king on c7, pawn on f7, pawn on g7, pawn on h7, pawn on c6, queen on e5, knight on e4. Black to move.
This mate comes from a game played in Vienna in 1910 (Réti against Tartakower), after 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Qd3 e5 6.dxe5 Qa5+ 7.Bd2 Qxe5 8.O-O-O Nxe4. White sacrificed the queen with 9.Qd8+! and after 9...Kxd8 played 10.Bg5+, a double check from the bishop and the rook on d1. The king had to move, and 11.Bd8# ended the game.
Putting the patterns together
Real tactics often combine several of these ideas. A pin creates an undefended piece; a check forces the king onto a square where a fork appears; a discovered attack wins a defender and opens a back-rank mate. When you see one pattern, look for the second idea that makes it work.
Common reasons players miss tactics:
- Only looking at their own plan. Always ask what your opponent's last move threatens.
- Dismissing a sacrifice too early. A move that loses material at first glance can be the start of a forcing sequence.
- Not checking loose pieces. Undefended pieces are the main targets of forks and discovered attacks. Count which of your pieces and your opponent's are unprotected.
Training plan
Pattern recognition grows with repetition. Ten to twenty puzzles a day will help more than an occasional long session.
- Solve pins, forks, skewers and discovered attacks one theme at a time in puzzles by theme.
- Then mix them in regular puzzles, where you do not know which pattern is coming.
- Run your own games through the free game review: the tactics you missed in your own games are the ones most worth learning.
- Explore any position from this article in analysis to see the alternatives for both sides.
Published 2026-11-01 · 22Softwares