Chess tactics: 28 patterns every player should know

1Hanging piece

A hanging piece is one that is attacked and not defended. Taking it is free material. It sounds obvious, but most beginner games are decided by pieces left hanging.

Habit to build: after every opponent move, ask "what did that piece stop defending?"

2Fork

A fork is one piece attacking two (or more) enemy pieces at the same time. Your opponent can only save one of them.

Knights are the best forking pieces because they jump and attack in an unusual shape that's easy to miss.

3Pin

A pin happens when a piece can't move because a more valuable piece is standing behind it on the same line. If the piece behind is the king, the pinned piece can't legally move off the line at all.

4Skewer

A skewer is a pin in reverse. You attack a valuable piece, it moves out of the way, and you capture the piece that was hiding behind it. Skewers often start with a check, because the king must move.

5Trapped piece

A piece is trapped when it's attacked and every square it can go to is also attacked. Bishops that grab a pawn on the edge of the board are classic victims.

6Discovered attack

A discovered attack happens when you move one piece and uncover an attack by another piece behind it. If the uncovered piece gives check, it's a discovered check, one of the most powerful tactics in chess.

7Back-rank checkmate

When a king is stuck behind its own pawns on the back rank, a single rook or queen can deliver checkmate. To avoid it yourself, give your king a little room later in the game, for example by pushing the h-pawn one square.

8Battery

A battery is two pieces lined up on the same line, one behind the other, like a queen in front of a bishop. The front piece attacks, and the back piece supports it.

9Ladder mate

Two rooks (or a rook and a queen) can push a king to the edge like climbing a ladder: one rook cuts off a rank, the other gives check on the next one.

10Removing the defender

If a piece is defended only once, capture or chase away its defender, and the piece becomes weak.

11Deflection

Deflection forces a defending piece away from its job. Here the knight on f6 is the only piece stopping Qxh7#. Attack it, and it can't both stay and survive.

12Overloading

A piece is overloaded when it has too many jobs. Here the black queen is the only defender of both the knight on d5 and the bishop on h4. It can't do both.

13Decoy

A decoy lures an enemy piece, often the king, onto a bad square. Usually it costs you a sacrifice, but what follows wins much more.

14X-ray attack

An x-ray is a piece that attacks or defends through another piece. When the piece in front disappears, the one behind takes over.

15Double check

A double check is when two pieces give check at once, usually through a discovered check. The king must move: you can't block or capture two checkers at the same time.

16In-between move (zwischenzug)

A zwischenzug (German for "in-between move") is a surprise move played before the expected recapture, usually a check or a big threat. Before you take back automatically, always look for something better.

17Desperado

A desperado is a piece that is lost anyway, so it grabs as much as it can before it's captured.

18Interference

Interference means putting a piece on the line between an enemy piece and the square it defends. Here the black rook on a8 stops your pawn from promoting on d8.

19En passant trick

En passant is the special pawn capture: if an enemy pawn moves two squares and lands next to your pawn, you can capture it as if it had moved only one, but only right away. Combined with a discovered check, it can be deadly.

20Clearance sacrifice

Clearance means moving one of your own pieces out of the way, often with a sacrifice, so another piece can use the square or line. Here your rook on e5 blocks the queen's long diagonal to g7.

21Windmill

A windmill is a rook and bishop working together to give discovered check again and again. Each time the rook moves away, the bishop gives check; then the rook returns with check, and repeats, grabbing material every time.

22Smothered mate

A smothered mate is a checkmate by a knight against a king that is completely surrounded by its own pieces. It often starts with a queen sacrifice to force a rook next to the king.

23Greek gift sacrifice

The Greek gift is the famous bishop sacrifice Bxh7+ against a castled king. After Kxh7, the knight checks from g5 and the queen joins the attack on h5. It works best when your pawn on e5 stops a black knight from defending on f6 and your queen has a clear path to h5.

24Zugzwang

Zugzwang (German for "compulsion to move") is a position where every move makes things worse, and the player would love to pass. But in chess, you can't pass. Sometimes the strongest move is a quiet one that leaves your opponent stuck.

25Pawn breakthrough

Three pawns against three can turn into a new queen with a breakthrough: sacrifice pawns to open a path for one of them.

26Underpromotion

You don't always have to promote to a queen. Underpromotion means choosing a rook, bishop or knight instead, usually to avoid stalemate or to give a fork.

27Perpetual check

When you're losing, a perpetual check can save you: give checks the opponent can't escape, and the game is drawn by repetition.

28Stalemate trick

If your king has no legal moves and your other pieces are gone or blocked, the game is a draw by stalemate. A losing player can sometimes force it by sacrificing their last piece.