Chess Tactics for Beginners: 12 Patterns

What a tactic is

A tactic is a short forced sequence, usually one to four moves long, that wins material or delivers checkmate. Strategy is the long-term plan: which pawns to push, where the pieces belong, which side of the board to play on. A tactic is what decides that plan in the next few moves, and at beginner level tactics decide almost every game. Every pattern below has a fixed shape. You do not find it by calculating every move on the board; you find it by looking for the pieces the shape needs, such as two undefended pieces a knight's jump apart, or a king and a rook on the same line.

Moves on this page are written in algebraic notation with the move number first and White's move before Black's, for example 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3. Three dots mark a Black move quoted on its own, as in 5...d5. A plus sign after a move means check and a hash sign means checkmate. Squares are named by file letter and rank number, so e4 is the fourth square up the e-file, counted from White's side of the board.

1. Fork

A fork is one piece attacking two or more enemy pieces at the same time. The opponent can move only one piece per turn, so one of the attacked pieces is lost unless the attacker can be captured or the second target can be saved with a counter-threat. Any piece can fork. Knights fork best, because a knight's attack does not run along a line and cannot be blocked, and because a knight attacks squares of the opposite colour to the one it stands on, so its targets are often not looking at it. A pawn fork is the cheapest: a pawn worth one point attacks two pieces worth three or more each.

The fork trick in the Italian Game shows a pawn fork in the first five moves: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nxe4 5.Nxe4 d5. Black gives up the knight on e4 on purpose. After White recaptures, the pawn on d5 attacks the bishop on c4 and the knight on e4 at once. White can save only one of them, so Black takes the other and gets the piece back with a strong pawn in the centre. The knight fork is the more common one in practice: a knight that lands on e7 or c7 with check and attacks a rook or a queen at the same time wins material in thousands of games every day.

Forks appear whenever two enemy pieces stand a knight's jump from the same empty square, or on one diagonal or one rank one pawn step apart. Forks that include the king are the strongest, because the king must move and the other piece is lost. Queen forks against a king and an undefended piece are the most common way to lose a rook in the middlegame.

To spot a fork, list the enemy pieces that are undefended or worth more than the attacker you have in mind, and look for one square from which one of your pieces attacks two of them. Do the same for your own pieces before every move: two undefended pieces on your side are an invitation. In the position below, White has a knight on d5 and Black has a queen on c8 and a king on g8.

2. Pin

A pin is an attack along a line against two pieces, in which the piece in front cannot move, or should not move, because the piece behind it is worth more. Only pieces that move along lines can pin: bishops, rooks and queens. When the piece behind is the king, the pin is absolute: the front piece has no legal move at all, because the rules do not allow a move that exposes your own king to check. When the piece behind is any other piece, the pin is relative: the front piece may move, but moving it loses the piece behind.

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 is the Nimzo-Indian Defense, and it opens with an absolute pin. The bishop on b4 attacks along the diagonal from b4 to e1, the knight on c3 stands on that diagonal, and the king on e1 stands behind it. The knight cannot move at all until White blocks the pin or the bishop leaves, and Black often plays ...Bxc3 to leave White with doubled pawns on the c-file.

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 is a main line of the Queen's Gambit, and it shows a relative pin. The bishop on g5 pins the knight on f6 against the queen on d8. The knight has legal moves, but each of them leaves the queen to be taken by Bxd8, so the knight stays where it is, and Black usually breaks the pin with ...Be7.

Pins appear early, when a bishop develops to b4, b5, g4 or g5 and an enemy knight stands between it and the king or the queen, and in the endgame, when a rook pins a piece against the king along a rank or a file. A pinned piece is a target: the side with the pin can add attackers to it, and the pinned side cannot move it away.

To spot a pin, look along every line from your bishops, rooks and queen. When an enemy piece stands on the line and a more valuable piece stands behind it, the front piece is pinned. Then count again: a pinned piece does not defend anything, so a square it appears to guard may be free to take.

3. Skewer

A skewer is a pin in reverse. Two enemy pieces stand on one line, but the more valuable one is in front. It is attacked, it has to move, and the piece behind it is taken. Like the pin, a skewer needs a bishop, a rook or a queen, because only those pieces attack along a line.

Take a position with the White king on g1, a rook on a1 and pawns on f2, g2 and h2, against the Black king on d8, a rook on h8 and pawns on d7, f7, g7 and h7. White plays 1.Ra8+. The check runs along the back rank, and the only legal replies are 1...Kc7 and 1...Ke7. Whichever square the king chooses, 2.Rxh8 takes the rook. The king was the piece in front, the rook was the piece behind, and the check did the forcing.

Skewers appear most often in endgames with few pieces, where a king and a rook end up on the same rank or file, and in the middlegame after a queen has been checked and steps back onto a line shared with a rook. A queen in front of a rook on an open file is a classic skewer target for an enemy rook.

To spot a skewer, check whenever the enemy king or queen shares a rank, file or diagonal with another enemy piece, and ask whether one of your long-range pieces can attack the front piece with check or with a threat it cannot ignore. If the front piece must move and the line stays open, the piece behind is yours. The position from the example is set up below.

4. Discovered attack

In a discovered attack, one piece moves off a line and uncovers an attack from a piece behind it. The moving piece is free to make a threat of its own, so two threats appear in one move. When the uncovered piece attacks the king, the move is a discovered check, and the moving piece can go almost anywhere, because the opponent must answer the check before anything else.

The Petroff Defense contains a well-known example. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nxe4 4.Qe2 Nf6 is a mistake by Black, and 5.Nc6+ punishes it. The knight leaves e5, the queen on e2 gives check along the open e-file, and the knight on c6 attacks the queen on d8 at the same time. Black must deal with the check, and White takes the queen on the next move. The correct fourth move for Black is 4...Qe7, which meets the threat before it exists.

Discovered attacks appear once the central pawns have been exchanged and a file or a diagonal opens between one of your long-range pieces and the enemy king or queen. A knight or a bishop of your own standing on that line is the piece that moves. The same pattern appears in the endgame, when a rook or a queen stands behind a king on a file.

To spot a discovered attack, look for one of your bishops, rooks or queens that would attack a valuable piece if one of your own pieces stepped out of the way. Then look for the most forcing square for that piece to step to: a capture, a check, or an attack on the queen. If the uncovered attack is a check, the moving piece can even take a defended piece, because the opponent has no time to recapture.

5. Double attack

A double attack is any move that creates two threats at once. A fork is a double attack made by one piece. A discovered attack is a double attack made by two. The point is the same in every case: the opponent has one move to meet two threats, so one of them lands.

The Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez shows the queen at work: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.Nxe5 Qd4. The queen attacks the knight on e5 and the pawn on e4 in one move. White saves the knight with 6.Nf3, and Black plays 6...Qxe4+, winning the pawn back with check. This is why 5.Nxe5 wins nothing in that line, and why the usual move is 5.O-O.

Double attacks appear whenever a queen or a knight can reach a central square from which two undefended targets are in range. They are the most common way a beginner loses a pawn or a piece: an exchange leaves two pieces undefended, and the next queen move hits both of them.

To spot a double attack, count the undefended pieces on both sides after every exchange. Two undefended pieces on one side are a double attack waiting to happen. Before you leave a piece undefended, check whether any enemy piece can attack it and something else in one move.

6. Sacrifice

A sacrifice is material given up on purpose to open lines, expose the king, or start a forced sequence that wins more back. A sacrifice is correct only when the sequence can be calculated to the end and finishes in checkmate or in a material gain larger than the material given. Material given up without such a sequence is not a sacrifice; it is a blunder.

The oldest textbook example is Légal's mate, named after the eighteenth-century French player Sire de Légal: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 Bg4 4.Nc3 g6 5.Nxe5. White leaves the queen on d1 to be taken. If Black takes it with 5...Bxd1, then 6.Bxf7+ Ke7 7.Nd5# is checkmate: the bishop on f7 takes e8 away, the knight on e5 covers d7, the knight on d5 gives the check and covers f6, and the king's own pieces block d8, d6 and f8. If Black declines the queen with 5...dxe5, then 6.Qxg4 leaves White a pawn up. Either way the sacrifice is sound, because both branches were calculated to the end.

Sacrifices appear against a king that has not castled, or a castled king whose pawn shield has moved, and in openings where the f7 or f2 square is guarded by the king alone. A queen sacrifice that leads to mate, as in the smothered mate, is the most famous kind, and the exchange sacrifice, a rook given for a bishop or a knight, is the most common kind in master games.

A sacrifice needs a follow-up. Before giving material, write down the forced replies, and make sure the last move of the line is checkmate or a win of more material than was given. If the line has a reply you cannot answer, the sacrifice is not there yet, and the right move is to improve a piece and look again next turn.

7. Back-rank mate

A back-rank mate is checkmate delivered by a rook or a queen on the first or eighth rank against a castled king whose own pawns block every escape square. The pawn shield that protects the king from most attacks becomes the wall that traps it.

White has a rook on e1, a king on g1 and pawns on f2, g2 and h2. Black has a king on g8 and pawns on f7, g7 and h7, and nothing else. 1.Re8# is checkmate: the rook attacks the king along the eighth rank, f8 and h8 are covered by the same rook, and f7, g7 and h7 are occupied by the king's own pawns. No black piece can block on e8 or f8, and nothing can capture the rook.

The pattern appears in every middlegame in which a king has castled and none of the three pawns in front of it has moved, as soon as the last defender of the back rank is exchanged, deflected or lured away. A rook that leaves the first rank to attack a pawn often leaves its own king to be mated.

When the enemy back rank has only one defender, look for a way to remove it with an exchange or a deflection. For your own king, make an escape square with h3 or h6 before the back rank becomes a target, and ask before every rook move whether the back rank still has a guard. The checkmate patterns article has a diagram of this mate and a back-rank position to solve.

8. Deflection

Deflection forces a defending piece away from the square or the piece it guards, usually with a check or a capture that it cannot refuse. Once the defender has left, the thing it guarded falls.

White has a pawn on b7, a rook on c1, a king on g1 and pawns on f2, g2 and h2. Black has a rook on b8, a king on g8 and pawns on f7, g7 and h7. The rook on b8 stops the pawn from promoting. 1.Rc8+ gives check, and 1...Rxc8 is the only legal reply. Now the b-pawn is free: 2.bxc8=Q+ promotes with check and wins the rook. The black rook had one job, and the check took it away from that job.

Deflection appears whenever a single piece has a single job: guarding the back rank, blocking a passed pawn, or defending another piece. The classic case is the queen that defends both a piece and a mating square; a capture of the piece pulls the queen away, and the mate follows.

To spot a deflection, take each enemy defender in turn and ask what happens if it is forced to move. If the answer is a checkmate or a won piece, look for a check or a capture that forces it. Checks are the strongest deflections, because a check must be answered before anything else. The position from the example is set up below.

9. Decoy

A decoy lures an enemy piece onto a square where it becomes a target. Deflection pulls a piece away from a square; a decoy pulls it onto one. The bait is usually a sacrifice that the opponent has to accept, and the target is usually the king or the queen.

The Fried Liver Attack in the Italian Game is a decoy of the king: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Nxd5 6.Nxf7. The knight sacrifice lures the king onto f7, because 6...Kxf7 is the only way not to lose material at once. Then 7.Qf3+ drives the king to e6, the one square from which it can keep defending the knight on d5. After 7...Ke6 the black king stands in the centre of the board on move seven, and White brings more pieces into the attack with 8.Nc3.

Decoys appear most often against the king, to bring it into a mating net or into a fork, and against the queen, to bring it onto a square where a knight fork wins it. A queen that is offered a rook on a square next to an enemy knight is usually being decoyed.

To spot a decoy, look at any enemy piece that stands one square away from a fork or a mate, and look for a sacrifice on that square that the opponent must accept. Then check that the follow-up is forced: a decoy that the opponent can decline is only a lost piece.

10. Zwischenzug

A zwischenzug is an in-between move. Instead of the recapture or the retreat the opponent expects, a more forcing move is played first, usually a check, and the expected move follows a move later on better terms. The word is German and means an intermediate move.

The Elephant Trap in the Queen's Gambit is built on one: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Nbd7 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Nxd5 Nxd5 7.Bxd8. White has taken the queen and expects 7...Kxd8. Instead Black plays 7...Bb4+. The check must be answered, and after 8.Qd2 Bxd2+ 9.Kxd2 Kxd8 the queens are off the board and Black has a knight for a pawn. White assumed the knight on f6 was pinned to the queen. The pin was only relative, and the in-between check made it worthless.

In-between moves appear in the middle of an exchange, when the side to move has a check or a capture that is stronger than the automatic recapture. They also appear when a piece is attacked and the obvious retreat can be replaced by a counter-attack on a piece worth more.

Whenever you are about to recapture, look at every check and every capture available to you first. The recapture will usually still be there next move. Apply the same test to your opponent: before you start an exchange, check what forcing moves they have in the middle of it.

11. Windmill

A windmill is a repeating sequence of checks in which a rook and a bishop take turns. The rook gives check, the king steps aside, the rook captures something with a discovered check from the bishop, the king steps back, and the cycle repeats. Every second move wins material, and the defender can do nothing but move the king.

White has a rook on g5, a bishop on f6, a king on h1 and pawns on g2 and h2. Black has a king on g8, a rook on e8, a knight on f8, a bishop on b7 and pawns on a7, f7, g7 and h7. 1.Rxg7+ Kh8 2.Rxf7+ Kg8 3.Rg7+ Kh8 4.Rxb7+ Kg8 5.Rg7+ Kh8 6.Rxa7+ Kg8. In six moves White has taken three pawns and a bishop, and every black move was forced: the king could only shuttle between g8 and h8, because the rook on g7 is protected by the bishop, and the bishop covers h8 whenever the rook leaves the g-file. The most famous windmill is Torre against Lasker, Moscow 1925, where the same rook and bishop pair on g7 and f6 took a pawn on f7, a pawn on b7 and finally Black's queen.

Windmills are rare, but when one appears it wins the game at once. The ingredients are a bishop on the long diagonal next to the enemy king, a rook on the seventh rank or the g-file, and no way for the king to leave the corner. The same three ingredients, without the repetition, produce a single discovered check that wins a piece.

If your rook can give check on the g-file or the seventh rank while your bishop covers the square behind the king, count what the rook can capture on its way. If your own king is the one in the corner, trade the bishop or give the king a square before the first check.

12. Overloading

Overloading means one defender has two jobs. When it is forced to do one of them, the other is left undone. The overloaded piece is usually a queen or a rook that guards a piece and a mating square at the same time.

White has a queen on c4, a rook on d1, a king on g1 and pawns on c3, f2, g2 and h2. Black has a queen on a5, a knight on c5, a king on g8 and pawns on e7, f7, g7 and h7. The black queen defends the knight on c5 along the fifth rank and the square d8 along the diagonal from a5 to d8, and d8 is the square from which a rook mates the king. 1.Qxc5 takes the knight. If Black recaptures with 1...Qxc5, the queen has left the diagonal, and 2.Rd8# is checkmate: the pawn on e7 blocks the queen's way back to f8, and the king has no free square. Black does better to leave the knight and move the king, but a piece is lost either way.

Overloading appears whenever a single piece is the only defender of two things: a queen guarding a piece and the back rank, a rook guarding the back rank and a pawn, or a knight guarding two squares next to the king. Exchanges make it worse, because each exchange removes a defender and leaves the remaining ones with more jobs.

For each enemy defender, list what it defends. If the list has two entries, attack one of them, and check whether the other falls when the defender responds. The capture that pulls the defender away and the follow-up on the second square are the whole tactic.

How to train tactics

Solve a small number of puzzles every day, and name the pattern before you solve it. Naming it is the skill: a player who can say "the queen is overloaded" or "that knight is pinned" finds the move in seconds, and a player who calculates from nothing does not. Twenty minutes a day beats three hours on Sunday, because recognition is built by repetition.

In your own games, run the same three checks before every move: which of your pieces are attacked, which enemy pieces are undefended, and which checks and captures exist for both sides. The list takes ten seconds and catches most of the tactics on this page from both directions.

After the game, paste the PGN into the analysis board. It runs Stockfish in your browser and marks every blunder, mistake and missed win. For every marked move, find which pattern from this page was missed, by you or by your opponent. The method is laid out step by step in how to analyze your games.

Play short games. A three-minute Zapp Chess game starts in the middlegame with the pieces already developed and ends at checkmate or at a two-point material lead, so an hour of play gives many more tactical positions than an hour of full-length games. A game can be started on the home page. The fork trick, the Elephant Trap and the Fried Liver Attack each start from one of the openings in the opening trainers, which walk through the main lines move by move.

1. 1.Before every move: my attacked pieces, their undefended pieces, all checks and captures.
2. 2.Before every recapture: is there a check or a capture that is stronger?
3. 3.Before every sacrifice: is the last move of the line checkmate or a material gain?

Questions people ask

Keep going: chess strategies for beginners, checkmate patterns, how to analyze your games, the opening trainers, the analysis board and chess notation.