predator at the chessboard. vol 1
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Chapter 1.
Introductory Matters.
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1.1. A Short Guide to the Site.
Spectacular chess moves produce the same
sorts of satisfactions as the climactic moments
of other great games: the slam dunk, the thir-
ty-foot putt, the home run. In chess thesemoves are known as tactics. This web site
teaches them in detail. It assumes you know
only how the pieces move and builds step-by-
step from there. Every idea is illustrated with
lots of examples, and every example is ex-
plained in plain language that describes a train
of thought leading from a problem to its solu-
tion. Funny-looking notation is held to a min-
imum. You can treat each example as a puzzle
and try to solve it before reading the explana-
tion, or just read the explanations as you go.The object throughout is to provide a teaching
tool that makes the secrets of chess easy for
anyone to understand. It's a chess book for
people who think they dont like chess books.
(The site also has a new sectionthe Chess
Quizzerthat lets you test your understand-
ing by working on positions chosen at random
and with their explanations hidden.)
You can start reading anyplace. The rest of
this first section gives a fuller account of the
idea behind the site and how it differs from
existing books; then comes a primer on the
most important general principles of tactics:
double threats, loose pieces, and forcing
moves (if those terms aren't old hat to you, the
explanations probably will be useful). Last are
some pages discussing further points of inter-
est to some but not othersthe notation used
in the diagrams, acknowledgments, how to
change the look of the font, and other miscel-lany.
After this introductory part there are five large
sections, one for each of the great families of
chess tactics: the fork; the discovered attack;
the pin and skewer; the removal of the guard;
and mating patterns. Within those sections are
a total of twenty chapters; within the twenty
chapters are nearly two hundred topics. Each
topic is illustrated with about a half-dozen
positionsoccasionally fewer, and some-times quite a few more.
If you want to skip any or all of this first part
and plunge into the specific lessons, you can
go back to the table of contents (theres al-
ways a link at the upper right corner of the
screen) and click on The Knight Fork or
whatever other topic sounds appealing. The
sections build on each other a bit, but most ofthem can be enjoyed on their own with no
trouble if you prefer to dip in at random or
skip parts that get tedious. If you want to na-
vigate through these early parts or any of the
other sections more precisely, click on the
plus (+) signs in the table of contents to ex-
pand each menu. Or click at the top of the
contents page to expand all the menus and see
the entire structure at once (I recommend
this). Or you can flip around by starting any-
where and using the arrows at the bottom ofeach screen to go page by page. (Clicking on
the forward (>) arrow at the lower right cor-
ner of this page, for example, will walk you
through the rest of this first section.)
This site aspires to be the most detailed and
systematic treatment of basic chess tactics yet
published. It also is meant to be the most con-
genial to those who like things explained in
English. How far it succeeds, and where it
might be improved, the reader will judge; I
welcome corrections and suggestions, and
apologize in advance for the inevitable typos
or other glitches (and thank those who have
called such mistakes to my attention). All
feedback can be sent by way of the link at the
bottom center of every page.
Let us begin.
1.2. Rationale for the Project.
Why Tactics?
If you have played chess at all, you know it is
easy for the two sides to trade pieces: your
knight takes my bishop, my pawn takes your
knight, and we're even. But if your knight
takes my bishop and I cant capture yourknight, you gain an edge that probably will be
decisive. If one player has more pieces than
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the other, he usually wins without much trou-
ble; between good players, a one-piece advan-
tage is enough to cause the disadvantaged
party to resign. Thus the most important mo-
ments in a chess game generally occur when
you take one of your opponents pieces and
he gets nothing back, or vice versa.
So how does it happen that one side takes
another sides pieces for free? Between be-
ginners the common answer is that you wait
for your opponent to blunder by leaving a
piece unguarded, then you just take itand
hope you arent the one to blunder first. Chess
games that go this way aren't terribly interest-
ing, and they make it hard to understand what
all the fuss over the game is about.
The fuss arises because there are moves you
can make that force your opponent to cough
up pieces unexpectedly. All his men look
safe; but then you play a knight fork, a move
in which your knight attacks two of his pieces
at once. He only has time enough (one turn)
to move or protect one of them, so you take
the other for free. It's all very satisfying; and
it's even better when you first capture his
bishop, and he recaptures; then you check his
king, and it moves; and then you play the
knight fork, winning a piece. What makes this
so pleasing is that you've planned the fork and
forced your opponent to step into it by play-
ing a few initial moves that forced his replies.
These sequencesthe little clusters of moves
that win your opponents piecesare known,
again, as tactics. A tactical sequence generally
is a short bunch of moves that wins material(pieces or pawns) or that forces checkmate.
Such a sequence also is known as a combina-tion. (Some people quarrel over the distinc-
tion between tactics and combinations. We
won't.)
Now there also are other types of moves you
can make in chess that aren't meant to win any
pieces. Indeed, during a game you often will
have no way to play one of those nifty tactical
sequences, so you instead try to improve your
position: you put your pieces onto squares
where they have more room to move or areaimed at a part of the board where you are
trying to put together an attack; or you move
your pieces around to fend off your oppo-
nents attempts to launch attacks of his own.
This sort of play is called strategic. You are
working toward general, long-term goals, and
perhaps laying the groundwork for a tactical
strike of the sort described a moment ago.
When you make these sorts of moves youmay well not be seeing many moves ahead.
You just are arranging your pieces the way
you like, and your opponent is doing the
same. Since you arent making any immediate
threats, your opponent is free to go about his
business in ways that may be hard for you to
predict.
Strategy and tactics both are important, but
tactics are moreimportant. If you're a whiz at
finding clever moves that take your oppo-nents pieces, you will be a terrifying oppo-
nent, have a good time playing chess, and win
lots of games regardless of whether you know
a great deal about strategy. If you're a whiz at
strategy but not much good at tactics, you will
have trouble winning or having fun because
your pieces will keep getting taken. You cer-
tainly want to know something of strategy;
you need ideas about what you can do with
your pieces that will create eventual tactical
opportunities for them. We will talk about it
along the way. The point is just comparative:
if you want satisfaction, you had best start by
learning how to play tacticshow to spot and
execute sequences of moves that allow you to
take your opponents pieces.
What was said about strategy can be said as
well about openings. You can spend enor-mous time mastering the details of an open-
ing
say, the Italian Game or the French De-fense. The yield of those efforts, in victories
and in fun, probably will be small. You fre-
quently will find that your opponents play
drags you away from the opening you studied;
and even if not, the payoff of a successful
opening usually is a minor advantage in posi-
tion. By itself the advantage will not win you
anything or bring you much pleasure. What
will bring you immense pleasure, whether or
not you know much about openings, is taking
your opponents pieces. And to do that youneed to learn how to use tacticsthe weap-
onry of the chessboard.
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All this advice assumes you are not a strong
player already. Once the material on this site
all is old hat to you, close study of openings
and subtler points of strategy will make better
sense. One false move in the opening and
your goose is cooked if you are playing Garry
Kasparov; but this is a site mostly for novices,so if you are reading it you probably should
not be planning to play Kasparov anytime
soon. You should be planning to play others
of at least roughly your own strength pro-
bably friends who are casual players, or op-
ponents at the local chess club or on the inter-
net. If you keep playing you will move on to
better players, but it still will be a long while
before a deep study of openings really pays
off. In the meantime all of your opponents
even the strong ones
will give you plenty oftactical opportunities; they will commit over-
sights that allow you to play pretty combina-
tions and win pieces if you are sharp enough
to see the chances for them. Acquiring this
sharpness has nothing to do with memoriza-
tion. It's a skill you gain by learning what
clues signal that a combination may be possi-
ble, and by studying how to turn those clues
into ideas that work.
Why Another Book About Them?
Since tactics are the most entertaining and
important part of chess, it comes as no sur-
prise that there have been many books written
about them. This sitewhich amounts to an-
other book, and not a short onethus requires
a few words of justification. It differs from all
the prior work in several important respects.
Most books about chess tactics follow one of
two patterns. Some describe important tactical
ideasforks, pins, etc.and explain their
logic a bit, then provide perhaps a dozen ex-
amples of how each tactic works. The other
sort of book presents pages of diagrammed
problems for the reader to solve; the answers
usually are given in the back with minimal
commentary. Both types of books are valu-
able, especially when used together, but I longhave felt there was a place for a different ap-
proach. This project attempts to fill the gap.
Its distinctive features can be summarized as
follows:
Many examples, carefully organized. This site
goes into greater detail than other books do in
explaining each type of tactic and how to
overcome the various obstacles that can arisein trying to make it work. There are about 80
knight forks here, for example, and they are
broken down according to the different ways
the tactic can look when it is lurking two or
three moves away on an apparently placid
chessboard. It may be that the square your
knight needs is guarded but that the guard can
be taken; it may be that the piece you want to
fork is not very valuable but can be ex-
changed for a more valuable piece; it may be
that you do not yet have a knight fork but thatafter you check the enemy king a forking pos-
sibility will come into view. All of these pos-
sibilities, and many others, are illustrated with
about a half dozen explanations apiece and
sometimes more. The process is repeated for
all the major tactical motifs: there are more
than 100 queen forks, more than 300 pins,
nearly 200 discovered attacksall subdivided
into different ways each of these ideas can
look when it is a couple of moves away from
perfection.
This method of organization makes it easier to
learn in a systematic way about tactics and the
issues that come up in using them. Every idea
is shown in several contexts so that it will
sink in and the persistent features of the pat-
tern become familiar to you. And the many
examples of each complication also will makeit easier to recognize patterns during your
games: you will start to sense that the positionon the board almost resembles a recognizable
pattern and almost lends itself to a known
tactical theme. Then you can experiment with
forcing moves (e.g., checks and captures that
require predictable replies from your oppo-
nent) to make it work. The idea guides the
experimentation. But to have the idea in the
first placeto see, for example, that condi-
tions on the board suggest a possible knight
fork, even if the exact means of getting there
has yet to be worked outyou need a reper-toire of known tactical patterns that can be
stimulated by the positions you see. The pat-
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terns studied here, in all their little variations,
are meant to go into the reader's store of vis-
ual knowledge and become the basis of useful
intuitions and ideas.
Trains of thought explained. Chess tactics
tend to involve the use of certain root ideascognitive riffsthat get repeated and com-
bined in various ways. The explanations here
are meant to explain and reinforce those ideas
so they become a natural part of your thought
process at the board.
Here is a slightly larger statement of the point.
The quality of your chess is determined by the
quality of your train of thought when deciding
what move to make. The train of thought may
be partly verbal, partly visual, or partly intui-tive, but in any case it will involve a sequence
in which you consider candidate moves and
their pros and cons. The climb from novice to
something better largely is a move from me-
andering, unsystematic trains of thought to
more methodical and fruitful ones. For the
beginner it therefore is helpful to see more
than just a list of the correct moves that solve
a chess problem; it helps to hear what ques-
tions one might have asked to spot the pattern
and discover the correct moves for oneself.
Thus every example here is accompanied by
commentary explaining not just the right
moves but a train of thought that leads from
the position to its solution.
The trains of thought offered in the commen-
taries emphasize the use of clues: signs to
search for during your games that indicate a
tactic might be available. The explanations
show how the same sets of questions, some ofthem simple, can generate impressive tactical
ideas when they are asked and answered me-
thodically. Some trains of thought thus are
repeated many times. The repetition would be
inexcusable if the purpose of the project were
just to transmit information, for then once
would be enough. But the purpose is other-
wise; it is to help change your mental habits at
the board, and for this purpose an extra meas-
ure of clarity and some repetition both are
helpful.
This project especially is meant for those who
like explanations in words. Not everyone
does; some students of chess prefer just dia-
grams with lists of the moves required to
solve them. But I suspect that those who do
think best in words will find it helpfulmore
interesting, easier to understand, and morelikely to improve their playto have the solu-
tions to problems explained out in English.
These are matters of taste, and you, gentle
reader, may not think the world really needs
more words about chess. But if you do share
this sense of mine, and have not found that
most books about chess explain it in a way
that speaks to you or affects your play, per-
haps this site will change your relationship to
the game.
1.3. The Elements of Tactics: A Primer.
1.3.1 The Double Threat.
If you are new to chess, the sequences that
good players use to win games may seem
impossibly complicated. But most of them
actually are based on just a few general con-
cepts combined ingeniously and persistently.
This frame and the ones that follow explain
the concepts broadly. The rest of the site
teaches their use in detail.
The most important idea in chess is the dou-
ble threat. Generally speaking a double threat
is any move you make that presents your op-
ponent with two problems at the same time.
Since each player can make just one move perturn, your opponent only has time to addressone of the threats you have made. On your
next turn you execute the other one. Maybe
your first move checks his king and attacks
another of his pieces at the same time; or
maybe you threaten one of his pieces and are
building a threat of checkmate elsewhere. The
result is the same: your opponent has to spend
his next move dealing with your threat against
his king, and then you get to take the other
piece you were threatening.
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The universe of chess tactics can be divided
into four or five great families of ideas, each
of them a variation on the logic of the double
threat. This site is organized around them:
1. The first family, and the best-known type
of double threat, is the fork a move whereone of your pieces attacks two enemy pieces
at the same time. You no doubt have seen
examples of knight forks if you have played
chess for a while; the knight naturally lends
itself to moves in which it attacks two pieces
at once. But the same idea can be executed
with your queen or with other pieces, as we
shall see.
2. A second type of double threat, and another
family of tactical ideas, is the discovered at-tack. This occurs when you move one of your
pieces out of the way of another so that both
of them make separate attacks against your
opponent. Again, he only has time to parry
one of the threats. You play out the other one
on your next move.
3. A third family of tactical ideas involves the
pinor skewer. These occur when two of your
opponents pieces are on the same line and
you place an attacker so that it runs through
both of them. In effect you again are making a
double threatone threat against the piece in
front and another against the piece behind it.
4. And then there are countless other situa-
tions that may be lumped under the heading
of removing the guard, in which you capture
or harry an enemy piece that guards some-
thing else you want to take. Your opponent
cant defend against both threats on the oneturn allowed to him, so you are able to play
one of them or the other.
In effect most games of chess are contests to
see who can find a way to use one of those
tactical techniques first. One successful fork
(or discovery, or skewer, etc.) often decides a
game by giving one player an insurmountable
advantage over the other. This is why Richard
Teichmann said that chess is 99% tactics; and
it is why mastery of tactics is the key to hav-ing fun at the chessboard, not to mention win-
ning.
[Note: A fifth family of tactical operations
involves mating patterns: characteristic ways
that kings get trapped. These are treated in the
last section of this site. They do not necessar-
ily involve the logic of the double threat in the
way that those tactical devices just described
do. We also are leaving aside a few other,more minor families of tactics for now.]
1.3.2 The Loose Piece.
Another key idea in chess is the loose piece.
A loose piece is simply a piece that has no
protection. It is common for players to leave
pieces unprotected here and there; as long as
they arent being attacked, they look safe
enough. But loose pieces make perfect targets
for the double threats described a momentago. Suppose your queen performs a fork,
attacking your opponents king and one of his
rooks at the same time. He moves his king.
Now you can use your queen to take his
rookif it is unprotected. But if the rook is
guarded you wont be able to take it because
the cost will be too high: your queen will be
captured afterwards.
We can turn this point into advice for practi-
cal play. You want to be aware of loose
pieces on the board at all times. Any piece
your opponent has left unguarded is a possible
target for a tactical strike; any piece of yours
that is left unguarded is a vulnerability. In-
deed, you want to not only notice loose en-
emy pieces but also look for ways to create
them. We will see countless examples in the
studies to come. ("Loose pieces" also can be
defined to include enemy pieces that are un-
derdefended: attacked once and defendedonce by a fellow piece. As we shall see,
pieces in that condition sometimes can make
targets just as good as pieces with no protec-
tion at all.)
The great chess writer Cecil Purdy stated the
point as a rule: "Never leave or place a piece
loose without first looking for a possible fork
or pin, and never see an enemy piece loose
without doing the same." Do you follow this
advice already? Many inexperienced playersdon't. When they put a piece onto a new
square, they mostly just check to make sure it
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won't get taken there. Purdy's advice is differ-
ent. It is to ask whether your piece hasprotec-
tionon its new square; and if it doesn't, to ask
carefully whether a fork or pin or other tactic
might be launched against it. You may not yet
understand quite what it means to look for
forks or pins, but you will soon; and then fol-lowing Purdy's counsel will save you many
sorrows.
1.3.3 The Forcing Move.
Sometimes in chess you do whatever you
want to do and then your opponent does
whatever he wants to do. Other times its dif-
ferent: if you capture his knight with yourbishop, for example, he pretty much has to
recapture your bishop; otherwise he simply is
short a piece and probably will lose. (The
other pieces belonging to both sides gradually
will be exchanged away, and you will end up
with the only attacking piece left on the
board.)
Another example: If you check your oppo-
nents king, he cant do whatever he wants in
reply; he has to either move the king, block
the check, or capture the piece you have used
to make the threat. And if you make a move
that will enable you to deliver checkmate on
your next turna mating threatyour op-
ponent likewise will have to address it imme-
diately.
Checks, captures, and mate threats therefore
are known as forcing moves. In other words,
they are moves that force your opponent topick from a small set of possible replies. Theyare the essence of tactical chess; they allow
you to dictate your opponents moves and
thus control how the board will look two or
three or more moves from now. Other types
of moves may be "forcing" as well, mind you:
anythreat you make against your opponent
for example, a simple threat to take one of his
pieces on your next movemay force him to
reply in a certain way. This happens all the
time, and we will see examples as we go. Butchecks, captures, and mate threats tend to be
the most interesting and important kind of
forcing moves because they so powerfully
limit your opponent's choice of replies.
This notion of forcing moves helps clear up
some common confusions about chess. No
doubt you have heard about good players see-
ing ahead five moves, or a dozen moves, ormore; how do they do that when their oppo-
nents have so many possible responses to pick
from? The usual answer is that their oppo-
nents dont have so many choices after all.
Suppose I think like this: if I take your knight
with my bishop, you will have to recapture
my bishop; then if I check your king, you will
have to move it over one square; then if I
check your king on its new square, you will
have to block my check; then your rook will
be left loose and I will take it. In this case Ihave seen ahead four moves, but notice that I
didnt have to keep track of a lot of possible
variations. To each of my moves you only had
one plausible reply. I just had to realize this.
Of course sometimes your opponent will have
more than one plausible reply, and in that case
you will need to keep track of some variations
after all (if he does this, Ill do that; if he
does the other thing, then I go to plan B,
etc.). And its true that very strong players
can keep straight lots of variations. But its
also true that a lot of great tactical sequences
consist entirely of forced moves that make it
not so hard to see ahead.
Once you grasp the idea of forcing moves it
also is easier to understand how to come up
with nifty tactical ideas during your games.
Of course you might like to unleash a fork ordiscovery or skewer, but what if no such
moves are possible when its your turn? Doyou wait around for a fork to become avail-
able? No; your first job when you are decid-
ing what move to play is to examine your
possible forcing moves: any checks, captures,
or mating threats you can offer. You don't
look at these things just as ends in them-
selves; you ask what moves your opponent
would be forced to make in reply, and
whether you thenwould be able to play a fork
or discovery or skewer or some other tactic. If
the answer is no, you imagine playing anotherforcing move after the first one and then ask
the same questions.
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The point of experimenting with forcing
moves, in short, is that they change the look
of the board. They may open up lines that
currently are cluttered; they may cause your
opponent to leave pieces loose that now have
protection; they may make him line up pieces
that are not now on the same line; they maymake him put his king where it can be
checked. Your task is to imagine the board as
it would look after your forcing moves and
see if changes such as those would create tac-
tical openings for you. Gradually a pattern
you recognize may emergethe makings of a
fork or discovery or other idea.
With practice this becomes second nature: if
your rook is aimed at your opponents knight,
you automatically consider capturing theknight and allowing your rook to be taken.
This would be a sacrifice, of course, since
rooks are more valuable than knights, but
great tactical ideas routinely begin with sacri-
fices like that. The question is whether the
exchange of your rook for his knight would
leave you with a chance to play a fork or
other double threator with a chance to play
another forcing move that isnt yet possible.
Maybe after your rook is captured you then
can play a check that wasnt available before;
and maybe after your opponent responds to
the check you thenwill have a fork. But it all
starts by thinking about a simple capture you
can make and its consequences.
Likewise, you generally dont want to make
any moves without being aware of any checks
you give and their consequences. Checks arethe most forcing moves of all because your
opponent is required to reply by moving hisking, taking the piece that threatens it, or
moving a piece between them. This usually
makes it easy to see what a check will require
your opponent to do. And since a check often
forces your opponent to move his king, it may
lead directly to tactics that make the king a
targeta fork with the king at one end, or a
pin with a king at the rear, or for that matter
checkmate.
Looking at any checks and captures you haveto offer is like looking for loose pieces on the
board: these are things you do all the time
during a game, because most great tactical
ideas involve one of those elements or the
other.
1.3.4 Strategy vs. Tactics.
Often you will look at your forcing movesand decide they lead nowhere. Thats fine;
now you instead play a strategicmove rather
than a tactical onea move that improves the
quality of your position without trying di-
rectly to win your opponents pieces or mate
his king. But strategy and tactics are linked,
since one goal of strategic, positional play
is to increase the power of your pieces and
create fertile conditions for tactical strikes on
later moves. Sometimes this is a matter of
arranging your pieces so that they have morefreedom of movement and denying the same
freedoms to your opponent; sometimes it is a
matter of coordinating your pieces so that
they are aimed at the same sector of the
board; sometimes it is a matter of arranging
your pawns to help achieve those same pur-
poses for your pieces. At the end of our study
of each tactical family (and sometimes more
often), we will pause to consider its strategic
implications: what the tactical ideas teach
about the right sorts of moves to play when
there is no such tactic yet available.
All this talk of weaponry admittedly is ab-
stract. It will become concrete in the studies
that follow. We will look at over a thousand
tactical sequences. The rough structure of
most of these sequences, and of a large share
of all the great tactical moves ever played in
chess, is similar; it involves the elements just
described. First there are some forcingmoveschecks or captures or mating threats
that limit your opponents replies. Then there
is a denouement: a double threat, such as a
fork or discovered attack or one of the other
themes we will consider, that becomes possi-
ble after the forcing moves have changed the
board. As a result you are able to take a loose
or underprotected enemy piece. We can call
this a combination. The variations on this
pattern are limitless, and there is much to
know about its details: how to spot forcingmoves and figure out their consequences, and
how to spot the patterns suggesting that a fork
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or pin is in order. You can spend a lifetime
building your understanding of those things
and gaining skill at carrying them out under
time pressure. But as you get started it all may
be more manageable if you consider these
studies as variations on the single idea just
described.
The rest of this introductory section will be
discussing chess notation and jargon, then
some more technical aspects of the site. This
therefore is a good time for a reminder that if
you want to skip any or all of that stuff, per-
haps because you already are comfortable
reading about chess positions and want to cut
right to some lessons, you can go back to the
table of contents and navigate from there by
using the link near the upper right corner ofthis screen.
1.4 Notation; Jargon; the Look of the Site;
Hard Copies.
1.4.1.Notation and Jargon.
This site makes every effort to explain every-
thing in words, but when describing a series
of chess moves it often is convenient to use
abbreviations to describe them. Those abbre-
viations are known in chess as notation. This
site generally uses the algebraic notation
employed in most chess books, though with a
small difference explained below. Despite the
unpleasant label, it's very easy to understand.
Most of it can be figured out as you read, but
here is what you need to know about how itworks:
1. Squares are named by their coordinates
a4, e5, h8, etc.; these should be self explana-
tory, since every diagram includes numbers
running up the side of the board and letters
along the bottom. The numbered horizontal
rows are called ranks. The vertical columns
named by letters are calledfiles.
2. Pieces are named by their first letter. Q =queen; R = rook; etc. The only exception is
the knight, which is referred to as N to dis-
tinguish it from the King (K). Pawns are
named by their squares, so that d4-d5
means the pawn on d4 moves to d5. Some-
times in this book (and routinely in other
books) a pawn move is described without
bothering to name the square it came from:
one simply says "1. d5," and everyone under-stands this means that the pawn on the d-file
moves to d5.
3. Captures are described with an x between
the names of the pieces capturing and being
captured. So QxB means queen takes bishop;
Rxa5 means the rook captures the pawn on
a5; and h7xN means the pawn on h7 captures
the opposing knight.
This last point is the way that the notationhere varies from the usual algebraic notation
in other books. Algebraic notation normally
describes a capture by just referring to the
square where it occurs. Thus if Whites queen
takes Blacks rook on the f6 square, most
chess books would say Qxf6; but on this
site we will say QxR. The reason for the
difference is that this site is meant primarily
for people who havent read other chess
books before (as noted before, it's a chess
book for people who don't like chess books),
and for that audience the notation used here
will be more intuitive. It's easy to understand
that QxB means queen takes bishop: easy
to imagine, and easy to find on the board.
Qxf6, however, has to be translated into
queen takes bishop by looking at the board,
finding f6, and seeing what piece is there.
Thats easy when you know instinctivelywhere f6 is, but most readers of this project
probably will find it faster to locate the bishopthan to locate f6. The real benefits of naming
captures by the squares where they occur
come when describing long sequences, and
few of the sequences here will be all that
long. (The approach used here is similar to the
one used in Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess, a
well-executed book for beginners.)
This approach to describing captures should
be easy to follow for readers already used to
ordinary algebraic notation; anyone can un-derstand what QxB means even if they are
used to reading Qxf6. The gripe I anticipate
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from those who get worked up about these
things is that if readers become used to this
approach they will find it hard to read alge-
braic notation in other books: they will see,
say, Qxf6 elsewhere and have trouble re-
membering that the other author means to say
the queen captures whatever piece is on f6,not that the queen captures the f6 pawn (as it
will mean here). I regard this as a trivial com-
plaint; the reader of this site who does move
on to other books should have no trouble
making the transition if the above explanation
is kept in mind (or just figuring it out on the
fly; for this explanation makes the whole
business sound more confusing than it is in
practice). It's not that big a deal.
4. Turning back to the notation rules, castlingis indicated by writing 0-0 (if it's on the side
of the board where the king starts) or 0-0-0 (if
it's on the queenside: long castling, as it is
called).
5. Now a couple of minor points that don't
come up often; you probably don't need to
worry about them, but for the sake of com-
pleteness: if a capture is made en passant,
that's indicated by writing "ep" afterwards or
some variant. (I'm assuming you know what
an en passantcapture is, but if you don't, I'll
explain it if it ever gets used hereand in the
meantime you easily can find an explanation
of it elsewhere on the web.) Second, if one of
your pawns reaches the opponent's back rank,
it gets promoted to some other more powerful
piece of your choiceusually the queen,
though very occasionally some other choiceworks better. We indicate promotion with an
equal sign: f7-f8=Q means the pawn on f7moves to f8 and becomes a queen. Again, I'll
say more about this wherever it pops up.
Finally, if more than one piece could be indi-
cated by a description (in other words, if I
refer to "R" but there are two rooks on the
board and it's not obvious which one is
meant), sometimes the coordinate of the piece
will be given as well. So Rc8xN means the
rook on c8 (not some other rook) captures the
opponent's knight. Occasionally this approachalso will be used just for clarity's sake even if
there is no technical reason for confusion.
6. Sequences of moves are described in pairs,
with the White move first. Thus a game might
begin 1. e2-e4, e7-e5 [again, this could have
been written "1. e4, e5"]; 2. Nf3, Nc6; 3. Bb5,
a7-a6; 4. BxN, d7xB. This means that White
started by moving his e-pawn forward two
squares, and that Black then did the same;then on Whites second turn he moved his
knight to f3, and then Black moved his knight
to c6. White brought out his bishop. Black
chased it with his pawn on the a-file. White
replied by taking Black's knight. Black recap-
tured with pawn on c6. The position on the
left illustrates the result.
When we look at positions from the middle of
a game (as we generally will) we will de-
scribe Whites first move in that position withthe numeral 1 (as something like 1. Nf5,
for example). We call it 1 because its the
first move in the pictured position, even
though its not the first move in the game.
If we want to start by describing a move of
Blacks, we do it by saying something like:
Black can play 1. Nf5. The 1 followed
by the three dots indicates that were looking
at the first pair of moves in the position but
that were starting with the second halfof the
pair: in other words, with Blacks move.
7. A plus sign after a move (like this: Rh8+)
means that the move checks the enemy king.
A "#" sign after a move (like this: Rh8#)
means that the move is checkmate (or simply
mate, as we more commonly say).
8. It often happens that a player can sacrifice
a knight or bishop to win an enemy rook.Since rooks are more valuable than knights or
bishops, a player who does this is said to have
won the exchange. If we reach a stage of
the game where I have, say, a bishop and a
rook and you have a bishop and a knight, I am
said to be ahead the exchange.
9. A piece is said to be loose if it has no
defenders. It is hanging if it is exposed to
capture; you hang your queen if you leave it
where your opponent can take it for free. Thisalso is known as leaving a piece en prise.
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1.4.2. The Value of the Pieces.
This site assumes that you know how to play
chessin other words, how the pieces move.
If you know that much, you probably also
know which pieces are worth more than
which. But to be on the safe side, it is conven-tional to rank the pieces in the following order
of value, with points given to them as indi-
cated to make it easier to work out whether a
set of exchanges is favorable or unfavorable:
Queen = 9
Rook = 5
Bishop = 3
Knight = 3
Pawn = 1
1.4.3. Making the Site Easier to Read.
First of all, the site is best viewed at a resolu-
tion of at least 1024 x 768. Anything smaller
will force you to use a slider bar to read the
pages: no fun at all. My apologies to those
who don't have such an option, but the major-
ity of all monitors nowadays can achieve this,
and it makes for the best reading environ-
ment.
If the size of the type on this site, or the
spaces between the lines, arent to your liking,
you should be able to adjust them in the usual
way (hit CTRL and then use the scroll buttonon your mouse; or use the View menu on
your browser). If you are having trouble get-
ting satisfactory results this way, you may
find it useful to disable the sites automatic
formatting. On Microsofts Internet Explorer
you do this by going to Tools Internet Op-
tions Accessibility and then checking the
boxes to ignore the font styles or sizes (or
both) specified on web pages. Then set your
own font (still on the Internet Options page)
and play again with the browsers type sizesettings (under the View menu).
If you use Mozillas Firefox browser, you
likewise can fiddle with Tools Options
Fonts & Colors. Check "Always use my
fonts"; then set your preferred font elsewhere
in that same window. The Microsoft browser
produces slightly better results for some peo-
ple (sorry!), but it may depend on what sort ofmonitor you use.
If none of this helps, please let me know. I'm
still working on making the type easy to read
on every computer screen.
1.4.4. About the Dinosaurs.
This site is titled Predator at the Chessboard,and is decorated with dinosaurs; yet the dino-
saurs pictured are herbivores. Is this not a
contradiction of some sort? In fact it isn't; and
this, patient reader, for two reasons.
First, if you unexpectedly were to encounter a
Stegosaurus or a Triceratopssuch as, per-
haps, the handsome one shown to the left
you yourself would regard it as a decidedly
formidable predator, would you not? But sec-
ond and more to the point, the complaint
about the dining habits of the pictured dino-
saurs reflects, I say, a failure of perspective
and imagination; for you too hastily are as-
suming that they are the predators. Has it oc-
curred to you that they are the prey, and that
you are the Tyrannosaurus (or, perhaps, the
Allosaurus) intending to dine on them? That
is the sort of thinking this site means to en-
courage. After reading it for a while, situa-
tions that formerly caused you to react withdread and an instinct for defense and retreatwill instead inspire you to think by habit
aye, and with relishabout making a meal of
your opponent.
Either that, or plants make underrated prey;
but Herbivore at the Chessboarddidn't have
the same ring to it.
Onward.
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1.4.5. Hard Copies.
Many readers of the site have written to ask if
the material it contains is available in hard
copy. Now it is; there are links at top of the
front page. These are oversized paperbacks,
and they contain every position and discus-sion that appears in the online version: over
700 pages in total, with over 1,000 illustra-
tions and commentaries. I hope they will be a
convenience to those who prefer reading
books to reading screens. Hardcover versions
are available, too; you can find them by
searching at www.lulu.com, which is where
the links on the front page will take you any-
way. At the lower left of the publisher's site,
you can ask to have the prices displayed in
pounds or euros if you prefer.
1.5 Acknowledgments and Bibliography.
I now wish to thank two gentlemen, each of
whom has lent a bit of his genius to this pro-
ject.
The first is Alon Cohen, the builder of this
site, pictured to the left. He is a man of sur-
passing energy, generosity, and creativity, and
I hope you will share my judgment that he has
done a beautiful as well as a functional job.
We collaborated on the design; anything you
dont like about it safely can be blamed on
me, while the good parts almost certainly
were his idea.
Alon Cohen
Secondin alphabetical order onlyis Tim
Feinstein, a wonderful chessplayer and terrific
lawyer who read the manuscript. He caught
many mistakes and made a lot of great sug-
gestions. (Many errors no doubt remain here
and there. He isnt responsible for them.) Tim
is a generous teacher from whom I havelearned much about the game, and I thank him
profusely. In everyday life he is far kinder
than he appears in this picture, which captures
him in a moment of characteristic brutality
toward an opponent. You wouldn't want to
cross him at the chessboard.
Tim Feinstein
Bibliography.
One of the goals of this project is to take
every problem that commonly arises in tacti-
cal play and illustrate its handling with a half
dozen or so progressive illustrations. To find
the positions needed for the purposeroughly
1,200 in allI drew on just about every
source I could find. I list them below, andthank their authors (and beg the pardon of any
I may have neglected to mention). I have
learned from all of them. There are a few
notes at the end about some particular titles.
Alburt, Chess Training Pocket Book(1997)
Ault, The Chess Tutor(1975)
Bain, Chess Tactics for Students(1993)
Blokh, The Art of Combination(1994)
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Blokh, Combinational Motifs(1998)
Blokh, 600 Combinations(2001)
Burgess, The Mammoth Book of Chess(1997)
Chandler,How to Beat Your Dad at Chess(1998)
Chernev, Combinations: The Heart of Chess
(1960)
Chernev,Logical Chess: Move by Move
(1957)
Chernev and Reinfeld, Winning Chess(1948)
Emms, The Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book(2000)
Fischer et al.,Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess
(1966)
Furst, Theme Artistry(1987)
Gillam, Winning At Chess(1994)
Gillam,Your Move
(1994)
Harding,Better Chess for Average Players
(1996)
Hays, Combination Challenge(1991)
Hays, Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors
(1994)
Horowitz,How to Win in the Chess Openings
(1951)
Horowitz and Reinfeld, First Book of Chess
(1952)
Ivaschenko, The Manual of Chess Combina-
tions(1997)
Koltanowski and Finkelstein, Checkmate!
(1998)
Koltanowski and Finkelstein, CheckmateStrategies(1999)
Lein and Archangelsky, Sharpen Your Tac-
tics!(1996)
Littlewood, Chess Tactics(1984)
Livshitz, Test Your Chess IQ(1981)
Neishtadt, Test Your Tactical Ability(1981)
Neishtadt, Your Move!(1990)
Palatnik and Alburt, Chess Tactics for the
Tournament Player(1995)
Polgar, Chess(1994)
Pongo, Tactical Targets in Chess(2000)
Purdy, The Search for Chess Perfection
(1997)
Reinfeld, 1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate
(1955)
Reinfeld, 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and
Combinations(1955)
Renaud and Kahn,The Art of the Checkmate
(1953)
Robertie, Winning Chess Tactics(1996)
Seirawan and Silman, Winning Chess Tactics
(1995)
Tal, Tal-Botvinnik 1960(1970)
Vukovic,Art of Attack in Chess(1998 ed.)
Walker, Chess Combinations(1999)
Weeramantry,Best Lessons of a Chess Coach
(1993)
Wilson and Albertson, 303 Tricky Chess Tac-
tics(1999)
Znosko-Borovsky, The Art of Chess Combi-
nation(1959)
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Some positions also have appeared in Shelby
Lymans chess column in theBoston Globeor
in Rigas Chess magazine.
A few notes on these:
1. The books by Reinfeld and Hays probablyare the best collections of positions to solve if
you are looking for practice (a number of po-
sitions from those books are discussed here);
Livshitz and Gillam also are excellent for that
purpose, as is the book by Lein and Ar-
changelsky.
2. Among books that offer instruction in
words, I suggest Chernev and Reinfeld's Win-
ning Chess, Ault's The Chess Tutor, and Sei-
rawan and Silman's Winning Chess Tactics.(The first two may be hard to find, but are
worth the trouble.) Many of the others are
excellent, too, and I don't mean to slight any
of them by mentioning these three. Of course
those books fill a somewhat similar niche to
this site; for those who are reading this, they
are my competition. But I encourage you to
check them out and make comparisons. Dif-
ferent people learn better from different writ-
ers.
3. The titles by Renaud and Kahn and by
Chandler are terrific sources on mating pat-
terns; so are the Koltanowski and Finkelstein
books, which are overlooked. Again, many
positions in the "mating patterns" section of
this site are drawn from those sources.
4. For the reader looking to move on to the
study of strategy, I especially recommend
Chernev's Logical Chess and Nunn's Under-standing Chess, both of which walk youthrough chess games and explain the strategic
(as well as tactical) thinking behind the
moves. My other favorite titles on strategy are
Jeremy Silman's The Amateur's Mind,How to
Reassess Your Chess, and (perhaps most use-
ful of all) The Reassess Your Chess Work-
book, which is full of excellent examples and
discussion. Seirawan and Silman's Winning
Chess Strategiesis another fine overview you
may find helpful. Everyone's Second ChessBook by Dan Heisman also has a wealth of
tips on strategy as well as other topics; Heis-
man offers a number of good online resources
as well.
5. And for the reader simply looking for good,
lively writing about chess, I suggest checking
out any of the writings of C.J.S. Purdy, start-
ing with the one referenced above. He ismagnificent.
1.6 Chess in Literature.
Some Interesting Allusions to Chess.
Fielding,Joseph Andrews(1742):
But human life, as hath been discovered by
some great man or other (for I would by nomeans be understood to affect the honour of
making any such discovery), very much re-
sembles a game at chess; for as in the latter,
while a gamester is too attentive to secure
himself very strongly on one side the board,
he is apt to leave an unguarded opening on the
other; so doth it often happen in life, and so
did it happen on this occasion; for whilst the
cautious constable with such wonderful sa-
gacity had possessed himself of the door, he
most unhappily forgot the window.
Fielding, Life of Jonathan Wild the Great
(1743):
How impossible for human prudence to fore-
see and guard against every circumvention! It
is even as a game of chess, where, while the
rook, or knight, or bishop, is busied forecast-
ing some great enterprize, a worthless pawn
exposes and disconcerts his scheme.
Boswell,Life of Johnson(1791):
There is one circumstance in Sir John's char-
acter of Bishop Still, which is peculiarly ap-
plicable to Johnson: He became so famous a
disputer, that the learnedest were even afraid
to dispute with him; and he finding his own
strength, could not stick to warn them in their
arguments to take heed to their answers, like a
perfect fencer that will tell aforehand in whichbutton he will give the venew, or like a cun-
ning chess-player that will appoint aforehand
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with which pawn and in what place he will
give the mate.
Dickens,Bleak House(1853):
He is clear that every such person wants to
depose him. If he be ever asked how, why,when, or wherefore, he shuts up one eye and
shakes his head. On the strength of these pro-
found views, he in the most ingenious manner
takes infinite pains to counterplot when there
is no plot, and plays the deepest games of
chess without any adversary.
James, The Figure in the Carpet (1896):
The figures on the chessboard were still the
passions and jealousies and superstitions andstupidities of man, and their position with
regard to each other, at any given moment,
could be of interest only to the grim, invisible
fates who played the game who sat, through
the ages, bow-backed over the table.
Churchill, The Peoples Rights(1909):
Moves are made upon the scientific and stra-
tegic boards, advantages are gained by me-
chanical means, as a result of which scores of
millions of men become incapable of further
resistance, or judge themselves incapable of
further resistance, and a fearful game of chess
proceeds from check to mate by which the
unhappy players seem to be inexorably
bound.
Roosevelt, The Conditions of Success(1910):
There are exceptional cases, of course, wherethere is a man who can do just one thing, such
as a man who can play a dozen games of
chess or juggle with four rows of figures at
onceand as a rule he can do nothing else.
Chesterton, The Maniac(1908):
Poets are commonly spoken of as psychologi-
cally unreliable; and generally there is a
vague association between wreathing laurels
in your hair and sticking straws in it. Factsand history utterly contradict this view. Most
of the very great poets have been not only
sane, but extremely business-like; and if
Shakespeare ever really held horses, it was
because he was much the safest man to hold
them. Imagination does not breed insanity.
Exactly what does breed insanity is reason.
Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do.
Stoker,Dracula(1897):
So be it that he has gone elsewhere. Good! It
has given us opportunity to cry 'check' in
some ways in this chess game, which we play
for the stake of human souls.
Orwell,Homage to Catalonia(1938):
What purpose is served by saying that men
like Maxton are in Fascist pay? Only the pur-pose of making serious discussion impossible.
It is as though in the middle of a chess tour-
nament one competitor should suddenly begin
screaming that the other is guilty of arson or
bigamy. The point that is really at issue re-
mains untouched.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Autocrat of
the Breakfast Table(1858):
The whole force of conversation depends on
how much you can take for granted. Vulgar
chess-players have to play their game out;
nothing short of the brutality of an actual
checkmate satisfies their dull apprehensions.
But look at two masters of that noble game!
White stands well enough, so far as you can
see; but Red says, Mate in six moves;White
looks,nods;the game is over. Just so in
talking with first-rate men; especially when
they are good-natured and expansive, as theyare apt to be at table.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Poet at the
Breakfast Table (1872):
Men's minds are like the pieces on a chess-
board in their way of moving. One mind
creeps from the square it is on to the next,
straight forward, like the pawns. Another
sticks close to its own line of thought and
follows it as far as it goes, with no heed forothers' opinions, as the bishop sweeps the
board in the line of his own color. And an-
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other class of minds break through everything
that lies before them, ride over argument and
opposition, and go to the end of the board,
like the castle. But there is still another sort of
intellect which is very apt to jump over the
thought that stands next and come down in
the unexpected way of the knight. But thatsame knight, as the chess manuals will show
you, will contrive to get on to every square of
the board in a pretty series of moves that
looks like a pattern of embroidery, and so
these zigzagging minds like the Master's, and
I suppose my own is something like it, will
sooner or later get back to the square next the
one they started from.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.,Ralph Waldo
Emerson (1891):
Inherited qualities move along their several
paths not unlike the pieces in the game of
chess. Sometimes the character of the son can
be traced directly to that of the father or of the
mother, as the pawn's move carries him from
one square to the next. Sometimes a series of
distinguished fathers follows in a line, or a
succession of superior mothers, as the black
or white bishop sweeps the board on his own
color. Sometimes the distinguishing charac-
ters pass from one sex to the other indiffer-
ently, as the castle strides over the black and
white squares. Sometimes an uncle or aunt
lives over again in a nephew or niece, as if the
knight's move were repeated on the squares of
human individuality. It is not impossible,
then, that some of the qualities we mark in
Emerson may have come from the remoteancestor whose name figures with distinction
in the early history of New England.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Over the Tea-
cups (1890):
Life is a very different sort of game. It is a
game of chess, and not of solitaire, nor even
of checkers. The men are not all pawns, but
you have your knights, bishops, rooks,yes,
your king and queen,to be provided for.
Not with these names, of course, but all look-
ing for their proper places, and having theirown laws and modes of action. You can play
solitaire with the members of your own fam-
ily for pegs, if you like, and if none of them
rebel. You can play checkers with a little
community of meek, like-minded people. But
when it comes to the handling of a great state,
you will find that nature has emptied a box of
chessmen before you, and you must play withthem so as to give each its proper move, or
sweep them off the board, and come back to
the homely game such as I used to see played
with beans and kernels of corn on squares
marked upon the back of the kitchen bellows.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Guardian
Angel (1867):
We often move to the objects of supreme cu-
riosity or desire, not in the lines of castle orbishop on the chess-board, but with the
knight's zigzag, at first in the wrong direction,
making believe to ourselves we are not after
the thing coveted.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Guardian
Angel(1867):
With most men life is like backgammon, half
skill, and half luck, but with him it was like
chess. He never pushed a pawn without reck-
oning the cost, and when his mind was least
busy it was sure to be half a dozen moves
ahead of the game as it was standing.
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Chap
The Doubl
er 2:
Atta
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2.1.The Knight Fork.
2.1.1Introduction.
Dg001:Black to move
Dg001: We begin our study of tactics withdouble attacks, or forks: moves that attack
two enemy targets at once.
And we begin our study of double attacks
with knight forks. In the skeletal diagram to
the left, Whites knight has forked Blacks
king and rook; in other words, it attacks them
at the same time.
Why start with the knight? Because it is an
especially vicious and common forking tool.
First, it can threaten a wide range of targets.
The knight is roughly comparable in value to
a bishop, and so is less valuable than a rook or
queen; thus a knight not only can attack any
unprotected (or loose) enemy pieces but
also can be exchanged favorably for enemy
queens and rooks regardless of whether they
have protection. Second, the knights unique,
non-straight pattern of movement creates two
advantages: it allows a knight to attack otherpieces without fear of being captured by
them; and it enables a knight to make jumps
and deliver threats that are surprising to the
eye and so are easy to overlook.
To spot possible knight forks you will want to
become habitually aware of the relationships
between your knights and your opponents
pieces (and between his knights and your
pieces), especially as the knight progresses up
the board. Every rank a knight moves forwardtends to bring it closer to forking targets, es-
pecially the king; notice that once your knight
reaches its fourth rank, it can attack your op-
ponents back rank, and often his king, in one
move (thus in the diagram to the left, Whites
knight might have been on e4 a move ear-
lierseemingly pretty far from Black's king).
Hence the strategic importance of planting
knights on central and advanced squares, andthe tactical importance of constantly looking
for forks your knight might be able to deliver
once it is properly developed.
The difficulty in fashioning a fork, of course,
is that no matter where your knight sits you
rarely will find a fork lying one move away
against a decent player. Leaving two pieces to
be forked by a knight on the next move is a
blunder almost as bad as leaving a piece
hanging outright. Forks have to be manufac-tured; the challenge is to see when one lies a
few steps away. Fortunately knight forks a
few steps away come in a finite number of
types that you can learn to search for system-
atically and, with practice, recognize quickly.
Such situations can be sorted into two general
types.
Dg002: White to move
Dg002: First, sometimes two of your oppo-
nents pieces sit on squares that can be forked
with one move of your knight, but there is
some obstacle to your taking advantage of
this; most commonly, the square your knight
needs to reachcall it the forking square
is defended by your opponent (the diagram to
the left shows such a case, again in skeletal
form; White would like to play the fork Nf6+,
but he can't; the f6 square is defended by a
pawn). We will refer to these as cases whereyou have a potential forka move that
amounts to a fork on its face, but that needs to
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be perfected by overcoming some defensive
measure that your opponent has in place. In a
moment we will catalogue those defensive
measures and how to deal with them.
Dg003: White to move
Dg003: Second, sometimes you will not have
even a potential fork because your opponents
pieces are not arranged for it; there are no two
enemy pieces that your knight can attack inone move. Thus in the diagram to the left,
White cannot deliver a fork, but he could if he
were able to get Blacks king to move over a
square onto g8. In cases like this it sometimes
is possible to draw enemy pieces onto fork-
able squares with some forcing movesmost
often with a check or two. Later we will con-sider the clues that such possibilities for ma-
nipulation may exist and how they can be
brought to fruition.
2.1.2. Seeing Potential Forks.
Dg004: White to move
Dg004: Let's begin with ways of perfecting
potential forksin other words, cases where
your opponent starts with two pieces that at
least are on forkable squares. The first impor-
tant thing is to see all such forks in the first
place. It helps to start by learning to spot all
of a knights possible moves at a glance. For
this purpose you will want a clear mental pic-
ture of the ring of eight squares that are the
maximum to which a well-placed knight canmove. In the diagram on the left, the White
circles show squares where the White knight
can jump, and the Black circles show squares
where the horribly positioned Black knight
can jump. Now you can understand why hav-
ing your knight near the edge of the board
generally is bad policy: it cant reachand
thus cant controlmany squares from there.
Study these visual patterns so that seeing a
knights moves from any position comes eas-
ily to you.
Dg005:Black to move
Dg005: Now to the matter of spotting knight
forksin particular. You may be used to certain
forking patterns: your opponents king and
rook are a square apart on his back rank, in-
viting you to fork them. But it takes more care
never to overlook a potential fork when the
board is crowded and the pieces to be forked
are not lined up so neatly on the same row.
Consider the opportunities here for Blacks
knight on b7. By moving to c5 it can fork four
White pieces (find them); by moving to d6 it
can fork two pieces. Whether either of these
forks "work" is another question (the squares
the knights need are guarded, though Black
has possible replies, etc.), but don't worry
about that now. It's just an exercise in geome-
try: we want to see everyplace where two
White pieces are in a forkable position. See-ing only the obvious forking candidates is no
good, and wont lead to tactical magic. If they
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are obvious your opponent can see them, too,
and can avoid them. You want to see all of
the possibilities every time they exist.
Notice an important feature of the knight's
movements: every time a knight moves it
lands on a different colored square. This canbe used to make your searching more effi-
cient. It means that two pieces can be forked
by a knight only if they are on squares of the
same color; it means that they only can be
forked by a knight that lands on a square of
the oppositecolor; and it therefore means that
if a knight is in position to deliver a fork on
its next move, the knight and its targets must
all then be sitting on squares of the same
color. This is a valuable idea; consider it a
law of knight forks.
To state the practical implication plainly, one
way to build your ability to see all the poten-
tial knight forks on the board is to look for
any two pieces of your opponents that are on
squares of the same color as the square where
your knight sits. If, as in this case, your knight
is on a light square, scan the board for pieces
of your opponents also on light squares. Can
any two of them be forked by your knight?
This only takes a moment; you arent yet ana-
lyzing whether any of the forks would work,
but just are reviewing the board visually for
simple patternsa color scan. Sometimes this
will be a helpful way to alert yourself to fork-
ing opportunities; in other positions it will be
more efficient just to look directly at your
knight moves without reference to square
color. Experiment.
Dg006: White to move
Dg006: As you do your scanning you will
discover certain additional laws of knight
moves that will become part of your visual
vocabulary. An important example is that two
pieces can't be forked if they are on the same
diagonal with one square between them. Thus
the Black king and queen in the diagram tothe left are on squares of the same color, but
there is nosquare from which a knight would
be able to attack them both. This is a familiar
pattern, and when you see it you will not need
to pause to think about whether a knight fork
is in the immediate offing; the sight of it will
be self-explanatory, and you will move on.
Similarly, if your knight is on the same di-
agonal as an enemy piece and separated from
it by one square, the knight is three movesaway from being able to attack the piece.
Thus in the diagram the White knight is three
moves from being able to attack the Black
king; it must move, say, to e4, then to g5, then
to e6.
Another useful thing to know is that a knight
may be able to attack an enemy target two
different waysbut never more than two. In
the diagram, for example, White's knight can
attack the Black rook by moving to e4 or d5
(and only the latter move creates a fork). This
is useful to remember because the first attack-
ing idea you see with your knight may turn
out not to be the best oneeven against the
same enemy piece.
Practice broad-mindedness when you scan for
forking prospects. It is especially important
not to dismiss a possible fork automatically,
perhaps half-consciously, when you noticethat the square your knight needs is protected
by a pawn, or when you see that the fork
would involve your opponents king on the
one hand but a knight or protected pawn on
the other. In the latter case you might quickly
imagine that if you tried the fork the enemy
would move his king and the pawn would not
be worth taking, and so write off the forking
prospect without taking it seriously. But that
train of thought is premature; great combina-
tions often look just that way at first. Youwant to separate the creativeprocess of seeing
that the geometry is there for a fork from the
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editingprocess of analyzing whether the fork
can be made profitable. Much of the rest of
this chapter is devoted to the editing process:
how to take potential forks that look defective
and turn them into tactical shots that work.
But all along you also want to build the visual
habit of noticing every time your knight canattack two sensitive points at once, no matter
how implausible the attack looks at first.
2.1.3. The Pinned Guard.
When you see a possible knight fork, a natural
first question is whether the square your
knight needs is protected by any of your op-
ponents pieces. If it is, your attention turns tothe guard of the square and whether you can
get rid of itor whether you really need to
get rid of it. Perhaps you don't; maybe the
protection that the piece appears to offer is an
illusion, as is the case if the guard is pinned.
A piece is pinned if it can't move without ex-
posing the king or another valuable piece to
attack. Indeed, a piece that screens its own
king from attack is subject to an absolute
pin and so cannot legally move. We will study
pins in detail in later chapters, but this much
is enough to help you see that sometimes a
square that looks well-defended really isn't.
Dg007:Black to move
Dg007: So here is our method in this section:
consider the piece that protects the square you
want to occupywe can call it the guard of
the forking squareand see what other pieces
may be on the same line with it and thus ex-posed to attack if it moves. Start with the dia-
gram. There is a knight fork waiting for Black
with Nf2; the placement of White's king and
queen with three squares between them on the
first rank is a classic setup for a double attack.
If that isn't yet obvious to you, notice that
your knight is on a light square and that
White's king and queen (not to mention sev-
eral other pieces) are on light squares as well,which encourages a look at whether you can
fork any of them. Having found Nf2 one way
or another, ask: is f2 protected? It seems to
be, by the White rook at f3; so study the rook
more carefully. It's on the same line with its
king, and with your queen. This means that if
the rook moves it will expose its king to at-
tackwhich is to say that the rook can't le-
gally move at all. So Nf2+ can be played with
impunity, and it wins the queen after White
moves his king.
Dg008: White to move
Dg008: Our modus operandi is to look for
double attacks with the knight and ask
whether they can be made to work. This time
you're playing the White pieces. Notice first
here that your knight is on a dark square; now
look for Black pieces also on dark squares.
You find the Black rook and king, and ask
whether they can be forked. They can, with
Nd5+. Now ask: Is d5 protected? Yes, by the
pawn at c6. But before worrying further you
examine the pawn to see if it is constrained. It
is; its pinned to the king by the White rook at
a6. So Nd5+ is safe, and it forks and wins the
Black rook. This position is structurally about
the same as the previous one.
Dg009: Whites most advanced knight (gen-
erally the one you want to examine first) is ona light square. Again you might just look for
knight moves, or you might look for forking
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candidates by scanning for Black pieces also
on light squares, and find manyboth of his
knights, one of his bishops, one of his rooks,
and his king.
Dg009: White to move
Nd6+ forks Blacks king and b7 bishop; the
bishop is unprotectedis loosemaking it
a good target. The next question is whether
the square you need (d6) is protected. It is, by
Blacks bishop at e7. But then consider how
the board would look if the bishop moved to
d6 to take the knight. See that Blacks queen
would then be taken by Whites bishop at g5;
in other words, Blacks bishop is pinned to his
queen. Nd6+ thus wins Blacks b7 bishop
without fanfare.
There is another point to consider here. You
want to think not just about what your tactical
moves will achieve in the way of material
gains, but also about how the board will look
after the sequence you want to play. This
point applies to all tactical operations; we will
encounter it constantly. The important point
here involves the work that your e4 knight is
doing before it is sent off to inflict a fork. It's
guarding the bishop on g5. To be more pre-
cise, at the start of the pictured position the
bishop is protected twice (by Whites two
knights) and attacked twice (by Blacks
bishop and the queen behind it). The bishop
therefore was safe: if Black captured it, White
would recapture; if Black captured again,
White would recapture again. But when
White sends his knight off from e4 to d6, the
bishop loses one of its guards. While this
doesnt matter so long as White is keepingBlack busy with checks, notice the hazard that
arises once White plays NxB at the end of the
sequence. His bishop back on g5 now is at-
tacked twice and defended only once. Does he
lose it? Nobut only because once his knight
ends up on b7, it attacks Blacks queen. Now
if Black plays BxB, White has NxQ. Black
therefore needs to spend his next move taking
his queen out of danger, and Whites forkworks after all. The general lesson: be mind-
ful of the defensive work your pieces are do-
ing before you send them off to attack.
Dg010:Black to move
Dg010: Blacks knight is on a dark square. So
are several of Whites pieces, most usefully
his king and e1 rook, which can be forked
from f3. But notice as well that f3 appears to
be protected by the rook on e3. So examinethe rook and its freedom of movement, play-
ing through its move and what would thenbe
possible in your minds eye. If 1Nxf3+; 2.
RxNand then Black can play RxRe1.
Whites queen wouldn't then be able to recap-
ture at e1 because Black would have a second
rook still trained on the square. The point:
White's rook on e3 is pinnednot to its king,
but to the other rook at e1. One way or an-
other Black gains a pawn and the exchange.
(Capturing a rook in return for a bishop or
knight is known generally as winning the
exchange.)
Dg011: Here is an important twist. Blacks
most advanced knight is on a dark square. So
are Whites queen, king, and rook, with the
latter two pieces subject to a fork at c2. But c2
appears to be protected by Whites queen.
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Dg011:Black to move
The queen is not constrained by a pinyet.
But examine the fork by actually playing it in
your minds eye, imagining the knight on c2
and not on b4. When you so imagine a move
or exchange, pay attention to what lines areopened and closed by it and what conse-
quences may followespecially new pins and
new possible checks.
In this case, once the knight moves the White
queen is pinned by Blacks queen. So play
goes 1. Nc2+; 2. Kf1, QxQ (without this
intermediate step, all is lost; do you see
why?); 3. NxQ, NxR. This time the lesson is
that you do not just ask whether the trouble-
some piece currently is pinned; you ask, too,whether it would be pinned if you made the
forking move.
Dg012: White to move
Dg012: A similar problem. Whites knight is
on a dark square. So are Blacks king and
queen. A fork is indicated at e6. The square
appears to be protected by the pawn at d7, so
look more closely; imagine the knight moved,and observe that the pawn thenwill be pinned
by Whites queen. Ne6+ thus wins the queen
without further ado.
Dg013: With Whites knight and Blacks king
and queen all on light squares, conditions
seem right for a fork on f6. Is the square pro-
tected? Yes, by the Black bishop on e7. IfWhite tries to first capture it with his own
bishop, then Black recaptures with his queen
and the fork is ruined.
Dg013: White to move
But again the trick is to imagine the fork,
mentally placing the knight on f6 and not on
e4. Then you can see that once the knight
moves, the Black bishop becomes pinned to
Blacks queen by Whites queenanotherdiscovered pin. The point repeats: dont just
ask whether moves are possible; picture
moves, visualize whatever countermoves
seem to make them impossible, and ask what
would then be possible if the countermoves
were made.
2.1.4.Exchanging Away the Guard.
Now lets assume an enemy piece guards the
square your knight needs, and it isn't pinned.
Perhaps you nevertheless can get rid of it.
Sometimes the guardian of the forking square
may be captured: you can take it, and the
piece that recaptures yours no longer will pro-
tect against the fork.
Dg014: The position of Blacks king and rook
make the idea for White clear enough: Nf7+.But f7 is protected by Blacks knight. Ask if it
can be captured, and see that it can bewith
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Whites rook. After playing RxN, White loses
the rook to f6xR; but he regains it with the
fork Nf7+, capturing Blacks rook next move
and leaving White a knight to the good.
Dg014: White to move
Remember when you play a capture that your
opponent may not be required to recapture.
Usually that will be his choice, but in princi-
ple he also may be able to make some other
capture or counterthreat of his own. Here
Black can reply to Whites RxN by playing
RxN himself. Doesn't this end the forking
threat? It does, but at a prohibitive price; for
then White has Re8#a classic back rankmate that takes advantage of the way Black's
king is stuck in the corner. At the outset of the
position the Black rook on d8 is the only
piece protecting against this mating threat, so
it can't afford to leave its post. We will study
back rank mates in detail at various points
later in this project (they get a section to
themselves toward the end).
Dg015: White to move
Dg015: Again one of Whites knights is pretty
far advanced up the board on f5; any knight
planted on the fourth or fifth rank is a con-
stant forking threat. So White does a quick
scan for forks and observes that the knight is
on a light square along with Blacks king and
queen
which can be forked with Ne7+. Theneeded square is protected by one piece: the
bishop on d6, but White can take out the
bishop with his rook now on d1. So White
picks up a piece, and if Black recaptures
White can follow up with the fork: 1. RxB,
c7xR; 2. Ne7+.
Dg016: White to move
Dg016: The thought process is identical:
White examines his knights moves, or per-haps does a color scan and notices that his
knight and Blacks king and queen all are on
dark squares; one way or another there is a
potential fork in Nd7+. The hindrance is that
the bishop at c8 protects the needed square.
Can White capture the bishop? Yes, with his
queena sacrifice worth making for the fork
that follows. So White picks up a piece, and if
Black recaptures White can follow up with
the fork: 1. RxB, c7xR; 2. Ne7+.
Dg017: White to move
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Dg017: Your most advanced knight is on a
light square, as are Blacks king and queen;
there is a potential fork at e7. Ask if the
square is safe, and see that it is guarded by the
bishop at d6. Now look for pieces you can use
to attack the bishop and notice the queen at
d1
but also the knight at c4. It is importantto notice both. The question is not do you
have a piece attacking X? Its how many of
your piecespluralattack X? You don't
want to sacrifice your queen when a knight
will do, especially as it would make the se-
quence a wash, Correct is 1. NxB; c7xN; 2.
Ne7+.
Dg018: White to move
Dg018: The pattern repeats. White can forkthree Black pieces with Ne6+. The only diffi-
culty is the pawn at f7 that guards the needed
square. There are various things one can do
about such problems. The most obvious is
simply to capture the pawn if you can, so here
it goes 1. Rxf7, RxR, and now the pawn has
been replaced by a piece that can't protect the
e6 square. True, White sacrificed a rook to the
cause; but now Ne6+ wins the queen. And
then after Black recaptures RxN, White picks
up a pawn that has been left loose by the se-
quence: Qxg6. White ends up trading a knight
and a rook for a queen and two pawns.
You might imagine that the g6 pawn could be
protected by Black's king, which (on this the-
ory) would have escaped the knight fork by
moving to f6. But if Black does move his king
there, White mates in three moves. It starts
with Nc3-d5+. Black has no good replies; if
he plays BxNd5, for example, White hasRf1+. This forces Black to play KxNe6. Now
White replies e4xBd5#.
When you capture the f7 pawn at the begin-
ning, you should not assume that your oppo-
nent necessarily has to recapture the way you
would like. He might prefer to let the pawn go
rather than play into your hands; it depends
on the quality of his alternatives. Here Black
has the option of replying to Rxf7+ with Kg8,which loses the pawn but also takes the king
out of forking range. What happens next?
Imagine the board with Whites rook on f7
and Blacks king on g8, and you should see
that White then has an easy capture of a piece
with RxN: the rook has protection from the
knight on g5, and so cannot be recaptured by
Blacks king.
Dg019: White to move
Dg019: The usual color scan reveals a poten-
tial knight fork to be had at d6, but the square
is protected.How many times?Twiceby the
bishop at f8 and the knight at f7; be sure to
account for all the guards, not just the first
you notice. Fortunately White has bishops
attacking each of the two bothersome pieces,
but there still is a complication: when Whites
bishops take Blacks bishop and knight, Black
will use his king to recapture, and the king issupposed to be one of the pieces in the fork.
Will its recaptures ruin the forking opportu-
nity? Not necessarily;