Tactics in chess means any move or sequence of chess pieces that can threaten your opponent. There are several tricks and tactics in chess to launch an attack on your opponent and also help you to encounter your opponent’s traps.
Let’s have a detailed view of famous Chess Tactics and if you become an expert in these chess techniques, you can ultimately become a chess expert. Although there are almost 56 chess techniques, we’ll discuss only a few of them.
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Attraction in Chess Tactics
This type of Chess tactic happens when you try to force your opponent’s piece toward the square where it will be more vulnerable to attacks.
For example, the diagram below shows 1.Rxf6 attracts the black king to the f6-square. The main point is that after 1… Kxf6, white will play 2.Bc3+, a skewer that wins the black rook on h8.
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Battery in Chess Tactics
In Chess Tactics, if two or more pieces line up in the same file, rank, or diagonal, this is known as battery. Only the Bishop, Queen, and rooks can form a battery. Bishops can become part of the battery on a diagonal while rooks can make the battery on file or rank. Queen can also become a part of the battery on file, rank, or diagonal.
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Decoy in Chess Tactics
Decoy means the trick in which you try to force your enemy piece away from the place where it is more needed. A piece can’t be on two places, so the Chess Tactics of decoy can help you to achieve your goal and win the game.
In the below diagram of the chess board, White plays 1.d6 and now the black king is helpless. If black plays 1… Kc6, then white will play 2.a6, again luring the king away from the other pawn.
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Deflection in Chess Tactics
Deflection means the removal of the defender. When you deflect a defending piece by capturing the other piece, it is also considered as defendant. After material exchange, you will get more advantage of the weakened square.
In the below picture, White plays 1.Rxe8 with the idea to deflect the black knight on f6 so that it does not defend the d7-square anymore. 1. Rxe8 Nxe8 2.Rd7+ followed by 3.Rxb7.
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Fork in Chess Tactics
Fork is a type of Chess Tactic that is used for double attacks in which a single chess piece can create multiple threats.
The diagram below shows.Qd4! The queen creates two threats at the same time: 1.Qxg7# can be checkmate or 2.Qxb6 wins the knight. Black is not able to defend against both threats simultaneously. Black must give up the knight if they want to avoid checkmate.
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Hit and Run Chess Tactics
This is one of the most common Chess Tactics. This tactic happens when you try to capture your opponent’s piece and at the same time, you can move your pieces out of danger. Let’s elaborate on it by using the following picture and example.
White plays 1.Rxc4 will remove the defender of the black rook on a6 and at the same time it defends the queen on c8. If black plays 1… Qxc8, then white can play 2.Rxc8, capturing the black queen and at the same time moving the rook out of danger.
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Simplification in Chess Tactics
Simplification in chess means a strong strategy when a player wants to simplify a complex situation by the material exchange as much as possible. The main goal of this chess tactic is to achieve a risk-free endgame situation.
The example given below shows that white has a clear advantage, due to the extra unopposed pawn on the a-file. But one mistake can ruin the game for white! White can simplify the situation by exchanging all the remaining pieces to achieve a risk-free position.
White plays 1.Rxe7 Qxe7 2.Qc8+ Qf8 3.Qxf8+ Kxf8 4.Nxd4 cxd4 5.a5 1-0
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Tempo Chess Tactic
Time is measured in the form of moves in chess. If a player gains time to create a threat or attack that can force his opponent to defend passively, you have gained a tempo in that process.
Single tempo chess move is also known as Zwischenzug while in some situations, you can also gain more tempos in a row which can create more advantages.
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Trapped Pieces in Chess Tactics
When a chess piece becomes limited in its mobility, it becomes more vulnerable to attacks and threats because it is being trapped.
For example, look at the picture where the Black queen is severely limited in mobility. White can take advantage of this situation and win the queen by playing 1.Bc4, winning the trapped queen.
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Triangulation
Triangulation Chess Tactics are mostly applicable in chess endgames where you can use this trick to force your opponent into Zugzwang. This situation is achieved when the king moves in triangle form to create an impact of losing the move. The same position can be achieved when one side makes 3 moves while the other side makes only 2 moves.
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X-Ray
In Chess Tactics, X-Ray means the ability and power of long-range chess pieces to see through the opponent piece. This chess tactic can either be referred to as an X-ray attack or a defensive attack.
The below diagram shows that 1.Bd8# is checkmate thanks to the X-Ray ability of the bishop. The bishop “attacks” the b6-square even though the enemy king obstructs its view.
I hope that all these chess tactics will help you to improve your game and ultimately make you a Chess Tactics expert. But don’t forget to let us know which one of these tactics is more beneficial. Comment your favorite chess tactic below in the comment section.