Overview of Chess Tactics
The legendary chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov once said;
“Tactics thrive in a superior position.”
One of your initial strategies in a game of chess should be to advance your pieces toward the middle of the board. Following this chess theory will therefore put you in a great position to attack your opponent with some serious blows and clever combinations.
Your pieces must work together harmoniously to perform any tactical combination against your opponent. Appropriate development in the opening can accomplish this.
Here we are going to discuss the top 10 chess tactics for beginners. Let’s have a look at them one by one.
Top Chess Tactics for Beginners
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Piece Sacrifice
There are some extremely cruel chess sacrifices. A purposeful material loss in exchange for an anticipated advantage is known as a chess sacrifice. When you first start playing chess, you are constantly conscious of your pieces’ point values. However, there are some extremely rare situations where it could be advantageous for you to “sacrifice” or give away a piece. It’s crucial to keep in mind that the goal of chess is to checkmate your opponent’s king rather than accumulate pieces.
In chess, sacrifices come in two primary forms:
- Positional Sacrifice: A piece given up to gain a permanent advantage in position.
- Tactical Sacrifice: A piece sacrificed in order to obtain a decisive advantage (checkmate or material gain).
Example: Anastasia’s Mate (Queen Sacrifice)
The e7 Knight, the e4 Rook, and the h5 Queen are involved here. When Black’s sole hope is to regain the Queen with his King, White makes the audacious sacrifice Qxh7+. Since the Rook and Knight have imprisoned the King, Rh4+ is essentially a checkmate.
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Fried Liver Tactic
Among the top chess tactics for beginners, this technique with a strange name derives from an Italian proverb that means “dead as fried liver,” which sums up this move’s deadly outcome when executed properly.
The Fried Liver Attack can be reached quite easily. You begin with three logical developing moves (e4, Nf3, Bc4) if you are playing as White. Black can now play Nf6, which allows White to initiate the amazing Fried Liver assault.
Black must have played Nf6 to prevent catastrophe since the black queen can easily cut off your knight. Following the Ng5 move, White poses a threat to Black with the d8 Queen and the h8 Rook by capturing a Pawn and forking Nxf7.
3. Back Rank Threats: Chess Tactics for Beginners
A rank in chess is a line of squares that spans the board. The row that you start the game with your King on is known as your back rank. Be careful! On the rear rank of the board, checkmates are delivered in large numbers. If there are no moving pawns in front of the king in a castle, the bank rank is considered weak. He may become stuck behind them. On occasion, sacrifices can be used to weaken the pieces defending the rear row.
4. Deflection
Among the most clever chess tactics for beginners is deflection which happens when a piece is diverted from protecting a square or other piece. Here, two distinct kinds of deflection are displayed.
The first example is a deflection that wins materially and gives White the advantage over Black in points. The second board shows White how to use a crafty checkmating strategy to win the game.
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The Greek Gift
The Greek gift is a frequently fatal chess sacrifice. It alludes to the story of Troy, where the Greek army abandoned a massive wooden horse outside Troy’s city walls. The Greeks started their surprise attack when the Trojans, believing the horse to be a gift from the gods, brought it inside their city.
6. Rooks on the 7th Rank
When pawns and pieces are exchanged, rooks typically get excited. That’s because as the opposition is more “open,” the Rooks get stronger. The seventh or seventh rank is a Rook’s preferred location. At times, it makes sense to sac a pawn to advance a rook to the seventh rank. When Rooks and the other player are on the seventh rank, the funniest thing happens!
Picture 7
7. Decoy
Among the chess tactics for beginners, a decoy is a sacrifice that forces the other player to move a piece to a square that benefits us. This frequently leads to a gain in material. White would want to pick up the black Queen in the diagram below. It is also one of the best chess tactics for beginners.
Conclusion:
These are the best chess tactics for beginners to use during their games. Identifying the dangers in advance is a terrific approach to win the majority of your games and steer clear of costly errors. Your ability to calculate increases with the number of times you solve these chess tactics. Additionally, you’ll improve your chess imagination and become proficient at identifying mating patterns.