Chess tactics
The discovered attack: two threats from one move
A discovered attack moves one piece out of the way to open fire from the piece behind it. Two threats land at once, and your opponent often can’t meet both.
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The piece that moves can make its own threat while it goes — so you’re attacking with the front piece and the rear piece on the same move. A discovered check is the sharpest version: the king must respond to the check, which means the front piece can grab almost anything with impunity.
How to spot it
- Find one of your pieces standing in front of your own rook, bishop, or queen.
- Line that rear piece up on an enemy target, then move the front piece with a threat.
- A discovered check plus a capture is often winning on the spot.
From the corpus
Three real discovered attacks, each verified by Stockfish at depth 22. Click any one to solve it.
More tactics
Forks
A fork is a single piece attacking two or more enemy pieces at the same time. Your opponent can only save one — you take the other.
Pins
A pin freezes an enemy piece against a more valuable one behind it. It can’t move without giving up the piece in the rear — so you pile up on it and win it.
Skewers
A skewer attacks a valuable piece in front; when it steps aside, the piece behind it on the same line falls.
Deflection
A defender is doing important work — guarding a mating square, holding a piece. Deflection gives it something it can’t refuse, and once it moves, what it guarded falls.
Trapped pieces
A trapped piece has no safe square. It’s still on the board, but it can’t get out — so you win it at your leisure.
Back-rank mates
A rook or queen reaches the back rank and mates a king boxed in by its own unmoved pawns. With no escape square, one heavy piece ends it.