Pins
Pins are the first essential Chess tactic we'll look at.
If a piece is pinned, it means that either a rook, queen or bishop can see an undefended or more valuable piece behind it.
So, if the piece in the middle of the attacker and the target moves, it would blunder the undefended piece.
This can be a little confusing to understand, so lets look at some examples.
Skewers
Skewers are extremely similar to pins, but occur when the attacker can see two undefended pieces in the same line of sight.
For example, if two enemy bishops sit directly next to each other and are undefended, a rook could attack both at once.
Think of the tactic as a literal skewer. The piece attacking is the stick, and the undefended pieces are the food.
Let's look at some examples.
Forks
Forks are a little bit different again, but follow a similar concept.
A fork occurs when the attack is wedged between two undefended enemy pieces.
So, if a rook moves to a file where it attacks something above and below it, that would be a fork.
This is the only tactic knights can do as well, forking up to 8 pieces at once!
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Discoveries
Discoveries are a little bit more complex, and aren't so similar though.
A discovery is when moving one of your pieces reveals an attack on another enemy piece.
For example, your knight might be blocking your rooks line of sight. But once you move the knight - the rook is attacking something.
This can be extremely dangerous, especially when both the knight and rook can attack different pieces!
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To quickly explain what a tactic is, its essentially a combination of one or more immediate threats. These threats can be:
Threatening to check your opponents king
Threatening to take your opponents piece
Threatening to checkmate your opponent
Threatening to threaten one of the above examples, and in some rare cases, this example too.