Chess tactics for beginners
Most games between beginners and club players are not decided by deep strategy. They are decided by tactics: short sequences of moves that win material or deliver checkmate. The good news is that there are only a handful of tactical ideas, and they repeat in every game. Learn to recognize them and you will win pieces your opponents leave behind, and stop leaving your own.
Each diagram below shows a position before the tactic. Try to find the move yourself, then read the explanation. White is to move in every example.
Before you look for tactics: count attackers and defenders
Every tactic exploits a piece that is undefended, defended too few times, or lined up with something more valuable. Before each move, ask three questions: What did my opponent's last move attack? Which of my pieces are undefended? Which of their pieces are undefended? Strong players ask these questions automatically. A simple habit is to check every capture and every check, for both sides, before you move. This is often called "checks, captures and threats", and it alone will stop most blunders.
Remember the usual piece values when you count: pawn 1, knight 3, bishop 3, rook 5, queen 9. The king cannot be traded, so any tactic that involves check is especially strong: your opponent must answer the check before anything else.
The fork
Knight fork
1.Nc7+ attacks the king on e8 and the rook on a8 at the same time. Black must get out of check, and on the next move White captures the rook for free.
A fork is one piece attacking two or more targets at once. Your opponent can only save one. Knights are the best forking pieces because they jump and attack in a pattern the other pieces cannot block. Watch out in particular for knight forks on c7 and c2, f7 and f2: they hit the king and the rook in the corner.
Pawn fork
1.d5, protected by the e4 pawn, attacks the knight on c6 and the bishop on e6. Whatever Black saves, the pawn takes the other piece. If Black gives up the bishop for the pawn with 1...Bxd5 2.exd5, White still wins a 3-point piece for a 1-point pawn.
Pawn forks happen most often in the opening, when knights and bishops come out in front of their own pawns. Every queen fork, rook fork and king fork works the same way: one move, two threats.
The pin
Absolute pin
1.Bb5 pins the knight on c6 to the king on e8. The knight is not allowed to move at all, because that would expose the king to check. A pinned piece is a poor defender: it cannot capture and it cannot run away.
When the piece behind is the king, the pin is called absolute (moving is illegal). When the piece behind is the queen or a rook, the pin is relative: moving is legal, but it loses the more valuable piece. A strong follow-up to any pin is to attack the pinned piece again, for example with a pawn.
The skewer
Skewer
1.Ra7+ checks the king on c7. The king must step off the seventh rank, and then 2.Rxh7 wins the queen that was standing behind it.
A skewer is a pin in reverse: the more valuable piece is in front and must move, exposing the piece behind it. Skewers are made by the long-range pieces (bishops, rooks and queens), and they are very common in endgames when kings come out into the open.
Discovered attacks and double check
Discovered check
The rook on e1 is aimed at the black king, but the knight on e4 is in the way. 1.Nxd6+ moves the knight, captures the queen, and opens the e-file: now the king is in check from the rook and from the knight. That is a double check, and the only legal answer is to move the king.
In a discovered attack, one piece moves out of the way and reveals an attack from the piece behind it. The moving piece is free to make its own threat, so your opponent faces two attacks with one move. Discovered checks are the most powerful version, because the check must be answered first.
Removing the defender
Capture the defender
The rook on d1 attacks the bishop on d5, but the knight on f6 defends it. 1.Bxf6 removes that defender. If Black recaptures with 1...gxf6, then 2.Rxd5 wins the bishop; if Black saves the bishop instead, White is simply a knight up.
Many tactics start by asking: what is defending that piece? If you can capture, chase away or distract the defender, the piece it was guarding falls. The same idea is called deflection when you lure a defender away with a sacrifice, and overloading when one piece is trying to defend two things at once.
Other patterns to know
- Back-rank mate threats. A king behind three unmoved pawns can be mated by a rook or queen on the back rank. See our checkmate patterns guide.
- Trapped pieces. A bishop that goes too deep (for example taking a pawn on a7 or h7) can be shut in by pawns and won.
- Hanging pieces. The simplest tactic of all: a piece that is attacked and not defended. At beginner level, more games are lost to hanging pieces than to any other mistake.
- Zwischenzug (in-between move). Instead of making the expected recapture, you first play a check or a bigger threat, then recapture.
How to get better at tactics
Tactics are pattern recognition, so the fastest way to improve is volume. Solve a few puzzles every day, and play many games with a short review afterwards. In every game against the computer on Pawnly you can use Hint when you are stuck and Takeback after a mistake, then ask yourself which pattern you missed. Start at a level where you win about half your games: Level 2 or 3 leaves enough pieces hanging to practice spotting them, while Level 5 and above punishes every tactic you miss.