Six Tactical Patterns Behind Many Blunders
Most tactics come in a small number of shapes. Learn to recognise six of them, and you will see chances for yourself more often and see threats against you sooner. Each pattern below has a position with the solution checked against Stockfish, and a note on how to avoid falling for it.
1. The fork
A fork is one piece attacking two or more enemy pieces at once, so the opponent can only save one. Knights are the classic forkers because they attack in a pattern no other piece can answer by simply blocking, but every piece, and pawns too, can fork. The most damaging fork is a check that also attacks something, since your opponent has no time to deal with the second target.
Spot it: look for squares from which one piece would attack two of your opponent's pieces, especially the king plus something. Avoid it: before you move, check which squares a knight of your opponent's could jump to, and which of your pieces would stand on the same knight's-move distance from that square. Keep your king and queen off matching squares.
2. The pin
A pin is an attack on a piece that cannot, or should not, move because a more valuable piece stands behind it. In an absolute pin the piece behind is the king, and the pinned piece may not move at all. In a relative pin it is a queen, a rook or something else you would rather not lose, and moving the pinned piece is legal but costly.
A pin is pressure, not a win by itself: in this position the engine rates 1.Bb5 as roughly equal. A pin becomes decisive when you add a second attacker to the pinned piece, because it cannot run. Spot it: lines between a bishop, rook or queen and a piece with the king or queen behind it. Avoid it: notice which of your pieces would stand on a line with your king or queen before you move the piece that unblocks it, and unpin early (a pawn move such as ...a6 or ...h6 often does it).
3. The skewer
A skewer is a pin in reverse: the more valuable piece is in front, must move, and exposes the lesser one behind it. It usually appears when a rook, bishop or queen checks the king along a line with something else on the same line.
Spot it: a check along a rank, file or diagonal with a piece of yours further along the same line. Avoid it: keep your king and queen (or rook) off a shared rank, file or diagonal where an enemy rook or bishop could check.
4. The discovered attack
A discovered attack moves one piece out of the way to unleash another behind it. It is particularly strong when the moved piece makes a threat of its own, and strongest of all when the unleashed piece gives check, because the mover then attacks something for free.
Spot it: a rook, bishop or queen of yours aimed at an enemy piece, with one of your own pieces standing in the way. Avoid it: look at what stands behind the piece your opponent just moved, and whether any of their pieces already point at your king or queen with a single blocker in between.
5. The back-rank mate
When a king is hemmed in by its own pawns on the back rank, a single rook or queen check on that rank can be mate, because the king has no flight square. It is the most common mating pattern in the game and can catch strong players in a hurry.
Spot it: an enemy king with pawns on f7, g7 and h7 (or the equivalent) and no defender on the back rank. Avoid it: make luft, a flight square, with a pawn move such as h3 or h6 once the position allows, or keep a rook on the back rank. Before you trade your last back-rank defender, check whether the trade leaves the back rank open.
6. The deflection and the overloaded defender
A piece can only do so many jobs. If it defends two things at once, or stands guard over one thing that you can drag it away from, an attack on the piece or a capture that forces it away wins material. This is a favourite way of winning a piece that looks safe, and it is easy to miss because no single move seems to threaten anything.
The position below comes from one of RookSac's bundled sample games, MagnusCarlsen playing Black. The model gave Black about 83% winning chances here, and the review marks the move he played as a Miss.
After 23...Bxh3 the g2 pawn is overloaded. If 24.gxh3, the knight on f3 has lost its only defender and 24...Qxf3 wins it. If White leaves the bishop alone, 24...Bxg2+ is coming, and White's best line, 24.Re1 Rxe1+ 25.Kxe1 Bxg2, still loses a pawn and leaves Black roughly four to five pawns better according to the engine.
Spot it: ask of every enemy piece that guards something, what else is it guarding? If the answer is "two things", attack one of them. Avoid it: do the same check on your own pieces. A piece with two duties is a target.
Putting the patterns to work
- Learn the geometry. Each pattern is a picture of pieces on lines. Review positions until you can see the lines.
- Look for forcing moves first. Checks, captures and threats are how these patterns are carried out. See how to stop blundering.
- Work out which ones you miss. Your reviews tell you which pattern keeps getting you. Then train on positions from your own games rather than on a random set.