Chess Tactics: Forks, Pins, Skewers and Discovered Attacks

The five tactical motifs that decide most club games, with the patterns behind them.

Roughly half of all games below master level are decided by a single tactic. There are not many of them, they recur constantly, and learning to see them is the fastest available improvement in chess.

The fork

One piece attacks two things at once. Knights fork best because their attack pattern is hard to see, but pawns fork most often and queens fork most brutally. Look for undefended pieces on the same colour square as an enemy knight.

The Academy has an interactive drill for exactly this — the position is set up for you, you make the moves on a real board, and it tells you immediately whether you have it. Reading about a chess idea and being able to execute it are different skills, and only one of them wins games.

The pin

A piece cannot move because something more valuable is behind it. An absolute pin is against the king and is illegal to break; a relative pin is against a queen or rook and is merely expensive. Piling more attackers onto a pinned piece is the standard follow-up.

The Academy has an interactive drill for exactly this — the position is set up for you, you make the moves on a real board, and it tells you immediately whether you have it. Reading about a chess idea and being able to execute it are different skills, and only one of them wins games.

The skewer

The reverse of a pin — the valuable piece is in front and must move, exposing what is behind it. Almost always delivered by a bishop, rook or queen along a line.

The Academy has an interactive drill for exactly this — the position is set up for you, you make the moves on a real board, and it tells you immediately whether you have it. Reading about a chess idea and being able to execute it are different skills, and only one of them wins games.

The discovered attack

Moving one piece unleashes an attack from another behind it. A discovered check is the most powerful move in chess, because the moving piece can go anywhere at all, including somewhere it would normally be captured.

The Academy has an interactive drill for exactly this — the position is set up for you, you make the moves on a real board, and it tells you immediately whether you have it. Reading about a chess idea and being able to execute it are different skills, and only one of them wins games.

The deflection

Forcing a defender to leave its post. Ask of every enemy piece: what is it defending, and what happens if it has to move? Most combinations start with that question.

The Academy has an interactive drill for exactly this — the position is set up for you, you make the moves on a real board, and it tells you immediately whether you have it. Reading about a chess idea and being able to execute it are different skills, and only one of them wins games.

The zwischenzug

The in-between move — inserting a check or a threat before making the recapture your opponent expects. It is the single most common reason a calculation goes wrong.

The Academy has an interactive drill for exactly this — the position is set up for you, you make the moves on a real board, and it tells you immediately whether you have it. Reading about a chess idea and being able to execute it are different skills, and only one of them wins games.

Common questions

How long does it take to learn chess tactics?

The ideas on this page can be read in fifteen minutes. Making them automatic takes a few weeks of practice — which is why every section here has a matching interactive drill rather than just an explanation.

Do I need to memorise any of this?

No. Every item on this page is a pattern or a principle, not a variation. Patterns are recognised, not recalled, and the way to build recognition is repetition on a board.

What should I learn first?

Work down this page in order. It is arranged from the most immediately useful to the most situational, so the earliest sections will change your results fastest.

Is this free?

Yes. Every lesson in the Grandmaster Gains Academy is playable free in the browser with no sign-up, and the engine will rate your moves afterwards so you can see where the idea broke down.

More complete guides

• How Every Chess Piece Moves
• The Chess Rules Most Players Get Wrong
• Checkmate Patterns Every Player Should Know
• Chess Endgames: What You Actually Need to Know
• Chess Strategy: Structure, Squares and Long-Term Plans
• Chess Opening Principles That Actually Matter