Tactics
Tactics decide most games below master level. Learn these seven patterns and you'll spot — and stop — the overwhelming majority of them.
One piece attacks two targets at once, so the opponent can only save one. Knights are the classic forkers (the 'family fork' hits king, queen, and rook), but every piece can fork.
A piece can't move because a more valuable one sits behind it. An absolute pin is against the king (moving is illegal); a relative pin is against a valuable piece (moving is merely costly). Pile up on the pinned piece to win it.
A pin in reverse: the valuable piece is in front, is attacked, and when it moves the piece behind it falls. Rooks, bishops, and queens deliver skewers along lines.
Moving one piece unveils an attack from another behind it — making two threats at once. When the unveiled attack is a check, the moving piece can grab material almost for free.
Any move that creates two threats the opponent can't both meet. Forks are one kind; a move that threatens with two different pieces is another.
Force a defender away from its duty (deflection) or lure a piece onto a bad square (decoy). Both remove the support holding the enemy position together.
A rook or queen mates along the first rank when the king is trapped behind its own pawns. Defend by making luft — pushing a pawn to give your king air.
Pattern recognition comes from volume. Solve a few puzzles every day and run a checks-captures-threats scan each move. Play a free game and hunt for these patterns live.
The fork — one piece attacking two targets at once — is the most common, with knights the classic forking piece. Pins and skewers are close behind. Learning these three covers a large share of all tactics.
Solve puzzles daily to build pattern recognition, learn the named motifs (fork, pin, skewer, discovered attack), and run a checks-captures-threats scan before every move in your games.