Chess terms: Tactics and combinations
60 terms about tactics, each with a plain definition and links to related terms.
An absolute pin is a pin in which the piece behind the pinned piece is the king, so the pinned piece cannot legally move off the line at all.
Anastasia's mate is a checkmate in which a knight and a rook trap a king on the edge, with the king's own pawn blocking its escape and the rook checking along the edge file.
An Arabian mate is a corner checkmate where a rook gives the check from beside the king, and a knight, a jump away from the rook, guards it and covers the one flight square the rook leaves open.
Attraction is a tactic that draws the enemy king or queen onto a square where it can be checked, forked or mated, usually by offering a piece that cannot safely be refused.
A back rank mate is a checkmate on a player's first or eighth rank, typically by a rook or queen, delivered when the king's own pawns leave it no square to step to.
A battery is two of your pieces lined up on one file, rank or diagonal, with the rear piece backing up the front one so that both press on the same target.
Blackburne's mate is a checkmate made with two bishops and a knight, where a bishop checks on h7 guarded by a knight on g5 while the other bishop on the long diagonal covers g7 and h8.
Boden's mate is a checkmate in which two bishops attack along diagonals that cross, one giving check and the other cutting off flight squares, while the king's own pieces block the rest.
A clearance sacrifice gives up material to remove a piece from a square, file, rank or diagonal, so that another of your pieces can use that line or square for a winning or mating move.
A combination is a forcing sequence of moves, usually built from sacrifices and checks, in which every move leaves the opponent few or no choices and the sequence ends in a concrete gain such as mate or material.
A counterattack is a reply to a threat that answers it with a threat of your own instead of defending, usually a larger one, so the opponent has to deal with yours first.
Damiano's mate is a checkmate in which a queen gives check on h7 next to a king on g8, guarded by a pawn on g6, while the king's own pieces block its remaining flight squares.
A decoy is a tactic that lures an enemy piece onto a chosen square, usually with a sacrifice it has to accept, so that the piece can be forked, blocks one of its own lines or loses its old job.
Deflection is the tactic of dragging an enemy defender off its post, often by a threat or an offered capture, so that what it was holding together falls apart.
A desperado is a doomed piece that cashes in before it dies: it captures or gives check, taking the most it can from the position instead of being lost for nothing.
In a discovered attack one of your pieces steps off a line, and that move unmasks a bishop, rook or queen standing behind it, so a single turn produces two threats.
A discovered check is a check from a piece that did not move: a bishop, rook or queen is unmasked when the piece in front of it leaves the line to the king.
A double attack is one move that creates two threats at once, whether they come from a single piece or from two, and whether they aim at pieces or at checkmate.
A double check is a single move that puts the enemy king under attack from two pieces simultaneously, typically one that moved and one it unmasked, so only a king move can answer it.
An epaulette mate is a checkmate in which a queen checks a king whose two side squares are occupied by its own pieces, usually rooks, so it cannot step sideways.
An exchange sacrifice gives up a rook, worth five points, to capture a bishop or knight, worth three, in return for a positional or tactical gain that is worth more than the material lost.
Fool's mate is the quickest checkmate possible: Black mates on the second move with Qh4 after White has pushed the f and g pawns, which leaves the king's diagonal wide open.
A fork is a move that leaves one of your pieces threatening two enemy pieces together. Because the opponent gets only one turn to respond, something usually falls.
The Greek gift sacrifice is a bishop sacrifice on h7, or h2 for Black, played as Bxh7+ Kxh7, followed by a knight check on g5 and the queen coming to the h-file to attack the exposed king.
A hanging piece is a piece that is attacked by the opponent and has no defender, so it can be captured for free unless its owner moves it, defends it or makes a bigger threat.
A hook mate is a checkmate in which a rook gives check next to the king, a knight guards the rook, a pawn guards the knight, and one of the defender's own pawns blocks the last flight square.
Interference is a tactic in which you land a piece on the line joining two enemy pieces that depend on each other, cutting their connection so that one of them can be won.
A knight fork is a move that places a knight on a square from which it attacks two or more enemy pieces at once, so the opponent cannot save them all.
A ladder mate is a checkmate on the edge of the board in which two rooks, or a rook and a queen, take turns giving check on neighboring lines until the king runs out of room.
Legal's mate is an opening trap in which White lets Black capture the queen and then checkmates with a bishop and two knights, punishing a Black player who takes the offered piece.
A loose piece is a piece that no friendly piece or pawn protects, which makes it a target even when nothing attacks it yet and gives the opponent a chance for a double attack.
A mating attack is a sustained assault on the enemy king, usually built from several pieces and often with sacrifices, whose aim is checkmate rather than winning material.
A mating net is a setup in which the enemy king is surrounded by attackers and its own pieces so tightly that checkmate cannot be avoided, even if the final blow is a move or two away.
Morphy's mate is a checkmate against a king in the corner in which a bishop gives check along the long diagonal while a rook controls the neighboring file, and the king's own pawn blocks the last flight square.
An opera mate is a back-rank checkmate in which a rook delivers mate on the eighth rank while a bishop guards that rook and also controls the square in front of the king.
Overloading is a tactic against a single defender that has two jobs at once, so that when you win one of the things it guards, it can no longer protect the other.
A pawn fork is a pawn move that attacks two enemy pieces at once, one on each of the two diagonal squares ahead of the pawn, so only one of them can escape.
A perpetual check is a run of checks that the defending king cannot sidestep, so the same positions recur and the game is drawn by repetition, rescuing the side that was losing.
Pillsbury's mate is a checkmate in which a rook checks along the g-file while a bishop on the long diagonal covers g7 and h8, leaving a king on g8 hemmed in by its own pieces.
A pin ties a piece to its square: a bishop, rook or queen attacks it, and stepping aside would expose a more valuable piece standing behind it on the same line.
A poisoned pawn is a pawn that can be captured, but whose capture lets the opponent punish the greedy player with a tactic that costs more than the pawn is worth.
A queen sacrifice gives up the strongest piece on the board, usually with a check or a capture, to win through a forced checkmate or to gain enough other material to be clearly ahead.
A quiet move is a move that makes no capture and gives no check, yet creates a decisive threat or removes the opponent's last defense, so it is easy to overlook among more forcing moves.
A relative pin is a pin in which the piece behind the pinned piece is more valuable but is not the king, so the pinned piece may legally move but would lose that piece.
Removing the defender means getting rid of the one piece that protects a target, by capturing it or forcing it to move, after which the target can be taken for free.
A royal fork is a fork that attacks the enemy king and queen at the same time, most often with a knight, so the king must move and the queen is lost.
A sacrifice is a deliberate decision to give up material, such as a pawn, an exchange or a piece, in return for something else, like mate, a stronger attack, a better structure or a larger gain later.
Scholar's mate is a four-move checkmate on f7: White's queen and bishop both aim at that square, where only the king defends, and Qxf7 ends the game when Black overlooks it.
A skewer attacks a valuable piece that stands in front of a less valuable one on the same line. The front piece must run, and the piece behind it is then taken.
A smothered mate is a knight checkmate against a king hemmed in by its own men: every square the king could use holds its own pieces, and a knight check cannot be blocked.
A stalemate trick is a resource for the side that is losing: it forces the stronger side into a position where the weaker side has no legal move and is not in check, so the game is drawn.
A swallow's tail mate is a checkmate in which a queen stands directly in front of the king, protected by another piece, while the king's own pieces occupy both squares beside it.
A tactic is a short, forcing sequence of moves that exploits a concrete feature of the position, such as a fork, pin or unprotected piece, to win material, deliver mate or reach a clear gain.
A tactical motif is a recurring pattern, such as a fork, pin or skewer, that appears often enough in games to be recognized and reused as the basis of a combination.
A trapped piece cannot reach safety: every square it might retreat to is covered, blocked or ruinous, so once it is attacked the owner will lose it for little or nothing.
Underpromotion is promoting a pawn to a rook, bishop or knight instead of a queen, chosen because the lesser piece wins or draws more in the position at hand.
A vacating sacrifice gives up a piece so that it leaves, or is captured on, a square or line that another of your pieces needs, usually to deliver mate or win material.
A windmill is a repeating pattern in which a rook moves away to give a discovered check, captures a piece, returns with check, and repeats, winning another enemy piece with each swing.
An x-ray is hidden pressure: a bishop, rook or queen bears on a piece or square beyond an enemy piece in its way, and the pressure turns real once the blocker moves or is exchanged.
A zwischenzug, German for in-between move, interrupts a sequence both sides expect: instead of recapturing or answering a threat at once, a player slips in a check or bigger threat first.
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