Best Chess Tactics — Forks, Pins, Skewers and Discovered Attacks
Ninety percent of chess games below grandmaster level are decided by tactics — one side misses a combination that wins material or delivers checkmate. The good news is that chess tactics follow repeating patterns. Learn to recognise these four, and you will spot them instinctively in your own games.
What Is a Chess Tactic?
A chess tactic is a short, concrete sequence of moves that gains a measurable advantage — usually material (winning a piece), positional (winning key squares), or delivering checkmate. Unlike strategy, which is about long-term plans, tactics are about calculation: if I do X, then Y happens, and I end up ahead.
The core patterns repeat across millions of games at every level. A knight fork used by a club player works on exactly the same principle as one used by Magnus Carlsen. Once your eyes are trained to see them, you'll find them everywhere.
1. The Fork
A fork is when one piece attacks two or more enemy pieces simultaneously, and the opponent can only save one of them. The attacking piece wins whichever piece the opponent doesn't move.
The knight fork is the most common and most dangerous. Knights move in L-shapes, which makes their attack patterns non-intuitive and easy to miss. A knight on e5 can attack c4, c6, d3, d7, f3, f7, g4, and g6 simultaneously — eight squares at once.
Classic knight fork setup: lure the opponent's king and rook onto squares where a knight jump attacks both at once. The king must move, and the rook is lost. This pattern is called a "family fork" when the knight attacks king, queen, and rook simultaneously.
How to spot it: Look for your knights near the centre. Ask yourself: does this knight have a square where it attacks two valuable pieces at once? Can I force those two pieces onto those squares with a series of checks or threats?
Pawns fork too. A pawn on e5 that advances to e6 might attack two pieces on d7 and f7 simultaneously. Pawn forks are particularly dangerous because the pawn is low-value — trading it for a piece is already a win.
2. The Pin
A pin is when a piece is attacked but cannot move because moving it would expose a more valuable piece behind it. The pinned piece is paralysed — it's stuck in place.
There are two types:
- Absolute pin — the piece behind the pinned piece is the king. Moving the pinned piece would be illegal (you cannot put yourself in check), so the pinned piece literally cannot move. A bishop pinning a knight to a king is an absolute pin.
- Relative pin — the piece behind the pinned piece is valuable but not the king. Technically the pinned piece can move, but doing so would lose the valuable piece behind it. Practically, the pinned piece still can't do its job.
How to exploit a pin: Attack the pinned piece with additional pieces. Since the pinned piece can't move, you're essentially attacking a stationary target. If you pile three attackers onto a pinned knight, the opponent may have no way to defend it.
How to escape a pin: Break the pin by interposing a piece between the two pieces, moving the piece that was behind the pin out of the line of attack, or attacking the pinning piece to force it away.
3. The Skewer
A skewer is the reverse of a pin. Instead of attacking a less valuable piece that can't move because a more valuable piece is behind it, you attack the more valuable piece directly — forcing it to move, revealing and exposing the less valuable piece behind it.
The classic skewer: your rook attacks the enemy queen along a rank. The queen must move, revealing a rook or bishop behind it that you then capture for free. Bishops and rooks are the primary pieces for skewers because they attack in straight lines.
The king skewer is particularly common in endgames. A rook or bishop attacks the king, the king must move, and the piece behind it (often a rook or queen) is captured.
How to spot it: Look for two enemy pieces lined up on a rank, file, or diagonal. Ask: can I attack the front piece with one of my long-range pieces, forcing it to move and winning the piece behind it?
4. Discovered Attack
A discovered attack (or "discovery") happens when you move one piece to reveal an attack from a different piece behind it. The piece you move can do something useful — make a threat, capture something — while the piece it reveals delivers a second simultaneous attack.
Discovered attacks are extremely powerful because the opponent faces two threats at once and usually can only deal with one. A discovered check is even stronger — the revealing piece gives check, forcing the king to deal with the check, while the moving piece captures elsewhere for free.
The double check is the most powerful forcing move in chess. Both the moving piece and the newly revealed piece check the king simultaneously. The king cannot capture either piece (since moving to capture one would put it in check from the other), and it cannot be blocked (a block only stops one piece). The king must move — and this often leads to forced checkmate in a few moves.
How to spot it: Look for pieces lined up where moving one would reveal an attack from another. Ask: what is behind this piece? What would be exposed if I moved it?
How to Get Better at Spotting Tactics
- Solve puzzles daily. Nothing trains tactical pattern recognition faster than solving puzzles. The patterns become automatic after enough repetition.
- Ask LPDO before every move. LPDO stands for Loose Pieces Drop Off. Before moving, check: do I have any undefended pieces? Does my opponent? Undefended pieces are targets for tactics.
- Check for checks first. When calculating, always look at checks before captures before threats. Check is the most forcing move and often leads to the biggest combinations.
- Look for pieces on the same line. Pins and skewers require two pieces on the same rank, file, or diagonal. Training your eye to see these alignments is the first step to finding these tactics.