A tactic or threat that

involves the targeting of the

opponent's "weakest
square." Often f7 and f2 are
referred to as the weakest
squares on a chessboard
because they are protected
only by the king at the start,
Attacking f7/f2
so often these tactics would
occur somewhere in the
opening to early
middlegame stages. There
are many possible attacking
ideas and threats that take
place surrounding those two
critical points.

All tactics that involve

attacking a castled king.
These would be ideas such
as sacrifices to the
surrounding pawns of a
castled position, pawn
Attacking the
storms, as well as many
Castled King other possible tactical
themes -- with the specific
distinction that the pattern
was used to attack a castled
King's position, either
kingside or queenside.

A back-rank mate is when

either the rook or queen is
attacking the enemy King,
and this enemy King is
Back Rank
trapped "on the back rank"
(which means either the 1st
or 8th rank) by his own
army.

Clearance Sacrifice (or just

"clearance") is a term used
to describe a deliberate
sacrifice of material with the
goal of "clearing" of either a
square, diagonal, or file. The
most common clearance
sacrifices open a critical
Clearance
diagonal (see example). The
Sacrifice: sacrifice of a pawn to open a
square for a knight (like a
pawn moving to e5 from e4,
sacrificing itself in order to
free the e4-square for a
knight) would also be
considered a "positional"
clearance sacrifice.

A decoy is a distraction.
Often a player might use a
decoy to force the opponent
to think about something
else, while the player is
actually focused on a
different target entirely.
Deflection is a tactic that
distracts an opponent's
piece from doing its job,
such as defending an
important square, pinning a
Decoy / piece, or blocking an open
Deflection: file or diagonal. Many
decoy/deflection tactics
involve a sacrifice or a
forcing move of some kind,
thus forcing the opponent to
cooperate with the
decoy/deflection tactic. They
are similar in their goal,
which is why we have
classified them as one
theme. Here is an example
of each type of
decoy/deflection:
 To play defense, or to
defend against an
opponent's threat. One
might "defend" a pawn with
a piece, or you might "play
defensive moves on the
kingside" in order to stop
your opponent's threats of a
mating attack. By moving
your pieces into position to
guard and protect either a
Defense: piece, a square or a coming
threat from your opponent -
you are defending. We use
this term for all tactics of a
"prophylactic" or defensive
nature. Often puzzles where
the goal is to draw, and a
defensive combination must
be found in order to
accomplish this, would be
tagged under this category.
A desperado tactic can
sometimes be considered a
sacrifice, depending on the
position. The move captures
an enemy piece when either
one or more of your own
pieces is already hanging
(undefended). When material
is going to be lost
regardless, these situations
Desperado: present a rare opportunity to
be "reckless" and take out
an enemy piece along the
way. This tactic often
happens when both white
and black have pieces under
attack. A desperado can
also be considered a type of
Zwischenzug tactic (see
"Zwischenzug" below).
An attack that happens
when one piece moves out
of the way, opening a line
for another attacking piece
to threaten something
(either checkmate or
material). A discovered
Discovered check is the same thing, but
Attack/Check: the revealed piece is
attacking the enemy king, so
it is also check. When the
piece that moves to reveal
the hidden attacker also
attacks a piece, this may be
referred to as a discovered
"double" attack/check.

Checking the enemy king

with two different pieces on
the same move is a powerful
Double
play! Unable to block or
Check: capture both threats at once,
the king must always move
to safety.

Any tactic that occurs in the

endgame. The endgame is
the last part of the game,
Endgame and is generally believed to
Tactic: start when most of the
pieces have been traded,
especially after the queens
are traded.

A small sacrifice of material

(see "sacrifice") to achieve
something greater. The term
"exchange sacrifice"
specifically refers to the
Exchange
sacrifice of a rook for a
Sacrifice: minor piece (knight or
bishop) and is usually only
one necessary step along
the way of a forcing
sequence of moves.

"Hanging" is another way of

saying "undefended" or
"loose" in chess. A tactic
that involves simply taking
or exposing undefended
pieces in some way would
Hanging
qualify. Under this theme,
Piece: one might also consider a
forcing combination that
climaxes with a double
attack, with one or more of
the targets being
undefended.
 To move a piece between
two other attacking pieces
when at least one of those
attacking pieces is an
opponent's piece.
Interference: Sometimes a piece will
interfere with two attacking
pieces, thus creating
confusion and often
overloading (see
"overloading") those pieces.

A position where the king is

trapped & will soon be
checkmated. The area of the
board where the king is tied
down is often like a "net"
closing tighter & tighter. A
player might create a mating
Mating Net:
net by cutting off all escapes
for the enemy king, often by
relatively quiet, non-
checking moves -- but once
the net is created, a forcing
sequence of moves will lead
to checkmate inevitably.
A piece that has too many
things to do is "overloaded."
For example, a bishop that
has to both stop a passed
pawn from queening and
guard against a checkmate
is overloaded. By carrying
Overloading:
out one threat (for example,
queening the pawn) the
opponent could force the
overworked bishop to leave
its post, allowing the
checkmate threat to
succeed.

A tactic that involves

promoting a pawn. Often
this involves other tactics
along the way, all of them
Pawn being single parts of an
Promotion: overall goal to promote the
pawn. That pawn would
usually deliver decisive
results. (See also
"underpromotion").

A tactic that involves

eliminating the critical
defensive piece that
otherwise stands in the way
of achieving a much greater
Removal of
goal (most often checkmate
the Defender: or the winning of large
amounts of material). A
player looks to remove the
defender as a destructive
means to achieve their goal.

The act of giving up material

(either making a trade that
loses points or simply
losing a piece or pawn for
nothing) with the goal of
getting something else in
return. For example, a player
may sacrifice the queen in
order to open up a square
Sacrifice: for a knight where it can
then checkmate the
opponent. A player may also
make more strategic
sacrifices, such as
sacrificing a pawn to gain
time to develop or
sacrificing a piece to
destroy the opponent's
king's pawn cover.

A simplification tactic is a
forcing sequence of moves
that converts an advantage
into a more easily winning
position. A player tries to
Simplification:
simplify a winning position
as an act of good technique,
which is the skill of
converting an advantage
into a victory.
 A checkmate by a knight
against an enemy king
which has no way out
because all of its escape
squares are blocked by its
own pieces. The king's own
pieces keep it from moving,
while the enemy knight puts
Smothered
it in check. A smothered
Mate: mate can only occur when a
king is immediately
surrounded by its own
pieces, with no enemy piece
directly touching it by
occupying a nearby square;
this is why only the knight
can give smothered mate.

When a player whose turn it

is has no legal moves by
any of his/her pieces but is
not in check. A stalemate is
a draw. A stalemate tactic
Stalemate:
would occur when the
objective/goal of the puzzle
was to force a stalemate
from an otherwise lost or
unfavorable position.

A support mate is a basic

checkmate that occurs
simply when a queen
directly assaults a king to
deliver checkmate and finds
Support Mate:
itself receiving support
(protection) from one other
piece. This "supporting"
piece can be a pawn, knight,
bishop, or king.

A piece that finds itself with

either no moves at all or at
least no moves that avoid
Trapped
the loss of material. Often, a
Piece: piece might be trapped at
the end of a forced
sequence of moves.

Promoting (see
"promotion") a pawn to a
piece less than a queen (in
other words, promoting a
pawn to a knight, rook, or
bishop). Since the queen is
the strongest piece, players
almost always choose to
promote their pawns to
queens. An underpromotion
Underpromoti tactic occurs when there are
on: special reasons that a player
needs a weaker piece rather
than a queen (almost always
a knight, since it is the only
piece whose move is not
already reflected by the
queen's abilities) - whether
to stop an opponent's threat
or achieve something even
better than what a queen
could offer.

A position/puzzle where
tactics arise from the
exposed position of the
Vulnerable
enemy king. A "vulnerable"
King: king's position may often
lead to that king being put in
a "mating net" of some kind.

A rare tactic in which a

repeated discovered check
(see "discovered
Windmill: attack/check") allows one
piece to go on a rampage,
capturing multiple enemy
pieces.
 An x-ray tactic in chess
occurs when one of your
long-range pieces (a rook,
bishop, or queen) attacks
"through" one of your
X-Ray Attack: opponent's pieces to
indirectly attack/threaten or
defend beyond it. An x-ray
tactic often occurs along
with the theme of back rank
mate.

Zugzwang is a German word

that literally translates to
"move compulsion." This is
a situation where every
Zugzwang: move a player could make
causes him/her to lose the
game (or at least
significantly worsen the
position).

Zwischenzug is a German
word meaning "in-between
move". An often unexpected
move inserted in between an
otherwise forcing sequence
Zwischenzug: of moves. The zwischenzug
generally changes the result
of the sequence. A
"desperado" is a powerful
example of a zwischenzug
tactic.