Attacks

An attack is a move that puts an opponent's piece at risk of being captured.

There are several types of attacks, but before diving into them, we’ll go over the principles of attacking.

Exploit the opponent’s weaknesses

Looking for weaknesses helps in finding attack opportunities. The key is to focus on undefended pieces and find the best move to gain material while also trying to control as many squares as possible to dominate the board.

Defend your pieces

Before attacking your pieces should be well-defended. The most important thing is to protect your King. Once that's done, you can attack your opponent confidently.

Exchange pieces strategically

Most of the time, when you attack a piece, your opponent will try to defend it. The best strategy is to exchange pieces that provide an advantage. This could mean gaining material, improving your position, or creating problems for your opponent, such as doubled pawns. If possible, you should trade your less active pieces for your opponent’s most active ones.

Reinforce your attacks

The more pieces you have attacking a target, the more pressure you put on it. The greater the pressure, the harder it is to defend, making your attack much stronger.

Fork

A fork is a tactical move that attacks two or more pieces at once. Generally, knights are used for forks, but pawns, bishops, rooks, and queens can also execute them.

A discovered attack occurs when one piece moves, revealing an attack from another piece behind it. These attacks are extremely powerful and often lead to material gains. If the discovered attack targets the opponent’s king, it is called a discovered check.

Double attack

A pin is a type of attack where two pieces are lined up along the same attack path. If the first piece moves, the piece behind it can be captured. This forces the first piece to stay in place to protect the more valuable piece behind it. Typically, the pinned piece is protected by another piece, but not always. Only rooks, queens, and bishops can pin pieces. If the pinned piece is the king, it is called an absolute pin, if not, it’s a relative pin.

X-ray attacks are very similar to pins. The difference is that in an X-ray attack, the more valuable piece is in front of the lower-value piece and is under direct attack. If the front piece moves, the piece behind it can be captured. Only bishops, rooks, and queens can execute X-ray attacks. As with pins, if the attacked piece is the king, it is called an absolute X-ray attack, otherwise, it is known as a relative X-ray attack.

X-Ray attack

Discovered attack

A double attack happens when a piece moves in a way that threatens two or more opponent pieces at once. Unlike forks, the attacked pieces don’t have to be in the same row, column, or diagonal, it depends on the attacking piece.A double attack is especially powerful when combined with a check. Since the opponent must respond to the check first, they often end up losing material because they can’t defend against both threats at the same time.

The five main types of attacks are: