Ten tactical patterns, and the signals that give them away
Chess tactics look endless, but the same few patterns come back in game after game. Here are the ten themes of our puzzle book, with the signals that announce each one and how often it appears in the Lichess puzzle database.
The ten tactical patterns, and how often they appear
In chess, a tactic is a short sequence of forcing moves, checks, captures and threats, that wins material or gives mate. You cannot learn them all by heart, and you do not need to: they are built from a handful of patterns, and each pattern has signals you can learn to spot before it happens. 300 Chess Puzzles is organised around ten of these patterns, with a short lesson and thirty puzzles for each.
Here is how often each of them comes up in the Lichess puzzle database (6.2 million puzzles). Mate in one is tagged in 14.8% of the puzzles and mate in two in 13.2%; after these two mates, the fork is the most frequent tactic, with 12.8%. Then, among our ten, come the pin (6.0%), the discovered attack (5.1%), deflection (4.3%), hanging pieces (3.6%), back-rank mates (3.4%), promotion (2.4%) and skewers (2.2%). A puzzle can carry several tags, so the shares overlap.
Before every move: mate in one and hanging pieces
Mate in one
Before anything else, look for a mate. The signals: the squares the king cannot use, blocked by its own pieces or covered by yours; every check, even the ones right next to the king; and a piece that protects your checking piece, so the king cannot take it.
Hanging pieces
A piece that nothing defends, or that is attacked more times than it is defended, can simply be taken. Look first at what your opponent’s last move left behind. Then, before you take, ask two questions: is your piece safe afterwards, and does the capture leave something of yours loose?
Take with the bishop: 1…Bxe4 keeps an eye on d5, so after 2.Nxd5, 2…Bxd5 takes the knight too. Taking with the pawn looks just as natural, but 1…dxe4? leaves d5 to the white knight: 2.Nd5! attacks the queen on b6 and the rook on c7 at once, and White is winning.
Double attacks: forks and discovered attacks
Forks
One piece attacks two targets at once, and only one can be saved. Look for two loose pieces, or a king and a piece, that one of your pieces can reach together, and for checks that also attack something. For a knight, the signal is a king and a queen on squares of the same colour. Our article on the fork shows the three signals at work.
Discovered attacks
One of your pieces stands between your rook, bishop or queen and an enemy target. Move it with a threat of its own, a capture or a check, and you make two threats at once. A discovered check is the strongest kind: the piece that moves can go anywhere, even where it can be taken. Our article on discovered attacks and double check goes further.
Line tactics: pins and skewers
Pins
An enemy piece stands between your rook, bishop or queen and its own king or queen. Pinned to its king, it cannot leave the line, so attack it again, with a pawn if you can. And a pinned piece does not really defend: what it seems to protect may be free to take.
Skewers
The skewer is a pin in reverse: the valuable piece stands in front. Look for a king or a queen on a rank, file or diagonal with another piece behind it, and for a check along that line: the king must step aside and give up what stands behind. In the endgame, a king and a rook on the same line are a classic target. Our article on pins and skewers has a puzzle for each.
Mating patterns: the back rank and mate in two
Back-rank mates
A king on its back rank, behind pawns that have not moved, has no escape square. Count the defenders of that rank: if there is only one, remove it or lure it away. Then look for a rook or a queen that can reach the rank, even if it takes a sacrifice first. Our article on the back-rank mate also shows how to protect your own king. The other classic mates are in our article on checkmate patterns.
Mate in two
Checks first, then captures, then threats: the most forcing moves leave your opponent the fewest replies. Look for sacrifices that drag the king out or take away its last free square. And do not rule out a quiet first move: it works if nothing can stop the mate that follows. Our article on finding a mate in two gives the method step by step.
Removing the guard: deflection and promotion
Deflection
An enemy piece is doing two jobs, or it is the only defender of a piece or a square. Force it to answer a check or a capture, and it leaves its post. Then look at what it was guarding: that is your target.
1…Qxf2+ takes a pawn with check, and the king has to move, to h1 or h2. Neither square touches f1, so after 2.Kh1, 2…Qxf1+ wins the bishop. The tempting 1…cxd4? takes a knight instead, but after 2.Qh5+ Black’s advantage is gone.
Promotion
A passed pawn one or two steps from the last rank is a weapon. Find the piece that blocks it or guards its promotion square, then take it, deflect it or lure it away. When you can, promote with check or with a capture: it gains a move.
How to train the ten patterns
Learn the patterns one at a time, then mix them. Solve a few puzzles of a single theme until its signals become automatic, then move on to mixed sets, where nothing tells you what to look for, as in a game. Work on paper, and write the whole line before you check the answer.
Our article on how many puzzles to solve a day suggests a simple routine. You can start with the twenty free puzzles of our Lichess study, two from each theme. After that, The Knight’s Notebook sends you sixty puzzles at your level every month.