Tactics advice
U9s | U14s
U9s
- Play slowly and carefully
- Know the basic tactics
- Practise spotting tactics by doing puzzles
- Always think about what your opponent can do to you!
U14s
Try to avoid mistakes
Most of the games we see have unforced mistakes in them, and they usually decide who wins the game.
But you can do a lot to make sure you don’t make blunders.
Here are three tips:
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- 1. Play slowly and carefully — don’t reply to a move straight away
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- You don’t get any points for finishing quickly! Even if you win, you can easily miss something by playing quickly, and if you lose– well, you might not have lost if you had played slower!
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- You should aim to use MOST of your time in every game. This is hard to judge, but, if you have 50 minutes for the whole game, you will probably have an average of a minute to spend on every move. That’s time enough to write down your opponent’s move, spot their threats, think of your own move, check it and play it.
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- If your opponent plays quickly, ignore it!
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- 2. Practise spotting tactics
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- You should know all the basic tactics
(mates, forks, pins, skewers, discoveries, nets, ties) and be able to find them quickly in puzzles and over the board in their one- and two-move versions.
- You should know all the basic tactics
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- So, solve puzzles in books and on websites: there are new free puzzles every day online!
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- Once you have finished a book of puzzles, do it again! The point is to make sure you spot things quicklywhile you are playing a game, and can use your thinking time to best effect.
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3.Get into good habits of thinking — most importantly…
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- After your opponent has moved, ask yourself:
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- i. what threats does my opponent have right now?
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- ii. what threats do I have right now?
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- and after you have chose a move, but before making it, ask yourself:
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- iii. does my chosen move give my opponent a new threat?
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The six basic tactics
You should know by now to look out for chances to take a piece for nothing.
Sometimes the chance is hidden but you can find it!
Mates | Jumps | Forks | Nets | Pins | Ties
Mates
This is an example of checkmate
The white King is in check, and cannot escape.
It’s checkmate.
This is a checkmate from a real game
This is a short game with a checkmate
Jumps
This is an example of jump move (discovered attack)
Can you see how it works?
The Knight can hop to c6, and the Rook calls check.
It’s as if the Rook jumps out from behind the Knight!
Black will lose the Queen.
This is a jump move (discovered attack) from a real game
Can you see how it works?
This is a short game with a jump move (discovered attack)
Forks
This is an example of fork.
Can you see how it works?
The Knight attacks the Queen, but also calls check.
The Knight attacks two pieces at once, and Black can’t solve both problems in one move.
This is a fork from a real game
This is a short game with a fork
This is an example of net
Can you see how it works?
The white Knight is being attacked, but cannot escape.
This is a net from a real game
Any piece can be netted.
A checkmate is really a net for the King
This is a short game with a net
Pins and skewers
This is an example of pin
Can you see how it works?
The Black Queen is being attacked, but cannot escape.
If it moves, the black King will be in check.
The Queen is pinned against the King.
A skewer is when the more important piece is in front,
and the piece that is lost is the one behind.
The White King is in check.
It has to move, then the white Rook is lost.
The skewer goes through the King to stab the Rook.
This is a pin from a real game
This is a short game with a pin
Ties
This is an example of tie
Can you see how it works?
Black’s Queen and Bishop are both being attacked
but both are defended by the King.
But the King can’t really do two jobs at once.
If White takes the Bishop with check,
Black dare not take back, or the Queen will be undefended,
so the Bishop is lost for nothing.
If White takes the Queen with check,
Black must take back, and again the Bishop is lost.
This is a tie from a real game
This is a short game with a tie.
There are other names for different types of tactic, but they all come from these ideas.
You can find a course in chess tactics on this site with lots more examples and details.