Chess Tactics
The patterns that decide most games, with boards you can actually play on.
Try one right now
White to move — find the fork.
Hint
One piece can attack the king and the queen at the same time.
Tap a piece, then tap where it should go.
Forks
A fork is one piece attacking two or more valuable pieces at once, so the defender can only save one. Knight forks are the most common and easiest to miss.
Pins
A pin stops a piece from moving because something more valuable sits behind it on the same line. Pinned against the king, it can't move at all; pinned against anything else, moving it is legal but usually costly.
Skewers
A skewer is a pin in reverse — the more valuable piece is in front and forced to move, exposing the piece behind it to capture.
Double attacks
A fork is the most common kind of double attack: one piece, two targets. The broader idea — a single move creating two problems at once — is what makes tactics so hard to defend against.
Learn double attacks in depthDiscovered attacks
Move one piece out of the way, and a completely different piece behind it delivers the attack. When the revealed attack is check, it's a discovered check — especially dangerous, since the moving piece is free to do something threatening of its own at the same time.
Deflection & removing the defender
Both attack a piece's job rather than the piece itself. Deflection forces a defender away from its post, usually with a check or bigger threat. Removing the defender does the same thing by simply capturing it — sometimes at a small cost, because what it was guarding is worth far more.
Back-rank mate
A king boxed in by its own pawns has no escape along its own back rank. If nothing guards that rank, a single rook or queen arriving there is checkmate.
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Play the Daily Chess ChallengeA tactic is a forcing sequence — checks, captures, and threats — that wins material or delivers checkmate regardless of what your opponent tries. Strategy is the slower, positional side of chess: where to put your pieces, which pawn structure to aim for, which plan makes sense. Tactics is what actually ends most games, especially below the top levels, because a single missed fork or hanging piece outweighs hours of good strategic planning.
The reason checks, captures, and threats matter so much is that they're forcing — your opponent doesn't get a free choice in how to respond. A check must be answered. A hanging piece must be defended or accepted as lost. A bigger threat must be dealt with immediately. Tactical vision is largely the skill of noticing which of your moves (and your opponent's) are forcing, and calculating what happens when you follow them to the end.
Forks
A fork is one piece attacking two or more valuable pieces at once, so the defender can only save one. Knights are the classic forking piece because their attack pattern is easy to miss — see the dedicated page for knight, queen, pawn, and rook/bishop forks.
Pins
A pin stops a piece from moving because something more valuable sits behind it on the same line. An absolute pin (against the king) makes the pinned piece completely immobile; a relative pin (against anything else) just makes moving it a bad idea.
Skewers
A skewer is a pin in reverse: the more valuable piece is in front and forced to move, exposing the less valuable piece behind it to capture.
Double attacks and discovered attacks
A fork is the most common kind of double attack — one piece, two targets. A discovered attack is different: you move one piece out of the way and a completely different piece behind it delivers the attack. When the revealed attack is check, it's called a discovered check, and it's especially dangerous because the moving piece is often free to do something threatening of its own at the same time.
Deflection and removing the defender
Both of these are about attacking a piece's job, not the piece itself. Deflection forces a defender away from a square or piece it's protecting, usually with a check or a bigger threat elsewhere. Removing the defender does the same thing by simply capturing the defending piece — sometimes for a small cost, because what it was defending is worth far more.
Back-rank mate
A king castled behind its own pawns can be completely safe from every direction except one: straight down its own back rank. If there's no escape square and no piece guarding that rank, a single rook or queen arriving there is checkmate — one of the most common ways games actually end.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between tactics and strategy?
Tactics are short, forcing sequences (checks, captures, threats) with a concrete, calculable result. Strategy is the longer-term planning — piece placement, pawn structure, which side of the board to play on — that sets tactics up.
How do I get better at spotting tactics?
Repetition on real positions. Solving puzzles trains your eye to notice forcing moves and undefended pieces faster, until it becomes automatic during your own games.
Are the practice positions on this page real puzzles?
Yes — where noted, they're pulled from the same curated Lichess puzzle database that powers the Daily Chess Challenge, not invented positions.
Is it free?
Yes. The board is read and analyzed right in your browser, there is no sign up, and you can do it as many times as you like.