DHE Y BESS ¥ McKay Ch Chesn dihrary for RideDavid MacEnulty a Ale Random House Puzzles & GamesJor Elizabeth and Edward ‘The Chess Kid's Book of Tactics Copyright © 2003 by David MacEnulty All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without the written permission of the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Random House Puzzles & Games, Random House, Inc., New York, NY. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited. Random House is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc. Visit the Random House Puzzles & Games Web site at www.puzzlesatrandom.com Typeset and printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available. 0987654321 July 2003 ISBN: 0-8129-3509-8 New York Toronto London Sydney Auckland **Acknowledgments This book would not have been written were it not for the two Bruces. My mentor, Life Master Bruce Alberston, whose innovations in chess teaching have been an inspiration to me at every step along the way, and National Master Bruce Pandolfini, who has been both friend and guide as I traveled the always exciting world of chess. Iam very grateful to the following teachers for their valuable assis- tance in reviewing an early version of this manuscript: Stephen Herx, Alex Beltre, Fritz Gaspard, Mitchell Fitzko, and Elizabeth Vicary all made important suggestions that have been incorporated into this book. Iam also indebted to Grandmaster Miron Sher and National Mas- ter Bruce Pandolfini for lending their wisdom to this project. Most importantly, I thank my students at C.E.S. 70; they were the in- spiration for this book, and I have used many positions from their tour- nament games in this work. Several of the games in this book have appeared previously in Irving Chernev’s 1000 Best Short Games of Chess, and Bruce Pandolfini’s Traps and Zaps.10 11 Contents Introduction for Parents vii Introduction for Kids = x Chess Basics 1 Tactics Overview 8 En Prise 14 Take a More Important Piece 22 More (or Better) Attackers than Defenders 28 Forks 35 Pins 56 Skewers 76 Discovery and Discovered Check 83 Double Check 91 Overload or Overworked Piece 96vi Zen 2 Contents 12 13 14 15 es 17 Remove the Guard 105 Deflection 112 Decoy 120 Trapping 127 Make the Right Capture 134 Mixed Tactics 147 Part One 149 Part Two 155 Solutions to Mixed Problems 164 About the Author 166Introduction For Parents This book is based on two big ideas: 1. The chess player who knows tactics beats one who doesn't; 2. Tactics are based on basic patterns that can be learned through organized puzzles. Many of the tactical puzzles in this book were used to train young players on our chess team at Community Elementary School 70 in the Bronx. These remarkable children went on to become New York City, New York State, and National Champions. Our team dedicated a lot of time to understanding the basic patterns of chess tactics. We also worked on openings, endings, and checkmate patterns, although these are not covered in this book. While each of those areas is very important, and I look forward to sharing our tech- niques in future books, | believe that learning tactics is the place to start. This book focuses on the tactical patterns that can occur in any game of chess. The intent is to give the beginner who just knows how the pieces move a thoroughly practical and enjoyable way to get better quickly. There is a famous quote that chess is 99% tactics. Understanding many of the common checkmate patterns depends on certain tactical viiIntroduction For Parents ideas, and many opening ideas are based on tactical considerations. One of the few times my team was beaten in a match was when I had been focusing on openings and neglecting tactics. We had great posi- tions out of the opening, but our opponents beat us with superior mid- dle game tactics. We immediately shifted our training back to tactics, and three weeks later we won the National Championship in two dif- ferent sections (K-5 Championship and K-6 JV). When | first started teaching, I was frustrated by the search for ma- terial on tactics. Most of what was available was either too difficult for beginners, or was not thematic in approach. I couldn't find a book that broke the patterns down in the way my beginning students needed. I started borrowing a little here, a little there, and finally realized I would have to create my own book. The more | learned about teaching, the more I learned what my students needed, and the better I was able to construct puzzles to help them learn better. I realized that what I had been doing was making puzzles for chess that are similar to the exer- cises musicians have been using for centuries. My first training was as a musician. I spent thousands of hours prac- ticing scales, intervals, and many other exercises to master my craft. These technical exercises are based on the idea that musicians’ fingers and ears must have an automatic response to the thousands of musical patterns they perform. Since repetition is the mother of retention, mu- sicians practice these patterns over and over and over. This book, then, is a chess version of music technique books. First, the student is given a very basic idea, or pattern, and then they have a chance to practice it with many examples. Just as a musician learns to play one note, then another, then a third, and then joins them together for a simple tune, chess players must learn one pattern, then another, and then join them together for a connected series of moves. Musicians need ear training; chess players need eye training. We need to be able to see patterns on the chessboard just as a musician hears patterns of sound. This can only be done by repetition. We must see the pattern many times in many variations before it becomes an au- tomatic part of our repertoire. Indeed, pattern recognition is the key toIntroduction For Parents success in every field. From woodworking, house painting, and writing to horseback riding, business, and medicine, people perform best by un- derstanding patterns. I strongly suggest that, just as a musician practices an exercise many times, the student go through this book many times. The more times he or she sees a pattern, the more that pattern becomes intuitive. At this early stage in a chess player’s development, verifying the an- swer is critical. For this reason, I have provided answers at the bottom of the page. The student can quickly check the answer without having to go to the end of the chapter or the end of the book to find the correct move. The print on these answers is intentionally small, so the student can easily cover the answers while trying to solve the problems. Check your answers! After verifying the answer, look at the pattern again to lock the picture in your brain. At the end of each chapter, there are a few games featuring the tactic presented in that chapter. In each game, one player makes a significant error. Errors in chess frequently invite a tactical shot. A large part of winning at chess is taking advantage of the mistakes of your opponent. Some of the errors in these games are clearly the moves of total begin- ners, whereas others are a bit more subtle. The final section of puzzles, Mixed Tactics Part Two, starting on page 155, are a significant step up in difficulty from the earlier ones. In the earlier puzzles, the tactic is simply there, waiting for you to find it. In the final section, the student must find the move that sets up the tacti- cal trick. These will require a lot of thought and a lot of patience—two qualities chess players are known for. If the final puzzles seem too difficult at first, students should put the position on a board and try to figure it out with all the relevant pieces in front of them. Ideally, they should try to solve the problems without moving the pieces. The trick is to do them in their heads, as if they were playing a real game with a live opponent. This takes a lot of practice, but the rewards are well worth the effort.Introduction For Kids Tactics are the tricks and techniques chess players use to get a quick ad- vantage in the game. Tactics win games. It’s that simple. This book is loaded with these tricks and techniques. The more you know, the better you play. The better you play, the more you win. A big part of knowing tactics is practicing them, so this book will give you plenty of practice. First we show you a simple idea. Then we give you puzzles to solve to help you lock in the idea. That way, when you see this situation in your own games, you can use your experience to get a winning position. The answers are at the bottom of the page to make it easy to check your solutions. Try to solve the problems without looking at the an- Swers. Once you have done all the puzzles on a page, look to see if you got them all right. If you missed any, go back and study the position to see why you might have missed the correct move. Then go on to the next page. If you find you are missing more than one on a page, go back and do the chapter again.Chess Basics Naming the Squares To understand this book, you must understand algebraic notation. For- tunately, it is easy to learn. The first thing to do is to know how we name squares. The chessboard is a square arrangement of sixty-four smaller squares, laid out in eight rows of eight squares each. The rows going sideways are called RANKS. Ranks are numbered 1 through 8. The rows going up and down the board are called FILES. Files are named after the first eight letters of the alphabet, a through h.bss 2 |G The Chess Kid’s Book of Tactics ae ‘eee oa mi aaa Vi, ‘agitce a ee a ae jE ee FILE d PNW RUAN Ow As an example of how we name squares, the five-point star in this dia- gram is on the d-file and also on the 4th rank. So the star is on the square we call d4. The ‘d’ is a lower case letter, and the letter comes before the number. We would not write this as D4, nor would we write it 4d. In chess, we always name the file first, and it is always a lower case letter. What square is the four-point star on? answer: 92. Naming the Pieces There are six different pieces in the chess army. Below are the names of the pieces, the symbol used in notation, and a picture of what it looks like on our diagrams. Name Symbol _ Picture 8 | King K @ ; i Queen Q wy 5} Rook R Ez 4] Bishop B & : Knight N a if Pawn P £ abedefghZl Chess Basics (ee) 3 Note that we use only upper case letters as symbols for the pieces. That way there is no confusion between the upper case B for Bishop and the lower case b for the b-file. You may have noticed that even though the word Knight is spelled with a ‘K’ as the first letter, we use the letter N as the symbol. That’s be- cause we need the letter K for the King. Other symbols used in chess: + at the end of a move indicates that this move puts the opposing King in check. ++ at the end of a move indicates a double check (see page 66). # at the end of a move indicates that this move gives checkmate. 0-0 is used to indicate castling on the Kingside, where there are two squares between the King and Rook. 0-0-0 is used to indicate castling on the Queenside, where there are three squares between the King and Rook. 1-0 means White wins. 0-1 means Black wins. 1/2-1/2 means the game is a draw. ! indicates a strong move. g indicates a weak move or a mistake. dis dis means discovery Reading and Writing Chess Notation Reading and writing chess notation is simple once you know the names of the pieces and the names of the squares. There are various forms of notation, but the most popular form, and the easiest to understand, is algebraic notation. In this book we will use the following style. First, we begin with a number. The number simply tells us which move we are on. So, if there is a 1. in front, it’s the first move. If there is a5. in front, it is the fifth move. Next comes the symbol for the piece that is moving: K for King, Q for Queen, B for Bishop, N for Knight, or R for Rook. We do not give the symbol for the moving unit if it is a Pawn. Finally, we name the square the piece is moving to.The Chess Kid’s Book of Tactics t18t . Y Y a, UY, WG G Z We BEN RUAN O In this diagram, White has moved a Pawn from e2 to e4, and Black has moved a Pawn from e7 to é5. Since this is the first move for each side, we write this as: 1. e4 e5 The White move is on the left, Black is on the right. Since these are Pawns, we do not use the symbol for the moving unit. HRW RUA © In move two, both sides brought out a Knight. Now the moves are written like this: 1. e4 e Q. Nf3 Nc6 Note that we use the piece symbol (N for Knight). White's next move will be 3. d4 Diagram after move 3 on the next page.La Chess Basics Oo 5 Is this what you thought it would look like? The position after 3. d4. A d Be al ame Pe soneesie For Black's third move, he takes the pawn on d4. We write this as 3. ... exd4 The 3. means it is the third move of this sequence. The three dots sig- nify that it is Black's move. The ‘x’ means that a capture has taken place. Next, White will recapture the Pawn with the Knight on f3. We write this as 4, Nxd4. In this book, the moves are often written in paragraph form. TheThe Chess Kid's Book of Tactics moves we have shown so far would look like this: 1.e4,e5; 2.Nf3, Nc6; 3. d4, exd4; 4. Nxd4 If two similar pieces can both get to the same square, you must note which one is moving. For example say you have a Knight on c3 and an- other Knight on d2. If the Knight on c3 moves to e4, you would write this as 1. N(c)e4. That way we know it is the Knight on c3, and not the Knight on d2 that is moving to e4. This should be enough for you to be able to read all the notation used in this book. Exchange Guide In chess, we take pieces from our opponent and our opponent takes pieces from us. In order to make a good exchange, we need to know what the different units are worth. These point values indicate the rela- tive strength of the different units in the chess army. The Queen, the most powerful piece, has the most points. The Pawn, being the most limited, has the lowest point value. All other things being equal, the following table will help you deter- mine whether or not you are getting an equal exchange when you trade pieces or pawns. The exception below notwithstanding, it’s usually bet- ter to have more points than your opponent does. Point Values Q Queen = 9 Points R Rook = 5 Points B Bishop =3 Points N Knight = 3 Points P Pawn = 1 Point K King = The Game _(The king cannot be taken) Naturally, the position on the board is the true indication of the ab- solute value of a given piece at a given time. If your opponent has a Queen, a Rook, two Bishops and five Pawns, and you only have a RookAan“ Chess Basics es) 7 Bae and a Bishop, you are probably in big trouble. If it is your move, how- ever, and you have checkmate on the move, your five-point Rook and three-point Bishop are worth more at that moment than your oppo- nent’s nine-point Queen, five-point Rook, two three-point Bishops, and five one-point Pawns. At that moment, your eight points are worth more than his or her twenty-five points. Checkmate wins the game. The point values are only to help you decide whether or not to make a trade.Tactics Overview Tactics are the tricks and techniques chess players use to get a quick advantage over their opponents. We will begin with the most basic ideas, and gradually grow from there. Tactics can be found when: 1. There are loose pieces (pieces that are unprotected); 2. Pieces are poorly guarded; 3. Pieces are lined up on ranks, files, or diagonals in ways that expose them to attack; 4. The King is exposed or is in some way vulnerable. When you see any of those situations on the board, look for tactics! If none of those conditions exist, there probably aren't any tactical shots. 8Vaz Tactics Overview les) 9 The tactics we are going to examine in this book are: En Prise (pronounced “ahn preez”) If you can take a piece for free, we say the piece is en prise. If a piece is en prise, it is under attack and not protected. Take a More Important Piece If you can trade pieces, but the one you will take is worth more than the one you will lose, you get a material advantage. For example, let's say you can take a Rook with your Bishop, but you will lose the Bishop. You are taking a more important piece than you are losing, thereby getting an advantage in material. More (or Better) Attackers than Defenders The idea here is to attack something more times than it is defended. If you attack something three times and it is only guarded twice, you can get it. A similar idea is when something is defended by more important pieces than those attacking. An interesting point to make here is that often a less important a piece is a better defender than a more impor- tant one. For example, if a Bishop is attacked by a Knight and Rook, but defended by the King and Queen, the Bishop is in trouble. Al- though the defenders equal the attackers in number, neither defender can risk being taken. Either the Knight or the Rook could take the Bishop with impunity. Fork A Fork in chess occurs when one unit attacks two or more enemy units. A fork is sometimes referred to as a double attack, although the term double attack can also have a much broader meaning. All the pieces can fork, but the Queen and Knight, attacking in eight different directions, are the best pieces to fork enemy units.10 )| The Chess Kid's Book of Tactics Pin A Pin occurs when a long range piece—Queen, Rook, or Bishop—at- tacks an enemy unit, and if the enemy unit were to move, there would be an attack on a more important piece behind it. A pin against the King is called an Absolute Pin, because the pinned piece is forbidden to move. If it were to try, the King would be in check. Since you can never make a move that puts your King in check, it is against the rules to move a piece that is pinned to the King. All other pins are Relative Pins. It may not be a good idea to move the piece held by a relative pin, but it isn't against the rules. Skewer A Skewer is like a Pin, except that instead of attacking a weaker piece in front of a more important one, the more important piece is in front. When the more important piece moves away to escape the attack, the piece behind it can be taken. If the pieces under attack are of equal value, say two Knights, that is also a skewer. Discovery A Discovery is like the Pin and Skewer, except that instead of an enemy unit between your long-range attacker and the enemy target, your own piece is blocking the attack. In a discovery, you move your blocking piece out of the way, revealing an attack from the long-range piece behind it. Naturally, you would like to do as much damage as possible with the moving piece. If you can attack something else with the moving piece, then you have two attacks at once. Frequently, your opponent will have to give up something. Double Check A Double Check is a very forcing kind of discovery. One piece moves away, revealing a check on the enemy King. However, the moving piece also gives check. When the King is in check from two directions, it mustZA Tactics Overview eo) 11 move to escape. Capturing or blocking one check still leaves the other in force. In some situations the King can move out of one check by taking the other unit that is attacking, but even in this case, the King must move. A double check freezes the entire army while the King makes a move to escape from both attackers. Removing the Guard, Overload, and Deflecting These are all ways of diverting a piece from its task. Each of these has a slightly different meaning, but they all have to do with making an enemy piece leave a protective post, or possibly taking advantage of the fact that it cannot leave a protective post. If you can make the protect- ing piece leave, whether by taking it (removing the guard), forcing it to take one of your pieces (overload), or chasing it away (deflecting), you can then get the piece it was guarding. Removing the Guard Removing the Guard simply has to do with taking a piece that is guard- ing something else that you can also take. If you first knock off the guard, then there is nothing protecting the treasure. Take the guard, then take the treasure. Overload Overload is also called an Overworked Piece, which means one piece that is doing the work of two. Overload and Removing the Guard are also forms of Undermining. Deflecting In a Deflection you chase a piece away from an important defensive post. You can do this by either attacking it to make it move away, or by forcing it to take one of your pieces. In accepting your sacrifice, a piece will have been deflected away from its original position, and you can then take advantage of its absence. Some writers call this idea Distrac- tion or Driving Away.12 The Chess Kid’s Book of Tactics Decoy Sometimes you want an enemy piece to move to a new square so you can do something to it in its new location. The technique we use for this is called the decoy. Other terms for the same idea are Driving On, At- traction and Luring. Some authorities use the term decoy only as an endgame term, where one side has an outside passed Pawn that is sacri- ficed to lure the opposing King away from the main body of Pawns on the other side of the board. However, Maxim Bloch and Yasser Seirawan, in their excellent book on tactics (7he Art of Combination, 1997), use the term as it is used here. Trapping If a piece has no safe moves, it is trapped. Attack it and take it. Make the Right Capture Making the best capture when you have a choice of taking two (or more) different pieces can mean the difference between winning and losing the game. There are many times when a young chess player threatens an enemy piece, and the opponent makes a move that allows the piece to be taken. Your opponent's moves make a big difference in the position on the board. Sometimes the opponent simply made a mistake, and you can now get the piece you attacked first for free. But sometimes it’s not a mistake. Sometimes it’s a trap, and if you go for the first piece, when the trap springs shut, you will come out behind. When you have choices to make about capturing, make sure you choose the right one. If you choose the wrong one, you can come out way behind. Forewarned is forearmed. In the words of a great teacher, National Master Doug Bellizzi, “Consider every capture.” Many young players play too fast to do that. This is not a tactic you will find in most books: The special chapter on capturing in this book is included to show some typical mistakes a young player can make, and to show why these mistakes were made.Tactics Overview Attack In chess, attack means that one piece is in position to capture an enemy piece on the next move. In the diagram below, for example, the White Bishop on f1 could move to c4 to attack the Black Rook. This is a bit different from the normal use of the word. In common usage, if we say one person attacked another we mean that there was actual contact between the two. In chess, attack means to threaten contact. ae mata" s Vi, Vi Ae a a Ne ae RN wR UDA @ Capture A Capture is when the threatened attack is carried out. So if the Rook doesn’t move, White will take the Rook. A Note on Terminology The terms we use in this book are fairly standard, but tnere are occa- sional disagreements about the precise meanings. For example, if one piece is protecting another, and you drive it away, you have performed a tactic we call deflecting. Someone else may well argue that the guard has been chased away, and call this removing the guard. What is im- portant here is that, regardless of what they call it, both players would certainly agree on what move to make in the position. They may each use a different term, but they clearly agree on the move.En Prise (Take a piece or pawn for free.) what’s the big idea? 14 If you are attacking a piece or pawn that your opponent has left unguarded, you can simply take it. It’s free. There are no tricks or traps in the position. If there were tricks or traps, and you would pay a price for the capture, then it is not en prise.En Prise jes) 15 In the diagram below, White has an easy capture. The unguarded Black Bishop on f7 is under attack from the White Rook on f3. With White to move, the Rook can simply swoop down and capture the Bishop. The Bishop is en prise. — ws *s NS oe “Wy nthe Zi WY = NV -s “a, a TW oe “ ane mt Yi, a a ae d tA D200 WY BNW KR UW DAN © .. White to Move Chess players need to look at the whole board. We need to know where every piece is and what each can do before we make a decision about what to move. 1. Find the piece that is attacking an unguarded piece. Q. Take the unguarded piece.ee The Chess Kid’s Book of Tactics En Prise Puzzles \ Vy me 429), _ nate a= ms ata" a UY a Sb a Be oe 1. White to Move 2. Black to Move \ w' .. \ \ a 'N “s_ \ . \ oe “ aa a 2.8 ao" “ ‘a ale ae Vi BNW HUAN N Ha = Ll it ab cde fo hh 3. Black to Move 4. Black to Move answers: 1.1.64. The Knight is gurced by the Pawn, 2. 1. ... Kxe5. The Rook is guarded by the Knight. 3. 1. ... 05. Notice that 1 ... Rid is not free: the Knight takes back on d4; that's a simple trade that also loses the Pawn after 2. Nxdl4-+ and 3. Nxb6. 4,1... 06+.En Prise |) 17 En Prise Puzzles “a “ @ “oe .. (|Z ZZ st "at — “@| ‘FAW e a aan ‘el | ‘1B Gig g msi UD IGFZAZGe A. ‘Fats stat V el 3 am ne fs 2 Yj} Yj a bc d 6 fob 5. White to Move ab G de Fog hh 6. Black to Move 7 ce «6 s 8 mel a 7 : an 6 es RX Oe 5 4 A 4 a Hae 3 ‘ Ca 8 em 2 @ bc dc ft eh 7. White to Move answers: 5. 1.cxd5. 6.1... Bxht. 7. 1.Nxe7. 8. 1... x96. 8. Black to MoveZee 18 |G) The Chess Kid’s Book of Tactics Z| HRW RUA @ EN WRU DAA © En Prise Puzzles 8 7 6 5 Py Catese C3 2 7 : £F, oils 17 ee Ze Ae coo q. White to Move 10. Black to Move a 8 A. UY, 74, “a an o «| # "wa ae aa a Ay aoe ca a Zi z 1 ab cd e« f ¢ oh @ bic de fo fh ni. White to Move 12. Black to Move 9. 1. Kxf3. The Bishop and Pawn protect each other. Taking either with the King is legal 10. 1. ... Bx 11. 1. Qxb7. 12. 1... Rxc3PNW hk Uw? © Ew RUD Nw answers: ss 8] Ui, la. : ay YZ, ‘(| Y9 FY 6 as ‘A ‘| YY 3 = 1 N W WY nue Y Y i, i a abc de — @ a 49b cd cf ¢ h 13. Black to Move 14. Black to Move — = i ati fae Fol aa rm a Gren BNW RUA w abedefgh 15. White to Move 16. White to Move 13. 1... Qrb2 14.1... gxh4. 15. 1. Bxa8 16. 1. Nxd8.20 The Chess Kid's Book of Tactics games featuring En Prise Game 1 “ 1. e4 es 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Ng5? QxNg5 Oops. Down a Knight with nothing to show for it. This situation has occurred countless times in the games of students. White's third move, in addition to giving a piece away, is also a viola- tion of an important opening principle: unless you have a very good rea- son, don’t move the same piece twice in the opening. Why move a piece twice when you could use that second move to get out another piece? Then you would have two in the field instead of just one. Another thing wrong with White's third move is that it sends a sin- gle piece charging into enemy territory with no support. What was the Knight going to do, take on the whole Black army alone? You will hear that it is not good to bring out the Queen early, but if your opponent wants to give you a Knight, bringing out the Queen to take it is clearly a good idea. There are a lot of exceptions to the gen- eral principles. Game 2 Center Game 1. e4 es 2. d4 exd4 3. Qxd4 Nc6 4, Nc3?? NxQd4 Oh! Again, from a student game, this is another case of chess blindness. White didn’t notice that his Queen was under attack! He simply left the Queen en prise. :En Prise | 21 Game 3 Two Knights Defense 1. e4 e5 2. NFS Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6é 4, d3 d5 This is a little risky. White is ready to castle, and Black is not. Opening the center usually favors the side with the safer King. 5. exd5 Nxd5 6. 0-0 Bc5S Te ket Black notices the e5-Pawn is hit twice and only guarded once. She doesn’t want to play 7. ... f3, exposing her King to a possible diagonal attack later, so she backs up the Bishop. 7. Bdé But that blocks the queen's protection of the d5-Knight. She left it en prise. 8. BxNd5Take a More Important Piece (Get more points than you lose) what’s the big idea? If you trade pieces, but the one you take is more important than the one you will lose, you will get a material advantage. 22aI Take a More Important Piece ie) 23 Let's say you are attacking a Rook with your Knight, but if you take the Rook, your opponent can take your Knight. Should you take the Rook? Certainly! The Knight is worth three points, and the Rook is worth five. You will come out two points ahead. This is your material advantage. In the diagram below, what piece can Black capture that is more im- portant than the piece he will lose? “What to Doo 4 1. Find a piece that is under attack. us 2. Determine the relative values of the pieces. 3. If the piece under attack is worth more than the attacking piece, you can make the capture and gain a material advantage. Wow 4t It’s not the pawn on a3. The Bishop is worth more than the Pawn. It’s not the Knight on d4, because Knights and Bishops are about the same value (3 points). Take the Queen (9 points)! Even though you lose the Rook (5 points), you get a more important piece than the one you lose. You just gained a material advantage.a4 The Chess Kid’s Book of Tactics Take a More Important Piece BN wR UDA & PN wR UW DY © ab oc de (6 h abedefgh 1. White to Move 2. White to Move a bcd ¢ f& 6 i 3. Black to Move 4. Black to Move answers: 4.1 Nxf6+, 2. 1. Bxf6. 3. 1.... dxed. eeZe Take a More Important Piece |(¥)} 25 Take a More Important Piece PN RUAN Ow abcecdefgh 6. Black to Move ami maPatan a ~t a zg @ ab c def oh 7. White to Move 8. White to Move a ede RN wR UD w answers: 2 ee 6. 7... Bed. 7. 1. Bxa8. 8. 1. Nxd7.26 { The Chess Kid’s Book of Tactics Take a More Important Piece 8 8 7 74 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 j Ze OS 1 j , a boc d 6 f 6 ih oc ee q. Black to Move 10. White to Move 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 i ) i peo} abc dg ¢ ff GG a bec dc f 6 h Ti. White to Move 12. White to Move answers: ee 9 1... dxc3. 10. 1, Bxa. 11. 1. exf6. 12. 1. Bxa5 or fxe4, BxaS is MUCH better—always look for a better move.ee Take a More Important Piece ie 27 game featuring Taking a More Important Piece Game 4 Scandinavian Defense (or Center Counter) 1. 8. oo, Gre to e4 exd5 Nc3 Nf3 BeQ Bxf3 Bxo7 Bxa8 ds Qxd5 Qds Bg4 Bxf3 Nf6é Nd7 Qxa8 White gets a Rook and Pawn for her Bishop.More (or Better) Attackers than Defenders (Attack something more times than it is defended) what’s the big idea? The idea here is to attack something more times than it is defended, or to attack with forces that cannot be taken by the defenders because of the difference in value. 28aI More (or Better) Attackers than Defenders @ 29 YA In the diagram below we show two examples (not from a real game; there is no Black King). On the Kingside, the two White Rooks attack the Black Knight on g8. It is only guarded once, by the Rook on f8. The attackers win because there are more of them. Two against one is usu- ally bad for the one. A similar idea occurs when something is defended by more impor- tant pieces than those attacking. On the Queenside, the number of at- tackers is the same as the number of defenders, but the quality is very different. When Black takes the Knight with either the Rook or the Pawn, White cannot take back with the King, since that would be check, and should not take back with the Queen, since that results in a big material loss. The attackers win, because the defenders are worth more than the attackers. 8| Wy “I 1. Count the number of attackers; 2. Count the number of defenders; 3. Determine the relative values of the attackers and defenders. Vw RUD To be successful, it takes one more attacker than there are defenders, or weaker attackers than defenders.ere 30 |G) The Chess Kid’s Book of Tactics 7 PNW RUAN Ow BNW RUD I @ More (or Better) Attackers than Defenders 37/2 = ate — “ea re o a. ae a: a, A oo Y PN UR UA YO Z S| oa vac aeen 1. White to Move 2. White to Move 7 nw = Vi 6 q ae 5 4 3 2 ( 1 ab ce de f oh a bec de f oh 3. Black to Move 4. Black to Move answers 1. Two attackers and one defender. 1. Bxd6, Bxd6; 2. Rxd6, White wins a Knight. Notice the Bishop cap- tured first. In cases of a sequence of captures, you usually want to lead with the lower value units frst. The first piece in will probably get taken, so you want to lead with a less valuabie unit. 2. Two attackers and one defender. 1. Rxe3+, Rxe8; 2. Rxe8+. White wins a Rook. 3. Three attackers and two defenders. 1. ... Nxd4; 2. cxdl4, Bxd4; 3. Bxd4, Qxd4. Black wins a Pawn. 4. In this puzzle, there are two attackers and two defenders, but the defenders are too important to de- fend! 1. ... Pxf3, and White is unable to recapture. 2. Qxf3 loses the Queen, and Kxf3 is illegal. For extra fun, figure out what White might do here, and tow Black would respond. (1. ... Bxf3+ also works, but tak- ing with the Rook is better. In this case, we didn’t lead with the lower unit first because White isn't going to recapture anyway, and we want the discovery when the Rook moves—see page 83)