Lesson 17: Tactics

"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near."

 Tactics are all about multiple stage attacks - an attack which takes more than one move to complete and which anticipates the opponents move. (This means you will need to start thinking a few steps ahead. Start small: just picture what your enemy will do. Then increase this by thinking what you would do if they did that. And then what they would do to that. The more steps you can think ahead the better).

The golden rule for tactics are this: Don't be too hasty to Take easy kills. Firstly, it may be a poisoned pawn (a trap tactic) which you will learn about shortly. Secondly, even if it is not a trap, it is far better to anticipate what your enemy will do after you make that attack and then put other pieces into position first to counter those moves before you make the attack - thus - the attack will cause greater devastation! This is where tactics come in -  "When you see a good move, wait – look for a better one" 

 
Here are some well-known Tactics to try (treat each tactic as a separate lesson - do not advance to the next until you have managed to use the tactic in a game. as a hint, the minimum number of steps ahead you will have to visualise to use the following tactics are written in brackets beside it)

MANIPULATING ENEMY MOVEMENTS 

• (passive) Quiet Move  = (+2steps+) This is where you move your piece into a position that neither kills nor threatens the enemy but limits the manouverability of one of the enemy pieces by occupying a square (perhaps your piece is protected and cannot be taken). This is useful for limiting the enemies options.
• (passive) Attraction/Clearance = (+2steps+) A bait/trap to lure a piece onto (attraction) or off of (clearance) a specific square! This is usually done by offering a piece to be sacrificed onto that square. This works best where the piece you wish to lure has no option but to kill the "sacrificial" piece - (i.e. if it doesnt the sacrificial piece may kill it anyway)
• (aggressive) Coercion = (+2steps+) This is where you lure an enemy piece onto a square without using a sacrifice but by threatening them and limiting their escape routes to the square you want them to go onto.

TRAPPING ENEMY MOVEMENT (& CHECKMATES)

• Pinning = (+2steps+) In order to keep a piece where it is, it must be inbetween your attacking piece and a more valuable piece of it (often the King), so that it cannot move without exposing its own King to attack. This piece is now unable to move or kill until your attacking piece or the piece its pinned to is moved (if it does - it exposes the piece behind it to danger - This is called Skewing.). The best way out of a pin is to kill the threatening piece that is doing the pinning.
• Blocking = (+3steps+) When you see an opportunity to threaten a piece- you can turn it into a kill by blocking the escape route of the piece first. The way to block the escaperoutes is to manipulate the enemy's own piece to be in the way. E.g.1 where the enemy piece is trapped behind the first row of his pawns and a rook or queen is threatening down the back rank (Backrank mate if donw on the King). E.g.2. where the enemy piece is COMPLETELY surrounded by his own pieces and cannot escape is called Smothering. The deadly kill would come from a knight in this situation.
• Trapping = This is where you attack a piece from multiple angles - and since it could get killed in more than one way on its next move it is far more difficult to foil the attack.

COMBINATION ATTACKS

• (passive) Concentration of Superior Force = This is similar to a trapped piece where you have multiple pieces attacking a single enemy piece, except this time the enemy also has multiple pieces defending it. This move will only work if you have at least one extra attacking piece than they have defending - then when you go into war and pieces are killed back and forth - you will eventually come out winning the exchange - by killing one more piece than was killed! (Battery attacks are similar to this, except done in 1dimension/1file/rank/diagonal - whereas this attack may be done in 2d/from multiple directions).
• (aggressive) Reduction = This is probably the easiest tactic and should only ever be done if you are ahead in material. It is killing off enemy pieces even though your attacking piece will get killed in return. You should ideally rid pieces of equal or higher value (i.e. your bishop kills the enemy bishop - and then your bishop is killed by the defending knight). The reason for such a seemingly pointless move is clarity. With less pieces on the board - the possibilities are drastically reduced (which usually favour the one being defeated). This way - you still have a superior reduced army, except now you have eliminated many possibilities your opponent could have used to gain the upper hand. 

• (passive) Discovered Attack = (+3steps+) This is where you have a piece lined up to kill something but there is another piece blocking the way - so in order to complete the attack you first move the other piece out of the way - either by manipulating / attracting it away OR if it is your own then simply moving it out of the way.
• (aggressive) Surprise attack = (+3steps+) This is identical to the discovered attack except the piece that moves out of the way to discover the attacking piece behind, is also an attacking piece! OR if it is your own piece then to use it to attack something else so as to disguise your true attack and For instance, if your piece is hiding an attacking piece behind it and when it moves out of the way the piece behind can kill - but instead of simply moving out of the way - it also threatens another piece so as to disguise the attacking piece it was hiding and making it all the more of a surprise as, unless the player is very aware, they will not realise they are under threat from that piece until it is too late - a surprise attack!   

• (passive) Overburdened Pieces = (+3steps+) If you spot a backup piece that is defending more than one piece - it is overburdened as realistically it can only defend one of those pieces - you can take advantage of this by sacrificing a piece of yours to kill one of those pieces being protected and as the overburdened backup piece will respond to it and take your piece, it will leave its other piece unprotected and ready for the plucking. 
• (aggressive) Fork =(+3step+) This is where your piece is threatening to kill more than one enemy piece at the same time! in this case, the enemy cant defend all at once in one move so they save their most valuable and you can kill any of the others
  
 

 
• (passive) Interference = (+3steps+) This is where your piece moves in the path of a backup piece rendering its ability to backup the other piece blocked, and hence the other piece becomes vulnerable for the attack. This works best if the interfering piece is made to be the enemies own piece OR a piece of yours that is threatening another piece in such a way it cannot be ignored
• (passive) Distraction = (+3steps+) This is a tactic to move a backup piece away in order to kill your main target. The best way to do this is to lure it away using a bait/sacrifice. With the backup piece distracting and away from its post - you can go in for the main kill!
• (aggressive) Capturing Defender = (+3steps+) THis is simply killing the enemies defending piece before making your main attack on your target. If you didnt do this and simply went ahead with the attack on the target, the defending piece would end up killing you - so this step is simply an intermediate step to remove the backup before going in for the kill. 

RESPONDING TO THREATS OF ATTACK:

• (aggressive) Counter-Attack=  Ignore the immediate threat to the piece by threatening to kill an enemy piece of equal or higher value. This should force your opponent to consider saving their piece and shift the focus away from the attack on your piece.
  
• (passive) Retreat = This should be a last resort - as usually pieces that are being forced to move or retreat are being set up into an attack! However, when moving out of harms way it should always be done to improve your overall position on the board where possible - for example you may be able to threaten or even kill another piece with that moving piece. It is important to not simply move anywhere but into the best position for the next move or at least in a defensive position where you cannot be threatened again next move. Do this ONLY if you cannot save the piece using one of the other tactics and you really do not want to lose your piece.

 

• (passive) Sacrifice = There are times when leaving your piece to be killed is the best move - such as if there is nothing you can do to save it or if you need to clear some space or use it as a distraction. Instead of waste a go trying to defend a wasted cause you could spend that go on another attack in which you win back the material or more.
  
• (aggressive) Desperado = (+1step+) This is where one of your pieces will get taken the next go no matter what you do - and so you use it to kill a piece you wouldnt have otherwise since it would have been killed in return (in this case it doesnt matter as it would have been killed anyway)   

• (passive) Defensive Move = (+1step+) This is placing a piece to backup a piece of yours that is under threat of attack! You can build up multiple pieces to defend your piece if there are multiple threats coming your way.
• (aggressive) Zwichenzug = (+3steps+) This is a move you can make if you see the next move about to cause imminent distruction on one of your pieces and you have no way to save it - you could make another completely unrelated attack of your own on a piece so valuable that the enemy can not ignore it and has to respond to it (such as a check or a threat to the queen)which would succeed in buying you one extra turn. This is useless, however, unless this extra bit of movement now puts you in a better position to defend the oncoming onslaught than before. If not - its just plain stalling!

Practice: Try these exercises: http://www.chess-strategies-tactics.com/chess-tactics/chess-tactics-training/chess-tactics-exercises
Then Practice in games -since the best time to use tactics are after the opening - so if you want to practice quickly without having to go through an opening - play chess960 - its a form of random start and so the action is immediate