| Piece Development |
Especially in the opening, plan to get your pieces active. Afterall, it is hard to attack without pieces to attack with! Piece development allows you to activate your pieces and gain an attack! |
| Forks |
A fork has prongs, hence a fork in chess is a multi-pronged attack. In more simple terms, a fork occurs when a piece is attacking more than one piece in such a way that it gains an advantage. |
| Pins |
When a piece is pinned to its current square it means that it either can not legally move or, if it does move, something bad will happen. |
| Skewers |
Skewers occur when a player attacks a piece in such a way that when the attacked piece moves, there is another piece behind it that will be attacked and most likely taken (gaining an advantage). |
| Discovery |
Discovered attacks and discovered checks occur when moving a piece causes an attack or check by a different piece. They often allow the moving piece to gain an advantage. |
| Remove the Guard |
Removing the guard and attraction occur when a player causes their opponent to move a piece in such a way that draws the piece away from protecting another piece. |
| Gain Material |
Gaining material simply means winning better pieces. Gaining material often involves counting pieces, visualizing multiple moves at a time, and calculating combinations. |