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The six basic tactics

Here's eight of them!

The different types of tactic are:

  • jumps (discovery)
  • mates
  • forks
  • pins/skewers
  • nets
  • ties (undermining and overloading)

Here's one of each:

Click on [...] to see games list.


[Event "Basic Tactics"]
[Site "Italy?, "]
[Date "1801"]
[White "Greco,G"]
[Black "NN "]
[ECO "C41"]
[Annotator "An ancient Queen fork"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.h3?! Nf6 4.c3 Nxe4? {# After the Knight, the piece
that is best for forks is the Queen} 5.Qa4+ c6 6.Qxe4 1-0

[Event "2.2 Pins"]
[Event "Basic Tactics"]
[Site "Boras, "]
[Date "1956"]
[White "Sturell"]
[Black "NN "]
[ECO "C44"]
[Annotator "A terrible pin"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3 d5 4.Qa4 dxe4 5.Nxe5 Qd5 6.Nxc6 Qxc6? {# Black
hopes to swap Queen for Queen} 7.Bb5 1-0


[Event "2.4 Nets "]
[Event "Basic Tactics"]
[Site "San Francisco (4), "]
[Date "1960"]
[White "Koltanowski,G"]
[Black "Nolan,W "]
[ECO "C40"]
[Annotator "No retreat"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Qf6 3.Nc3 Bc5 4.Bc4 d6 5.d3 Ne7 6.h3 Ng6 {# Black is
trying to build up an attack, but..} 7.Bg5 1-0


[Event "3.1 Jumps"]
[Event "Basic Tactics"]
[Site "Oberwart op (4), "]
[Date "1992"]
[White "Komarek,L"]
[Black "Korn,A "]
[ECO "C44"]
[Annotator "A modern jump"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3 d5 4.Qa4 Qd6 5.exd5 Qxd5 6.Bc4 Qe4+ 7.Kd1 Bd7 {#}
8.Bxf7+ 1-0


[Event "3.2 Undermining"]
[Site "Ruy Lopez"]
[Date ""]
[White "W"]
[Black "B"]
[ECO "C65 "]
[Annotator "Removing the guard"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.d3 a6 {# White doesn't usually get to
carry out this idea in the Ruy Lopez:} 5.Bxc6 dxc6 6.Nxe5 1-0



[Event "3.3 Overloading"]
[Site "ProMoPro Open Prague CZE (4), "]
[Date "2004"]
[White "Cebis,P"]
[Black "Nemec,V "]
[ECO "C44"]
[Annotator "Overloaded"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Nxc3 Nc6 5.Nf3 d6 6.Bb5 Bd7 7.0-0 a6 8.Bc4
b5 9.Bb3 Be7 {# Black's Bishop on d7 can block the attack on f7, but it
is already doing the job of defending c6} 10.Qd5 1-0


[Event "7 Checkmates"]
[Site "Denmark, "]
[Date "1986"]
[White "Kofoed,K"]
[Black "Pape,R "]
[ECO "C40"]
[Annotator "Mate with a pawn"]
[Result "0-1"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d5 3.exd5 e4 4.Qe2 Nf6 5.c4 Bc5 6.Nc3 0-0 7.Ng1 Bg4 8.f3
exf3 {# White saves the Queen but loses the King} 9.Qd3 f2# 0-1


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