Tactics are useful for trapping your opponents and winning material, and ultimately the game.

The most basic tactics are forks, pins and skewers, of which forks and pins are the most important in my opinion.

Forks

Forks are when a piece attacks 2 pieces at the same time, with knight forks being the easiest to get.

Knights aren't the only pieces that can fork. Pawns can fork too.

The Fried Liver is a type of fork to watch out for in games that can win a rook. This short game shows some ways to avoid it:

Pins

This is when a piece is stuck blocking a more valuable piece, and cannot move or else the more valuable piece gets captured.

Here is an example of the most common pins:

Skewers

Skewers are Iike the reverse of pins: the most valuable piece HAS to move.

For example:

This skewer is the most common type of skewer, but skewers are rarer than even some more advanced tactics.

Hopefully this lesson will help you get better at chess.

Cobham Chess Club