An Introduction to Chess Tactics

The first impression is that chess is a game of strategy, which it is in all the sense of what that term implies. But given that impression, you should also realize that when talking about chess, there is a difference between a chess strategy and a chess tactic. Learning both is the right way to play chess to win. We'll only deal with chess tactics and see what options are available to players.

A brief contrast between a chess tactic and a chess strategy is that a chess strategy is that part of the chess theory that concerns itself with the evaluation of the many different chess positions and goals, which includes the tactics that will be used to reach certain goals and positions in the game. A chess tactic is something more specific compared to a strategy.

A chess tactic refers to certain succession of moves in a game of chess that brings in different benefits to a player. Such benefits of the said tactics would include positional advantage, material gain, and limiting the opponent's movement. Chess tactics are what you'll usually utilize to get the job done during a game of chess. For a certain combination of moves to be considered as a tactic one should consider what benefits can garnered from such combinations.

The tactics you'll commonly find used in a game would include the following: attacking or defending, capturing material, making use of Pawns, sacrifices, compelling the opponent to move, and intermediate moves.

Attacking a chess piece simply means to pose a threat to capture an opposing piece. Defending would mean to place a friendly piece in a position, where if an opposing piece captures a friendly unit, that defending piece can capture the opposing piece in return. Replies to attacks include capturing the attacker, moving your attacked piece, placing another piece in between, guarding the attacked piece, pinning the attacking piece, or force your opponent to make an intermediate move.

Gaining material simply means being able to capture enemy pieces. Tactics under this category include forks (one piece attacks two opposing pieces), pins (making a piece hold a position since it could expose another piece to attack), and skewers (pinning two opposing pieces in a line).

Pawns can be used to form walls to ward off the enemy. They also come in handy when attacking high ranking officials since exchanging a higher piece for a Pawn won't work that well for your opponent. The opposite of that would be a sacrifice where players give up material in order to obtain strategic gains.

Using chess tactics is the way to go when you play chess to win. Use these tactics well and reap the rewards in your games.