The Best Chess Tactics For Beginners
Improving your tactical skills is one of the fastest ways to improve at chess. Chess tactics for beginners very often decide the outcome, especially among those who are relatively new to the game.
However, learning chess tactics for beginners can be daunting. How can you quickly learn the most important tactical patterns and can start using them to win more games?
This article is here to help. In it, you will learn:
- Why tactics decide most games at the beginner (and intermediate) level.
- The most important tactics every chess player ought to know.
- How to turn chess tactics training into a daily habit.
Introduction: The Importance Of Chess Tactics
There is a lot to learn when you are starting out in chess. It is normal to feel overwhelmed by all of the jargon - the Caro-Kann Defense, the Maroczy Bind, zugzwang, en passent, the wrong rook pawn endgame… the list goes on.
Faced with such vastness, it can be difficult to know where to start.
One of the most common beginner mistakes is spending too much time studying openings. As a beginner, you do not really need to memorize opening moves yet. Instead, your time would be much better spent practicing chess tactics.
“Tactics” are the short-term sequences that offer opportunities to gain a decisive advantage over your opponent. For example, when you can win an enemy piece by force, irrespective of how your opponent responds.
The reason that tactics are so important for chess beginners is that the majority of games are decided this way. Before learning key principles of chess strategy, you first need to be able to reliably spot the way to win your opponent’s queen when they have blundered. Chess players at the sub-1000 level make many serious mistakes. If you can simply take advantage of these mistakes when they present themselves, you will win many games.
If you are rated under 1000, then you should spend most of your training time working on chess puzzles. This is the best way to sharpen your tactical skills. As an added bonus, solving chess puzzles is a fabulous way to make fewer blunders! It all adds up to becoming a stronger chess player. We have a recommended way to train tactics at the end of this article.
We will now move on to our list of the most important chess tactics for beginners. These are the first tactics that everyone new to chess should learn!
Chess Tactics You Should Know
#1 Checkmate
The ultimate aim in chess is to checkmate the enemy king. Because of this, checkmate is a key motif in many tactical combinations. Threatening checkmate is the greatest threat possible. Your opponent cannot ignore it. If they do, they will lose the game immediately.
It pays to learn the basic checkmate patterns. There are many such patterns, but some of the most important ones for beginners include:
- Back-rank mate.
- Ladder mate.
- Scholar’s mate.
Below is an example where the back-rank mate motif allows White to win a pawn with the move 1. Rxd5!
The point of this chess tactic is that Black cannot recapture via 1. …Rxd5?? If they did, then White would be able to checkmate the Black king in one move via 2. Qe8#. A classic example of the back rank mate!
Related: The Checkmate Patterns Manual by Raf Mesotten is the most comprehensive guide available, covering every mating pattern in chess.
#2 Double Attack
Also known as a “fork”. This chess tactic involves making two (or more) threats simultaneously. The opponent cannot deal with both. After they respond to the most serious threat, you will be able to carry out the other threat when it is your move.
An example of the double attack is shown below.
White’s knight attacks both the Black king and queen at the same time. Black must move their king out of check, whereupon White will capture Black’s queen next. Once the dust settles, White will be left with a rook and a knight, while Black will be reduced to just their lone king. With proper endgame technique, White should be able to easily win.
Related: Improve your endgame skills with Silman’s Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner To Master.
Knights are particularly adept at creating double attacks. Many games have seen dramatic reversals in fortune thanks to an unexpected double attack from a knight!
#3 Skewer
A skewer is when a more valuable piece is attacked in front of a less valuable piece. Once the more valuable piece moves out of the way, the less-valuable piece can be captured.
Here is an example of a skewer.
White’s rook has Black’s king in check along the sixth rank. The Black king must move out of the way. Once it does, Black’s queen will be captured by the White rook on the next move.
#4 Pin
You could think of a pin as being the opposite of a skewer. Here, the more valuable piece is behind the less valuable piece (instead of the other way around). Therefore, the less valuable piece cannot escape without the more valuable piece coming under fire.
Below, Black’s queen is pinned in front of their king. Even if it were Black to move, there is no way for Black to save their queen.
Black’s queen cannot move away from the White bishop’s attack on the dark-squared diagonal. Doing so would place Black’s own king in check - which would be an illegal move. White will eliminate the Black queen on the next turn, resulting in a winning position for White.
#5 Discovered Attack
The discovered attack is one of the most dangerous chess tactics of them all.
Be on the lookout for it any time you have a piece lined up against an enemy piece, with another one of your own mobile pieces interposed between them.
Here is an example of the discovered attack tactic in action.
With White to move, White can play the brilliant 1. Rc8!!
The reason that this move works so well is that White creates two threats at the same time: that of checkmate via 2. Rxf8#, along with capturing Black’s undefended queen via 2. Qxb6. Astute readers may have noticed that this also represents a double attack. Additionally, it uses the back-rank checkmate motif.
Black needs to deal with the checkmate threat, most likely with 1. …Rxc8. But after 2. Qxb6 Black can still reasonably resign the game due to the loss of their queen.
#6 Trapped Piece
Enemy pieces with limited mobility can find themselves with no escape.
In the below position, it is White to move. White can use the trapped piece motif to gain an overwhelming material advantage. Can you see how?
Via the modest pawn advance 1. g4, the Black rook on f5 is trapped. The rook is attacked by White’s g-pawn, and all other available squares are either controlled by White, or blocked by Black’s own pieces. As you gain experience in chess, you will start noticing when the trapped piece motif may be in the air.
#7 Removing The Defender
Sometimes, we can eliminate an important defensive enemy piece, opening up opportunities on the squares that they were previously responsible for defending.
It is Black to move in the below position. Can you see how Black can gain a decisive material advantage in just two moves?
Black’s first move should be 1. …Rxf1+. Note that because this move is a check, White does not have time to capture the hanging Black queen. Once White recaptures via either 2. Kxf1 or Rxf1, Black’s next move will be the same: 2. …Qxg3, eliminating the White queen.
Previously the White knight was defending the White queen. But because White started the combination by capturing the knight (removing the defender), Black gets to capture the enemy queen without White being able to capture back.
How To Improve Your Chess Tactics
Now that you have read through this list of the most important chess tactics for beginners, you may be wondering: what is next?
It is one thing to read a list of tactics. It is quite another to be able to reliably notice these tactics in your own games.
The secret to rapidly improving at chess tactics is to practice them every day. Consistency is vital. It is better to dedicate, say, 20 minutes every day to solving tactics, than to concentrate your practice in a single 2 hour session once per week. By exercising your tactical “muscles” often, you will develop a sixth sense for when to be on the lookout for these opportunities.
It is essential to employ tactics that are suitable for your level. If you are a beginner, there is no use attempting to solve exercises meant for more advanced players. You will quickly become frustrated. Save those until your skill level has improved.
Instead, choose a beginner-friendly tactics training workbook. Our top choice is Everyone’s First Chess Workbook by Peter Giannatos.
Containing 738 carefully selected exercises based on the author’s experience as a trainer at the Charlotte Chess Center, Everyone’s First Chess Workbook is the perfect guide for beginners wanting to level-up their tactical skills.
Once you have been through this book, you will be:
- Winning more games and;
- Ready to test yourself with more challenging tactical exercises!
This book may also be worth studying even if you are an intermediate chess player. The well-known chess publisher Jacob Aagard shared an interesting insight in a recent interview on the Perpetual Chess Podcast. Aagard has come to believe that there is great value in solving so-called “easy” tactics. Practicing simple tactics will help imprint them in your mind at a subconscious level, enabling you to spot them even when you're tired towards the end of a long game or under time pressure.