

Now if you simply try to solve some tactical exercises without knowing the key motifs, you will have a really hard time! You don’t even know what you are exactly looking for. Once you have seen this motif in action, it will be much easier for you to spot it in real games. Thus we call it a tactical motif, or pattern. There are many different possible ways that such a back rank checkmate can happen. He is checkmated by a sole rook on the first/last rank. Black could not checkmate White by playing Ra7-a1+ as the King has a square on h2!Īs you can see, the Black King has no escape anymore because the pawns in front of him blocked his way out. White can checkmate Black by playing 1.Re3-e8#.

The most basic Chess tactics are Checkmates. I would describe a Chess tactic as a move (or series of moves) that lead to an advantage for one side. If you are just beginning your chess journey, then this part is super important for you. Step 1 on mastering Chess Tactics is to learn different tactical motifs, also called patterns. Woodpecker Method (Book or Chessable Course) aimed at intermediate-, Club- & Titled players who want to further work on their fast pattern recognition.Chesstempo (FREE), great as a daily tool to improve tactical finesse.

