Discovered Attacks
Discovered attacks have the potential to be devastating against your opponent if played correctly. Let’s look at how discovered attacks work and how they can be exploited for your own gain.
What are Discovered Attacks?
Discovered attacks are attacks that are caused by your pieces moving out of the way. For example, in the diagram, below, the rook on c1 would be attacking the black rook on c8 if the knight was not in the way. However, black cannot take the white knight because if he takes the knight, then white takes the rook and white gains the advantage and can then checkmate him with the one rook checkmate. In the diagram below, notice how I highlighted the knight and it moving it to a6, where it can check the king. If the king moves out of check by moving away from the rook, white gains a rook, but if the king moves up to b7, where he is out of check but still protecting the rook, so if white took the rook, then the black king can take and white does not gain an advantage.
How can they be used to your advantage?
They can still be useful for taking other pieces. If you threaten a powerful piece, like the queen or rooks, by moving a piece out of the way and making sure that one of the two pieces is attacking a major piece and the other a smaller piece, you will usually be able to make your opponent waste their moves and lose some pieces. In the example below, white moved their knight out of the way of attacking the queen, and so black has to defend their Queen by moving it out of the way, and so allows the knight to capture the black rook, giving White the advantage here.
Author: Shiven Sasipalli
