This is an extract from the book 1001 Chess Exercises for Club Players by Frank Erwich, published by New In Chess.

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If you agree with the famous Greek philosopher, then this is the right book for you!

By working through these 1001 (!) exercises you will train your tactical skills extensively, and I am sure this will make you a much stronger chess tactician.

I have always had a great love for the royal game, and I have been a professional chess teacher in the Netherlands since 2012.

During these seven years, I have collected thousands of tactical fragments from tournament chess practice for my pupils to study.

A broad selection of these fragments have made it into this book.

It is primarily aimed at club players.

Of course, this is a broad concept, as the levels of club players diverge enormously.

It is not easy to offer appropriate teaching material for such a broad range of readers.

Nevertheless, with the huge amount and variety of these exercises, their difference in difficulty, and the hints given below the diagrams, I am convinced that this book will be of great value to any player with an Elo rating ranging from 1500-2000.

Every game fragment highlights a certain area of the tactical spectrum.

Each chapter has a different theme, and within this theme the exercises are divided into subthemes.

The names of these subthemes can be found in the hints; in the second part of the hints (behind the ‘+’) the aim or point of the move is given.

These subthemes are arranged in order of increasing difficulty.

Of course, the notion of ‘level of difficulty’ is partly subjective.

But you can be pretty certain that any last exercise from any set in this book will be more challenging than the first.

In Chapters 1-9 you will learn and practice how to win with the most fundamental tactics: Eliminating the defence, Double attack, and so on.

In Chapter 10, you are invited to take the opposite side, and required to defend against such tactics.

Here, you will be facing your own newly-acquired weapons!

Chapter 11 is what we might call the Grand Finale.

Here, every exercise involves a combination of several different themes, and you won’t find any hints below the diagrams.

It’s almost like playing a real game!

So, in this chapter you can test your ability to use the skills you have gained in the previous chapters.

The solutions to all the exercises are given in Chapter 12.

For the execution of the right tactic in the right way, one or more preparatory moves are needed in many cases.

This means that for most exercises the solution is at least 2½ moves deep (i.e., 5 ply or more).

The reason why I have provided hints below the diagrams is that I want you to look in a specific direction.

The more you are focused on a particular kind of tactic, the better it will be incorporated into your system, and the better you will be able to apply it in your own games.

If you prefer a bigger challenge, you can cover the hints with a piece of paper or a carbon card.

To group the tactical themes in this book I have largely used the categorization introduced by Cor van Wijgerden and the late Rob Brunia in their Step-by-Step Method.

As a young player, I grew up with these great chess teachers by my side, and I still implement their method in my lessons regularly.

Naturally, I have given my own twist to this material by introducing several new categories.

Moreover, not only do the types of positions vary widely, but also the players range from elite grandmasters to post-beginners.

In some cases I have distilled an exercise from the analysis of a game.

In other cases I had to adjust one or two pieces in the original to make an exercise more sound, or more thematic.

I would like to thank Allard Hoogland and Remmelt Otten from New in Chess for their confidence, and for giving me the opportunity to write this book.

Of course I also have to mention the editorial team and their efforts to mold the manuscript into a publishable form.

They have done a wonderful job! In particular, I would like to express my gratitude to Peter Boel for his useful advice and for fine-tuning my work.

Last but not least, I want to thank my parents for their support.

Whether it is about chess or something else: they are always there for me.

I sincerely hope you will enjoy working through this book, and that you will reap the benefits of the acquired knowledge and skills in your own games.

Have fun, and good luck!

Frank Erwich
Leiden, February 2019

Discovered Attack

A discovered attack is a double attack for which the attacker uses two pieces.

By moving one piece, an attack by another piece is ‘discovered’.

A picture tells more than a thousand words, so let’s move on immediately to the first example.

Marc Erwich 2364
Marinus Kuijf 2357
Germany tt 2013/14 (6)

After the previous moves 11...♘xd4 12.♘xd4 ♕xd4, it seems Black has just captured a poisoned pawn.

Black’s queen is a target, as it is loose, and lined up vis-à-vis White’s queen.

The only piece standing between the queens is the white bishop.

The white bishop and white queen form a battery, the bishop being the front piece and the queen the back piece.

As soon as the bishop moves, the back piece attacks the queen.

With the black king in the middle it is not difficult to spot a target for the front piece: 13.♗g6+, a discovered attack (when the back piece is the one that gives check, we speak of a discovered check).

His king being in check, Black has no time to move away his queen.

Normally this will do, but here Black had a devilish trick up his sleeve: 13... hxg6 14.♕xd4 ♗xh2+ 15.♔h1

And suddenly Black is the one with a battery.

After 15...♗e5+ Black’s bishop attacks the white queen and also ‘discovers’ the rook’s check on the white king.

Black wins back the queen with interest!

Thus, in the game White played 13.♘b5.

Now 13...♗xb5 would be a real howler, as after 14.♗xb5+ White wins the queen by means of a discovered attack.

This time Black is not able to surprise White!

If 13...♕b6, then 14.♗e3 and Black is in trouble.

After 14...♕a6 White again has a discovered attack with 15.♘c7+; 14...♕c6 15.♖c1 does not help Black either.

This means 14...♗c5 is forced, but now White wins an exchange with 15.♗xc5 ♕xc5 16.♖c1 ♕b6 17.♘c7+.

Therefore, 13...♕e5 is the only move and after 14.f4 ♗c5+ 15.♔h1 ♕b8 16.b4 an exciting struggle arose.

In some of the previous exercises (see No. 7, Jongste-Hilwerda, and No. 75, Smirin-Kunche, in Chapter 1, as well as the final example from the introduction of Chapter 2, Kubo-Krings), a discovered attack was used as the first step of a combination.

In this chapter we mainly focus on the discovered attack as the final step of a combination.

The preparatory moves we know from the previous chapter come in handy.

In the next example, White could have won material with a decoy:

Pieter Nieuwenhuis 2216
Ewoud de Groote 2330
Netherlands tt 2014/15 (4)

27.♕xd8+! ♔xd8 28.♗e2+ (or 28.♗f1+).

Combining a discovered attack with a discovered check!

White wins back the queen on the next move.

27.♖g3 was played in the game.

There are circumstances in which, after one of the players has gained material by a discovered attack, there is still some work to do:

Helge Andreass Nordahl 2340
Aloyzas Kveinys 2526
Norway tt 2012/13 (9)

21...♘d2! 22.♘xd2.

White could have tried 22.♖xc8 ♘xf3+.

Black captures the knight with check while the c8♖ is still hanging, but that’s not the end of it!

With 23.♔g2 White attacks the knight, and so 23...♖xc8 24.♔xf3 is just equal.

Luckily for Black he has an intermediate check: 23...♘e1+!, saving the knight, and after 24.♔g1 ♖xc8 Black is winning.

22...♖xc1 0-1

So, no preparatory move(s) in this case, but a direct discovered attack with a follow-up for which some extra calculation is needed.

Exercises 223- 229 are similar exceptions; here, the discovered attack is not preceded by preparatory moves, and a follow-up is needed to finish the operation.

In some positions, a battery can be set up with some care:

Wesley So 2540
Abhijeet Gupta 2521
Dubai 2008 (7)

12.♖d1!

White puts the ‘back piece’ in position, threatening 13.♗a6+.

Moving away the queen, e.g. with 12...♕e5, does not help Black, as White still plays 13.♗a6+ and Black has to abandon the defence of his rook:

13...♔b8 14.♖xd8+ ♗c8 15.♖xc8#.

However, 12...♔b8 does not save Black either.

The rook on d8 is loose and White exploits this with 13.♗c2!

Protecting his own rook, while skewering the black queen and rook!

This is actually another type of double attack, which will be discussed in the next chapter.

13...♕xd1+ 14.♗xd1 and White won.

Besides the discovered attack and the discovered check, there is also the double check.

In this case, both the front piece and the back piece are giving check at the same time.

As a consequence, the enemy king cannot get out of the check by interposing a piece or by capturing an attacking piece.

The double check is often used in the mating process, and therefore I decided to give more attention to this weapon in Chapter 9 (Mate), although of course a double check can also be instrumental for winning material, see Exercise 217 (Skripa-Buksa) in this chapter, and Exercise 256 (Navara-Bacrot) in the next chapter, or even for making a draw (Exercise 505, Sreeves-Gupta, in Chapter 8).

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