Chess is an art. And the middlegame is the canvas. You must have your brushes and colors ready to showcase your creativity on the canvas. In the case of chess, tactics are the brush of your canvas – the middlegame.

Hello chess enthusiasts! It’s been a while you haven’t got anything from your chess nerd. Well, here I am! In this issue, we will discuss how you can win more games with a little effort and a lot of passion to the game. We’ll talk tactics.

Learning chess is hard, and improving at chess is even harder. That’s where the tactics come in. Learning tactics is an inevitable part for improving at chess. If you are new to the game – mastering some basic and easy-to-learn tactics will be a fun way to win more games – whether online or over the board. It will give you a substantial advantage in the game, and can sometimes lead you to immediate victories. Basically, tactics win you games.

Tactics are specific moves in specific situations. They can also be a sequence of moves as well depending on the position. Tactics are short maneuvers unlike strategies. Let’s focus on the short part today.

Among all the tactics – three of the most important ones are pins, skewers, and the forks. Don’t worry if you are wondering how a fork ended up on a chessboard. Consider these three tactics as your path to improving middlegame skills. You will find your opponent extremely frustrated and annoyed with themselves when you fork their pieces. Trust me, they do.

Well, enough theory. Let’s jump into practical learning.

The Pin

 Each piece in chess has its own value. From pawn to king – from lower valued pieces to higher values pieces.

A pin is when you attack a piece that has a more valuable piece behind it. Let me demonstrate it further.

Have a look at the white bishop. It is attacking the black knight on d4, and there is a rook right behind the knight on the same diagonal the bishop controls. If the black knight moves anywhere, the rook will be captured by the bishop.

Knights are worth 3 points, and rooks are worth 5 points. The white bishop is attacking a lower-value piece (the knight) while a more valuable piece (the rooooook!) sits right behind it. Hence, the black knight is pinned.

Let’s see another example.

Look at Black’s poor knight on e5. White’s dark-squared bishop is attacking the knight, and there is a queen—a higher-value piece—right behind it. If the knight moves away, the queen will fall. And I know you don’t want that. Pins are powerful!

The black pawn on g7 is tempted to take the white dark-squared bishop. But moving this would open the king’s file to the white queen staring down at it. Capturing the bishop would be an illegal move. The pawn is pinned. This type of pin is called an absolute pin—where the pinned piece cannot move at all. The rest are relative pins—where the pinned piece can move, but doing so would lose a more valuable piece.

Key takeaway: Pins trap pieces in front of more valuable ones. Always look for them!

The Skewer

I want to ask you a question first.

What have you learned so far? What is a pin?

If your answer is that it’s basically when a lower-value piece is attacked in front of a higher-value piece, congratulations—you now have one weapon ready for the middlegame phase.

A skewer is very similar to a pin. Just swap the higher- and lower-value pieces with each other, and that – my friend – is a skewer.

There is no better way to learn something than with an example.

The black king is in check. The attacking piece cannot be taken or blocked. The only option is to move the king.

If you pay attention, you’ll see that the rook behind the king—on the same diagonal—falls immediately. Queen takes rook is the next move if you don’t blunder!

The king is the most valuable piece on the chessboard. Protecting it is literally the purpose of the game. As soon as the king (the higher-value piece) moves, the rook (the lower-value piece) is ready to be taken. Yes, a skewer works almost exactly like a pin.

Have a look to another one.

Follow the white rook on b1. It attacks the black queen on the same file. There is a bishop near the end of the b-file. You wouldn’t give away your queen, am I right? You must move the queen, and you’ll lose your fianchetto bishop.

A fianchetto bishop is a bishop that controls the longest diagonals on the board.

And thus, you’ve just seen another example of the skewer tactic—this one from a real game.

Key takeaway: Skewers force higher-value pieces to move, leaving lower-value pieces exposed. Always watch for them!

The Fork

Forks are one of the most basic and deadliest tactics of all. A fork — as its name suggests — is when a piece attacks multiple pieces simultaneously. All the pieces on a chessboard can be used to strike a fork.

It’s the time to take help from our old buddy – the examples.

Let’s start with a simple pawn fork. The white pawn gives a check to the black king. At the same time, the pawn is attacking the black rook. It’s attacking two pieces at once. Since it’s a check and the checking piece cannot be captured, the king must move to a safe square—let’s say Kg5. The rook, therefore, falls.

Forks almost always guarantee winning material—and sometimes even the game. Let’s move on to the next example.

This example is from a real game in the Lichess database. The white pawn on g4 executed a beautiful fork, forcing the opponent to give up either their knight or bishop.

How about other pieces when it comes to forks?

Among the other pieces, knight forks can make your opponent feel miserable—literally. In my second FIDE tournament, where I earned my FIDE rating, I lost the last match due to a royal knight fork. Trust me, you don’t want to be a victim of knight forks—but you’ll love it when your opponent feels that way.

Here is a basic knight fork for you.

It’s checking the White king while also attacking the rook on a8. Black has no choice but to move the king, and White will happily capture the rook.

If you pay close attention, you’ll notice that you cannot capture a knight that is forking you. Knights move differently in chess, which makes a forking knight especially dangerous.

But I have something even more exciting for you.

The player playing White in this position wants nothing more in life. That knight on f7 delivers a nasty fork on Black. It is attacking not two, but three pieces simultaneously. This type of fork is called a family fork, where more than two pieces are attacked. The queen is falling for sure.

I strongly suggest you to explore the forks of the other pieces we didn’t see here – and try to solve some fork puzzles.

Key takeaway: Forks attack multiple pieces at once, often winning material. Spot them to turn the game in your favor!

Conclusion

If you want to crush your opponent in chess, you must polish your middlegame knowledge. This gives you an advantage even before the game really begins.

To start, focus on learning three of the most basic yet powerful tactics: pins, skewers, and forks.

And lastly – win some games, my friend!