Discovered Attacks
Discovered attacks can be considered a more advanced technique in chess. The key idea behind them is that you move one of your pieces, and by doing so attack one of your opponent’s pieces with a piece behind the piece that was moved. This means that the piece which is now threatening your opponent was not moved on that turn, but has become a threat because its line of attack was opened when you moved a piece away. Due to the native of discovered attacks - that they must be along lines of attack - only pieces that attack in such a way, queens, rooks and bishops can perform this move. However, it can be any of your pieces that are moved out of the line of attack to unveil the discovered attack.
Let’s have a look at a simple example to get to grips with the concept behind discovered attacks.
This is a pretty straight-forward example. The white rook moves out of the way to allow for the discovered attack by the white bishop. By moving to f1, white also ensures that the bishop is protected whilst attacking the black queen.
Discovered check
One specific type of discovered attack is known as the discovered check. As the name suggests, this is when the target of the discovered attack is the opponent’s king. This can often be used to huge advantage depending on the piece that is moved to uncover the check. If, for example, the piece moved can be used to subsequently threaten a high value piece, then you have a good chance of being able to take that piece on the next turn. It essentially gives the checking player a ‘free move’ with the piece they move to uncover the check. This is because, unless it is within striking range of the king, it will always be able to move again following the check, since the opponent must somehow escape from check.
Let’s have a look at this example.
This move is highly advantageous for white. Moving the bishop uncovers the rook sitting down at e1, which checks the black king without having moved. Black protects the king with the black-squared bishop to e7. White can then capture the black queen with the bishop. This ‘free move’ was used to great effect by white, putting the bishop in a position to take the queen.
Discovered attack with check
Opposite to the previous move, the dicovered check, a discovered attack with check can also be used to great effect to gain an advantage in the game. It involves, as usual, uncovering an attack by moving a piece out of the way of another, but with that piece checking the king. Even if it means sacrificing the piece, if the piece being attacked with the discovered attack is of high enough value - typically the queen, but also a rook - then it can becomes an effective technique to employ. Let’s see an example of this in action.
This example is very similar to the previous one, but now the roles of the bishop and rook are somewhat reversed. The bishop is still the piece that moves to uncover the attack by the rook, but this time the bishop is checking the king. Of course, it’s sacrificed in the process and taken by the king, but the white rook can then come swooping in to capture the black queen and take a considerable advantage in the game.
As black here, could you find a better move in this situation to avoid such a great loss of material. In the example shown above, black loses the queen (worth 9 points) and a pawn (worth 1 point) and recaptures the 3-point bishop, losing 7 points in this exchange, but there could be a better outcome for black here. Leave it in the comments section below if you can find it.
Double check
The term double check refers to a combination of both of the above moves. Not only is the uncovered piece checking the king, but also the piece that has moved. In this case, your opponent has no choice but to move the king to a square which is not under attack, since there are two pieces checking it now and it will never be possible to block both checks with another piece. Let’s take a look at a double check in action.
This is a simple example, where the white bishop moves to uncover the check by the rook behind. At the same time, the bishop itself is also checking the king, meaning that black is now in double check and is obligated to move the king, since no single move can stop both the bishop and the rook’s checks. This could be of benefit to white if black was hoping to castle at any point to secure the king, since castling is only possible before the king has moved (see our post about castling in chess for more detail).
Double attack using discovered attacks
Another good use of the discovered attack is to use it to attack two of your opponent’s pieces at the same time. Differently from a double check, where the king is attacked by two pieces, here you use two pieces to attack two different pieces of your opponent’s. Consider the following example:
In this scenario, white uses a discovered attack on the black queen, while also attacking the black rook on h8 with the same move. This is a double attack, since both the queen and rook are under attack. Black sensibly moves the queen to safety and ends up losing the rook. It’s also an undefended rook, so black has no chance to recapture the white bishop after the rook falls. This double attack leaves white 5 points better off - if we look at the rest of the board, white was already losing considerably, so needed to take back some material!
Turning a skewer or pin into a discovered attack
As is briefly discussed in our posts about pins and skewers, one way to escape from those maneouvres is to use a discovered attack to reverse them. This only works for relative pins, but can work for both relative and absolute skewers.
Let’s consider the following example as a way to take a skewer and turn it into a discovered attack.
In this simple scenario, white moves the bishop to b6 to skewers black’s rook with the aim of taking the black bishop behind. However, black has other plans. Black uses the check opportunity of the white king to create a discovered attack right back on the black bishop, using white’s own bishop. Black then captures the white bishop and has successfully reversed the skewer into a discovered attack with check in order to capture white’s bishop with no sacrifice on black’s part.
Let’s have a look at another example, this time without check involved:
Another simple scenario, but one that often shows up during gameplay. This time the attack is being uncovered by a simple pawn move. Black pushes the pawn up from f4 to f5 and in doing so threatens to take the white rook. At the same time, the black bishop is attacking the white queen. At this point, white would likely move the queen and allow the rook to be captured, unless an escape were available. If the bishop were unprotected, white would most likely take it before allowing the rook to be taken.
As you can see, there are many variations to the discovered attack, all of which can be used to gain an advantage in a game of chess. More so than trying to execute them yourself, it’s important to be able to spot them coming up from the opponent. It’s not uncommon for a player to miss the threat of a discovered attack and lose their queen once the discovering piece (i.e. the piece that moves to uncover the attack) checks their king. This can be a decisive manouevre in a game and you should always watch out for your opponent setting themselves up for a discovered attack against you, as well as being wary when executing a pin or skewer that your opponent cannot reverse it with a discovered attack.
If you have any comments, feedback or questions about anything in this post, leave them below.