Discovered attacks and decoys
Ready when: Forks, pins and skewers (i2) done.
What you are learning
Harder tactics: the discovered attack (moving one piece out of the way so another attacks), the discovered check, the decoy (luring a defender away) and capturing the defender. A famous short game shows how they work together.
Words on this card Board, King, Queen, Rook, Bishop, Capture, Check, Discovered attack, Decoy, Sacrifice, Blunder, Notation
- Board
- The board has 64 squares, light and dark in turn.
- King
- Moves one square in any direction. Losing it to checkmate loses the game.
- Queen
- Moves any number of squares in a straight line or diagonal.
- Rook
- Moves any number of squares along a file or rank.
- Bishop
- Moves any number of squares along a diagonal, so it stays on one colour.
- Capture
- Taking an enemy piece by moving onto its square.
- Check
- Check is an attack on the king; checkmate is check with no way out.
- Discovered attack
- Moving one piece out of the way so another piece behind it attacks, or gives check.
- Decoy
- Luring a defender away; an overworked piece has too many jobs to guard at once.
- Sacrifice
- Giving up a piece on purpose to gain something better.
- Blunder
- A bad mistake that loses a piece or the game.
- Notation
- The way moves are written down (Nf3, exd5, 0-0), and the sheet they are written on.
Show it first for the one teaching
- Put a rook behind your own bishop on a line to the enemy queen; move the bishop and the rook attacks.
- Do the same with the king on the line: a discovered check.
- Show a defender with two jobs: lure it away and take what it was guarding.
Your part while they practise
Ask "which piece is doing too much?"
Step by step
- Discovered attack.
- Discovered check.
- Decoy: lure an overworked defender away.
- Destroy: capture the defender.
How much: 5 puzzles 12 min a session 3 days a week
Say one thing Pick one line from "What you will see" for today and say only that.
The game: Guess the move
Play through Morphy's Opera Game (1858); the child guesses each of White's moves before you show it.
Who plays: the child against their own best; you show the moves.
How to play, turn by turn
- Turns
- Set up the board and play the game from a scoresheet, one move at a time
- Before each White move, the child guesses it
- Show the real move; talk about why
- Fair play
- A grown-up guesses Black's moves instead.
- Points
- 1 point for each White move guessed right; 2 points for guessing a sacrifice.
- Fouls
- No point for that move
- Guessing an illegal move
- Changing the guess after you start to move
- Winning
- Beat your best guess score next time you replay a game.
- 3 points for 1 star
- 6 points for 2 stars
- 9 points for 3 stars
Easier or harder
One-move puzzles.
Add a sacrifice.
What you will see, and what to say
- the move is a blunder
Is the piece still guarded?
Check what it leaves behind. - the child misses the check
Look at all the checks first
Checks before anything else.
Self-check
3 of 5 puzzles solved.
Fitness for this
Warm up first: how to warm up, at workonfitness.com. For strength and stretching, its exercise library shows each exercise step by step, with an easier version.
This card trains calculation.
awiseathlete.com/sports/mind-sports/mind-sports-i3