Discovered Attacks: The Hidden Chess Tactic Every Beginner Should Know

A discovered attack is a powerful chess tactic in which one piece moves to reveal an attack by another. Learn how to spot it and use it in your own games.

Some of the most powerful tactics in chess are the hardest to see because the attacking piece does not move at all. These are called discovered attacks, and learning them can win you many games.

A discovered attack happens when you move one piece out of the way and reveal an attack by another piece behind it. The piece behind is usually a bishop, rook or queen, because those pieces attack along lines. For example, if your bishop is behind your knight on the same diagonal as the enemy queen, moving the knight suddenly lets the bishop attack the queen.

What makes this tactic so strong is that the moving piece can also do something useful. It might attack another piece, give check, or capture something. Your opponent then faces two problems at once and usually cannot solve both.

A special case is the discovered check. Here the revealed attack is on the enemy king. Because your opponent must deal with the check, your moving piece is free to go almost anywhere, even to a square where it can be captured, and it may grab material along the way.

The most powerful version is the double check, where both the moving piece and the revealed piece give check at the same time. Against a double check, the only legal reply is to move the king, because no single move can block or capture both checking pieces.

How can you spot discovered attacks? Look for your long-range pieces, bishops, rooks and queens, that are blocked by one of your own pieces. Then ask: if I move the blocking piece, what does my long-range piece attack? Also look at your opponent's pieces in the same way, because they can use this tactic against you.

A good exercise is to set up a position with a rook behind a knight on the same file as the enemy king, then try every knight move and see which ones also create a threat. Practising like this trains your eyes to notice hidden lines on the board.