Winning Chess Tactics "The Decoy"

One of the last tactics that Yasser Seriwan taught was "The Decoy" The title probably gives it up, but this is the most satisfying trick in chess. This also makes the game go by faster too. Yasser Seriwan states "The idea is simple: If you find yourself wishing that one of your opponent's pieces were on a particular square, you must find a way to force him to move there." Decoy is a tactic involving a sacrifice to force the opponent's piece to the poisoned square.

In this picture, you can see that the bishop was moved right next to the king. So, the point is that the opponent attacks the bishop and will be inset for a plan to get checkmated.

One of the fundamentals of chess his to make sacrifices and this tactic of sacrifice is perfection. I have been doing this tactic for a while and it works. Yasser also added "...it's often useful to visualize the position you want and then do your best to create it (always bearing in mind that your opponent will not willingly cooperate). Naturally, the sacrifice is the prettiest kind of decoy. However, some other enticement will often do the trick." This trick is one of the best is so when playing chess this will do the trick and takes the least amount of time.

Winning Chess Tactics "The Deflection"

Yasser Seirawan addresses another tactic for you to close a chess game. Yasser Seirawan talks about how to quickly close a game at the end of creating chaos between there pieces. He adds "...you might find yourself on the brink of victory, except that your opponent clings to life as hard as he can. As often as not, his tough defense is made possible by one hard-working piece that is somehow holding everything together." So basically, it is a tactic that forces an opposing piece to leave the square, thus exposing the king or a valuable piece.

In this picture, the Queen is moved two spots left exposing the castle wide open making the opponent attack, leaving less defense on their King side making it easier to checkmate 

I would agree with Yasser as he asserts that "To break down such a position a position, you need to chase the defender away from the critical area in the hopes that the defense will then fall apart." He has a solid point to break down the opponents defense. This method is the easiest way to checkmate the king and win the game with skill.

Winning Chess Tactics "The Skewer"

Yasser Seirawan expresses another tactic to take down your foes in chess. This tactic is known as the pin in reverse. Yasser Seirawan goes into detail and says "A skewer has been likened to pin in reverse. With a pin, the attacker's objective is to win the pinned piece or the more valuable piece behind it." So, the difference between a Pin and a Skewer is that the more valuable piece is in front of the piece of lesser value.

The opponent has to move the king to save it or else it gets captured and in chess when the king gets captured that means the game is over. So, the queen is checkmating the king and the opponent has to move the king. When he moves the king, your queen has a direct shot at the opponents queen.

I honestly use this trick the most or this usually happens when I don't even realize that I have done the skewer. I'm usually playing with my family, heading into the final turns of the chess match and trying to checkmate the king, but out of nowhere I check the king and when he moves the king it leaves a wide open strike for me to attack the piece on the other side. Like Yasser said "With a skewer, the attacker objective is to threaten a valuable piece so that it is forced to move, allowing the capture of a piece behind it."

Winning Chess Tactics "The Pin"

Yasser Seirawan introduces another flawless tactic to take your game of chess to another level. This tactic is called "The Pin". Yasser elaborates more by saying "When you attack a piece that your opponent cannot move without losing a different piece of greater value, you are pinning the first piece. When the piece of greater value is the king, this tactic is called an absolute pin; when it is not the king, the tactic is called a relative pin." He continues to talk about a pin is a situation brought on by an attacking piece in which a defending piece cannot move without exposing a more valuable defending piece on its other side to capture by the attacking piece.

If you set the bishop at D5 and the opponent tries to remove your bishop then the queen will be removed because your queen will kill his queen making a good sacrifice.

I have always been using this trick, mostly when my opponent is not paying that much attention to the surrounding. I will usually take out of his guys so the opponent attacks back, but they don't realize that I have another piece ready to attack if they attack my piece. A lot of chess players probably already knew this trick just like Yasser Seirawan said: " Pins occur during all phases of the game, but they are most common in the game."

Winning Chess Tactics " The Double Move"

Winng Chess Tactics is written by Yasser Seirawan and with Jeremy Silman. Yasser Seirawan is an american chess grandmaster and a four time United States champion from Seattle, Washington! He has won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1979.

Yasser Seirawan

The Double Attack has bigger chances of causing a weakens in your opponent's game

 In the beginning of the book, Yasser Seirawan introduces his very first tactic the "Double Attack" he says "A double attack, as the name implies, is an attack against two pieces or pawns at the same time. Beginning players quickly learn that a simple attack against a single enemy piece or pawn can easily be countered in a variety of ways." He continues to talk about this tactic attacking two or more pieces or squares simultaneously. In a normal attack, a player could defend by moving the piece, exchanging it or protecting it.


Later in the book, Yasser Seirawan says "First, a double attack can be one move as opposed to a series of moves; and second, a double attack doesn't necessarily involve a sacrifice." So, later that day I played a game of chess with my cousin. In the middle of the game, he had the perfect formation for me to try the Double Attack tactic, but for this, I had to sacrifice a pawn and that sacrifice led to me taking a pawn and a bishop down.