Chess For Novices - A Guide for Fresh Beginners and Aspiring Novices

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Chess Piece Safety

When we talk about piece safety, we're talking about leaving pieces en prise (in take). A piece left en prise means that it can be captured by an opponent, without a recapture. Sometimes this is also called hanging the piece.

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It's white's move. The a6 Bishop is en prise. The f6 Bishop is protected.

Look at the example to the right - White to move. In this case, the black Bishop on a6 is unprotected (en prise). White can just capture it. The black Bishop on f6, however, is protected. White can't capture it, because Black will simply recapture with his pawn.

Seem obvious to you? Why do we need to study something so simple?

The fact is that in most games between beginners, each player hangs pieces on multiple occasions. Does this sound familiar to you? A little bit of practice in this area can go a long way.

The next two pages present some exercises to work through.


Back - Next
Chess Tactics - Table of Contents
Introduction - What Are Tactics?
Piece Safety - Exercises (1) - Exercises (2)
Counting - Exercises (1) - Exercises (2)
Tactical Motifs Introduction
The Fork - Exercises
The Knight Fork - Exercises
The Pin - Exercises
The Skewer - Exercises
The Discovered Attack - Exercises
Removal of the Guard - Exercises
Back Rank Checkmates - Exercises (1) - Exercises (2)
Conclusion