Attacking and Defending Pieces
A piece is said to attack (or threaten) an opponent's piece if, in the next move, it could capture that piece. A piece is said to defend (or protect) a piece of the defender's color if, in case the defended piece were taken by the opponent, the defender could recapture right away. Attacking a piece usually, but not always (see sacrifice), forces the opponent to respond if the attacked piece is undefended, or if the attacking piece is of lower value than the attacked one.
When attacked, one has several options:
- Capture the attacking piece.
- Move the attacked piece.
- Interpose another piece in between the two, if the attacker is not a knight and is not directly adjacent to the piece attacked.
- Guard the attacked piece and permit an exchange.
- Pin the attacking piece so the capture becomes illegal or unprofitable.
- Use a zwischenzug (create a counter-threat).
Read more about this topic: Chess Tactic
Famous quotes containing the words attacking, defending and/or pieces:
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)
“Argument is to me the air I breathe. Given any proposition, I cannot help believing the other side and defending it.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“To save the theatre, the theatre must be destroyed, the actors and actresses must all die of the plague. They poison the air, they make art impossible. It is not drama that they play, but pieces for the theatre. We should return to the Greeks, play in the open air; the drama dies of stalls and boxes and evening dress, and people who come to digest their dinner.”
—Eleonora Duse (1859–1924)