~~~Tips of the Day~~~ (10)



The Double Threat

One of the favorite moves in chess is being able to threaten two pieces at the same time with your one piece. This forces your opponent to decide which piece to sacrifice. An example of this is placing a bishop in diagonal file that threatens to take two pieces. Whichever piece your opponent moves, you will be able to take the other. Another example would be placing a rook in an open file so that it threatens both a knight and a bishop. If your opponent moves the knight, you can take the bishop, if your opponent moves the bishop then you can take the knight.
This is a move that will definitely assist you in winning games. This move only gets better when you are able to threaten two pieces with a pawn. A variation to this move is to utilize a knight so that it places the king in check and the king must move so that it is out of check, allowing you to be able to take a rook or bishop etc. A knight is a wonderful piece to use in creating a double threat because of its versatility and due to the fact that some inexperienced players simply overlook the available moves that your knight has in front of it.
Defending against the double threat consists of two strategies. First is the option of retreating so that both of your pieces are defended by one another. This is not always an available option though. The second defense is to threaten a highly valued piece that your opponent has, generally a queen. If you are being threatened with a double threat and can threaten your opponent's queen, your opponent is likely to defend that queen before taking advantage of the double threat they have laid out.
 
 

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