Your opponent is attacking one of your pieces, threatening to capture your piece on their next move and win material. How can you defend against this kind of threat?

There are actually several ways to defend:

1. Capture the attacking piece.
2. Move the attacked piece to a different square (run away).
3. Move another piece between the attacking and attacked pieces (block).
4. Defend the attacked piece with one of your pieces so you can recapture if your piece is captured (protect).
5. Create an equal or stronger threat elsewhere on the board (a counterattack — for example, giving a check, threatening checkmate, or attacking another piece).

The following position illustrates the various options for defending an attacked piece:

Black’s rook on e8 is attacking White’s knight on e2. How can White defend it?

• White can capture the attacking piece with 1.Bxe8! Nxe8 (this is the best option, as it wins the exchange).
• With 1.Ng3, White can run away with the knight to a safe square where it is no longer attacked.
• White can block the attack with 1.Be3. The rook could then capture the bishop, but Black would lose the exchange because the bishop on e3 would be protected by the pawn on f2 (1...Rxe3? 2.fxe3).
• White can protect the knight with one of the other pieces. Can you spot all the moves? 1.Rfe1, 1.Rce1, 1.Rc2, 1.Bb5, and 1.Bd1 would all protect the knight. The rook could still capture the knight, but then White could recapture to win the exchange.
• White could consider a counterattack with 1.g5, also attacking a knight. This would be the worst solution here, because after 1...Rxe2 2.gxf6 Bxh3 Black would have won a pawn and would be attacking your rook on f1 and your pawn on b2.

In this level, you are going to practice the most common way to defend an attacked piece: running away. As mentioned previously, this means moving your piece to a different square, where it can’t be captured or where it is defended so any capture doesn’t lose material (a safe square). Later in this course you will explore the other ways of defending in more detail.

Examples

White just played c5, attacking the bishop on d6.
The bishop cannot go to e5, because of dxe5.
It cannot go to f4, because of exf4.
It cannot go to g3, because of fxg3.
And it cannot go to h2 either, because of Nxh2.
The only good move is 1...Be7.

How to Spot a Safe Square

First, you’ll need to spot the attack. Imagine it is your opponent’s turn to move, and look at all the possible captures. Remember what you learned about winning captures and trades earlier in this book, and apply this to your opponent’s moves: Are any of these possible captures winning material? If so, your opponent is threatening a capture, and you should defend.

Then visualize the position after all the attacked piece’s possible moves, and see if the piece can still be captured by your opponent. If so, would that capture still win material?

If the opponent can no longer win material, you’ve found a safe square, and you can move there safely with the attacked piece!

Note

In this first level the threat is always capturing a higher-value or unprotected piece, and there is always only one good square to run to. In the second level, you must choose the right square, and in the third level, you have to defend against winning trades.