Tactics!

I've completed the first, and am about half way through the second pass of Reinfeld's 1001. You wouldn't think exploiting a simple pin would give me so much trouble!

There are pros and cons to having the tactics organised by theme. When you look at a position, you're inclined to start thinking "so, how do I find a winning move that's a discovered attack?" - then you either find the solution instantly because you were given a clue, without considering the whole of the position, or you run round in circles trying to find the discovered attack, only to realise it was simple, but you had to 'remove the guard' first. All but the most trivial of combos involve several motifs combined. Makes for lazy thinking.

When you are presented with "White to play and win (theme: discovered check)", you know there is a way for white to win... this of course is not so in a real game. A search method needs to be developed to determine the likelihood of there being a tactic, and if there is, of finding it. Breaking down tactics into themes provides a checklist of ideas to run through in analysing the position.

So, before we madly start throwing pieces around the board looking at variations, we need to make some assessments. What are the potential targets?

Target: an ideal target is a piece which is both immobilised and unprotected.

An immobilised piece is a weak piece, an unprotected piece stands on a weak square. Ennumerate the targets!

But a target is only truly 'weak' if it can be attacked. In the starting position of Chess, all four rooks qualify as 'weak pieces on weak squares', but there is no combo from that position! Next we might start looking at what attacks can be made... "Nd5 attacks the Q at b6", "If I could maneuver a Rook or Queen to h8, I have a basic mating pattern"... drawing up a pool of candidate moves.

Then themes might come into play... "if I push e5, my B at g2 makes a discovered attack on Ra8", "the f6 Knight is pinned to the Queen, can I add pressure to the Knight or deflect the Queen?".

Only then, when the ideas contained in the position have been fleshed out, and a list of candidate moves established, should the analysis of variations begin.

Some such method needs to be formalised, and so ingrained into the thought process that it becomes automatic... 'sight of board'.

Reinfeld Position #296
White to play and win
"Discovered Attack"