Today is our “summer school” day for those new to chess. Tactics are very important in chess. You have to see the dance steps that are possible in order to do the dance properly. The best advice we have often given here is to look at all check and captures. All. Even your opponent’s. When you try to think ahead, see if you can keep those checks coming. We highly recommend Susan Polgar’s Chess Tactics for Champions as one of many books that get you thinking tactically. They’re pretty simple, which is good for beginners. Try this one.

Solution:

Just what we were talking about: check, capture, the check and mate… 1.Rc5+ bxc5 2.Bc7# Now, you may very well have looked at 1.Rc5+ and said to yourself, “Oh, that loses a rook.” and not looked further and went on to look at the pawn check on the first move, which loses to a capture. You need to keep looking to see if there are follow-up checks, like the bishop check. Keeping checking for checks!

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