Agawam Chess Club

Two Attacks are Better than One!

Discovered Attack
An attack given by one piece when another friendly piece or pawn moves out of the way. Also known as a Discovery.
Double Attack
A simultaneous attack directed against two separate targets, which may be enemy me or squares.
Double Check
A discovered check when the chessman being moved out of the way is also checking the King. In most cases, the only way to escape a double check is to move the King.
Double Threat
Two separate threats, not nesessarily made by the same unit.

Battery
Two or more pieces of like power attacking together along the same line of squares in any direction. Two Rooks or a Rook and a Queen can form a battery along a rank or file, and a bishop and a Queen can establish one along a diagonal.
Counterattack
An attack mounted by the defender or a player who is apparently defending. This is commonly achieved with either another technique or by placing the king in check.
Jettison
Forcing your opponent to sacrafice material to save the King or to avoid the loss of even greater material.
Lever
A pawn attack at the base of an opponent's pawn chain. More often, any pawn advance leading to breakthrough pawn exchanges.
Trapping
Winning a unit that has no escape, usually by attacking it with less valuable units.

Decoys
Used to lure the opponent into moving somewhere she or he would not ordinarily move. Usually material "gifts" to the opponent; the more valuable the gift, the more tempting the Decoy becomes. Remember that losing a Queen is always worth checkmate!
Deflection
Luring a defending piece away from its post.
Overload
To tax with too many tasks, such as a chessman unable to follow through on a superficial defense of two different squares.
Removing the Defender
Making a chessman vulnerable by capturing, luring away, or immobilizing its protector.
X-Rays
A Skewer attack or defense along a rank, file or diagonal. Either it drives away the enemy man in front of another enemy man to expose the back on to capture, or it protects a friendly man through an enemy man in the middle along the same line of power.
Zwischenzug
A German term meaning "In-between move" in English. Generally a finesse, played instead of a more obvious, inferior move.