This is a tactic/pattern I see in my games all the time. Wouldn't want to think about how many times it's occurred when I didn't see it! This pattern usually happens during the late opening stage or early mid-game.

What is needed? You must have a knight, with bishop and queen behind it (diagonally), and said knight has a pawn to capture. This pawn must be on a square where the knight capturing, will now defend the bishop. Your opponent must be attacking the knight with their own bishop. The diagram should make sense of all this.

If I had been keeping track of examples, I would have 100 games to show you this pattern! But here is one anyways which I noticed today. I actually let the pattern happen to me, but luckily my opponent didn't notice it.

In the diagram, I am white, and it is black's move. Black could have won a pawn with Nxd5! It would leave my bishop hanging, and if I play Bxe7, black can recapture Nxe7, winning a pawn. In the game black played b5.

PLEASE NOTE: This example is an on-going correspondence game, and therefore I have not checked my move with an engine. Please do not give any lines or moves in the chat for a couple weeks!

Hikaru and Buddies

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