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Core Lesson Objective: Learn the four essential ways to defend your pieces: capturing the attacker, running away to safety, blocking the attack line, and protecting with another defender.
1. Defense by Capture
Position 1 / 4
Position 1/4 • Starting Position (White to Move)
Welcome to Defending Your Army! 🛡️ In chess, keeping your pieces safe is critical. When an opponent attacks one of your pieces, there are four ways to defend it. The first method is **Capture**: can you simply capture the attacking piece? Here, Black's Bishop on g6 is attacking our Knight on e4. Instead of moving the Knight, we can capture the attacking Bishop with our Rook on g2! Play Rxg6 to eliminate the threat.
Mainline (1 Moves)
Move 1 / 11. Rxg6
Excellent capture! By taking the attacking Bishop on g6 with our Rook, we eliminated the threat and won a piece. If you can safely capture the piece that is attacking you, it is usually the most direct way to defend.
2. Defense by Running Away
Position 2 / 4
Position 2/4 • Starting Position (White to Move)
The second method is **Run**: move your attacked piece to a safe square. In this position, the Black Rook on a8 is attacking our Knight on a1, and we cannot capture the Rook. The Knight can move to b3 or c2. Since Black's Bishop on f5 controls c2, the only safe square is b3. Move our Knight to b3 to escape!
Mainline (1 Moves)
Move 1 / 11. Nb3
Well done! By moving the Knight to b3, we escaped the Rook's line of attack. Running away is a classic, highly effective way to keep your army intact when capturing the attacker isn't possible.
3. Defense by Blocking
Position 3 / 4
Position 3/4 • Starting Position (White to Move)
The third method is **Block**: place another piece in between the attacker and your attacked piece to intercept the attack. In this position, the Black Rook on d8 is attacking our Bishop on d2. Instead of moving the Bishop, we can block the attack. Move our Knight from f5 to d4. The Knight blocks the Rook's path, and it is safely defended by our pawn on e3.
Mainline (1 Moves)
Move 1 / 11. Nd4
Superb blocking! The Knight on d4 now blocks the Rook's path to our Bishop. While the Knight is now under attack, it is safely protected by our pawn on e3. Blocking is especially useful when defending against long-range attackers like Rooks, Bishops, or Queens.
4. Defense by Protecting
Position 4 / 4
Position 4/4 • Starting Position (White to Move)
The fourth method is **Protect**: guard your attacked piece with another piece so that if the opponent captures it, you can recapture. Here, Black's Rook on d5 is attacking our Bishop on d3. Move our King from e1 to e2 to protect the Bishop.
Mainline (1 Moves)
Move 1 / 11. Ke2
Excellent protection! The Bishop on d3 is now guarded by our King. If Black captures our Bishop, we can recapture with our King, trading a bishop for a rook. Protecting is a great fallback defense when you cannot capture, run, or block.
Alternative Path Available — Consider: Played in the Game: Kd2?!
Alt Step 1 / 11. Kd2
Excellent protection! Moving the King to d2 also protects the Bishop.
🛡️Editorial & Verification Standard
All 4 positions and 9 board frames in Defending Your Army (100-199 ELO bracket • Lesson archetype) have been verified with Stockfish at a minimum depth of 20 plies to illustrate the core theme of Tactics: Piece Safety: "Learn the four essential ways to defend your pieces: capturing the attacker, running away to safety, blocking the attack line, and protecting with another defender." Developed and verified by David Phillips.
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