Discovered Attack in chess: how it works
Moving one piece reveals an attack from another piece behind it.
A discovered attack happens when you move one piece and, by doing so, unmask an attack from another piece that was hiding behind it. The moved piece makes its own threat, while the newly revealed piece threatens something else at the same time - two threats for the price of one move.
Discovered attacks are especially powerful when the moving piece delivers check. The opponent must deal with the check, so the second threat goes unchallenged.
Bishops, rooks, and queens are commonly the pieces that 'come alive' in a discovered attack, because they work along lines and can be blocked by friendly pieces until the right moment.
Discovered Attack examples
Knight moves to attack; the bishop behind it is suddenly unblocked
When the white knight on d5 moves to f6 (attacking the black king on e8 or giving check), the bishop on c2 is now free to attack along the c2-g6 diagonal. Black faces two problems at once: deal with the knight check, or deal with the bishop's newly revealed threat. Because both happened in one move, this is a discovered attack.
Knight moves to c6 attacking the queen, rook gives discovered check to the king
The white knight on d4 moves to c6, which attacks the black queen on e7. At the same moment, moving the knight off d4 uncovers the white rook on d1, which now fires along the d-file and checks the black king on d8. Black has to deal with the check first, so the queen on e7 is lost. One knight move created two simultaneous threats - that is the power of a discovered attack.
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