Discovered Attack in Chess
What is a discovered attack
A discovered attack is an attack that appears after one of your pieces moves off a line and lets another of your pieces attack an enemy piece.
Put simply: one piece makes the move, and another piece, which was blocked before, does the attacking.
Discovered attacks are most often made by a rook, a bishop or a queen, because they attack along lines. The piece that moves off the line is often a knight, a bishop or a pawn.
How it differs from a discovered check
In a discovered check, the uncovered piece attacks the king. In a discovered attack, the uncovered piece attacks any other piece: a queen, a rook, a bishop, a knight or even an important pawn.
A discovered check is stronger, because the opponent has to save the king. But a discovered attack often wins material too: the piece that moved away makes one more threat while the opponent is saving the attacked piece.
Why it works
The opponent can protect only one piece per move. If with one move you create two threats at once (one with the uncovered piece and one with the piece that moved), it is usually impossible to deal with both.
How to find a discovered attack
- Find your long-range piece (rook, bishop, queen) whose line is blocked by one of your own pieces.
- See which enemy piece will come under attack if that piece moves away.
- Check whether the blocking piece can move off the line safely and usefully (with an attack, a capture or a defense).
- Make sure the opponent can't defend against both threats at once.
Tips to spot the idea faster
For kids
Imagine one piece is a "curtain" with a "cannon" hidden behind it. While the curtain is closed, the cannon is silent. As soon as the curtain moves aside, the cannon fires at an enemy piece.
And if the curtain also captures something while it moves away, that's a really powerful move: two threats at once.
For adults
Look for blocked lines of your long-range pieces and check whether the piece in between can move away with tempo: with an attack, a capture, a defense or a mating threat.
A discovered attack is especially valuable in positions where the opponent has no time to protect both pieces at once.
Examples
Try it yourself: make a move on the board. If you get stuck, press "Show solution".
1. The bishop opens the rook's attack on the queen
Idea: the white bishop stands on e4 and blocks the e-file for the rook on e1.
After Bxh7+ the bishop leaves the line with check, and the rook's attack on the queen on e7 opens up. While Black is saving the king, the rook takes the queen.
Solution: The rook took the queen on e7: the bishop left the file with check, and Black had no time to save the queen.
2. The knight opens the queen's attack along the diagonal
Idea: the white knight on d4 blocks the long a1 - h8 diagonal for its queen.
After Nf5+ the knight leaves the diagonal with check, and the queen on a1 attacks the black queen on h8. Black has to move the king out of check, and on the next move White takes the queen.
Solution: The queen on a1 took the queen on h8: the knight opened the diagonal with check, and Black had no time to deal with the attack.
3. Double attack: the knight takes a rook and opens an attack on the queen
Idea: the white knight on e6 blocks the e-file for the rook on e1, and it can also take the black rook on c7.
After Nxc7+ the knight takes the rook with check, and at the same time the rook on e1 attacks the queen on e7. Black loses both the rook and the queen.
Solution: The rook on e1 took the queen: with one move the knight took a rook with check and opened the e-file.