Every chess motif, one page at a time

Chess is a small number of shapes that keep happening. This is the list of them, from mate in one to rook endgames, each with worked positions from real games and somewhere to go and drill it.

• 87 motifs
• 10,440 positions
• 16 sections
• Free, no account needed

There is a moment in improving at chess where the board stops being sixty-four squares and starts being a handful of familiar shapes. A knight two moves from a square that touches both the king and the rook. A rook on the same file as a queen with one piece between them. A king on g8 with three pawns in front of it and no luft. Players who have that do not calculate faster than you. They calculate less, because they recognise the shape first and check it second.

Every page below is one shape. Each one explains what it is, how it actually announces itself over the board, three positions taken from real games with the answer explained, and how to stop walking into it yourself. All of them link into the free trainer, where the same motif has 120 more positions graded across five levels.

Tell two patterns apart

• Pin vs skewerThe same line, read in two directions
• Fork vs skewerTwo targets, or two targets on one line
• Deflection vs decoyDrag a piece away, or lure it in
• Zwischenzug vs zugzwangTwo German words, no relation
• Skewer vs x-rayAn attack now, or an attack waiting
• Discovered attack vs double checkOne threat uncovered, or two at once