Silman Article Archive Part 7 - Chess Tactics

  Silmans Articles on Chess.com

Treasury of FREE Chess Articles By IM Jeremy Silman

501 Chess Articles from 2009 - 2023

So many of these Articles are Lessons, Games and Positions to Test and Teach the Reader.

Chess Tactics

Mating Patterns

Beginner Mating Patterns Part 1 -  6 Puzzles - Lesson on Backrank, Mate on h7, Mate on g7, Smothered Mate
Beginner Mating Patterns - Part 2 - 7 Puzzles , Lessons (SCHOLAR’S MATE and the WEAKNESS OF F7) and (FOOL’S MATE – DEATH DOWN the h5-e8 DIAGONAL)
Beginner Mating Patterns Redux - Part 3 -  16 Puzzles to Test Your knowledge of first 2 Articles in Series

Tactic Type Lessons

X-ray - Chess Taser!  - 8 Puzzles , Detailed Lesson on the X-Ray Tactic
Pins - Sharp, Dangerous, and Effective! -  10 Puzzles , 4 Games , Detailed lesson on Pin Tactic
Double Attack - The Ultimate Tactical Concept - 6 Puzzles , 2 Games , Lesson on Double Attack tactic
The Dreaded Discovered Attack - 7 Puzzles , 1 game , Lesson on Discovered Attack
The Curse Of Undefended Pieces - Lesson

Forks

The Misunderstood Knight Fork - Part 1: Greed - 7 Positions, 9 Puzzles - Lesson on Knight Forks
The Misunderstood Knight Fork - Part 2: Attack -  8 Puzzles, 2 Games  -  Slaughter With the Knight Fork
The Misunderstood Knight Fork (Part 3) – Various - 5 Puzzles - 5 Other reasons to Set up a Fork
Pawn Forks: the David vs. Goliath of Chess - 8 Puzzles -  4 Pawn Fork Ideas
An Infestation of Forks - 13 Puzzles - looking at Bishop, Queen, Rook, and even King forks.

Attacking the Enemy King Oriented Tactics

The Classic Bishop Sacrifice - Part One -  8 Puzzles - to make this sacrifice a reality is a Queen, Knight, and light-squared Bishop aiming at h7 ( 3 Key defensive ideas for Black)
The Classic Bishop Sacrifice - Part 2 -  7 Puzzles , Lesson about exploring what happens after 1.Bxh7+ Kxh7 2.Ng5+ Kg8
The Classic Bishop Sacrifice - Part Three - 5 Puzzles , 6 game Positions , 1.Bxh7+ Kxh7 2.Ng5+  In Part Three, we’ll move on to 2…Kh6 and 2…Kg6, which often leads to far more complex positions than the previous King moves.
The Classic Bishop Sacrifice - Part Four - 17 Puzzles , (All Puzzles to see if you grasped Concepts from Articles 1-3 )
Sac the House and Have Some Fun! -  19 Puzzles , 1 game 
Oddities In The Classic Bishop Sacrifice - Lesson on Bishop Sacrifice

Brilliancy Prize Tactics

Unknown Chess Players Who Won A Prize - 6 Positions where a Brilliancy Prize was won.

Can You Solve These Old Time Chess Puzzles? - 6 Puzzles that won Brilliancy Prizes w/ Interesting History

Can You Solve These Brilliancy Prize Chess Tactics? - 6 Puzzles w/ History

Can You Solve These Tactics That Won Brilliancy Prizes? -  6 Puzzles w/ History of Players

More Brilliancy Prize Chess Tactics - 6 Puzzles w/ History

History, Brilliant Chess Tactics And You! - six chess puzzles, with each game being given a brilliancy prize w/ Interesting History for Each.

Brilliancy Prizes (Players)

Garry Kasparov's Brilliancy Prizes - 12 Full Games (Puzzle for each)

Who Has The Most Best Game Prizes? Tal - 15 Full games (Puzzle for Each)

Anatoly Karpov's Best Game Prizes  - 10 Fully Annotated Games

Rashid Nezhmetdinov's Best Game Prizes - 10 Annotated Games

Tactics and Combinations (Lessons)

Learning Chess Patterns Is Easy  - Lesson  (Tactics patterns, Attacking patterns , Opening Structure patterns)

Throwing Away Your Queen - 12 Puzzles - 4 games - Topic - Queen Sacs

Classic Combinations: The Good Old Days -  8 Puzzles , History 
Can You Find These Classic Combinations? - 9 Puzzles, History
The Deadly Attacks Of Romantic Chess -  9 Puzzles, History
Classic Combinations: Historic Attacks - 8 Puzzles , History
Classic Combinations -  10 Puzzles , History

Brutal Tactics and Positional Tactics - 1 Puzzles , 2 Games  (Replaying Tal's classic game against Gurgenidze)
Tactics, Tactics, Floating in the Air - 6 Puzzles - Single Bird's Opening Game Tactics Lesson
Raging Tactics and Geometric Beauty - 6 Puzzles - Full Analysis of an Amateur game
A Cascade of Tactics - 4 Games, 3 Puzzles  - Full Analysis of an Amateur game
Calculation
How To Improve Your Calculation -  Full Annotated Amateur Game - With lesson and Tips After.
Are Tactics The Same As Combinations?  - 3 Games  (Emanuel Lasker Games )

Bishops Bounty Jeremy Silman Chess.com Article Archive - Main Page

Tactics - Overworked Defender (Overloading)

"A camel can carry a heavy load, but even a camel breaks its back with too much weight." - Proverb

Overloading
Chess Tactics Resources

The chessboard is a battlefield of cunning calculation and strategic maneuvering. But sometimes, the most potent weapon lies not in a grand offensive, but in exploiting a single overworked defender. The Overworked Defender tactic hinges on identifying a piece burdened with multiple tasks. When stretched thin, this piece becomes vulnerable, creating a golden opportunity to snatch material or deliver a devastating checkmate.

Studying Overworked Defender tactics offers several key benefits:

• Sharpen your tactical vision: Learn to identify overloaded pieces amidst the complexity of the chessboard.
• Exploit hidden opportunities: Unearth winning combinations that might otherwise go unnoticed.
• Elevate your defensive skills: Understand how to efficiently manage your pieces, avoiding situations where they become overworked.

Let's delve into a curated selection of resources designed to hone your Overworked Defender skills !

Overloading Wikipedia Article

---

Overworked Defender Chess Articles

• Predator at the Chessboard (Overworked Defender)
  Distracting The Guard (Over Worked Piece) - 17 Page Article - Deep Dive into all the Different Forms of this tactic.
  
  
• Overloading Examples - at Chessguru.net - 3 Examples w/ Explanations
  
  
• Overloaded Pieces: When two is too much. - Forward Chess Article - Identifying overworked pieces w/ a couple examples.

---

LiChess Studies (Overloading)

Explore interactive training tools to solidify your understanding of the opening's concepts.

• Intermediate: Tactics: Overloaded Piece - 7 Chapter Interactive Study - Showing Different Situations where Overloading Can occur.
• Overloaded Pieces: - 14 Chapter Interactive Study - 14 Positions where you find the overloaded piece.
• I - Tactics: Overloaded Piece - 14 Chapter Study - all Puzzle Positions to solve.
• The Overworked/Overloaded Pieces - 8 Chapter Study - Positions with Detailed Explanations.
• Overworked Pieces - 19 Chapter Study - Detailed Explanations w/ All types of Overloaded pieces.
  
  

Lichess Practice Area - Scroll Down and there is a 10 Problem Set under Overloading

---

Games Databases

Analyze real-life games featuring the Overworked Defender tactic and see how it's played in practice.

Chessgames.com

• 15 OTB Exercises - From Historic Games
  
  
• Deflection/Undermining Tactics-- OTB Examples - 21 games
  
  

---

Overworked Defender Tactics Video Lessons

Overworked Pieces - GM Ben Finegold - 25 Min - Watch how defenders are removed when they have to defend too much. Ben exploits these situations to win material and collapse structures.

How to take Advantage of overloaded Pieces| Chess Beginner Tactics - 14 Min IM Astraneh will show you when a piece is overloaded and how you can use that for your advantage.

The Overloaded Bg2 - Daily Lesson with a GM - 10 Min - There are many situations where a fianchetto Bg2 can be an overloaded piece. In this chess lesson, you'll see different examples that deal with this topic and GM Gabuzyan shares some typical patterns and ideas that exist in such a situation.

Supercharge your games by overloading those pieces | Overloaded Piece | - 19 Min - 5 Famous GM games with a guess the move spot and explanation.

Chess's most underrated tactic? Overworked pieces for intermediate players - 15 Min - Q&A about Overworked Pieces with a live class.

10 Levels of Tactics: Overloading - 30 min - ChessNerd - Video Below -A comprehensive guide on the chess tactic of overloading, where a piece is given too many defensive tasks. It offers 10 levels of tactics, each with a unique problem to solve, catering to players from ELO 0 to 2500+. (New 6/21/2024)