Attacking motifs
Discovered attack
By Antoine TamanoUpdated
In a discovered attack, a piece moves out of the way and reveals an attack from the piece behind it, so two threats land at once.
A discovered attack is a battery: a line piece (queen, rook or bishop) with one of your own pieces in front of it, on the same line as an enemy target. When the front piece moves, the line opens and the rear piece attacks. The front piece is free to make its own threat at the same time, and that is the whole point: two attacks land in a single move, and the opponent can answer only one.
What makes it WORK is the second threat. A discovery that only unmasks an attack lets the opponent move the target. So the front piece must go somewhere that matters: a check (the strongest, because a check must be answered first), a capture, an attack on the queen, a mate threat. When the rear piece gives the check and the front piece makes the capture, it is a discovered check: the opponent is busy with the king while your front piece takes whatever it likes.
How to spot it: find your batteries, a rook or a queen behind a knight on a file, a bishop or a queen behind a pawn or a knight on a diagonal. Then follow the line past the front piece to the enemy piece it would hit. If that piece is the king or the queen, look at every square the front piece can reach and ask what each one attacks.
At higher level the battery is built one move earlier: a piece is placed in front of a line on purpose, or the target is dragged onto the line by a check or an exchange. And the best discoveries need no check at all: the front piece simply attacks a second piece, and the opponent, facing two threats, saves one.
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Questions
What is a discovered attack in chess?
A discovered attack is when one piece moves out of the way and reveals an attack from a piece standing behind it, so two threats appear on the same move. The piece that moves is free to do something aggressive of its own, because the threat it uncovers is already doing the work.
What is the difference between a discovered attack and a discovered check?
A discovered check is a discovered attack where the piece revealed is attacking the king. It is stronger, because the check must be answered immediately, so the piece that moved away is free to capture something or move to a square where it would otherwise be taken. A double check is the strongest version: both pieces give check, and only a king move can answer it.
How do you find a discovered attack?
Look for your own pieces standing on a line in front of a queen, rook or bishop, and ask what happens if the front one leaves. The best discovered attacks are the ones where the moving piece creates a second threat, so the opponent has two problems and one move to solve them.
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More attacking motifs
One of the rarest discovered checks comes from an en passant capture that clears the line in front of a rook or bishop.