In Chess, a discovered attack is when one piece is moved and there is another piece behind the piece that was moved on the same rank or file that is now attacking an opponents piece by default.
These attacks can make for powerful double attack if the piece moving is also moving to attack another piece. The piece moving is attacking a piece and the piece that was “discovered” behind the piece is now attacking a piece. When the discovered attack is against the enemy King, this is known as a discovered check.
Examples
Example #1
This is a game I recently had on Chess.com. I was losing, I was down material, but the discovered check I was able to pull off won the game for me.
Example #2
In the position below, White can deliver a discovered attack and a discovered check by moving the Bishop on e4. This will reveal the Rook on e1 putting the King in check. If the Bishop moves to xyz for example, it will be a double attack.
Example #3
Discovered attacks can also target specific squares, not just pieces.
In the position below, do you see a square that White could target with a discovered attack?
That’s the power of the discovered attack. They are also more difficult to see for beginner players since it’s hard enough just to see all of the threats coming directly from pieces in front of the other pieces facing their pieces.
Discovered attacks can create skewers as we just saw, they can also create pins and forks. These attacks will take longer for beginners to become skilled in deploying and defending against.
I hope this guide on the Discovered Attack helped you. if you liked this post, you may want to learn other Chess Tactics like the Zugzwang and Interfering.