Blockade is a tactical method by which a the player forces his or her opponent to block the path of a more important piece (often the King) which then becomes an object of attack.

Breaking the shelter of the king can be realized by sacrifices. Starting point for combinations like this are weaknesses caused by the pushing of the pawns on the wing the opponent has castled to. Another reason could be a disadvantage in the development of the opponent's pieces and a lack of space.

Catching of a piece is a method which aims at limiting the movement of an opponent's piece by which the piece will be captured.

Check is the direct attack of the opponent's King by one of the player's pieces.

Chess combination is a sacrifice and forced sequence of moves to gain a certain advantage.

Decoy is a tactical method which is used to force a piece of the opponent to move to an unfavourable square. Once occupying this square, this piece will soon be lost or it disturbs the coordination of other pieces so that one of those will be conquered by the player.

Deflection is a tactical method used to distract a piece of the opponent from the defence of an important square, file or the protection of another piece.

Discovered attack is achieved by moving away a certain piece the player opens the way for another piece which immediately gets attacking possibilities.

Double attack is simultaneous attack of two pieces of the opponent by a pawn or any other piece.

Elimination of a defending piece is a tactical method which liquidates defending pieces of the opponent. The piece in question can be cleared away by means of exchange or sacrifice.

Interception is a tactical method which consists of disturbing the coordination of pieces the opponent has standing on the same file or to prevent the opponent's pieces from reaching important squares.

Intermediate move is a move which was not considered by the opponent in calculating his/her variation or combination. Intermediate moves can disturb our calculations, change plans or cause the failure of combinations.

Mate is when a piece of the checks the opponent's King against which no defence is possible. To mate the opponent is the aim of every chess game.

Open file is a vertical line in which no pawn is left (neither your own or opponent's).

Opening of a file, the aim of this tactical method consists in moving away a piece to open the file (diagonal) for another piece. As a result the player may win an important square, shift a piece to a more active position or prepare a threat.

Overloading is when a piece has to protect two or more pieces, squares or threats at the same time. In situations like this opportunities often arise to benefit from the overloading by distracting the piece from one or several of its' protecting tasks.

Passed pawn is a free running pawn. The opponent has no pawn on the same or the adjoining files. A passed pawn is usually a big advantage because of its capacity in certain cases to limit the moving possibilities of the opponent's pieces and to be the topic of a combination.

Pawn breakthrough is when one or several pawns are sacrificed in order to create a passed pawn which cannot be stopped from conversion.

Perpetual check is when the King of the opponent is exposed to a sequence of checks from which he cannot hide. Usually this method is used by a player with a worse position in order not to loose the game. Perpetual check is the most frequent type of chasing.

Pinning a piece is when it cannot move away because a more valuable piece then would be lost, a key square would be attacked or the King would be standing in the check.

Play for stalemate is done by a player, usually with worse position by sacrificing his/her last pieces in order to reach a stalemate position.

Sacrifice is when material is voluntarily given up to the opponent in order to obtain other kinds of advantages for example attack, open King etc.

Space clearance is similar to the opening of a file. This method is used when a piece occupies a square urgently needed by another piece. The disturbing piece should be moved away, preferably without losing time. This means that the piece checks the opponent, attacks a piece of the opponent or is even sacrificed. In this way the opponent hasn't got the time to take any steps of defence.

Weakness of the back rank very often occurs when there is insufficient protection of the first (last) rank by heavy pieces or the missing of a square of escape give an opportunity for combinations, resulting in material disadvantage or mate.

X-ray occurs when bishop, rook or queen are attacking pieces. Pawns, pieces or squares of the opponent on the attacked file or diagonal become the target while they are still behind their own or an opponent's piece.