Removing the defender puzzles
84 free removing the defender puzzles from real games, rated 890 to 2369. Solve them on the board below; your accuracy feeds your weakness map.
What is a removing the defender?
Removing the defender means capturing (or trading off) the one piece that guards something important. Once it's gone, the thing it protected falls.
It's one of the most useful ideas in chess because it turns an apparently solid position into a winning one with a single capture.
Common mistake
Trading off the wrong piece. Make sure the one you capture really is the only guard.
How to spot it
Find the important target, then ask which enemy piece is the only one defending it.
Captures of that defender, even with a 'bad trade', are candidate moves.
Look for defenders doing two jobs. Those are the ones that break.
Related themes
- ForkOne piece attacks two targets at once.
- PinA piece that can't move without exposing something bigger.
- SkewerA reverse pin: the big piece moves, the one behind falls.
- Discovered attackMove one piece, unleash another.
- Double checkTwo checks at once. The king must move.
Let the adaptive drill find your weakest pattern
Puzzles: Lichess puzzle database (CC0), filtered for popularity and play count. See how Weakspot works.