Step by Step: Tactics #62
By Mark Donlan
Step by Step: Tactics is designed to test and improve your basic tactical skills. For best results, play the position out over-the-board and think for as long as you need without moving the pieces. You can also print out this page and use it as a workbook exercise in a classroom setting. Also, be sure to subscribe to our Daily Chess Puzzle email.
After the moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.c3 Nc6 4.d4 cxd4 5.cxd4 Bg4 6.d5, why was 6…Ne5 a mistake?

[FEN “r2qkbnr/pp2pppp/3p4/3Pn3/4P1b1/5N2/PP3PPP/RNBQKB1R w KQkq – 0 7”]
Circle the type of tactics that were involved in this puzzle:
- Checkmate
- Deflection
- Discovered Attack
- Double Attack
- En Prise
- Fork
- Pin
- Removing the Guard
- Skewer
- Trapped Piece
Kostopoulos,E – Kerimov,E (2119)
3rd Open Patras GRE (5), 22.07.2001
Sicilian Defense [B22]
7.Nxe5! wins a piece for White. If 7…Bxd1 8.Bb5+ Qd7 9.Bxd7+ Kd8 10.Nxf7+; or 7…dxe5 8.Qxg4. The game ended as follows: 7…Qa5+ 8.Bd2 Bxd1 9.Bxa5 dxe5?? 10.Bb5# 1-0
A PDF file of this week’s Step by Step puzzle, along with all previous puzzles, is available in the ChessCafe.com Archives.
© 2014 Mark Donlan & ChessEdu.org. All Rights Reserved.
I Saw it instantly! Chess is not just about material (pieces). It’s position! Mating combinations are its beauty. That is force a win, regardless of what your opponent plays, in a definite number of moves. That’s tactics! Tactic training is one of the keys to training to improve playing the grand game! As Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher put it, “‘Chess is the gymnasium of the mind”. So here it is!