rules, tactics, strategies and history

Attack and Defense

A piece is said to ATTACK another piece if he moves so that on its next move he could capture the other piece . Thus, in the game below, White could attack Black's Bishop by moving the white Rook to d1 or to e6.

								8
								7
								6
								5
								4
								3
								2
								1
a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

A piece is said to DEFEND or to PROTECT another piece if he moves so that in case the other piece is captured by a hostile piece he could recapture the latter. Thus, in the game above, Black could defend its Bishop by moving its Knight to either e4 or e8 in case White attacks with the Rook from d1. Should White attack from e6, then Black would not defend the Bishop with the Knight, for on e4 as well as on e8 the Knight is unprotected and could be captured by the Rook without White losing anything in exchange. Black has a much more simple way to defend the attack of the Rook from e6, that is, by capturing the Rook with the Pawn f7. For this reason White would not have moved the Rook to e6.