Pitfalls: Defend & threaten

In this lesson you have to be extra careful to choose the right move. In the puzzles, you are either about to lose a piece or your king is checked. So you need to play a defensive move.

But there's more to it than that. You have to combine defending and threatening. Sometimes you already have a nice threat on the board and you have to be careful that your defensive move doesn't destroy that threat. In other puzzles you need to defend with a move that also poses a threat, because otherwise you will lose material.

Take a look at the examples to see how it works.

Don't play too fast and think carefully before your move. The puzzles are tricky. Don't fall into the pitfall.

What do you have to do?

Defend a piece and maintain or create a threat.