Many players don’t understand how to place their pieces actively. Many put them on bad squares and this reduces the flexibilty of other pieces.
Sometimes a chess piece is placed badly and has no room to move about. In this case you can win a piece by simply attacking it. Those situations are hard to see so train your mental chess-eye to see it when it occurs.
Hover with your mouse over the diagrams to see the solution.
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Solutions
1) 1….Qa5 attacks two pieces, black wins
2) 1.a4 – the knight has no place to go.
3) 1.e5 – the black knight’s mobility is zero. It is lost.
4) 1.g4!! and the queen has no room to move.
5) 1.Nc3! the queen can’t escape!
6) 1.Nh4!
7) 1..Bf7!!
8) 1.Kg3
9) 1.g3 locks in the bishop.
10)1.Nc4! The Queen has no mobility!
11)1…Bg6! 2.RxR QxR does not help.
12)1.Nf4 loses the queen.