Visualizing the Chessboard
Recommended Level: 100 - 300 ELO
visualizing pieces is important because it is.
Bc7
a5
Qh5
That move is incorrect! You just did something called tunnel vision. That is when you do a move but ignore what the opponent is doing. In this case, you didn't look for checks, captures, and attacks, and the opponent just did a check, and the only way out of it is to sacrifice your queen.
That move is incorrect! You just did something called tunnel vision. That is when you do a move but ignore what the opponent is doing. In this case, you didn't look for checks, captures, and attacks, and the opponent just did a check, and the only way out of it is to sacrifice your queen.
Nice job! You found that the only way to stop the opponent from forcing you to sacrifice your queen was to block the attack, and now your opponent blundered their rook. There technically was another way to stop the attack with a long sequence of the exact correct repeated checks, but that is at a more advanced level.
Key Idea:
Look for checks, captures, and attacks, that both you, and your opponent can make. On the left, find the correct move for you to make with checks, captures, and attacks, and on the right evaluate the checks captures and attacks your opponent can do and stop them. For these questions you are white.
How to see moves
When you see a board position, always analyze a few key factors to find what you should do next. The most important things to find are king safety, and weak pieces. Look for how safe the king is and if any pieces are weak / isolated.
One of the most important things to look out for is king safety. Go back to the previous screen and see if you can figure out which one of black's pieces is threating the white king the most. When you are ready click the button
Look at black's pieces. Which ones can attack the king? The pawns and knights are way to far away, the rook is blocked by too much pieces and the queen doesn't really have an attack. However, notice that the bishop is on the same diagonal as the king. It is always important to check the diagonals, because now this bishop is pinning the pawn to the king. Can black exploit this? Unfortunately for black, they cannot.
This time, try to look at black's king safety. How safe is black's king, and by checking all of white's pieces, can they attack the king?
Once again, white does not have any pawns that are even close to attacking the king. And the rook on the e file is blocked by two pawns. But what about the rook on the d file? It has an open file, and maybe it can attack the king. What if it attacks the c7 pawn by going to d7? But that pawn has too many defenders, the king and the rook. And it can't go to the d8 square either, because that is defended by the rook and the queen. But the knight is awfully close to the king, maybe it can do something? It can't check the king, but it can capture the c7 or a7 pawn. The c7 pawn has two defenders, and no white piece will defend the knight, so that won't work. However, the a7 pawn only has one defender, but the king can still capture the knight... right? But let's check the other pieces too. The bishop is pointing at the a7 pawn, aha! That's the same pawn the knight could attack! meaning if one of the pieces attacked the a7 square, the king couldn't recapture since it would be defended by the other piece. So which capture should we do, with the bishop or the knight? The bishop would check the king, and that is a mroe forcing move, so the correct answer would be Bxa7+
Loose Pieces
King safety is not the only thing you need to look out for, you also need to look out for loose pieces. For the left question, select all of the loose pieces, meaning the pieces without any valid defenders, and on the right question, select all of the loose pieces that can be captured without anything bad happening. Look multiple moves ahead!
Watch Out!
Although it looks like the knight on d5 is capturable and the pawn on f3 is capturable, they are actually not! Make sure that you look for checks, captures and attacks after your moves. After pawn takes d5, remember that there isn't a pawn on e4 anymore. Once you look at all of the piece pointing at the king, you will realize that the bishop on h7 is checking the king since the pawn on e4 isn't there anymore, so pawn takes d5 is impossible. What about rook takes f3? Once you look at all of the long range pieces, you will notice that the queen can go to e8 and check the king. And since the rook left f8, it can't capture the queen. And there is no way to protect the king, so it's checkmate! This is called back rank mate and you will learn more about it later.
Do you have questions?
We are here to help you. If something was not clear or you want to delve deeper into a topic, do not hesitate to contact us. Your curiosity is also part of the learning process.
Thank you for taking the course!
Visualizing The Chessboard
Braeden Gin
Created on February 5, 2026
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Transcript
Visualizing the Chessboard
Recommended Level: 100 - 300 ELO
visualizing pieces is important because it is.
Bc7
a5
Qh5
That move is incorrect! You just did something called tunnel vision. That is when you do a move but ignore what the opponent is doing. In this case, you didn't look for checks, captures, and attacks, and the opponent just did a check, and the only way out of it is to sacrifice your queen.
That move is incorrect! You just did something called tunnel vision. That is when you do a move but ignore what the opponent is doing. In this case, you didn't look for checks, captures, and attacks, and the opponent just did a check, and the only way out of it is to sacrifice your queen.
Nice job! You found that the only way to stop the opponent from forcing you to sacrifice your queen was to block the attack, and now your opponent blundered their rook. There technically was another way to stop the attack with a long sequence of the exact correct repeated checks, but that is at a more advanced level.
Key Idea:
Look for checks, captures, and attacks, that both you, and your opponent can make. On the left, find the correct move for you to make with checks, captures, and attacks, and on the right evaluate the checks captures and attacks your opponent can do and stop them. For these questions you are white.
How to see moves
When you see a board position, always analyze a few key factors to find what you should do next. The most important things to find are king safety, and weak pieces. Look for how safe the king is and if any pieces are weak / isolated.
One of the most important things to look out for is king safety. Go back to the previous screen and see if you can figure out which one of black's pieces is threating the white king the most. When you are ready click the button
Look at black's pieces. Which ones can attack the king? The pawns and knights are way to far away, the rook is blocked by too much pieces and the queen doesn't really have an attack. However, notice that the bishop is on the same diagonal as the king. It is always important to check the diagonals, because now this bishop is pinning the pawn to the king. Can black exploit this? Unfortunately for black, they cannot.
This time, try to look at black's king safety. How safe is black's king, and by checking all of white's pieces, can they attack the king?
Once again, white does not have any pawns that are even close to attacking the king. And the rook on the e file is blocked by two pawns. But what about the rook on the d file? It has an open file, and maybe it can attack the king. What if it attacks the c7 pawn by going to d7? But that pawn has too many defenders, the king and the rook. And it can't go to the d8 square either, because that is defended by the rook and the queen. But the knight is awfully close to the king, maybe it can do something? It can't check the king, but it can capture the c7 or a7 pawn. The c7 pawn has two defenders, and no white piece will defend the knight, so that won't work. However, the a7 pawn only has one defender, but the king can still capture the knight... right? But let's check the other pieces too. The bishop is pointing at the a7 pawn, aha! That's the same pawn the knight could attack! meaning if one of the pieces attacked the a7 square, the king couldn't recapture since it would be defended by the other piece. So which capture should we do, with the bishop or the knight? The bishop would check the king, and that is a mroe forcing move, so the correct answer would be Bxa7+
Loose Pieces
King safety is not the only thing you need to look out for, you also need to look out for loose pieces. For the left question, select all of the loose pieces, meaning the pieces without any valid defenders, and on the right question, select all of the loose pieces that can be captured without anything bad happening. Look multiple moves ahead!
Watch Out!
Although it looks like the knight on d5 is capturable and the pawn on f3 is capturable, they are actually not! Make sure that you look for checks, captures and attacks after your moves. After pawn takes d5, remember that there isn't a pawn on e4 anymore. Once you look at all of the piece pointing at the king, you will realize that the bishop on h7 is checking the king since the pawn on e4 isn't there anymore, so pawn takes d5 is impossible. What about rook takes f3? Once you look at all of the long range pieces, you will notice that the queen can go to e8 and check the king. And since the rook left f8, it can't capture the queen. And there is no way to protect the king, so it's checkmate! This is called back rank mate and you will learn more about it later.
Do you have questions?
We are here to help you. If something was not clear or you want to delve deeper into a topic, do not hesitate to contact us. Your curiosity is also part of the learning process.
Thank you for taking the course!