Tactical Patterns for the 1200 Player

 10/31/2025 Answer: Bxf7 In this game a sacrifice of the Bishop keeps the opponent from castling giving white an advantage. The follow up to KxB is Qd5+ forking his bishop with check! This next game has a subtle move which not only wins but led me to his checkmate in just a few moves! Hit This next move is difficult to see but is definitely the best move. I played this game a few years ago. I still like this tactical find! Black to move:  

 10/30/2025 Answer: Bh6# The tactical principle was to add another piece into the action! Just a queen and knight is not enough to checkmate the king on their own, but the bishop can help in the fight. Being a < 1200 player, I found it useful to repeatedly play the same opening if I play e4 and my opponent responds with e5. My next move used to be Bc4, the Bishop's opening. I played that opening to death and I wanted to play an opening which I think has even more tactical variations than the Bishop's opening. I now play the Scotch Gambit which offers a few opening  brilliancies to you if the other player makes the right moves! The Scotch opening starts with 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd 4. Bc4 and black may make several different moves. Nf6 is considered best. However, if black plays that I respond with another pawn sacrifice c3. If d4xc, then I respond with e5 driving to Ne4 and I play Qd5 which forks a checkmate with the capture of a knight giving me a piece and winning t...

 10/29/2025 Answer: g5 I was in a critical position and I thought that there was nothing I could do to stop his rook from stopping the check, but his rook was pinned so all I needed to do was push a pawn and call checkmate! Hit In this next game I dominated my opponent to the extent that he could not do anything and was stuck with a knight holding his king in place, but I needed to find the move that would finish the game! I remembered a tactical idea about checkmating a king and followed that principle putting him away in 11 moves!  What was the tactical idea that helped me finish off my opponent quickly?

 10/28/2025  Hi, my name is Robert Palmer. I am a below 1200  elo chess player. However, I love chess! As a < 1200  chess player, I found that reviewing my games I had missed a game winning tactic or that I found a game winning brilliancy in my middle game that propelled me to victory! I would like to share some of my misses and hits:   Miss   I played RXR but I missed the game winner! What was the correct move for my positioon!