Discovery Attack

Discovery attack occurs when the attacker unveils a line-moving piece (rook, bishop, queen) by moving another piece out of the way. This unveiled piece attacks something and so is called a discovery attack. Unveiled attacks against the king are called discovery checks. An example will make this more clear.

Nalbandian(2476) – Oleksienko(2588)

Kavala open 17th, 2008

Black to move, Intermediate puzzle from KEBU Chess Tactics Software 2009

Here White played 15…Nh2! Attacking both the king and queen. Ordinarily such a piece would merely be captured with 16.Kxh2 but then 16…e4+! Is a “discovery check”. The bishop is unveieled giving check, and in the mean time White’s queen comes under attack. Thus White would have to lose the queen after capturing on h2 thanks to the discovery check.

Here’s another example:

Van Oosterom(2420) - Adly(2593)

Enschede open, 2008

Black to move, Beginner puzzle from KEBU Chess Tactics Software 2009

Black played  31…Bh3!! By moving the bishop Black uncovers the queen, adding force to the threat on d1. Thus if White were to capture with 32.gxh3 Black would simply play 32…Rxd1! thanks to the unveiled power of the queen.  Just as in the last example the piece which moved out of the way (the bishop in this case) generates a threat of its own (…Bxg2+). The game continued 32.Rxd3 and now Black could have won easily with 32…Bxg2+ 33.Kg1 Bxf1+ (a discovery check!) 34.Kxf1 Qxd3+

These examples were taken from games played very recently (last year) directly from KEBU Chess Tactics Software. You can download a free version here for more puzzles like these.