Week 9: Discovered attacks
12-week course · lesson plan for a 60-minute live group class · for the coach
Lesson plan · Worksheet · Large print · Answer key · 12-week syllabus
Learning objective
Students can move one piece out of the way to uncover an attack by another, especially a discovered check that wins material.
Before class (under 10 minutes)
Prerequisites: Weeks 5–8 (forks, pins, skewers, free pieces).
- Open "Week 9 demonstration".
- Have "Week 9 practice" ready in the Puzzles list.
Class plan, minute by minute
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 0–5 min | Warm-up One skewer from week 7 on the shared board. |
| 5–20 min | Shared board: discovered attacks Load "Week 9 demonstration": the knight jumps with check from the rook behind it and attacks the queen. Two threats in one move. |
| 20–35 min | Puzzles on their own boards Puzzles → "Week 9 practice". Mixed-level group: "Week 9 all levels". |
| 35–52 min | Play each other Pair students and start. Challenge: line up a rook or bishop behind one of your own pieces. |
| 52–60 min | Review Review questions below. Preview: next week, checkmate in 2. |
Shared-board demonstration
In the lesson app: Lesson library → Week 9 demonstration: Discovered attacks.
White to move: a discovered check.
Draw the arrow from the rook to the king first, then move the knight out of the way. Two attacks with one move.
Answer: Nd6+ and Nxb7.
Puzzles on every student’s own board
In class: Puzzles → choose the set → Start puzzles. Each student solves on their own board while you watch every board live. A wrong move gets a reason or a hint (for example “look for a check”), and any checkmate counts as solved.
- Everyone: Week 9 practice: Discovered attacks (6 puzzles, including real-game puzzles from Lichess). The worksheet uses the same puzzles.
- Mixed-level group: Week 9 all levels: Discovered attacks (11 puzzles): the 2 easier ones first, then the practice set, then 3 harder ones, including real-game puzzles from Lichess. Each student goes at their own pace, so beginners stay with the easier puzzles while stronger students reach the harder ones.
- A whole group that needs more support: Week 9 easier: Discovered attacks. A whole group ready for more: Week 9 harder: Discovered attacks.
Check for understanding
- What is a discovered attack? Answer: Moving one piece out of the way so that a piece behind it attacks.
- Why is a discovered check so strong? Answer: The moving piece can attack something else while the other side deals with the check.
- Which pieces can make the attack behind? Answer: Bishops, rooks and queens.
Help for beginners
Ask: “Which of your pieces is standing in front of your rook, bishop or queen? Where can it go with a threat?”
For stronger students
"Week 9 harder": real-game discovered attacks from Lichess.
Every position, answer and hint on this page is checked move by move with chess.js before it is published. Real-game puzzles come from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).