Academy | Tactics | Targets | Undefended Pieces
An undefended piece in chess is any piece that is not protected by another piece.
Since an undefended piece can be easily threatened, it often provides the opportunity to exploit it using a tactical pattern.
In this example, we immediately notice that Black’s king is exposed, but we can also see that Black’s bishop on b2 is undefended. Even though the bishop isn’t attacked at the moment, it can still be exploited as a tactical target.
1. Qc8+ By forcing the Black king onto the 7th rank, we can target both the king and the undefended bishop on the next move. Kg7 2. Qb7+ Kh6 3. Qxb2