X-Ray Defence

Todays article is part 2 of 2 in my mini-lesson series on the X-ray motif. This follows up on my previous article which you can find in my blog here on Lichess or in the link for the original article: X-Ray Attacks: Hidden Pressure, Sudden Impact. If you haven’t seen that one yet be sure to check it out, as it introduces the theme and covers attacking patterns and puzzles involving the X-ray motif. While in the first article we explored the offensive potential of the X-ray, in this lesson we flip the board and explore X-rays as a defensive motif. This is far less charted but equally important to grasp. As we defined in the previous lesson, X-rays involve a piece eyeing a square through the body of another piece. Even though the contact in indirect, the influence is still exerted within the line of sight of our piece. We’ve seen how is utilised in attacking themes, but this can work to your favour defensively too! This is demonstrated by the below example: Defensive X-ray – Introducto ... Read full article.