Learn
One module per concept ChessVizard can detect on a live board -- a plain-language explanation, worked examples, and puzzles to test yourself against the real analysis engine. Start at the top and work down.
Beginner
Start here -- concrete, single-move patterns worth spotting on sight.
Hanging Pieces
A piece attacked more times than it's defended -- free material if you spot it.
Forks
One piece, two or more targets at once -- the opponent can only save one.
Pins
A piece that can't move without exposing something more valuable behind it.
Skewers
A valuable piece is attacked head-on; whatever's behind it falls when it moves.
Open and half-open files
Rooks and queens want files with no pawns blocking their path.
The bishop pair
Owning both bishops while the opponent doesn't is a small, lasting edge.
Pawn Islands
Count the separate clumps your pawns have split into -- fewer is healthier.
Isolated Pawns
A pawn with no friendly pawn on either neighboring file to ever defend it.
Doubled Pawns
Two or more pawns of the same color stacked on one file.
Intermediate
Positional vocabulary and structural properties that shape a whole game.
Outposts
A square deep in enemy territory that no enemy pawn can ever kick you off.
Active rooks
Rooks come alive on the 7th rank -- or stationed behind their own passed pawn.
Passed Pawns
No enemy pawn on its file or an adjacent file can ever stop it from queening.
Backward Pawns
Stuck behind its neighbors, unable to advance safely, and impossible to defend with another pawn.
Pawn Chains
Pawns diagonally defending one another, base to tip.
Discovered Attacks
Moving one piece reveals an attack from a piece that was standing behind it.
Trapped Pieces
A piece with nowhere safe to go -- it doesn't have to be attacked yet to already be lost.
King's Pawn Shield
The three pawns sheltering a castled king -- and what happens when one goes missing.
Advanced
Compound relationships and pattern nuance that reward real board vision.
Batteries
Two pieces stacked on one line, each reinforcing the other's attack.
Weak Squares (Holes)
A square that no pawn of that color can ever again control -- a permanent hole.
Good bishops and bad bishops
A bishop is only as good as the diagonals its own pawns leave open for it.
Named Pawn Formations
Recognized, book-standard pawn skeletons: IQP, Hanging Pawns, Stonewall, Maroczy Bind, Hedgehog.
Next-Move Tactics
A pin, skewer, or fork that doesn't exist yet -- but would, after one more move.
Checkmate Patterns
Ten recurring mating shapes worth recognizing on sight -- from a first back-rank mate to Boden's crossed bishops.