Hanging Pieces

A piece is "hanging" when it's attacked and doesn't have enough defenders to survive the trade -- most simply, it's attacked at all and defended by nobody. Before you look for anything fancy on the board, just count: for every enemy piece, how many of your pieces attack it, and how many of the opponent's pieces defend it? If attackers outnumber defenders (or a cheap attacker faces an expensive, undefended target), the piece is there for the taking.

This is the single most common way games are actually won and lost below the master level -- not brilliant combinations, but one side simply leaving a piece undefended and the other side noticing. Making a habit of this attacker/defender count on every move, for every piece on the board, is the single highest-value habit a beginner can build.

Watch out for the reverse trap too: a piece that looks defended is only safe if the defender is worth trading for the attacker profitably. A pawn "defending" a knight against another pawn is a fine trade for your opponent; a queen "defending" a rook against a bishop is not a trade your opponent wants at all.