Guided lesson · Intermediate · Middlegame

Defending the besieged king

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Half of your games you're going to spend defending. Defending well has little of the heroic about it: it's arithmetic. You count how many attackers surround your king, how many defenders you can bring back, and you look for the trade that breaks the enemy's coordination. Here you'll see the two situations you'll run into: the attack that does have a basis, where there's only one move that keeps you alive, and the attack that doesn't, where defending well isn't about holding on — it's about cashing in.

The key idea

Three questions in order when facing an attack: can I bring a piece back to defend? Can I trade off the most dangerous attacker? Does this pawn move create a new weakness? If the answer to the third is yes and to the other two is no, you haven't looked hard enough yet.

Example 1 · Only one move exists

Queen on h5 and knight on g5 threaten mate on h7 next move. Black has enough material, but only one reply keeps them in the game. Black to move.

h6 The only move. It attacks the knight on g5, the piece holding up the mate threat: without it, the queen on h7 doesn't deliver mate, the king takes it. And yes, it's a pawn move in front of the king — the kind you normally don't play. The difference is this one wins a tempo on a piece, it isn't played out of fear. Anything else loses: Nf6 runs into Bxh7+, Re8 allows mate in two, and any quiet move allows mate in one.
Nh7 The knight steps forward instead of retreating, looking to fight for f6 and g5. White keeps trying, which is what you do once you've invested in an attack.
Nf6 And here's the piece coming back. The knight on d7 leaves the queenside and comes to f6: it blocks the diagonal toward h7, attacks the queen, and offers the trade of the intruding knight. One single move doing three things — that's how you defend.
Nxf6+ White trades, because there's nothing better. Every trade they accept removes one attacker from a position that only worked with all of them.
Qxf6 And the attack is over. Honest tally: the position is balanced, with an extra pawn for Black and the king slightly airy after h6. Surviving a well-mounted attack doesn't win you the game; it gives you back the right to play it, which is exactly what you were after.

Example 2 · The attack with no backup: don't hold on, cash in

A similar picture and a pawn down for Black, but here the white queen has gone in alone on h6 and only a knight backs it up. When an attack has no reinforcements behind it, defending means removing whoever's causing trouble. Black to move.

Bxg5 Trade off the attacker. The bishop takes the knight, which was the only piece backing up the queen in the area. And watch the detail: if the queen recaptures on g5, the black queen takes it from d8 along the newly opened diagonal. So they can't even do that.
Qh3 The queen has to retreat having achieved nothing. In an attack, a lone queen is a piece that just takes up space: it threatens a lot and delivers nothing.
Bf4 The bishop settles on the square from which it cuts and annoys, without giving up a single tempo. Defending isn't retreating into the trenches: it's making your pieces end up better placed than theirs while you defend.
Qg4 White insists with what little is left, looking for any check at all.
Bh6 And the bishop comes back to cover everything again, now guarding the dark squares around its own king. Tally: an extra piece (the knight from the first move), the attack snuffed out, and not a single new weakness created along the way — look at the black kingside, it's still f7, g6 and h7 exactly as they were. More than two points of advantage for the side that was defending.

Practice

You have Black, a pawn down. The white queen is on h6 with the knight on g5 backing it up, and a storm looks like it's coming. Shut it down without creating a single new weakness.

Trade off the attacker. Without the knight, the white queen is left alone — and it can't recapture, because your queen on d8 would take it on g5. Count the attackers: there are two. Remove the one backing up the queen, and only one will be left.
The bishop settles on the square from which it cuts and annoys. You defend and improve at the same time. Place the bishop on the square from which it keeps cutting the lines toward your king.
The bishop comes back to cover the dark squares next to your king. Attack snuffed out, an extra piece, and your castled position exactly as it was: not one extra pawn moved. Bring the bishop back to the square from which it protects the dark squares around your castled king.

Full defense: trade off the attacker, place the piece on the square that cuts, and don't touch a single castling pawn. Next time an attack lands on you, ask the three questions in order before moving a pawn on instinct — most club-level attacks fizzle out the moment you remove one piece from the equation.