Chess tactics
Defensive Resource: Answer the Immediate Threat
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A defensive move answers an immediate tactical or strategic threat. It may preserve equality, reduce a disadvantage, avoid mate, or force a draw; it does not always save the game outright, and a position may contain more than one adequate defence.
On this page
Defensive Move: what it is and how it works
Begin by stating the opponent's threat precisely. Then compare the legal response types: move the target or king, capture or exchange an attacker, block a line, add a defender, create a flight square, return material, or make a counter-threat that is at least as forcing. A move that handles two problems is valuable, but only if it does not introduce a third.
Some positions have a unique move; others allow several. Counter-checks can seize the move order, while perpetual check, stalemate, or a genuine fortress may draw an otherwise inferior ending. Those terms have strict conditions: a few checks are not necessarily perpetual, and a passive set-up is not a fortress unless the stronger side has no winning entry or break.
How to spot it over the board
- Name the opponent's exact threat first — you cannot defend what you have not identified.
- Consider all the parries: capture the attacker, block, add a defender, trade a key attacker, or counter-threat.
- Look for counterattacks — a check or threat of your own can be the strongest defence.
- In inferior endings, test perpetual check, stalemate, and fortress ideas, and verify that the opponent cannot escape or make progress.
A common calculation error
Defending the wrong threat is worse than choosing an unfashionable move. Write down what happens if you pass, then test active and passive replies against that continuation. A counterattack is useful only when it arrives with enough force; otherwise it may simply ignore the original threat.
How hard are these puzzles?
This collection contains 57 defensive move puzzles, with a recorded median rating of 1867 and a dataset range from 999 to 2652. Puzzle ratings are estimates produced by results in their source pool; they can change and should be read as a guide for choosing practice, not as an objective measure of difficulty.
- Puzzles tagged
- 57
- Lowest recorded rating
- 999
- Recorded median
- 1867
- Highest recorded rating
- 2652
Defensive Move puzzles to solve
These positions come from the LibreChess trainer and are ordered by the rating stored in this dataset. Play your candidate move on the board, then compare it with the listed solution and replay the continuation.
Worked example 1 — rated 999
Black to move. Find the defensive resource, then reveal the solution.
74... Kg3 75. f4 75... h3 76. f5 76... h2Worked example 2 — rated 1481
Black to move. Find the defensive resource, then reveal the solution.
40... Kxg7 41. Kf4 41... Kf6Worked example 3 — rated 1867
Black to move. Find the defensive resource, then reveal the solution.
41... d2 42. Rc8+ 42... Ke7Worked example 4 — rated 2037
Black to move. Find the defensive resource, then reveal the solution.
47... Qxg3+ 48. Qxg3+ 48... Kxg3 49. f4 49... exf4 50. Kf1 50... Kf3Worked example 5 — rated 2652
Black to move. Find the defensive resource, then reveal the solution.
49... f4 50. e6+ 50... Kf8 51. Be5 51... d4 52. exf7 52... Kxf7Keep training by rating
Choose a rating band as a starting point. If the positions are routinely immediate or opaque, move one band up or down; puzzle ratings are pool estimates rather than fixed grades.