← Lessons8

Step 8: Club Player · about 25 min

Remove the Defender

🖨 Worksheet🔑 Answer key🖨 Easy-reading worksheet

Goal: Kids can win a piece by capturing (or chasing away) the piece that guards it.

You need: Demo board · One board and set per pair

1 · Teach it (15 min)

Read these out loud, or put them in your own words. Show each board on screen or set it up on a demo board.

  1. 1.“Sometimes the piece you want is guarded. So don't attack it: attack its bodyguard! Take away the guard, and the piece is yours.”

  2. 2.“Here the black bishop on e5 is stuck: it can't move, because the rook would check the king. Only the knight on c6 guards it.”

  3. 3.“So the bishop takes the knight. Bishop for knight is a fair trade. But now nothing guards e5, and the rook takes the bishop for free.”

  4. 4.“The question to ask: 'What is guarding that piece, and can I take the guard?'”

With younger kids: Call the defender a 'bodyguard'. Kids point to the target, then to its bodyguard, before they move.
Watch for:
  • Taking the target first and losing the attacker.
  • Taking the defender when the target can just run away (it works best when the target is stuck).

2 · Play it: Bodyguard Hunt (10 min)

Set up: Normal game in pairs, or this lesson's extra puzzles.

  1. Before each move, pick one enemy piece and say who its bodyguard is.
  2. Winning a piece by taking its bodyguard scores two bonus points.

3 · Practice and pass check

On iPads, kids open Student → Step 8 → Take Away the Guard. On paper, print the worksheet. A kid passes by getting 2 of 3 on the pass check. The pass code for this lesson is S8-L2-PZ.

🧩 Extra puzzles: 60 real puzzles from lichess.org for kids who finish early: the Extra puzzles button in student mode, or tick Extra puzzles on the worksheet page (8 per set).

Practice (3) with answers

1.Take away the bishop's bodyguard, then win the bishop. Draw an arrow or write the move.

abcdefgh

Move: Bxc6

2.The black bishop on d6 can't move (the rook would hit the king). Tap the black piece that guards it.

abcdefgh

Answer: e8

3.What does 'remove the defender' mean?

  • ✓Capture or chase away the piece that guards your target
  • Move your own defender away
  • Trade queens
Pass check (3) with answers

1.Remove the defender and win a piece. Draw an arrow or write the move.

abcdefgh

Move: Bxe8

2.Circle the black piece guarding the bishop on e5.

abcdefgh

Answer: c6

3.Removing the defender works best when the target piece…

  • ✓can't move away
  • is a pawn
  • is your own piece

Topic order based on: How to Win at Chess, ch. 9–11 (intermediate tactics). All wording is original.