A discovered attack occurs when a player moves one of his pieces out of the way of his Queen, Bishop or Rook to reveal an attack on one of his opponent’s pieces. Because the piece moved can make a independent threat the result may also be a double attack.

In the next diagram white’s rook on e1 will place the king in check if the bishop on e4 moves away. This is an ideal situation for a discovered attack. We only have to look for a target for the bishop.

		White will play the move 1.Bc6+ In a normal situation the square c6 would not be a safe place or the Bishop. It is defended by both the Queen as well as a pawn. But in this case of a discovered attack, a discovered check, black has to get the king out of check, probably by a move like 1…Kf8. Now white can capture the queen for free: 2.Bxb5. The targets of a discovered attack aren’t limited to pieces only. You may want to read the lesson about the targets again. Try for example to find the appropriate discovered attack in the next diagram.
		You can make the solution visible by selecting the text between the two square brackets. [1.Bd3 threatens a mate with the queen (2.Qf6#) as well as capturing the rook on a6.  1.Bd3 Qd6     ( 1...Ra8 2.Qf6# )  2.Bxa6    ]

The next lesson in this series is about the Skewer.