The Steps Method - Attacking Targets

The Steps Method distinguishes three Attacking Targets:

• Material
• King (check)
• (mating) Square

The targets Material and King speak for themselves but let's look at the attacking target mating Square.

White is to move. Rb7 is undefended and Qh7 is mate. White has the double attack 1.Qh1 attacking Material (Rb7) and the mating Square (h7).

In the Steps Method, a double attack is a tactic in which 1, 2 or more attackers attack 2 targets. Many people use the term 'fork'. With a fork, one piece attacks material + material or material + king. I never heard someone say: 'I forked Rb7 and square h7.'

A useful rule to find the target Square is:

Make two moves with the same colour in a row and deliver mate.

Let's apply that rule to the following position:

White is to move. Can you make two moves with White in a row and deliver mate? Many players will find the idea 'Queen to the e-file followed by Nd6 mate'. Combining this with the undefended Bc2 makes it easy to find the double attack Qe2 with Nc4 attacking d6 and Qe2 attacking Bc2.

Sometimes it is not easy to find the 2 moves but then we can use the following additional rule:

'Pick up the piece that will deliver the mate and find the squares on the board where it will be mate. The next step will be figuring out the route to that square.'

Black is to move. In this position, it is clear that both Qg1 and Qh1 are mates. Can you figure out the route to one of these squares? Now is easy to find Qh8-Qh1. White has no defence. For many beginners, it would be hard to find a backward move with the queen (Qc3-Qh8). By using these 2 simple rules it becomes possible to find the move.

White is to move. Let's apply the rules to the position above. Pick up the queen and find the mate-square: Qf8.
Ra3 is defended one time (Qa8) and attacked one time (Ra1). I call this the 'power balance'. Just as with an undefended piece, the power balance is zero (1-1). Now we figure out the route of Qd2 to f8 and find that Qb4 is a double attack on Ra3 and the square f8.

A final example from Step 4+ to show how powerful these 2 rules are:

White is to move. What is going on in this position? Black is threatening mate with 1... Qc3 2. Bb2 Qe1 3. Ka2 Qb1
If we pick up Qf7, on which square will it be mate? Qh8#
Which forcing moves fend off the mating threat? Checks and captures: Ng4+
1.Ng4+ Qxg4, what is the route of Qf7 to h8? Qg8-Qh8.
So 1.Ng4+ Qxg4 2.Qg8 and Black can not defend against Qh8 mate.
Please note that Qg4 blocks the black king from escaping to g4.
Does Black have to take on g4 after Ng4+?
Yes, because 1.Ng4+ Kh5 2.Nf6+ Kh4 3.Qh7 is mate.

If you like this blog post then please check out this video and my other Steps Method videos:
https://youtu.be/0ozwoSsValY?si=bjf92LO3x7VBl_GY