hckrnws

> In general, defensive tactics and puzzles are underrepresented in chess literature and resources.

I play a lot of puzzles (Storm) on Lichess, and this hits hard. I can spot good attacks, but not good defences because it’s vastly underrepresented in my training.

I wonder if this is a subconscious reaction to the drawishness of the game. There are certainly very many beautiful defensive motifs, but strong players might be biased against training on them because they constantly encounter strong defense leading to drawish positions.

(Source: naked speculation from a USCF Expert.)

In chess, as in most sports, defending is more difficult than attacking. When you're attacking, and you're attack is running out of steam, you can always "throw some extra wood on the fire". When you're defending, one slip and you're lost. One should not underestimate the psychological impact of the above. Most players crumble under prolonged pressure. This not only applies to me (a mere 2000 FIDE rated player), but also to the (2700+) elite.

https://lichess.org/training/defensiveMove

For training more related to this article : https://lichess.org/training/xRayAttack

You can find the list of specific training themes here : https://lichess.org/training/themes

Storm doesn't seem to have a defensive mode.

I have not tried it, but lichess is open-source : so you can probably customize it for your specific use case.

More specifically modify line that allow to pick the theme https://github.com/lichess-org/lila/blob/64b6f7966c8ed48dc90...

With one of the value given here : https://github.com/lichess-org/lila/blob/64b6f7966c8ed48dc90...

ie : replace in stomSelector lila.puzzle.PuzzleTheme.mix.key by lila.puzzle.PuzzleTheme.defensiveMove.key and run a custom lichess as explained in the ReadMe

That second X-ray defense only works because the white rook is protected by the white queen from above. If that weren't there, the black queen takes rook.

The point is valid that defense lines do not stop at enemy pieces in the current board configuration. They are "X ray" because they look forward to a future board position where some opponent's piece has moved out of the way (perhaps staying in that line of attack, susceptible to being taken).