Capture the defender Chess Puzzles

313 real-game puzzles in this collection

What is a capture the defender?

This motif removes the guard by taking it. Once the defender is captured — often with a small material investment — the piece or square it protected falls.

How to spot it

Work backwards from the target: what defends it? Can that defender be taken, even at a small loss? Sum the whole sequence before judging the first capture.

What this set trains

These sets teach sequence accounting — evaluating a series of exchanges by its final position, not its first move.