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RED BELT - X-RAYING


One of the coolest tactics colors is the shiny Red Belt. How do you get it? Drop an X-Ray on your opponent and then reach for the sky with a firm "Referee!"

 

One of the coolest tactics is the X-Ray. The X-Ray is simply when you make a move on a chessboard that checks the opponent's king, and then they sidestep that check by moving to an adjacent square, and then you gobble up whatever was behind that king. Check out this example:



When the white rook moves to the red square, the king is checked. When that king moves out of check, the queen in vulnerable and white surely captures it and then quickly wins the game.

All The Knight School students are not simply taught to spot an X-Ray if it is available, but to actually engineer an X-Ray to come to pass. What is the fantastic chess move on the chessboard below that generates an X-Ray?



Right, it is to move the rook to the green square.



Once white moves their rook to the green square, black is sorely tempted to capture what appears to be a free, unprotected rook. But watch out! If black captures that rook, then white just slides their bishop to the yellow square, X-Raying that king and gaining the black queen! And since white can easily use its king to escort the white pawn up to promote on the eighth rank to a queen and to quickly checkmate right after that, the X-Ray on this board is ultimately a game winner. 

Can you find the X-Ray here for white?



Right! When white moves to the yellow square, the black king is terribly X-Rayed and the game is lost for black. 



Great work! Now your student simply needs to generate an X-Ray during class, then raise their hand and call "Referee!", then claim that gorgeous Red Belt! Go for it!

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