Battery (chess)

abcdefgh
8
a8 black rook
d8 black king
h8 black rook
a7 black pawn
b7 black pawn
d7 black pawn
f7 black pawn
g7 black bishop
h7 black pawn
c6 black knight
g6 black pawn
c3 white knight
d3 white rook
f3 white knight
a2 white pawn
b2 white pawn
c2 white pawn
f2 white pawn
g2 white pawn
h2 white pawn
d1 white rook
g1 white king
8
77
66
55
44
33
22
11
abcdefgh
The white rooks form a battery to capture the pawn protecting the black king.

A battery in chess is a formation that consists of two or more pieces on the same rank, file, or diagonal. It is a tactic involved in planning a series of captures to remove the protection of the opponent's king, or to simply gain in the exchanges.

Other chess authors limit battery to "an arrangement of two pieces in line with the enemy king on a rank, file, or diagonal so that if the middle piece moves a discovered check will be delivered."[1] However, in Chessgames.com blogs and game annotations of other chess websites, the term is also used in cases where moving the middle piece will uncover a threat other than a check along the opened line.[2]

  1. ^ Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992), The Oxford Companion to Chess (second ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-866164-9
  2. ^ "ChessGames.com". Archived from the original on 9 November 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-08.