X-Ray Attack Chess Puzzles

About x-ray attack puzzles

An x-ray attack occurs when a piece exerts pressure through another piece — as if its power passes through the obstacle. Rooks x-ray through other rooks on the same file, bishops through pawns on the same diagonal, and queens through any piece on the line. X-ray attacks create pins, set up back rank threats, and power endgame techniques like Lucena's position. Practising x-ray attack puzzles sharpens your ability to see through your own and your opponent's pieces and to exploit long-range piece power. X-ray thinking is fundamental to advanced tactical vision and is essential for understanding rook and queen endgames, battery tactics, and diagonal pressure.

How to train x-ray attack

A x-ray attack is a shape, not a sequence. Once you can spot the shape you will find the move in seconds instead of calculating from scratch, so train for recognition speed: glance, name the pattern, then verify.

Questions

How many x-ray attack puzzles are there?

Enough that you will not repeat them — this set is drawn from a library of over 1,000,000 puzzles taken from real games, graded from easy to hard.

What level is this suitable for?

Children from about age 5 upward, once they know how the pieces move, through to rated tournament players. Start on the easy set and move up when you are solving most of them at a glance.