Tesuji · 手筋
The techniques, piece by piece.
A tesuji is a small pattern of moves that works in many positions: a pawn dropped to pull a defender forward, a silver that forks two pieces from below, a lance that skewers. Japanese players learn them by piece, because each piece has its own handful. Here are twenty-four, in the same order.
Strategy tells you what to aim at; tesuji are how you get there. A player who knows the ideas on these four pages and nothing else has an attack in most positions, because the ideas are what an attack is made of. Learn the pawn page first: it is the one that changes your games soonest.
Pawn tesuji 歩の手筋The hanging pawn · The joining pawn · The pawn at the focal point · The tapping pawn · The pawn under the gold · The throwaway push · The confronting pawnSilver and gold tesuji 金銀の手筋The splitting silver · The silver at the belly · The gold on the head · The sending sacrifice · The plover silver · Lure the gold diagonallyKnight and lance tesuji 桂香の手筋The loincloth knight · The held-back knight · The skewer · The lance from the back rank · The knight that jumps too highRook and bishop tesuji 飛角の手筋The cross rook · Check and rook · The dragon at one remove · The far-seeing bishop · Exchanging the rook’s pawn · The horse in defence
Use them tonight.
The bot at the middle levels leaves these openings for you to find, and the review shows you the ones you missed.