Checks, Captures & Threats: What is it and why is it important?

“Checks, Captures, and Threats” (CCT) is a simple mental checklist you run before every move to make sure you don’t miss tactics—‘yours’ or ‘your’ opponent’s. You should make this checklist a habit when you play as it will help prevent blunders and help you win games.

Before I discuss why CCT is so important, you need to clearly understand what each is:

What is a Check? A check is any move that gives a check to either your king or your opponent’s king. It’s a ‘forcing’ move that requires an immediate response. And, the ‘forcing’ move often leads to tactics such as pins, forks, discovered attacks and possibly checkmates. Take a look at the title image of this blog. The white queen is putting the black king in check. In so doing, it also forks the black bishop f7. If/when the black king moves out of check, the black bishop is captured. If the black bishop tries to block/protect the king in check, it is also captured.

What is a Capture? A capture is a move that takes a piece off the board. In the title image, the white knight has actually forked both the black bishop and the black queen. That is, it has an option to take either. Obviously, the best choice is to capture the undefended queen. Captures normally change the material balance immediately. Captures are often for equal or more value but sometimes they just open lines or create other tactics- or put a player in a bad position.

What is a Threat? A threat is a ‘forcing’ move that creates a serious issue/problem on the next move or subsequent moves. In the title image, the black bishop moves to the d3 square and pins the white queen to the king. The white queen is lost. Tactics, such as a pin, fork, discovered attack, skewer, etc. are the most difficult of CCT to see coming. They’re sneaky. They’re also some of the most strategic (and deadliest) moves in chess. Many games are lost from a good ‘threat’ that seems to come out of nowhere. That’s why it’s very important to look for these, especially during the middlegame where tactics are prevalent and crucial.

Why is CCT so important? It’s because almost every mistake or blunder in chess comes from missing a forcing move.

Here’s a recent game I just played. I was playing the white pieces and playing the London System Opening, one of my favorites.

My opponent was Lc0 playing to an estimated 2000 ELO. I have to admit it’s been kicking my ass lately. I’m not going to nitpick every move, just the critical turning points in the game where I missed a Check, Capture or Threat.

My first bad move in the game was on move 13. Nb4? I’m sure my thought process, at the time, was to move my knight to an outpost where I could take control of the center and threaten the hanging pawn on c6. But in doing so, I completely overlooked black’s move 14....Nxf4. I knew my bishop was protected but what I didn’t realize is that when it’s captured, I’d have to double up pawns on the f-file. Additionally, I lost my bishop pair. So, this Capture by black was one that I overlooked or underestimated. It definitely put me in a worse position after an equal trade. At least Stockfish thought so. I went from a -0.3 disadvantage to a -1.5 disadvantage.

My second bad move in the game was just two moves later on move 15. This time, it was a blunder. 15. Nc6?? I knew I had to move my knight, or be taken by black’s c-file pawn, so I moved to c6. My thought process here was to eventually move it to e5 where it would be better positioned. Instead, the better moves would have been either 15. dxc5 or 15. Nc2. But, what I overlooked was black’s Threat of taking complete control of the center and destroying my pawn structure just two moves later with the Capture 17...cxd4. After 18. cxd4 you can see I (white) have 3 pawn islands, an isolated pawn, and double pawns on the f-file. Terrible! My evaluation went from a -1.5 disadvantage to a -3.4 disadvantage. That’s with equal material on both sides.

Not only has my pawn structure gone to sh$t (to put it mildly) in this game, my king is still in the middle of the board (unprotected) after 18 moves. Black is just about to take advantage of that on its very next move 18...Bb4+. I can’t block the check so I have to move my king and ruin any chance of castling and protecting my king. I move 19. Ke2 which was a stupid move because now I block my light squared bishop. Sometimes when I review a game I wonder what I was thinking when I was playing. Obviously I wasn’t thinking about CCT. The better move would have been 19. Kf2.

At this point, I should have resigned. I’m surprised I didn’t. Against a worthy opponent like Leela Chess Zero (Lc0), I really had no chance of winning. Check out this computer analysis/performance evaluation of Lc0:

If you want more info on Leela Chess Zero, check out my blog:

https://lichess.org/@/mullerrj/blog/leela-chess-zero/VeIn8JL3

You can see I missed (or overlooked) three different Captures, Checks and Threats in no more than 5 moves. Because of this, I lost the game.

So, how can I prevent this from happening in the future? Before every move, especially during the middlegame, ask yourself this: “If I play this, what are my opponents Checks, Captures and Threats?”.

1. Checks → “Can they check my king? If so, can they take advantage of it?”
2. Captures → “Can they capture something? If so, what happens after the capture?”
3. Threats → “What are they attacking next?”

For me, it seems the biggest issue/problem I have lately is not asking the 2nd question to 2. above. That is, “What happens after the capture?” I’ll be sure to ask in the future.

Likewise, you should also ask yourself the same after your opponent moves, particularly when their move is not a forcing move. Before your next move ask, “Can I check their king?” “Can I capture a piece?” “Can I attack and threaten one of their pieces?”

This CCT checklist should only take a few seconds, and it prevents most blunders. CCT is not ‘beginner advice only’, it applies to stronger players too. They just do it faster and subconsciously- without thinking about it.