The Discovered Attack

A discovered attack is a tactic where you move a piece to attack an opponent’s piece, while a piece behind it has been revealed to attack another opponent’s piece at the same time. It is a powerful weapon in Xiangqi, as it creates a double attack to the opponent.

There are two common forms of Discovered attack:

1.     the horizontal discovered attack

2.    the vertical discovered attack

Let’s us take a look in the following examples.

In this example, the red cannon, the red horse and the black chariot are all on rank E. If the red horse moves away, then the red cannon will be attacking the black chariot.

Discovered attack example 1.1

So, after red moves its E4 horse to G5, while the red cannon is attacking the black chariot, the red horse is also attacking the black H3 horse, black will have no choice but to lose one of these two pieces.

Discovered attack example 1.2

In this example, the red chariot, the red soldier and the black general are on the same file. Red can carry out a discovered attack by moving the G4 soldier to G3.

Discovered attack example 2.1

This move exposes the red chariot in behind to attack the black general, whilst the red soldier is threatening to capture the black horse. Black must lose the horse if he wants to save the general. Since this discovered attack involves a check, this can also be called a discovered check

Discovered attack example 2.2

One important thing to note is that discovered attack doesn’t always have to be attacking two pieces simultaneously. In this case, the black general is protected by castle advisors, which is prone to the attack by cannon. Therefore, red can move its G2 cannon to G8.

Discovered attack example 3.1

The move not only threatens a smothering mate by G8 to J8, but also attacks the I2 black horse with the chariot. This is also a common type of discovered attack.

Discovered attack example 3.2

In today’s tutorial, we talk about the idea of discovered attack, a powerful technique that can help us gain material advantage in Xiangqi if we use it properly. There is a puzzle about the discovered attack below, click on the button to check if you have mastered this tactic!

Practice makes perfect!