Freeing

Freeing

This tactical procedure involves removing your own pieces from certain squares in order to open certain directions or to occupy that square with another piece that may be more suited for the current position.

In the next game White moves 1. N:b6+. If Black captures the knight with 1... a:b6 then White will move Re8+!; with this move White frees the queen's diagonal and stops Black from protecting himself by forcing him to capture the rook. So, after the e4 square is freed the queen is able to checkmate with Qa8 . That is why Black won't capture the knight and will have to move his king 1... Kd8

The move White should do in the next position is fairly simple. Nf7!. This freed the d8 square; now White threatens a powerful attack on this square and ,in the same time, capturing the rook from h8. Black has no way of defending both objectives and has to defend against the attack on the freed square (an attack which can end up with a checkmate after the black rook will be captured). 1... Kc8 2. N:h8 R:h8 and White wins a value (he won a rook and lost only a knight). If Black would have moved the rook from h8 then checkmate would have been possible with: 2. Rd8+ R:d8 3. R:d8

In the following game Black is able to move R:d3 because with this he frees the main white diagonal and threatens checkmate with the rook at h1. White is forced to defend against the checkmate and is unable to capture the black rook and therefor Black manages to balance the game.