Undermining

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Undermining is a chess tactic where an opponent guard, defending an attacked piece, is captured. While the removed guard itself is usually not en prise and the attacker even has a negative static exchange evaluation, the point is that there is no recapture available to perpetuate the guards defensive obligations, and leaving a former attacked but guarded piece en prise, with a final net gain for the attacker. Those pattern may be considered in quiescence search to encourage capturing pawns and pieces with otherwise negative SEE ...

=Sample= ... like Rxc7, capturing the lonesome guard of Be6: 3k4/2n3p1/3bb3/7p/8/8/6P1/2R1R2K 3k4/2n3p1/3bb3/7p/8/8/6P1/2R1R2K w - -

=Counter Sample= If the undermined piece has a Zwischenzug, things are more complicated. Here quiescence has to deal with checks below the horizon, to become aware undermining does not work here ... 3k4/2n3p1/3bb3/7p/8/6P1/8/2R1R2K 3k4/2n3p1/3bb3/7p/8/6P1/8/2R1R2K w - -

=See also=
 * Combination
 * Deflection
 * En prise
 * Overloading
 * Quiescence Search
 * Square Attacked By
 * Static Exchange Evaluation

=External Links=
 * Undermining (chess) from Wikipedia
 * Undermine disambiguation page from Wikipedia

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