Tactics
The discovered attack
One piece steps out of the way and the piece behind it is suddenly attacking something. What makes it strong is that the piece that moved is free to do anything at all while it moves, so you get two threats out of one move, and the defender can answer one.
How to spot it
Look for your own pieces standing directly in front of your rooks, bishops and queen, and ask what that line would hit if the front piece were not there. Then pick the most annoying square the front piece can land on. The best discoveries are the ones where the moving piece is itself hanging and cannot be taken.
The positions
Easiest first. Every one is from a real game, and the rating under each board is what it costs the players who have tried it on lichess.
-
1. White to play Play it out →Answer
20.Bxh7+ Nxh7 21.Qxd6
-
2. White to play Play it out →Answer
33.Qxf8+ Kxf8 34.Bc5+ Ke8 35.Rxe4
-
3. White to play Play it out →Answer
14.Nxf6+ Qxf6 15.Bxc6
-
4. Black to play Play it out →Answer
31...Bh2+ 32.Kxh2 Qxg6
-
5. Black to play Play it out →Answer
28...Qc1+ 29.Rf1 Rxg2+ 30.Kxg2 Qxe3
-
6. White to play Play it out →Answer
20.Nxh7+ Qxg5 21.Qxg5+
-
7. White to play Play it out →Answer
22.dxc6+ Kh8 23.cxb7
-
8. White to play Play it out →Answer
29.Rd7+ Kh8 30.Rxd4 Bxe1 31.Rxd8 Rxd8 32.Rxe1
-
9. Black to play Play it out →Answer
27...Rc4+ 28.Ka2 Rxc3 29.Nxc3 Qxc3
-
10. White to play Play it out →Answer
25.Bxf6 Bxf6 26.Nh6+ gxh6 27.Qxd7
-
11. Black to play Play it out →Answer
27...Rf2+ 28.Kg1 Rf3+ 29.Kh1 Rf1#
-
12. White to play Play it out →Answer
22.Nc5+ d5 23.Bxd5+ Re6 24.Bxe6#
Reading about a pattern is the easy half. Motify finds the positions where you missed one, by running your own lichess and Chess.com games through Stockfish, and puts each of them behind two or three puzzles on the same idea so you meet it having just found it three times. See how Motify works.
Positions from the lichess puzzle database, released under CC0.