National Master Dan Heisman is a name that is synonymous with excellence in chess coaching and teaching. Dan authors the award-winning Novice Nook column (winner of three Chess Journalists of America "Best Instruction" awards), aimed at improving adults, for chesscafe.com that are clearly written and offer very practical advice and tips on how to improve your game. More info about Dan can be found here. In the new Improve Your Chess series, Dan provides instruction by reviewing amateur games played on ICC and showing where the players went wrong and how to improve.

Today's show: Tactics are not just used to win material and checkmate; they are also used to prevent losing material and checkmate. Using problems from Jeff Coakley's excellent book Winning Chess Exercises for Kids, we show how tactics are used to prevent a player in a threatening situation from losing the game.

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