Welcome to Tactics Monday! Every Monday I will present different type of tactics that you can learn about from real world games. Since the London Chess Classic has already seen some very exciting games, let's take a look at some removing or capturing the defender tactics. These positions come from the current leader Wesley So's games. 

This tactics is simple but one of my favorites. One piece defends another and if you capture that piece, you will win the piece that it is defending. Obviously you need to be attack both pieces. In our first example, USA's GM Wesley So takes down his fellow country man GM Hikaru Nakamura. Poor Naka is already down one pawn; can you find the move that helps So win? Black to move. 

The answer is 1... Bxf4! This gives up the bishop pair but after 2.gxf4 Black can simply capture the d-pawn with 2... Rxd5. The Knight was defending it before but after the removal of the Knight the d-pawn is completely undefended.  There are other tactics involved in this position but for simplicity focus on the removal of the defender tactic.

The next example comes from the Anand - Lagrave game. Check out this position and see if you can find a way to win something by removing a defender. Remember to look for pieces that you are attacking and see if there is a way to eliminate the defender: 

For a slightly more complicated situation where removing the defender means removing the defense from a SQUARE. This position is from the round 3 Giri-So game. Black to move. 

1... Bxd4! 2.Rxd4 Rf5 and there is no way to protect the e-pawn. This kind of position can happen all over the board and there are plenty of checkmates that result from removing the defender. Giri barely squeeks out of the position down a pawn with a draw. 

But, So is still smiling as he leads the London Chess Classic 2016 with 3/4 points. Close behind him with 2.5 are Kramnik, Nakamura, Aronian, and Caruana. Nakamura has amazingly recovered from losing the first game with two wins in a row in Rounds 3 & 4. 

Look for more excitement tomorrow and with Coach Q's psychological tip of the day.