In Chess, a Battery is a Chess Tactic that build up power – or ‘pressure’ – either along the straights (Ranks and Files) or along the diagonals, attacking the enemy’s position.

Battery Attacks involve a combination of Rooks and Queens along the straights and Bishops and Queens along the diagonals.

For the tactic to work, the cells of the Battery (the Pieces) need to be stacked together, on neighboring squares.

Here are the following types of Battery you’re likely to encounter – whether you use them yourself, or they’re used by your opponent to attack your own army.

Battery Type 1: Rooks Only

This is when you get two Rooks working together.

It could be that your opponent has Doubled Rooks – or even a Rook Battery – on a single Rank or File, and you want to equalize the pressure, by fighting back with your two Rooks.

Or, you want to nip in there first and apply pressure to a particular Piece or Pawn… With the latter, perhaps you’re gearing up to get one of the Rooks onto the 7th Rank, where it can start munching on enemy Pawns, while also serving to keep the enemy King stuck on its Back-Rank.

Battery Type 2: Rook(s) and Queen

Instead of 2 Rooks, you can also have a Battery on the straights involving one Rook and your Queen.

Because of the Queen’s ability to move along the diagonals, it can be easier to create a Rook and Queen Battery… With the two-Rooks version, you first have to clear straight paths, so that both Rooks can slot into their Battery formation.

Usually, you’d position the Queen behind the Rook so that, if you choose to attack, you’re sending the less-valuable Rook in to do the initial damage, knowing it’ll be captured… then the Queen can dive in to tidy up.

Moving on from the two-Piece Battery, by far the strongest type of Battery occurs when you add a Queen to the line of two Rooks.

Again, it’s often best to lead with the two Rooks, with the Queen at the rear, to compound any damage you’re likely to inflict when you let loose your Battery, to attack the enemy’s position.

This particular formation, where the Queen is at the base of the Battery (Queen-Rook-Rook), is known as “Alekhine’s Gun”. It takes its name after former, 2-time World Chess Champion, Alexander Alekhine used it in his games.

Battery Type 3: Bishops Only

This type of Battery won’t occur as often as the other types… Mainly because, at the start of each game, both players don’t actually have two Bishops operating on the same-color square.

The only time when this is possible is if a player manages to get a Pawn to its Promotion square (on the opposition’s Back-Rank) and then, rather than selecting a Queen, Rook, or Knight, they choose to promote that Pawn to a Bishop.

While possible, if it happens, it’ll be a very rare occurrence, as the Bishop is probably the least-selected Piece, when it comes to Pawn Promotion.

Battery Type 4: Bishop and Queen

If a Battery Attack is to occur on the diagonals, more-often-than-not, it’s going to be formed by a single Bishop and the Queen.

As with the Rook and Queen type, most often, you’ll want to lead with the Bishop and have the Queen acting as the supporting Piece.

Bishop and Queen Batteries can be used to in the build-up to attacking the position of your opponent’s Castled King… When the time is right, you’d send your Bishop in first, to capture one of the defending Pawns (in front of the King)…

This, effectively, blasts a hole in the defenses, allowing you to infiltrate the enemy’s Back-Rank. Your Queen acts to protect the Bishop as, usually, the only Piece close-enough to attack the Bishop would be the Castled King himself… But, because of the Queen’s support, the King won’t be able to capture the Bishop.

The enemy’s position will now be severely weakened.