Windmill (Seesaw)
A repeating discovered-check combination where a rook and bishop battery swings back and forth, devouring material on every single swing.
Key Ideas
- Requires a bishop and rook working together, with the bishop delivering the discovered check.
- The rook alternates between capturing material and retreating to re-open the discovered check.
- Because each swing is check, the opponent is forced to keep responding while material disappears.
- One of the most visually spectacular tactical patterns in all of chess.
How It Works
A windmill (also called a "seesaw") combines a rook and a bishop into a repeating discovered-check machine: the rook captures a piece, then retreats one square to re-open the bishop's discovered check, forcing a king move — and then advances again to grab another piece, over and over.
Because every single swing of the "windmill" comes with check, the defending side has no choice but to keep responding while material is stripped away piece by piece, often for several consecutive moves.
The most famous demonstration is Torre's combination against Emanuel Lasker in Moscow, 1925 — a game still reproduced in tactics books today as the definitive windmill example.
Famous Games
Torre's Windmill
One of the most famous combinations in chess history — Torre's bishop-and-rook windmill repeatedly checked and captured material from a former World Champion.
Watch & Learn
Video lessons come and go, so instead of linking a specific clip that might disappear, here's a live search for this exact topic:
▶ Search YouTube for "chess windmill seesaw tactic Torre Lasker"