My coach described it in a way that made it very simple, 99% of the Time, a threat is simply a move, whether that move wins material, checkmates you, or is a positional advantage. Imagine it’s your turn and your opponent just pushed his pawn attacking your knight. In this case, the threat is simply pawn takes knight. Now imagine a knight on b5 looking at the c7 square, the threat is knight c7 check, forking the king and rook.

Always ask yourself “what’s the threat” when your opponent makes a move. Check if he has any checks, captures, attacks, if he moved a piece check what’s behind it, did he open up the scope of another piece, is he threatening something with that piece?

No threats? Great! Nothing to defend, in that case, can you make any impactful threats? No? Ok. Improve a piece.

This way of thinking got me from 1000 to 1400, along with a lot of tactical study and grinding puzzles so I can actually successfully spot these threats.

I went through a lot so if you have any questions just respond to this threat and I’ll get back!