This pattern suggests avoiding coupling the client object (sender of requests) with the receiver object by enabling objects (more than one) to handle the request.

The preceding diagram depicts the typical structure of the chain of responsibility; the handler is the interface to define the requests and optionally express the successors along with concrete handlers that can handle the requests and forwards the same if needed.

Here's a list of the benefits:

• Reduced coupling (objects do not know which other objects handle the requests)
• Additional flexibilities in responsibilities assignments (of objects)

The impact is, no handshakes between the request handlers, so no guarantee of handling the request by other objects, and it may fall off from the chain unnoticed.