Pin it to Win it and a Skewer for Dessert

The Ever Powerful Pin: Stay put...or else... by Ms Jessica Martin (aka BoundingOwl)

Hiya! Today we are going to learn about pins and skewers. That's P-I-N, not P-E-N. And skewers as in shish kebabs, the kind with meat and vegetables roasted on a stick---you know these things? Well, the skewer is the stick. And the pieces are the vegetables. (Say: skyoo-er)

There are different kinds of pins in the real world: safety pins, tacks, buttons---each is used to keep something in place. Same with chess! If you pin a piece it can't move!

There are two kinds of pins in chess: the relative pin, and the absolute pin. Here is an example:

An absolute pin is when the king is behind the pinned piece. In the diagram above, the bishop on d6 is completely and absolutely pinned. It might want to go to b4 and say check, but it can't. That would be illegal. You can never put your own king in danger!

A relative pin means, well, you could move the piece, but it would be a really bad idea. Do you see what would happen if the knight on f3 moved away in the position ABOVE?

Remember, for pins and skewers you always have 3 pieces in the same straight line. Which pieces go really far in straight lines? Queens, rooks, and bishops are the only pieces that can make pins and skewers---they are called long-range pieces.

Did you find all 7 pins?

(Rae1, Raf1, Rge1, Rgf1, Bh4, Bc4, Ra7!)

Skewers are similar to pins, but the more valuable piece is in front of the less valuable piece. You still have 3 pieces in the same straight line. Let's look at an example.

So, the rook on h8 is creating a SKEWER (some people call it an x-ray attack because you can see right through to the piece behind). Once the king moves, the white rook will capture the black rook for free.

White also has a pin on the pawn, but you don't always want to capture a pinned piece...

Sometimes you make it stay there for life, while it watches helplessly, as you create a checkmate.

Solve this puzzle:

Everybody's pinned! They watch sorrowfully as white slides the rook to h8 with checkmate, and no one can capture back! Notice that white's bishop on b3 is pinned, too.

Let's see if you can make a skewer in the following position:

Now for a SUPER TRICKY PUZZLE! Are you ready?

Do you see what happens if that queen tries to run? There is a pin or a skewer or a free queen wherever she goes!! I dare you to try to find a safe square for her! Not even h7 works...

Click on the Move List to see all possible ways for the queen to try to escape. Did you get them all? If Qh7, you get to sacrifice your rook on h5 to get the queen and king lined up; then, Bd1+!

Pins are super sneaky. Very often we're in a pin and we didn't even know we were wrestling!

By the way, don't always capture the pinned piece; put pressure on it! (Think of pp on the pp: put pressure on the pinned piece.)

We will learn how to use pins to our ultimate advantage soon...until then: go pin the lawnmower to the ground and get some work done outside!