You can increase the pressure on your opponent by attacking the pinned piece.In fact, a pinned piece often has little or no effect on the squares it is supposed to defend. A pinned piece is usually a weak defender. You can limit your opponent’s defensive resources.The pinned piece cannot perform as it should because moving it will expose another target. When you pin a piece, it’s usefulness can be significantly restricted. You can reduce the current value of your opponent’s piece.Pin tactics have unique advantages that make them a very powerful weapon in chess: The power of pin tactics inspired the chessmaster, Fred Reinfeld, to coin the phrase: “The pin is mightier than the sword,” which is of course a word-play on “The pen is mightier than the sword”. In fact, you will hardly ever see a game where pins did not play a role at some point during the game – which is another important reason to study them. Pin tactics are one of the most common tactical patterns in chess. This is because in the case of a skewer the threat is always immediate, whereas in the case of an ordinary pin your opponent usually has more time to deal with it. In many cases, although not always, a skewer is more powerful than a pin. Note how the effect of the ordinary pin is usually not as dangerous as the skewer. A common pin.Īnd a skewer… The black queen is in a skewer because her value is higher than the rook on a8. Here’s a common chess pin: Black’s knight on f6 is pinned. The diagrams below will illustrate the difference between a skewer and a pin. But in the case of a skewer the piece at the front in the line of attack has a higher or similar value to the piece behind it. In the case of a pin, the pinned piece has a lower value than the target behind it. At a first glance they appear to be quite similar but their effect on the position is usually very different.
What is the difference between a pin and a skewer?īefore we continue with the study on pin tactics, I want to explain the difference between a pin and a skewer. Moving the knight would allow 2.Rc8+, winning even more material.Ī situational pin is usually a bit more difficult to spot because the consequences of moving the pinned piece is not as obvious as is the case with a relative pin or an absolute pin. The example below will illustrate the idea: White’s rook on c1 places the black knight in a situational pin. What is a situational pin?Ī situational pin refers to a scenario where it’s not obvious that a piece is pinned, but a closer observation will reveal that the piece is indirectly pinned. The diagram illustrates that even though black’s queen is technically in an absolute pin – she can still legally move on the b8-h2 diagonal. When a pinned piece still has limited movement, such pin is referred to as a “partial pin”. In many cases a pinned piece could actually still move along the rank or diagonal it is pinned on. An interesting observation (Partial pins) On the e-file it is a relative pin, but on the b8-h2 diagonal it is an absolute pin. 1.Bf4! Black’s bishop on e5 is pinned in 2 directions. When a piece is pinned from two directions, it is referred to as a cross-pin. In other words, if a piece is pinned to their king it is referred to as an absolute pin. This is an absolute pin on the black queen since it would be illegal for her to leave the a2-g8 diagonal. In the case where a piece is pinned to the king, it is illegal for that piece to leave the file or diagonal that it is pinned on, else this would leave the king in check. In the case of a relative pin, the pinned piece could still freely move – but it’s usually not a good idea because it would expose a relatively higher-valued piece behind it. It is a relative pin because moving the knight would expose the higher-valued rook on a1. Black plays 1… Bf6 and pins the white knight on c3. What is a relative pin?Ī relative pin is a when the value of a pinned piece is relatively lower than the piece behind it. There are a number of different variations of pin tactics. Pin tactics occur when an attacked piece cannot move without exposing an even more valuable piece (or target) behind it. Get your copy of the 7 skills training modelĭownload this helpful summary of the important skills you need to train! What is a pin in chess? Chess Tactics: Pins (Intermediate Puzzles).