Chess Basics: Pins and Skewers

Two of the most popular and powerful chess tactics beginners can learn are pins and skewers. In this lesson, we’ll l see what pins and skewers are and how to use them effectively. 

Pins in Chess

A pin is a tactic in which a piece is attacked and can’t move out of the way without endangering a more valuable piece behind it. In this way, a pin restricts an opponent’s piece movement, which might create an opportunity to win material or deliver checkmate. 

Unlike forks, which can be created by any piece, pins are an exclusive club. Only pieces with long-range attacking powers--queens, rooks, and bishops--are able to make them.

In this position, White’s queen has pinned Black’s knight to the king. The knight cannot make any legal moves until the pin is broken. 

Sometimes a pinned piece can still move in one direction but not others.  In the position below, the black queen is pinned by the white rook.  However, the queen still move vertically but is not allowed to move sideways because that would expose the king to check. 

Black’s best choice here is to capture the rook and allow the queen to be taken in return, resulting in a draw. If Black moves the king instead, the queen will be taken for free and White will be able to go for a checkmate with the king and rook.

One of the most common pins is the one shown below, where the bishop pins the knight to the queen:

This popular move aims to restrict the knight’s movement and threatens an early loss of the queen if the player fails to recognize the pin. 

Players can break a pin by moving the protected piece out of the attacker’s way; once the pinned piece no longer has to serve as a shield, it’s free to move again. Another option is to place a piece between the pinned piece and the piece it’s protecting, adding a second layer of defense.

[if we keep the above section on ways to break a pin, we should use a list]

Skewers

Skewers are like pins except the more valuable piece is in front of the less valuable piece.  Pins restrict your opponent's options since they cannot move the pinned piece without an unfavorable result. Skewers tend to have more immediate effect since the opponent must move the skewered piece. 

In a skewer, a higher-value piece is attacked and exposes a lower-value piece behind it to capture when it moves to safety:

[Oy, this is a bad example for a few reasons. Let's start with a very simple diagram, taken from the next example after Black plays .. a1/Q.  That example is simple and perfect. ]

In the position below, a race for pawn promotion ends in an unfortunate skewer for White: