👋 Hi Chess Enthusiast

In Today’s Newsletter, we will learn about a middle game tactics called Pin

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Pin

A pin is a concept that one can use to restrict one or more of your opponent’s pieces. Usually, the piece that is pinned blocks the attack of a valuable piece or king.

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There are two types of pins. They are Absolute pin and Relative Pin

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Absolute Pin

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An absolute pin is a pin in which a piece is pinned to its king diagonally, vertically, or horizontally. Since the piece is pinned to its king, the attacked piece cannot move as it would expose the king.

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Here, the white bishop goes to b3 to pin the knight on d5. If you notice, the bishop is pinning the d5 knight along the diagonal to the king. Since it is pinned to its king, the black knight cannot move, exposing its king. So, in the next move after Black plays, White can take the knight on D5.

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Relative Pin

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In a relative pin, when one pins a piece, the piece behind the pinned piece is not the king but some other valuable piece.

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Here, white would play rook to e1 to attack the knight on e4, which in turn helps white pin the knight on e4 along with the queen. As there are now two white pieces attacking the e4 knight, white would be able to capture the knight in the next move.

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More puzzles to learn

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Here, the white knight on e4 is pinned by the black bishop on g6. So, black can take the queen on G5 for free; even though the white knight is supporting the queen, the knight can’t capture the queen back, exposing its king on B1.

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Here, you can see that the white bishop is pinning the knight on e7, So, white can capture the queen on c6. Black knight can’t capture the queen back as it is pinned along with its king diagonally by the bishop

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Puzzle of the day

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Share your answers to [email protected]

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Explore our curated Selection of free PDFs/E-Books to enhance your chess knowledge and skills

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Download the below file to solve more pin puzzles and share your answers or doubts to [email protected]

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Download and try these interesting puzzles and share your answers writing to [email protected]

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That concludes this edition of our newsletter. Keep practicing, keep learning, and keep pushing the boundaries of your chess skills.

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In the next newsletter on Thursday, we will learn about a concept called Skewer.

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Author,

Ramalingam Karthik

Chess With Ramkar

 [email protected]