👋 Hi Chess Enthusiast

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

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Skewer

A skewer is a concept in which the more valuable piece will be attacked (Can be a king also), forcing it to move, and exposing a lesser valuable piece at the back which can be captured. Skewer is just a reversal of the pin concept.

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There are two types of skewers. They are Absolute skewer and Relative skewer.

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Absolute Skewer

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An absolute skewer is a skewer in which the opponent king is attacked by your piece, forcing the king to move exposing a piece behind the king diagonally or vertically or horizontally.

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Here, the black bishop can play bishop to e3 checking the white king on c5, Now the white king moves away exposing its queen on a7. Now, black can capture the queen on a7 after the king moves away.

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Relative Skewer

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In a relative skewer, you will be attacking a more valuable piece like queen or rook, forcing it to move exposing the piece behind it.

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Here, white can play bishop to f3 attacking the black queen on d5, Now the black queen moves away exposing its rook on a8 to be captured by the white bishop.

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More puzzles to learn

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Here, the white can promote the pawn into a queen on h8 attacking the king on d4, Now the king moves away exposing its queen on a1.

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This is a famous endgame skewer concept. The white rook is locked on a8 supporting the a7, while the black rook is attacking the a7 pawn. If the white rook tries to move away, white would lose the a7 pawn.

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However, white has a skewer which would help it to either take a queen or win the black rook through skewer.

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White can play rook to h8 threatening to play a8 queen, black has to capture the pawn on a7 to stop the pawn promotion, which would allow white to play rook to h7 doing a skewer.

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If you are not able to visualize the solutions, King try the solutions using a chess board.

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Puzzle of the day

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This puzzle has several variations involved in it, kindly try to find all the variations.

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Share your answers to [email protected]

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Homework Puzzles

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Download the below file and enjoy solving few puzzles. Share your answers 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 Monday, we will learn about a concept called Fork.

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Author,

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Ramalingam Karthik

Chess With Ramkar

 [email protected]