Chess pins: freezing a piece where it stands
A pin does not win anything by itself. It removes a defender without capturing it, and almost everything else follows from that.
- 120 positions in the course
- Difficulty 652–2319
- Section: Tactics
- 5 levels
What a pin is
A pin is an attack along a line -- a rank, file or diagonal -- against a piece that has something more valuable directly behind it. Moving the front piece exposes the back one, so it is stuck.
If the piece behind is the king, the pin is absolute: the front piece is not merely reluctant to move, it is legally forbidden to. If it is a queen or a rook, the pin is relative, and the pinned piece can move -- it just costs material to do it.
How to spot it
- Look for any two enemy pieces on the same line with nothing else between them, valuable one behind.
- The king is the target that makes a pin absolute, so scan the king's rank, file and both diagonals every time it moves.
- A pinned piece is not really a defender. Count it as absent, and then look again at whatever it was supposed to be defending.
- Add attackers to the pinned piece rather than looking for something cleverer. It cannot run, so a second attacker usually just wins it.
Three pins to exploit
Three positions from the 120 in this skill, easiest first. The highlighted squares are the move your opponent has just played. Work it out before you open the answer.
Position 1
White to move. Find the best move.
Show the answer
27...Bd7 28.Re8#
The line ends in checkmate. The pinned piece cannot legally move or cannot afford to, so whatever it was defending is undefended and whatever attacks it wins material.
The position comes from an endgame of a real game, rated 850 for difficulty. The answer reaches checkmate.
Position 2
White to move. Find the best move.
Show the answer
25...bxc5 26.Bc4 Kh8 27.Bxe6
The line wins a rook. The pinned piece cannot legally move or cannot afford to, so whatever it was defending is undefended and whatever attacks it wins material.
The position comes from the middlegame of a real game, rated 1343 for difficulty. The answer reaches a winning advantage.
Position 3
White to move. Find the best move.
Show the answer
36...Qd5 37.Qb5#
The line ends in checkmate. The pinned piece cannot legally move or cannot afford to, so whatever it was defending is undefended and whatever attacks it wins material.
The position comes from an endgame of a real game, rated 1997 for difficulty. The answer reaches checkmate.
Getting out of a pin
Four ways out, in rough order of how often they are available: move the piece behind so the pin evaporates, capture the pinning piece, interpose something between the two, or defend the pinned piece enough times that the pile-up fails. A fifth, often the best, is a counter-attack elsewhere that is faster than the pin.
Preventing them is mostly about the light-square and dark-square diagonals into your castled king. The bishop pin on a knight in front of the queen is so common it has its own name in half a dozen openings, and the standard prophylactic is to break it with a pawn before it arrives.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between an absolute and a relative pin?
In an absolute pin the piece behind is the king, so moving the pinned piece would be an illegal move. In a relative pin the piece behind is merely more valuable, so the pinned piece can move -- it just loses material to do so, which sometimes is worth it.
Can a knight pin a piece?
No. A pin needs an attack along a line, and a knight's attack does not travel along a rank, file or diagonal. Only bishops, rooks and queens can pin.
Is a pinned piece still defending?
Legally, yes -- an absolutely pinned piece still controls the squares it attacks, and a king may not move onto them. Practically, no: it cannot recapture on those squares without exposing the king, so a second attacker on the piece it 'defends' usually wins it.
Nearby patterns
Pins sits in Tactics. The rest of that section:
Tell it apart from its neighbour
Pins is confused with these more often than anything else, and the difference is usually one sentence long.
Printable worksheetsThree free PDF sheets of these positions with a full answer key. No sign-up, print and copy as many as you like.