The Everything Chess Basics Book (44 page)

The White knight is pinned to the queen.

4. dxe5 Bxf3 5. Qxf3.

Now there is no more pin.

5.
... dxe5 6. Bc4 Nf6 7. Qb3 Qe7 8. Nc3 c6 9. Bg5.

The Black knight is pinned to the queen. This pin stays around for a while.

9.
... b5 10. Nxb5 cxb5 11. Bxb5+ Nbd7.

The Black knight is pinned to the king.

12. 0–0–0 Rd8 13. Rxd7 Rxd7.

Now it is the rook that is pinned to the king.

14. Rd1 Qe6 15. Bxd7+ Nxd7 16. Qb8+ Nxb8 17. Rd8 checkmate.

Absolute Pin

On move eleven of the game you just looked at, Black moves a knight into the way of the checking bishop and the king. This blocks the check, so is good. But it also puts Black into an absolute pin. That is, a pin in which the pinned piece (the knight on d7) not only shouldn’t move, but can’t move.

One of the best ways to take advantage of a pinned piece is to hit it again and again. If you want to break down your opponent’s defenses, harsh measures are called for. So when you spy an immobile piece, such as a pinned piece, attack it again. This is much more effective than simply exchanging the pinning piece for the pinned piece.

Whenever a piece lies between your king and an enemy long-range piece, it is in an absolute pin. It cannot move out of the line of fire, since you are not allowed to place your king in check.

Skewer

A skewer, sometimes referred to as an
x-ray attack
, is sort of a mirror-image pin. It requires a long-range piece and two enemy pieces on the same line of attack, just like a pin does, but in a skewer the more important or powerful piece is doing the shielding. Therefore, instead of immobilizing the piece, a skewer practically forces it to move, thus exposing the poor little guy it had shielded. When the two enemy pieces are of the same value, it is also referred to as a
skewer
, rather than a pin.

Pins and skewers are nothing more than specialized forms of double attack. It’s just that both enemy pieces stand on the same line, so the attacking is being done through one piece on to the other.

Here is an example of a skewer in action:

This position, with Black to move, came up at a regional tournament in the Midwest during the mid-1990s.

The player handling the Black pieces didn’t notice a short combination leading to a skewer, and so failed to defeat the chess master he was playing.

First, notice that White threatens to win a rook, since he has a battery of rooks on the d-file. Black can move his rook out of the way with 1. ... Rdc8 or exchange rooks. Here’s what happens if he exchanges rooks:

1.
... Rxd2 2. Rxd2

Do you see the skewer now? Simply look for any two White pieces on the same line as one of your long-range pieces (you’ve only got two), and you will see it.

2.
... Bc1!

Here it is. The rook is more powerful that the knight. If it moves out of the way, Black will simply capture the knight:

3. Rd7 Bxg5.

The best defense is to let the rook go with 3. Nf3. That way, White at least gets the bishop for the rook after 3. ... Bxd2 4. Nxd2.

There are many kinds of tactical setups that require more than two pieces. These include convergence and batteries (two friendly pieces going after an enemy), discovered attacks of various sorts (two friendly pieces going after more than one enemy), forks (one piece going after more than one enemy), and pins and skewers (one piece going after two enemies). These are part of your arsenal of weapons in chess.

Chapter 12
Tactical Weapons

Besides the various sorts of double attack, there are other tactical things the pieces can do. These include, but are not limited to, removing the defender, overload, interference, Zwischenzug, desperado, and no retreat. These ideas can take place using various units of attack and defense. All are based on very sensible attacking ideas that every chess player should know.

Removing the Defender

The idea behind removing the defender is simply to get rid of the support a piece has. You remember that one of the five ways to meet a threat to capture is to defend the threatened piece. Well, this tactic gets rid of that defender.

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 a6