Pin
Pins are one of the most important things to learn when playing chess. They can help the losing side gain a major advantage and help them eventually win the game. If the game is even, it can give one side an overwhelming lead with just one move. So that aside, what is a pin?
A pin is a position where a piece is attacking another piece, but if that piece is moved to a place where it isn’t being attacked by that piece, the attacking piece will immediately attack another piece with a higher value. Sometimes, the piece with a higher value can be the king making moving the piece being attacked away an illegal move.
Now, I know that may sound confusing to some of you, so let me explain it to you with a few examples.
Example 1:
This position is one example of a pin. If you look at the white bishop on c3, you will notice that it is attacking the black knight on f6. Now, that knight is free to move, but if it does move, then the white bishop can just take the black rook on h8. This is the general concept of a pin.
If you take a second to look at board with it being black’s move, you might notice that there are multiple ways to avoid losing your knight for nothing. This shows that although black is in a pin, they can minimize their losses if they play correctly.
Don’t think that just because your piece is pinned, it is a lost cause because you can still either save it, or take one of the opponent’s pieces in return if played correctly.
Now let’s look at another example of a pin.
When you quickly look at the board, you might think that black is currently, but upon a closer look you will realize that the game is actually in white’s favor.
It is currently in black’s move, but whatever black tries to do, white will take the queen with the bishop since black can’t move their queen out of the way due to it being an illegal move. Once that happens, white will be winning the game.
Even if black moves the king to f7, white would take the queen giving up the bishop. Now, it is white’s move, and white’s a5 pawn is the closest to promoting causing white to win.
In this example, white managed to turn a losing position into a winning one.
Pins are some of your best friends as well as worst enemies on a chess board. They can change the pace of a game in a matter of seconds.
Now that you know how to use them, make them one of you closest friends. As you get better at chess, you will start to use more pins and also learn ways to force a pin.
Next time you play a game against someone, try to find different ways to create a pin, and you will realize how helpful they truly can be.
Author: Bhavesh Kotta
