Tricky Pin Puzzles

NM CoachJKane

Aug 22, 2015, 7:17 AM | 8

I was putting together lesson material on pins for some private students today and I thought that chess.com readers might enjoy a shot at some of these puzzles. I'm curious how hard people think each puzzle is, so feel free to provide input in the comments.

Enjoy and good luck!

1. Warm up here. How did Anand, playing black, win this World Championship Match game?

2. In a much older match for the world title, how did Alekhine make use of Capablanca's pinned rook?

3. Now for some of my games. How can white win material?

4. This game was for 1st place in a tournament. Black just blundered with Qc6-b6. How can white take advantage of the exposed queen and the knight on c5?

5. Once again, black just blundered with Qb6. How can white take advantage?

Bonus Challenge Puzzle: My computer can't calculate deeply enough to figure out why Bronstein's combination made white resign. Can you?

How did you do on the puzzles? Where any too easy or too hard?

Thanks for reading.

NM Jeremy Kane

Jeremy Kane is a National Master and three-time Wisconsin state champion. He is the Curriculum Director for chess.com. He has been teaching chess in person and online for over 15 years and has designed hundreds of lessons, available on chess.com/lessons. He is the author of Starting Out The Trompowsky on Chessable and The Next To Last Mistake, a book on defensive ideas in chess.

He is the developer of the Caro-Kane Variation of the Caro-Kann Defense.

email: jeremy@chess.com

Twitter/X: @chessmensch

Tricky Pin Puzzles

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