To win a game, you will almost certainly have to win some of your opponent's pieces. Beginners often give their pieces away, but later when they become more used to how everything moves, this is less common. At this point, you will have to employ some of many devices for winning pieces by force. It's fun, as you will see from the explanation and examples given in this post.

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SKEWERS

A skewer is a different way of attacking of two opposing pieces at once. The skewer is a long - range threat along rank, file and diagonal, so it's not available to pawns, knights and kings.

 

   

Double Attack

Another way to threatening two enemy pieces at once, using two of your pieces, is a double attack. One piece moves a direct attack and, at the same time, reveals and attack by another piece.

 

 

Winning ways with check

All the method ( forks, skewers and double attack ) of threatening and winning enemy pieces can also be played with an attack on the enemy king - a check.

 

 

Double check

The only way out of double check is a king move because you cannot take two checking pieces at once, nor block two checks at once. That's why a double check is so powerful. It is a special form of the double attack.

 

Pins

As the name suggests a pin is a tactic that ' pins down ' one piece to another. If a piece is pinned to a king, you are not allowed to move because any move would place your king into check.

Another kind of pin

In these cases, it is legal to move the pinned piece because the pin piece is against an ordinary piece, not the king. However, ignoring the pin is not a good idea as you will see.

This is pin to ordinary pieces:

 

This is pin to king:

 

Why pins are important

Anything which restricts your choice of moves is bad. It makes things harder for you and easier for your opponent. 

Forcing Mate

'Never miss a check, it might be mate!' is a famous chess maxim. It does not mean that you should play every check that arises, but consider every one in case it leads to something even better.

Examples:

 

 

That's all for ' Winning Pieces ' post. I hope you enjoy this post.