Articles

Fake pins, smothered mates

ChessSoldier
| 15 | Tactics

Unless a pinned piece is pinned to the king, it can still move.  You must still try calculate what happens if the opponent lets you get the queen, or mating square, or forking square, behind the "pinned" piece, because they just might let you have it.  Here, Black uses a concealed smothered mate to show White that Black's queen isn't pinned after all.