All You Need To Know about Pins

Pins are one of the most useful tools in chess. Pins are the dangerous situations where a piece cannot escape danger because a more powerful piece (usually a king) is behind it. If you know how to use pins and defend from them, that can determine who wins in the end. And here is everything you need to know about pins in chess.

Here is an basic example of a pin.

The white bishop is attacking the black queen. If the queen tries to get out of danger, the black king will be attacked, so there is no hope for black to keep his queen, so he resigns. 

Try to pin the black queen with your bishop in this example.

Also, it does not have to be the king that's behind it. In this example, rook is pinned because the queen is behind it. 

In that example, if black moves his rook, his queen will be attacked, which is even worse. 

Now I have shown you many ways to pin, but now let me show you how to deflect pins. In the example above, there is a way black can save his rook and queen. He can check white with his rook, and when white moves, black can now move his queen.

In this example, use the strategy shown to save your rook and queen, but instead of checking their king, you must attack their queen with your rook.

Unfortunately, if the pinned piece is in front of the king, there's nothing you can do. The best move is to capture the attacking piece, but you are still doomed.

But sometimes, getting the pin is not easy. Try to sacrifice your rook to lure the foolish black queen into a spot where it can get pinned by your bishop.

To learn more about sacrificing to win, go to this article. https://www.chess.com/blog/DonRajesh/sacrifice