Basic Tactics for Beginners

In the continuation of my series "For Beginners", I wanted to cover the two most common Tactical Themes: Pins and Forks

Let's go trhrough these one by one!

PIN

A  pin is when a piece cannot move because then the piece behind it is under attack. 

There are two types of pins; Absolute Pins and Relative Pins. Absolute Pins cannot be broken; that means that the piece being pinned cannot physically move away, because the piece behind it is the king. Here are a few examples of Absolute Pins:

The other type of pin is a Relative Pin; This type of pin occurs when the piece being pinned CAN move, but that would be disadvantegous because the piece behind it is of greater value.

Here are a few examples of Relative Pins:

Once  piece is pinned, you should try to gang up on that piece--attack it as many times as you can in the hope of winning it.

STRATEGIC EXAMPLE:

But what if black, in this example, plays Bd7, BREAKING the pin?

That brings us to our next tactic.

FORK

A fork is quite simple to understand; a piece attacks two pieces at the same time. Here are a few examples:

Now that you are experienced in BOTH Forks and Pins, here is a little test:

How do you win a piece after Bd7?

Use these tactics, and you wil find that your rating will go up a large number of points! Until next time...