Jus' winnit Pins

Dear Community,

Today I'd like to talk about pins in the second part of Jus' winnit ( Here is the first one: https://www.chess.com/blog/Wurstzug/jus-winnit ).

OK, now, first question: What are pins exactly?

Here is an example:

The white bishop is attacking the queen. Maybe you'd think now: "Ok, my queen's attacked, I'll just move it !". But here is the point of a pin: The queen can't move! That's because a more valuable piece is behind the queen (the king). If the queen would move, the king would be exposed, and because taking the king isn't allowed, the queen CAN'T move- it' illegal!

So the queen will take the bishop and white's winning

Now the rule: In a pin, if the attacked piece standing nearer to the pinning piece( in this case the queen) moves, the more valuable piece behind( the king) will be captured. So the nearer piece is pinned. This can be used for winning material, or for strategic & positional reasons. The pin above is a tactical( for winning material-the queen)

( That may have sounded a bit difficult, but the puzzles below will show you)

As you saw in the example above, the bishop is a very good pinning piece. But there are also other good pinners.

This, for example is a positional pin. The bishop doesn't pin the knight for winning material, he wants to make sure the queen doesn't move away. Because if e.g Qe8, then the bishop will capture the knight and give him doubled pawns-a bad pawn structure. Here are some pins:

As you may have seen, there were no knights, pawns and kings pinning - For a reason: They can not pin! Only bishops, rooks and queens have this ability. Ok, enough theory, now try to solve these puzzles!

Well done. Now you are ready to crush your opponents with pins!   I hope you enjoyed this blog! Comments are welcome! (little question: How many positional pins are in this blog?)