Introduction
Welcome to your second lesson! In our last session, we mastered the fork, a powerful tactic where one piece attacks two enemy pieces. We saw how recognizing these patterns, especially with knights and pawns, can lead to decisive material gains.
Today, we'll dive into another cornerstone of chess tactics: the pin. Your learning outcome for this lesson is to recognize absolute and relative pins and formulate a plan to exploit them. A pin is a situation where a piece is "stuck" because moving it would expose an even more valuable piece behind it. Mastering pins will paralyze your opponent's pieces, create vulnerabilities, and set up winning attacks.
This is a critical skill for reaching your 1500 ELO goal, as exploiting pins is one of the most common ways to convert a good position into a victory at the club level.
1. What is a Pin? Absolute vs. Relative
A pin occurs when an attacking piece (a rook, bishop, or queen) puts pressure on an enemy piece, which is lined up with a more valuable target along a rank, file, or diagonal. The attacked piece is said to be "pinned."
Let's watch a short video that introduces this concept with a helpful analogy.
Chess lesson # 17: Chess tactics | Pins vs Skewers | Learn how to play Chess the right way
To get a clear picture of what a pin is, watch this introductory segment from a lesson by National Master Robert Ramirez. He uses a 'president and bodyguard' analogy that makes the idea very intuitive.
Watch from 00:53 to 01:57. Focus on how the attacking rook restricts the movement of the knight, which is shielding the king.
As the video illustrates, the pinned piece has its mobility severely limited. This brings us to a crucial distinction you must recognize: the difference between an absolute pin and a relative pin.
- An absolute pin is one where the piece behind the pinned piece is the king. Moving the pinned piece is illegal because it would put your own king in check.
- A relative pin is one where the piece behind is valuable (like a queen or rook), but it's not the king. Moving the pinned piece is legal, but it's usually a terrible idea as it loses the more valuable piece.
This next clip from the same video clearly explains this difference.
Chess lesson # 17: Chess tactics | Pins vs Skewers | Learn how to play Chess the right way
Understanding the difference between absolute and relative pins is key to evaluating their power. This next segment explains the distinction perfectly.
Watch from 04:16 to 05:03. Notice that in an absolute pin, you cannot move the piece, while in a relative pin, you can, but you probably shouldn't.
To solidify these definitions, let's quickly review them in a text format.
Reading the definitions can help reinforce what you just saw. This article from Chessfox provides very clear and concise explanations.
Read the two short sections titled 'What is a relative pin?' and 'What is an absolute pin?'. This will take just a couple of minutes.
Here is a static image of a pin for you to analyze. Can you identify the pinning piece, the pinned piece, and the valuable piece behind it? Is this an absolute or a relative pin?
2. How to Exploit a Pin: Formulating a Plan
Recognizing a pin is the first step. The second, more important step is knowing what to do with it. A common mistake is to exchange the pinning piece for the pinned piece without maximizing the advantage.
The fundamental principle for exploiting a pin is: Increase the pressure.
Instead of releasing the tension, you should add more attackers to the pinned piece. Because the pinned piece is immobilized, it's a sitting duck. This is a concept that separates strong players from average ones.
A Masterclass By Magnus Carlsen On Pins [4 Rules]
World Champion Magnus Carlsen is a genius at exploiting pins. Let's look at one of his key principles, which is directly applicable to your games.
Watch from 01:05 to 03:51. The main takeaway is the rule: 'Increase, don't release'. Observe how Carlsen brings more pieces to attack the pinned knight, creating overwhelming pressure rather than simply trading.
Carlsen's play might seem complex, but the core idea is simple and powerful. When you have a piece pinned, you should immediately look for ways to attack it again, ideally with a less valuable piece like a pawn.
Here are the three most common plans to exploit a pin:
- Add Pressure and Win Material: Attack the pinned piece with more pieces. Your opponent will struggle to add enough defenders, and you'll eventually win the piece. This is the most direct and common plan.
- Exploit Defended Squares: A pinned piece does not defend other pieces or squares. You can often move your own pieces to squares that appear to be defended by the pinned piece, creating new threats.
- Ruin the Pawn Structure: A very common strategy is to pin a knight that is defending the king (e.g., a knight on f6 or f3). By forcing a capture on that square, you can shatter the pawn shield around the enemy king, opening it up for a direct attack.
The following reading summarizes these key ideas.
This article provides a great summary of the strategic plans you should consider when you create a pin.
Read the section titled 'How to use pin tactics to their best effect'. This will give you a clear mental checklist for what to do after you've pinned an enemy piece.
3. Practice: Making Pins a Habit
As with all tactics, pattern recognition is everything. The more pins you see and solve, the more automatically you will spot and exploit them in your own games. It's time to train your tactical eye.
Let's work through some puzzles. This will train your brain to spot pinning opportunities and calculate the follow-up.
Your task is to solve a series of pin-related puzzles. Start with the 5 puzzles in the 'Beginner Puzzles' section. For each one, identify the winning move and read the solution to confirm your understanding. Then, move on to the first 3 puzzles in the 'Intermediate Puzzles' section. For these, try to not only find the move but also state whether the pin is absolute or relative and what your plan is (e.g., 'I will create a relative pin on the knight and then attack it with my pawn').
This active practice is the most direct way to build the skills you need to reach your rating goal. Don't rush; take the time to see the entire sequence in your mind before checking the solution.
Conclusion
Today we've added a powerful weapon to your tactical toolkit: the pin. By restricting the movement of your opponent's pieces, you can create immense pressure, win material, and launch decisive attacks.
Key Takeaways:
- A pin immobilizes an enemy piece that is shielding a more valuable target.
- Absolute pins are against the king (illegal to move the pinned piece), while relative pins are against other pieces (legal but unwise to move).
- The primary plan for exploiting a pin is to increase the pressure: add more attackers to the pinned piece, don't just trade.
- Remember that a pinned piece is a "lame duck"—it cannot perform its defensive duties effectively.
Preview of the Next Lesson:
In our next lesson, we will explore the skewer. A skewer is often called a "reverse pin." It's a tactic where you attack a valuable piece, forcing it to move and exposing a less valuable piece behind it, which you can then capture. It's another tactic that rooks, bishops, and queens use to dominate open lines.