TACTICS

Today, I’ve prepared a nice lesson for you. Although it is mainly for beginner-level players, any chess player at any level can study the lesson, recollect the basic ideas and refresh their mind. So let’s get started.

Chess is intellectual warfare. Here, though strategy plays a primary role, tactics almost always finish the game.

For instance, I remember a famous quote that says:

“Chess is 99% tactics”. – Rudolph Teichmann

Generally, in a game, players always think about what to do and how to do it. “What to do?” is answered by strategy and “How to do it?” is answered by tactics. A good tactical move can even turn the tables. Tactics can be classified into many themes.

Pin Skewer Fork Discovered attack Double attack

Today, we’ll study the theme “Pin”.

Example-1

Now the Black queen is pinned by the rook. Black cannot move the queen because the king would be in check. This is an example of how the rook pins the queen on a file.

Example-2

Now the rook on d4 is pinned diagonally by the White queen.

Example-3

Here the White knight is pinned by the Black rook on the 1st rank.

Conclusion: any piece can be pinned, either diagonally or on a rank or file.

queen has the power of both the rook and the bishop, so it can pin diagonally, rank and file.

bishop pins diagonally and rook pins on the rank and file.

“The defensive power of a pinned piece is but imaginary”. – Nimzowitsch

Exercise-1: Level – Easy

Black to play

Exercise-2: Level – Medium

Black to play

Exercise-3: Level – Hard

White to play

After calculating all possible variations, you can check the answers and download them here http://chess-teacher.com/chess-tactics-pin/