Pin: knight to d3
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The tactical motive
Pin: a piece can't move without exposing something more valuable behind it.
Difficulty 1806 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A pin freezes a piece in front of a more valuable one behind it. Scan the ranks, files and diagonals your bishop, rook or queen controls: if an enemy piece cannot move without exposing its king or queen, it is pinned and can be piled on or bypassed.
General method: before you move, list the forcing candidates — every check, every capture, every direct threat — and calculate those first. The solution to a tactic is almost always among them.
Position on the board
White: king f2, rook c5, knight c4, pawn c2 g2 h2 b3 f3 e4.
Black: king g7, rook a2, knight b4, pawn f4 g6 f7 h7.
9 white and 7 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 26.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 2 points of material (14 against 12; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f2, the black king on g7.
It is Black to move on move 26, with 24 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: b, c, e.
The Black king has 5 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
26... Nd3+ 27. Ke2 Nxc5
Why it works
- Great move! knight to d3 keeps the pressure (+4.6).
- Well found: knight to c5 (+4.6).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Ke2, then Nxc5 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 26… Nd3+ — knight to d3 with check
- 27. Ke2 — king to e2
- Nxc5 — knight to c5 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Royal fork
A fork with check: the king must move, and the second piece is lost.
A royal fork is a fork with check — one of the two targets is the king itself. The check must be answered first, so nobody is left to rescue the second piece. Look for squares where your piece gives check and simultaneously attacks an undefended queen or rook. It is the most reliable fork of all, because your opponent literally has no choice.
Endgame tactic
Tactics live in the endgame too — strike while material is scarce.
Tactics do not retire when the queens come off: forks, pins and double attacks live on in the endgame. With so little material left, every tactical loss is almost always decisive. The signs are the usual ones — undefended pieces, king and piece on one line, a pawn about to promote. Even in a "technical" ending, scan for a shot before every move, both yours and your opponent's.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 013
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