Pin: knight to e5 (d7)
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The tactical motive
Pin: a piece can't move without exposing something more valuable behind it.
Difficulty 2048 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
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 h1, queen c3, rook e1 e4, knight g3, pawn b2 c2 g2 h2 a4 f5.
Black: king c8, queen f2, rook h6 g8, knight d7, pawn f6 a7 b7 c7 f7 h7.
11 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 27.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 28 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on h1, the black king on c8.
It is Black to move on move 27, with 42 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: g.
The Black king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
27... Ne5 28. Rf1 Qxg3 29. Qxg3 Rxg3
Why it works
- Great move! knight to e5 keeps the pressure (+4.1).
- Spot on — queen to g3 (+3.8).
- Strong! rook to g3 is the sharp choice (+3.6).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Rf1, then Qxg3 and you win the knight.
Move by move
- 27… Ne5 — knight to e5
- 28. Rf1 — rook to f1
- Qxg3 — queen to g3 (capture)
- 29. Qxg3 — queen to g3 (capture)
- Rxg3 — rook to g3 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Absolute pin
A piece is pinned against its king — it cannot legally move.
An absolute pin freezes a piece on the line between its own king and your long-range attacker: moving it is simply illegal. The pattern is three units on one straight line — your bishop, rook or queen, an enemy piece, and the enemy king behind it. A pinned piece neither attacks nor defends anything: treat it as if it were off the board. Pile up on it, ideally with a pawn, because running away is against the rules.
Simplification
Trade the heavy pieces and steer into a won endgame.
Simplification is how you convert an advantage: by trading queens and rooks you extinguish the counterplay and steer the game into a won endgame. The rule is simple — the side with extra material trades pieces but keeps pawns. Look for exchanges once the material is already won and your opponent is still rattling threats. The mistake is avoiding the queen trade and letting him muddy the water forever.
Trapped piece
The attacked piece has no safe square — it is caught.
Trapping a piece means the attacked piece has no safe square left — it simply perishes. Do not chase it around; build a cage instead: cut off the escape squares with pawns and pieces first, and attack last. The typical victim has wandered deep into your camp or is stuck at the edge of the board, where its mobility is tiny. And always check the way home for your own raiders — or the trapped piece will be yours.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 014
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