Tactical Motif VII: The pin

A pin (fr: le clouage) is a motif where the defending piece cannot move. A relative pin means that the piece can move but this will expose to a material loss following the pin. An absolute pin means that the piece cannot legally move ( as the King would be exposed to a check).

Illustration: the Pin


1. White to play and win (Karjakin-Kosteniuk, 2003)


White played 1.Ra8! deciding the game immediately. The point is that Black cannot play 1..Bxa8 because the bishop is pinned by the white bishop in b3, which is targetting the King in f7 as well.
Now 1..Ra8 follows 2 Bxd5+ and Bxa8 winning for White.
The Black rook has nowhere to go: Black resigned.
Note that White had to see this resource many moves ahead.







Now an exercise based on the same motif.

Black to play ( Kovacevic- Seirawan, 1980)