The Pin
📋 What it is
A pin freezes a piece: it can’t move because a MORE valuable piece (often the king) sits behind it on the same line.
🗣️ Coach says
Sir Pinwell’s tactic. When you pin a piece to the king, it’s stuck — you can pile on and win it, because moving it would be illegal or disastrous.
🧠 Memory hook
Pinned = stuck. “Something bigger is hiding right behind me.”
😂 Giggle
Why did the pin feel powerful?
Because it kept a piece stuck, unable to move without exposing something bigger behind it!
😲 Whoa!
A pin to the KING is “absolute” — the pinned piece literally cannot move by the rules, so it’s a sitting duck.
✅ Quick check: Your bishop pins a knight to the enemy queen. Can that knight safely capture something?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
No — if it moves, your bishop takes the queen, so it’s effectively frozen.
A pin removes a defender by making its move too costly (or illegal, if to the king).
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Set up a rook, an enemy knight, and the enemy king in a line. See how the knight is frozen — that’s a pin.