Predator at the Chessboard

A Field Guide to Chess Tactics

Book II: The Pin and the Skewer

Removing the Guard
Mating Patterns

Ward Farnsworth
www.wardfamsworth.com
Book II: Table of Contents
4. The Pin and the Skewer

4.1. Arranging a Pin

4.1.01. Introduction
4.1.02. Simple Absolute Pins
4.1.03. Creating a Toothless Target
4.1.04. Upgrading the Value of the Target
4.1.05. Exchanges of the Target for Other Purposes
4.1.06. Clearing Excess Enemy Pieces
4.1.07. Consolidating Excess Enemy Pieces
4.1.08. Getting the Pinning Piece to the Pinning Square
4.1.09. Loosening the Pinning Square
4.1.10. Protecting the Pinning Piece
4.1.11. Pushing the Enemy King into Line
4.1.12. Making Use of Forced Interpositions
4.1.13. Making Use of Forced Captures
4.1.14. Using Threats and Captures without Check

4.2. Exploiting a Pin

4.2.01. Using Pawns to Attack the Pinned Piece
4.2.02. Ganging Up on the Pinned Piece
4.2.03. Using Checks to Separate the King from the Target
4.2.04. The Cross-Pin
4.2.05. Other Ways to Constrain the Pinned Queen

4.3. Other Uses of Pins

4.3.01. Pinning a Piece to Take Its Protectorate
4.3.02. Pinning a Pawn to Take Its Protectorate
4.3.03. Pinning a Pawn in Front of the King as an Aid to Mate
4.3.04. Pins of Pieces to Allow Mate
4.3.05. Pins to Mating Squares
4.3.06. Breaking an Absolute Pin
4.3.07. Strategy and the Absolute Pin

4.4. The Relative Pin

4.4.01. Simple Relative Pins
4.4.02. loosening the Screened Piece 2
4.4.03. Other Issues That Arise in Creating Relative Pins
4.4.04. Ganging Up on the Relatively Pinned Piece
4.4.05. Taking the Protectorate or the Relatively Pinned Piece
 4.4.06. Taking the Protectorate: More Involved Cases
4.4.07. Breaking a Relative Pin: Moving the Screened Piece
4.4.08. Breaking a Relative Pin: Moving the Pinned Piece

4.5. The Skewer

4.5.01. Simple Skewers Through the King
4.5.02. Simple Skewers Through the Queen
4.5.03. Simple Skewers Through Rooks
4.5.04. Substituting the King to Create a Skewer
4.5.05. Other Substitutions: Queens. Rooks. etc.
4.5.06. Checking the King into Position
4.5.07. Working with Multiple Checks to Build a Skewer
4.5.08. Getting the Skewering Piece to the Skewering Square
4.5.09. Consolidating Excess Enemy Pieces
4.5.10. Preventing the Middle Piece from Guarding the Target
4.5.11. Skewers Where Enemy Pieces are Underdelended
4.5.12. Breaking a Skewer
4.5.13. Strategic Implications

5. Removing the Guard

5.1. Capturing the Guard

5.1.01. Introduction to the Section; Simple Cases
5.1.02. Cases Involving Multiple Steps
5.1.03. When the Target is Protected Twice
5.1.04. Capturing the Guard ofa Mating Square

5.2. Distracting the Guard (The Overworked Piece)

5.2.01. Simple Cases: One Guard Protects Two Men
5.2.02. One Piece Guards a Mating Square and Something Else
5.2.03. When a Piece Guards Two Mating Squares
5.2.04. Adding a Mate Threat to Create an Overworked Piece
5.2.05. Distracting a Rook from Duties Up the Board
5.2.06. Forking Squares and the Overworked Piece

5.3. Attacking the Guard

5.3.01. Introduction
5.3.02. Checks to Drive the King Away from Guard Duty
5.3.03. Flush Checks (the Decoy)
5.3.04. Decoys on the Diagonal: Bishop Check Sacrifices
5.3.05. Driving Off the Queen with a Threat
5.3.06. Using the Priority of Check
5.3.07. Attacks on the Queen to Loosen a Mating Square
5.3.08. Flush Attacks Against the Queen
5.3.09. Threats Against Rooks and Minor Pieces
 5.3.10. Forking the Guard and Another Piece
5.3.11. Using Pawns to Threaten the Guard

5.4. Blocking the Guard (Interference)

5.4.01. Interference to Loosen a Piece
5.4.02. Interrerence to Loosen a Mating Square
5.4.03. Interference on the Penultimate Rank
5.4.04. Interrerence as Pan ofa Double Threat
5.4.05. Removing the Guard: Strategic Implications

6. Mating Patterns

6.1. The Back Rank Mate

6.1.01. Introduction; Simple Cases
6.1.02. Dealing with Interpositions
6.1.03. Sealing Off the King's Flight Squares
6.1.04. Drawing Defenders Forward
6.1.05. The Role of the Bishop I: Pinning Derenders
6.1.06. The Role orthe Bishop II: Preventing a Recapture
6.1.07. TIle Role of the Bishop III: Driving Back the King
6.1.08. Applying Pressure Up Close
6.1. 09. Combining Back Rank Themes with Forks
6.1.10. Combining Back Rank Themes with Discoveries
6.1.11. Combining Back Rank Themes with Pins
6.1.12. Combining Back Rank Themes & Removal of the Guard

6.2. Other Classic Mating Ideas

6.2.01. Introduction
6.2.02. Anderssen's Mate and Kindred Spirits: Mating on h8
6.2.03. Morphy's Male
6.2.04. Greco's Mate
6.2.05. Lolli's Mates; Damiano's Mate
6.2.06. The Knight As a Substitute in Morphy's Mating Pattern
6.2.07. The Knight As a Substitute in Greco's Pattern
6.2.08. Anastasia's Mate
6.2.09. TIle Arabian Male
6.2.10. Blackburne's Mate and Kindred Spirits
6.2.11. Boden's Mate
6.2.12. The Greek Gift (generally)
6.2.13. The Greek Gift: The King Goes to g6
6.2.14. The Smothered Mate
6.2.15. Legall's Mate and Pseudo-Sacrifice
Chapter 4.A
The Pin.
 Arranging a Pin.
4.1.01.
Introduction.
A pin occurs in classic form when one of
your pieces is aimed at the enemy king with
some other enemy piece blocking its way.
That other enemy piece cannot move, be-
cause if it does it will expose its king to at-
tack. (In the skeletal diagram, Black’s knight
is pinned by White’s bishop.)
The paralysis of a pinned piece has several
consequences. The most important is that it
becomes a vulnerable target. Normally when
you threaten one piece with another, the target
piece has the option of running away. This
option is lost when a piece is pinned; it is
trapped on its square. The only way to protect
it is by rallying other pieces to its defense.
Thus the usual next step after a pin is created
is to go after the pinned piece with other artil-
lery—preferably something small but lethal
such as a pawn, but anything less valuable
than the pinned piece may make a fine attack-
er. (And sometimes the piece that imposes the
pin will itself perform the capture.) Often a
series of pieces from both sides will rush to
the scene of the pin; in that case the outcome
depends on how the number and value of the
pieces attacking the pinned piece compare to
those defending it. Time is of the essence in
these situations, since as moves go by it often
becomes possible for the enemy king to move
and thus to release the pinned piece from its
predicament.
The situation just sketched is the most com-
mon and important pinning pattern, but there
are others as well. Sometimes the most impor-
tant consequence of pinning a piece is that it
can do no defensive work. And a piece can be
pinned to its queen instead of its king; indeed,
a piece can be pinned to anything more valu-
able than itself—or even to a piece less valu-
able than itself that is unprotected. When a
piece is pinned to its king, this is known as an
absolute pin: the piece cannot legally move.
When a piece is pinned to some piece other
than its king, this is known as a relative pin.
A piece subject to a relative pin can be moved
without compunction if the benefits of doing
so outweigh the costs; a relatively pinned
piece may move and inflict a check of its
own, for example, buying time to move the
now-exposed piece out of danger a move lat-
er.
This part of the book follows the same peda-
gogical approach as the others. In each of
them we take a tactical motif, identify distinc-
tive features of it, and then drill the impor-
tance of spotting those features on a crowded
board and building tactical sequences from
there. Thus in studying knight forks, one key
was to realize that the potential for such a fork
can exist when two enemy pieces lie on the
same color square as one of your knights. In
studying queen forks, the key was to look for
a check the queen could inflict or a loose
piece it could attack. If both could be found,
the question was whether they might be com-
bined; if one element could be found, the
question was whether the other might be
created. In studying discovered attacks, the
key was to look for the kernel: one of your
pieces blocking the path of another. Then we
went to work looking for ways to create tar-
gets for each of the pieces.
Here our approach is similar. We begin with
the absolute pin. The one thing all such pins
have in common is that the enemy king lies at
the end of them. This principle will guide our
inquiries. In each position we'll start by trac-
ing lines out from the enemy king, looking for
any enemy pieces that are aligned with it or
that might be drawn onto the same line and
pinned there. This is a useful method both
because it makes the process of hunting for
pins more systematic and because it builds the
good habit of always studying the enemy
king’s position carefully.
We will introduce the relative pin and the
skewer in due course.
4.1.02.
Simple Absolute Pins.
This initial section illustrates basic pins; it is
principally for those who are new to the tac-
tic. In each case the piece that imposes the pin
does so in one move and then takes the pinned
piece.
Dg483: Black to move
Dg483: It's Black's turn to move in the dia-
gram on the top. Start with White’s king;
trace the lines leading away from it; look for
any other White pieces aligned with it. Here
White’s rook is on the same long diagonal.
This means the rook can be pinned by a queen
or bishop. Black has a bishop ready for the
job: he plays Bd5. Now the rook can't legally
move because it would expose the king to
attack. No matter what White does now,
Black plays BxR on the next move and wins
the rook.
Dg484: Again trace the lines extending from
the enemy king’s position; look for pieces
aligned with it. Here as in the previous frame
Black’s rook is lined up with its king on a
diagonal.
Dg484: White to move
White can win the piece if he can get a bishop
or queen to the diagonal; thus Qa1 imposes
the pin and QxR takes the rook a move later.
Use the same thought process to find a pin for
White. Which Black pieces are lined up with
his king? His knight, on the same diagonal.
What can White use to pin the knight? His
queen, with Qa4. The knight can't be moved
or guarded, so QxN wins it a move later.
Dg485: White to move
Dg485: A good question to ask about a pin
like this is what Black might play in response
after White starts with Qa4. Might he launch a
counterthreat of his own? He can, with g5-g4;
and now it looks like he is poised to take
White’s knight if White takes his. But rather
than fuss over this threat, White just goes
ahead and plays QxN+. Notice that this gives
check, a natural result when a piece pinned to
its king is taken. Black therefore must spend
his next move taking his king out of danger,
rather than playing g4xN as he hoped—and
then White will have a move he can use to
relocate his knight safely. Here White took
advantage of the principle known as the prior-
ity of check: QxN forced Black to address the
threat to his king, and in effect gave White
two moves in a row. We have seen this theme
before and will return to it many more times.
Dg486: White to move
Dg486: This time Black’s e5 knight and his
queen both are in line with his king. The
knight isn't a suitable target for a pin because
it has a white pawn in front of it, but the
queen can be pinned on the diagonal with
Bb5. Since the queen can slide in all direc-
tions, it can attack any piece that pins it; in
this case, for example, Black could reply to
the pin with QxB. This means that if you want
to pin a queen you need protection for the
pinning piece. Here the bishop gets protection
on its new square from the knight on c3—so
if Black does play QxB, White replies NxQ
and wins the queen for a bishop. Later we will
study more complex positions where protec-
tion of this sort must be arranged.
Dg487: White to move
Dg487: The previous pins all occurred along
diagonals; here is one that runs vertically.
When you scan the enemy king's lines you see
that Black's queen is an obvious candidate for
a pin. White just needs to bring force to bear
down the e-file, and this he does with Re1.
Again, since the queen is being pinned the
piece doing the pinning needs protection, and
in this case White’s queen on d1 provides the
backup. One way or another Black loses his
queen (for a rook) on the next move. Another
way to see the point is defensively. You look
at the checks Black threatens and see that he
is about to mate with Qxh2#. Playing g2-g3 is
one way to defend against this—but of course
Re1 is better, as it pins and then wins the at-
tacker.
Dg488: White to move
Dg488: A glance at the Black king's lines
turns up his knight on the same rank with
nothing between them. This visual fact should
trigger thoughts of a pin. To achieve it you
need a piece that makes horizontal attacks: a
rook or queen; thus White plays Rh7 and now
the knight is stuck on its square. It will take
Black too long to get a guard to its side, so the
knight will be lost to RxN.
Dg489: White to move
Dg489: Scan out from Black’s king in all di-
rections and you find not one but two pieces
lined up with it: the knight on e5 and the rook
on b5. Both should be considered possible
targets for pins. White can pin the knight
along the file with a vertical attacker—his
rook: Re1. But the knight has protection from
the rook on b5, and by the time White can get
another attacker to the scene (i.e., his f-pawn)
Black will be able to move his king and re-
lease the knight from its paralysis.
So now compare White’s other possible pin:
Ba4. This time it works. The rook has no
guard, so it is immediately vulnerable; if
Black moves his king to release it from the
pin, the rook gets taken anyway with BxR.
Just for fun, think back to the original idea of
Re1. It would work if Black’s rook were on
b8—though not if Black’s rook were on b6,
for then Black would reply to Re1 with Re6.
In that case the knight on e5 still would be
subject to a relative pin (if it moved, the rook
behind it would get taken); but if White tried
to take advantage with f2-f4, attacking the
pinned knight, Black would have the discov-
ered attack Nf3+. No matter what White did,
he at least would lose his rook for a knight.
Dg490: White to move
Dg490: Here is a study in temptation best
resisted. Black’s bishop on g4 is loose; so is
his knight on c3—and it’s under attack.
Should White play QxN? So it seems, since
Black has no way to recapture. But worry not
just about whether your capture results in a
recapture but also about whether it creates any
patterns that you or your opponent would be
able to exploit. An important example is the
capture that leaves one of your pieces in posi-
tion to be forked; another, relevant here, is the
capture that leaves one of your pieces aligned
with your king, and so able to be pinned. Thus
the key fact about QxN for White is that it
puts his queen in line with his king with noth-
ing between them. Would Black be able to
take advantage? Yes: his dark-squared bishop
is available to play Bb4—and since that
square is guarded by Black’s queen, White
wouldn't be able to escape trouble by striking
back with QxB. He would lose his queen. So
the initial capture QxN is unsafe.
4.1.03.
Creating a Toothless Target.
The simple pins we have discussed had sever-
al essential elements, any of which may be
absent from the positions you find on the
board in front of you. In that case you may be
able to create the missing elements or substi-
tute for them. In all the positions so far, for
example, the pinned piece made a good target
for the piece that pinned it; sometimes that
will not be so. In each case there were open
lines between the pinning piece and the
pinned piece, and between the pinned piece
and the king; sometimes this will not be so. In
every instance the king and the pinned piece
were in a line at the start of the position;
sometimes that will not be so. Spotting and
rectifying these sorts of obstacles will be our
project in the next few sets of studies.
Dg491: White to move
Dg491: We start with pins that need to be
perfected by replacing a target that can bite
back with one that is toothless. To the left is
the point in simplest form. Start from the
Black king and work out along the lines lead-
ing away from it. You see that the bishop on Now White plays Ba3 and takes Black's rook
d4 is vulnerable to a pin. But it would have to a move later, winning a piece.
be pinned on the long diagonal leading toward
h8; and if a White piece pins it on that line, Dg493: Here we see that Black’s bishop al-
the bishop will be able to bite back. Thus Bb2 ready is pinned, but it seems safe because it's
by White leads to BxB+ by Black (followed a attacked twice and protected twice. White
move later by RxR). But since Black has left could add to the pressure with e4-e5, but then
a piece in pinnable position, perhaps White Black has BxB; indeed, he is poised to play
can trade it for a better target by capturing it that move next in any event. So White’s natu-
and pinning the piece that performs the recap- ral idea is to force a substitution. Thus 1. RxB
ture. He plays 1. RxB, RxR; 2. Bb2, and now leads to 1. …RxR (KxR is out for Black be-
Black’s rook is pinned. White takes it a move cause the square remains under attack; his
later with BxR. king can’t move there). The pinned Black
piece has been changed from a bishop that
Now incidentally you may have noticed that can defend itself to a rook that is genuinely
White’s rook also exerts a pin against Black’s paralyzed and that can’t lash out against the
bishop: if the bishop moves, White has bishop that pins it.
RxR—another example of a relative pin. But
White can’t do anything with it. If he goes
after the bishop with Be3, Black breaks out of
the pin with Bc5+; since the move gives
check, White has to spend a move replying to
it with BxB—but now Black is the one who
plays RxR, winning the exchange. A different
way for White to try to take advantage of the
pinned bishop would be to attack it with his
king—e.g., Kb3. But then Black has Bf6,
moving the bishop to safety and using it to
guard the rook at the same time.
Dg493: White to move

Now e4-e5 works, as White takes the rook

with his pawn a move later no matter what
Black does.

Dg492: White to move

Dg492: Our current idea with the pieces ar-

ranged a little less obviously. Again a routine
scan of the Black king’s lines reveals that the
bishop on c5 is poised to be pinned, but you
can’t pin a bishop along a diagonal; it can bite
back. So once more White first performs an
exchange, taking the bishop with RxB. After
Black replies RxR, the bishop has been
swapped out for a rook—a suitable target.
Dg494: White to move
Dg494: Start by looking for a piece in a pin-
nable position. Here it’s Black’s bishop on e7.
When a bishop is on a diagonal with its king
it probably cannot itself be pinned, but often
an exchange can be used to replace it with a
better target. Here White considers each piece that Qa3 would work—if Black’s bishop were
he can use to take the bishop and picks the replaced by a piece that wouldn’t be able to
least valuable one—his knight—to do the bite back.
dirty work: 1. NxB, RxN. (Again, Black can’t
recapture with his king because e7 still is un-
der attack.) Now Black’s rook is ready to be
pinned by Bg5 and taken a move later: White
has two pieces trained on the rook, so again
the king—the only piece protecting it—will
not be able to recapture after RxR.

Dg495: Now our present theme seen from

Black’s side. The sight of White’s bishop on a
diagonal with his king is suggestive. The bi-
shop isn’t a good target for a pin, but perhaps
an exchange would fix that. Black has one Dg496: White to move
piece usable for the purpose:
So White looks for an exchange. It can be
done with his rook or knight, so he picks the
cheaper piece and plays NxB. Black replies
NxN. Now comes Qa3 and the knight is im-
mobilized. White can take the knight with
either piece—his rook or queen—since the
one not used will provide cover for the one
that is, preventing Black’s king from recaptur-
ing.

Dg495: Black to move

he plays RxB, and just as in the previous posi-

tions White has to play RxR, rather than KxR,
because d3 still is attacked. Now Black has
the pin Bb5. White’s rook finds itself attacked
twice and protected once, so White’s king
won't be able to recapture when Black plays
BxR on the next move.
Notice a recurrent theme: when the pinned
piece is adjacent to its king and protected by
it, try adding more attackers. The king’s pro-
tection of the piece then becomes illusory,
since it can’t recapture on a square that still is
under fire.
Dg496: As usual we find a bishop adjacent to
its king on a diagonal. It can’t be pinned, but
it's on a square that is subject to a pin. White
asks whether he has a way to exert a pin
against the bishop’s position; he looks for
pieces that can operate on a diagonal and sees
Dg497: White to move
Dg497: The beginnings here are familiar: a
bishop on the same diagonal as its king, not
itself able to be pinned but on a square that is
vulnerable to a pin if a better target is put
there; White has a bishop ready to deploy to
b2. So White forces a substitution: RxB. No-
tice that Black can’t reply d6xR because the
d6 pawn is pinned to his queen—a case of a
relative pin, and a pattern we will study in
detail later. Black can recapture only with
QxR. Now White pins the queen with Bb2.
Since the queen can strike back against the
bishop (or any other piece that pins it), the
piece imposing the pin requires protection;
here the bishop gets backup from the rook on
b1.
4.1.04.
Upgrading the Value of the Target.
Sometimes you will have a pinning opportu-
nity but the value of the piece you can pin is
too low to be exciting—and maybe even too
low to be workable. Again, exchanges may be
used to upgrade the target to something better.
Dg498: White to move
Dg498: In this first case, a simple scan of the
enemy king’s lines turns up a pawn on e5
ready to be pinned. You might imagine Re1,
but notice a fatal problem with it: the pinned
pawn can step forward to e4. Now it has pro-
tection, plus it attacks White’s knight, plus it
has unmasked an attack by Black’s bishop at
g7 against White’s loose pawn on b2. (When
a player has bishops arranged like Black does
here, be very careful to consider the conse-
quences of pawn moves in the center that may
open paths for them.)
But don't give up. Where the enemy has any-
thing on a pinnable square you have an im-
portant tactical opportunity: perhaps the lowly
pawn can be exchanged for a more valuable
and vulnerable target. Here White invites the
substitution with Nxe5. If Black replies BxN,
then instead of a pawn on e5 we have a bi-
shop. White can pin it with his rook or queen;
he chooses the cheaper piece and plays Re1.
Black has no effective defense. He can play
his queen to g7, but then White throws anoth-
er attacker at the target with f2-f4. The bishop
must be lost, resulting in the gain of a pawn
and a better position for White (he ends up
with a strong center). Black probably is better
off skipping Qg7 and instead playing his king
to f7. This makes room for him to reply to
White’s Rxe5 with Re8, which prevents
White’s rook from dominating the file opened
by its capture of the pawn.
Dg499: White to move
Dg499: The idea of this chapter in simple
form. There are two ways to see it. The first is
to do the usual scan of the lines leading out
from Black’s king. You see a pawn on e5 that
can be pinned to it. As in the last case you
consider an upgrade by substitution. Here the
pawn’s only guardian is the queen on f6,
which would make a superb target for a pin;
so White plays Nxe5. If Black is foolish
enough to reply Qxe5, White has Re1, a clas-
sic pin of the queen by White’s rook. Black
takes the rook with his queen; White replies
QxQ and has won a queen and a pawn for
knight and a rook—a good trade.
The other way to see the idea is to experiment
with captures and their consequences. Thus
White plays Nxe5 in his mind’s eye, imagines
Black replying QxN, and notices that this puts
Black’s king and queen conspicuously on the
same line. The general lesson is to think
through any captures you can make—in
search not just of immediate profits but of
alignments left behind afterwards.
Dg500: Black's king and d5 pawn are on the
same diagonal with nothing between them. At
first this might seem a minor opportunity, but
in fact it is important. It means that if you take
the d5 pawn and your opponent recaptures,
whatever he uses for the recapture may create
the kernel of a pin on that diagonal. The next
question is whether you have a tool available
to impose such a pin, and you do in the light-
squared bishop on b5. And best of all, the
only guard of the pawn is Black’s queen.
Dg500: White to move
So play through the capture in your mind’s
eye: Nxd5; and then if Black plays QxN
White has Bc4, pinning the queen and win-
ning it after Black plays QxB and White rep-
lies d3xQ.
Again the lesson is to pay attention to enemy
pawns that are pinnable. Pinning them may be
worthwhile in itself; but even if not, it may be
that they are vulnerable to capture because if
the enemy recaptures you can pin whatever
piece he uses for the purpose.
Dg501: Black to move
Dg501: Black has three pieces trained on the
sector of the board where White’s king sits.
Most important is the pin of the g2 pawn by
Black’s bishop. It’s not the pin of the pawn
per se that is critical; it's that the bishop has a
pin on the g2 square and whatever happens to
be sitting there. It may be possible to upgrade
to a better target by taking the pawn and invit-
ing a recapture. Here the only White piece
that would be able to recapture if the pawn
were taken is his queen, so the stakes are high
enough to justify a queen sacrifice by Black.
He starts with Qxg2+. QxQ is White’s forced
reply—and now his queen is pinned. While
White can play QxB, he can't move the queen
off of its diagonal; so anything it appears to
protect, it doesn’t. What the queen appears to
protect—but no longer does—is the rook on
e2, so Black takes it with RxR. Now White
goes ahead with QxB, but after Black plays
b7xQ he has won the exchange and a pawn.
4.1.05.
Exchanges of the Target for Other Purposes.
Capturing the pinned (or potentially pinned)
piece, and so causing it to be exchanged when
your opponent recaptures, can have pleasing
side effects apart from an upgraded target. It
may serve to loosen the square you need or to
open lines you can use to rally offensive fire-
power against the pinned position.
Dg502: White to move
Dg502: Here's an easy one. The first thing to
spot in this first illustration is the Black
knight in line with its king—a kernel of a pin
that must not be overlooked. Next look for a
piece with the power to impose the pin; see
that the bishop on b3 can get to d1 in one
move. Now size up the impediments to the
idea. The pinning square, d1, is guarded by
the rook on d2, which also protects the knight.
What to do? One way to move a bothersome
enemy piece is by taking something it pro-
tects. In this case the bothersome piece is the
Black rook, and it protects the knight on e2
(as well as the pinning square). So White
plays RxN, Black replies RxR, and now the
pinning square has been loosened—and the
target of the pin has been changed to a rook.
Bd1 paralyzes the rook and wins it a move
later, as Black has no resources available for
its defense.
Dg503: White to move
Dg503: Trace the lines leading out from
Black’s king and see that the rook on c5 is
positioned to be pinned. Consider whether
White has any pieces with the power to im-
pose the pin; he does, in the dark-squared
bishop on e1. So you turn to the obstacles to
carrying out the idea, and find that the bishop
can’t get to the pinned square—b4—because
its fellow rook is in the way. White’s job is to
clear the rook from c3, and to do it violently
enough to allow Black no time to avoid the
pin that follows. The natural way to do it is
with a check or capture. Here the capture
works: 1. RxR, RxR, and now Bb4 pins and
wins the rook.
Dg504: White to move
Dg504: Now it gets a little more interesting.
The two sides have a knot of pieces in the
middle of Black’s end of the board. How can
White take advantage? Look for pins. The
important point to see is that White’s rook on
c7 pins the Black rook on d7. The next
thought is to try to take the pinned rook, but
you see that this cannot now be done because
the rook is protected as many times as it is
attacked: twice each way. You think about
adding more pressure against the pinned piece
with, say, 1. Qb5; but you have to consider
Black’s options as well as yours, and with so
many pieces clustered in the picture it’s not
surprising that he has his own resources to
try: he can play 1. ...Rd7xRc7. The pin is re-
moved, and if White plays QxQ Black just
replies RxQ. Lesson: if the enemy’s pinned
piece has the power to take your pinning
piece, ask what the consequences of that de-
fense would be.
Since immediately adding pressure doesn’t
work, a next thing to consider is a preliminary
exchange of the pinned piece to simplify mat-
ters: White starts with 1. Rd6xRd7+, and
Black is forced to reply Rxd7 unless he wants
to just let go of the rook. The pinned piece is
left attacked once and defended once. Now try
adding 2. Qb5. This time it works: if 2.
...Rd7xRc7, White plays 3. QxQ—and
Black’s queen is lost since it has no defender.
(Notice that Black can’t play the defense 2.
...Rd1+ followed by QxQ after White fends
off the check; the rook on d7 remains pinned
to its king.) In effect the Black rook ends up
in a cross-pin, pinned to its king by White’s
rook and to its queen by White’s queen. We
will study more examples of cross-pins later.
The point for now is to see how taking the
pinned piece and calling for its replacement
can improve your ability to put decisive pres-
sure on the pinned position.
Dg505: This one requires some foresight. The
square to notice is e6. It looks unassuming,
but it's the focus of the pressures on the board;
it is attacked twice by White and defended
twice by Black. As we know, in this sort of
position it pays to ask what would happen if
those potential exchanges all were made, so
that the board became simplified with a last
enemy piece left standing on the contested
square: what would then be possible? The
train of thought is especially important here
because the disputed square is on a diagonal
with the Black king, suggesting the possibility
of a pin once the smoke clears. White has his
light squared bishop positioned to move to d5,
making the chance for a pin more than hypo-
thetical.
Dg505: White to move
So think through the sequence: White plays
Nxe6; Black replies BxN. White plays RxB;
Black replies QxR. Now White plays Bxd5,
pinning the queen and winning it a move lat-
er. (Of course a piece that pins the queen
needs protection, and here the bishop gets it
from the rook on d1. The knight on d4 would
have been moved out of the way two moves
earlier. When you imagine using a piece dur-
ing a sequence, be careful to imagine that the
square it used to occupy becomes vacant.)
In a sense this position, like others we recent-
ly have seen, just involves upgrading a target:
the pawn on e6 eventually is traded up to a
queen. But in practice you might not see the
possibility of the pin right away here because
the target of it looks so unpromising at first.
Still, anytime your bishop is one move from
being able to land on the enemy king’s di-
agonal and pin anything there, it's worth ask-
ing whether exchanges on that square might
make the pin profitable.
Dg506: Here's a study in the defensive side of
our current theme. Black sees that White’s
pawn on c5 is attacked twice and protected
just once. He's tempted to play Rxc5, picking
up the pawn for nothing since White doesn’t
dare recapture. But the thing to see is that the
contested square—c5—is on an open diagonal
with Black's own king.
Dg506: Black to move
As soon as he plays Rxc5 his rook is poised to
be pinned. White then has Qb4, and now it's
Black’s rook that is attacked twice and pro-
tected only once—and paralyzed to boot. It is
lost next move. The point of the position is to
think carefully when you are looking at a
possible series of exchanges and tallying up
how many times a square is attacked and de-
fended. Sometimes a piece not currently
putting pressure on the square can swoop in
afterwards and impose a pin that changes eve-
rything. The time to worry most about this, of
course, is when the contested square is on a
line with either king.
4.1.06.
Clearing Excess Enemy Pieces.
Sometimes you will find not one but two or
three enemy pieces lined up on the same file
or diagonal with their king. It may be that
none of them can then be pinned, because a
working pin (at least of the kind we now are
examining) requires an unobstructed path
from the king to the pinned piece and from
the pinned piece to the pinning piece. How do
you deal with excess enemy pieces on the
needed line? There are a couple of standard
ways. You might be able to threaten or lure
one or more of them out of the way; or you
might be able to capture one of the enemy
pieces in a manner that requires the other
enemy piece or the enemy king to recapture,
thus simplifying the line and leaving the re-
maining piece pinned.
Dg507: In this first example to the left, an
inspection of Black’s king and its lines turns
up two enemy pieces aligned with it: the
knight and bishop on the d-file. Indeed,
White’s rook on d1 already exerts the needed
pressure for the pin; if either the bishop or
knight were removed from the picture, the pin
would be complete.
Dg507: White to move
This can be achieved by chasing one of the
pieces away, and the best way to do this is
with a pawn. Pieces flee pawns; they can't
afford to be captured by them. So White plays
c2-c4, and suppose Black moves his knight in
reply. Now the bishop on d6 is left pinned. It
has protection, so how should the pin be ex-
ploited? With another push of the same pawn:
White plays c4-c5, and the bishop gets taken a
move later.
When White initially moves his pawn to c4, it
might have occurred to you that, instead of
moving the knight on d5, Black can use his
other knight to capture the pawn. Yes; but of
course Black's other knight is then left loose,
and White takes it with his rook. Still, that
sequence does at least get Black a pawn in
return for his lost piece.
Dg508: Here's the current concept seen from
Black’s side, and this time against a castled
king. One of the hazards of allowing a king to
lose part of its pawn cover is that pieces can
then be pinned to it. Here White’s knight and
bishop are lined up with Black’s queen aimed
through both of them like a kebab. If one of
the White pieces could be removed, the one
left behind would be pinned to the king.
Again Black makes use of a pawn: h5-h4, and
White’s knight has to vacate its square to sur-
vive.
Dg508: Black to move
Now the bishop is paralyzed, and again the
pawn simply marches forward to take it with
h4-h3 and then h3xB a move later.
Dg509: White to move
Dg509: On the surface this position does not
look much like the others in this chapter, but
again a scan of the king’s file turns up two
enemy men in line with it—a piece (the queen
on g2) and a pawn (on g7). If the pawn were
out of the way, White could pin the queen
with Rg1. Threatening the pawn won’t work;
you can’t scare a pawn if it has protection,
and even a frightened pawn can’t move off of
its file. The standard way to clear an enemy
pawn, rather, is to take something it protects,
inviting the pawn to move off its file to per-
form the recapture. The g7 pawn protects the
knight on h6, so White plays RxN; Black rep-
lies g7xR; and now Rg1 pins Black’s queen,
with protection furnished by the knight on e2.
You might think you could also make gains
here by playing the same idea in reversed or-
der: Rg1; then, when the Black queen moves,
Rh5xN, with the pawn on g7 pinned and una-
ble to recapture. Not quite, however. Black
replies to Rg1 with Qxf2; and then if White
takes the h6 knight with his other rook, Black
has Qxe3—a fork of White’s h6 rook and his
bishop on d3, both of which are loose. White
still can pull his chestnuts out of the fire by
moving his queen to d6 (threatening Black’s
loose bishop) and then to h2 (threatening to
mate with the rook already on the h-file), but
these kinds of complications are beyond the
scope of the current lesson.
Still, it's worth studying the initial forking
idea for Black here that makes Rg1 not so
attractive as a first move for White. It would
be easy to overlook; a key to not overlooking
it is to be mindful at all times of loose pieces
on the board—your own as well as your op-
ponent’s. As White you should realize that
you have a loose bishop already on d3 and
that your rook currently on h5 will be left
loose on h6 after the capture. Loose pieces are
a big deal. They make good targets for forks,
especially by your opponent’s queen. Since
the whole idea of starting with Rg1 would be
to drive off the Black queen, you have to ask
whether the queen, once driven off, could go
make trouble for the loose material you would
be leaving around the board. It could indeed.
4.1.07.
Consolidating Excess Enemy Pieces.
Dg510: White to move
Dg510: In some respects this position resem-
bles others we have seen recently, but notice
that White’s position is more vulnerable.
Black threatens Qf2# and at first blush White
seems to have no good defense against it.
Again, though, Black's king is on the g-file
with a pawn and queen spread apart in front
of it; again White would be able to pin the
queen, and with good protection, by playing
Rg1 if the pawn on g7 weren’t in the way.
This time the pawn can’t be moved by taking
something it guards because it doesn’t guard
anything. The situation calls for a different
approach: perhaps the pawn can be captured.
This won't help if the piece you use to make
the capture is left on the needed file, for then
you would have replaced one obstruction with
another. But the result may be a useful simpli-
fication if your piece will be recaptured by the
enemy.
The point: White plays Rxg7+, taking the
pawn and also forking Black’s king and
queen. The priority of check requires Black to
deal with this rather than delivering mate on
f2; he has to capture White’s rook with KxR
or QxR. Either way the three Black men on
the g-file have been reduced to two. Now Rg1
pins Black’s queen. Black plays QxR and
allows his queen to be recaptured, and in the
end White has traded two rooks for a queen
and a pawn. More to the point, he has turned a
lost position into a winning one.
This section is titled "consolidating enemy
pieces" because that is, in a sense, what hap-
pens: enemy pieces spread over multiple
squares are, through captures, consolidated
down to a single square, which then becomes
a suitable target for a pin.
Dg511: White to move
Dg511: Here the key line is the long diagonal
where Black has a queen and two pawns lined
up with his king; the cluster of king and queen
alone should get you thinking about a pin. To
the untrained eye the Black pawns on the di-
agonal might seem to scotch the idea, but you
know better: it may be possible to avoid such
pawns or get rid of them, turning the other
piece on the line into a pinnable target. Start
by looking for a piece of your own that can
reach the line at issue. Here you see that your
dark-squared bishop can get to e5 in one
move—and that if the pawn on f6 were re-
moved, Be5 would pin the queen. The pawn
protects nothing that you can take, but again
you can capture it: Rxf6 picks up a pawn, and
now if Black plays QxR his queen is ready to
be pinned with Be5 (the bishop takes protec-
tion from the rook on e4). Black plays QxB,
and after White recaptures he has won a
queen and a pawn for a rook and a bishop.
Dg512: A look at the White king's lines turns
up possible targets for a pin on the diagonal—
but one too many of them. Removing White’s
rook or queen from the board would leave the
other piece pinned. If Black could take
White’s queen, White would recapture with
his king and the rook would be pinned; but
that’s impossible. So consider the other end:
can Black take White’s rook?
Dg512: Black to move
Yes, with the pinning piece: QxR, leading to
QxQ. Now White’s queen and king are alone
on the long diagonal and the board is arranged
for a pin. By using the queen to capture, of
course, Black lost the pin that was in place at
the start, but now he creates a fresh one with
Bb7. The bishop pins the queen with protec-
tion from the knight on d6. White’s queen is
lost, producing a net gain for Black. Lesson:
sometimes you can consolidate excess enemy
pieces by taking one of them with the pinning
piece, then imposing a fresh pin once the line
has been simplified to just the king and the
target.
4.1.08.
Getting the Pinning Piece to the Pinning
Square.
Once you find or create the kernel of a pin—
an enemy piece lined up with its king with
nothing between them—you have to (a) figure
out what piece you can use to impose the pin
and (b) get it onto the square it needs. Some-
times the path to the pinning square is not
clear, and in that case there are standard me-
thods to consider to remove the obstructions.
Dg513: White to move
Dg513: We start with the easy case to the left.
Searching from the Black king outward, you
see the knight on e4 is ripe to be pinned. It’s
on a diagonal, so the pin would require a
queen or light-squared bishop. The bishop is
available but its path to the pinning square is
blocked by White’s own rook on e2. When
one of your own pieces obstructs the path of
another, the usual solution is to vacate the
obstructing piece in a violent manner that
requires a reply. Here the rook can take the
pinnable knight, so White plays RxN; Black
replies RxR; and now the way is clear for
White to play Bd3, pinning the rook and tak-
ing it a move later. White ends up a knight to
the good.
By the way, this is another case where White
also starts with a relative pin in place: if Black
moves his knight, White has RxR. Though
our full study of relative pins will come later,
we can ask briefly whether it makes sense for
White to exploit this one by attacking the
knight with Bg2. Black has a natural re-
sponse: he saves his knight and uses it to pro-
tect the rook by playing Nd6. Now White
plays RxR; Black plays NxR—and White has
Bxb7, for notice that Bg2 also cross-pinned
Black’s knight to the loose pawn on b7. But
this only nets a pawn. White still should win,
but not as easily as he would with a whole
extra piece.
Dg514: White to move
Dg514: Your train of thought this time might
begin with the observation that Black has pin-
nable pieces on two axes: his knight on e7 and
his bishop on f5. At first pinning the knight
seems the more plausible idea because White
can do it right away with Bd6, but then there
is no decisive follow-up: the knight itself is
guarded, so taking it won't be profitable. It
might seem that White could take advantage
of the knight’s paralysis by playing NxB with
impunity (or by starting with BxN, inviting
the recapture KxB—and then playing NxB).
But remember that after White imposes the
pin Black’s has a move to play, and he can
spend it taking his bishop out of danger.
So now think about the other possible target
for a pin: Black’s bishop on f5. At first no pin
might seem possible because White’s rook is
out of range and the bishop is guarded, but be
more precise about the obstacles: the bishop
has a guard in the e7 knight; and the White
rook’s path to the pinning square (f3) blocked
by the knight on e3. When these problems are
seen together their solutions suggest them-
selves. Again we vacate the obstructing piece
violently with NxB. Black replies NxN, and
now both problems are gone. The protected
target has been replaced with a loose one (the
knight), and the rook’s path to f3 is clear. Rf3
will win the knight a move later. Another way
to see this idea is to start by experimenting
with any exchanges you can force and their
consequences. Here White can play NxB,
inviting the reply NxN—a standard swap of
minor pieces. What makes it interesting is the
aftermath, as now the way is clear for a pin.
Dg515: White to move
Dg515: Black’s queen and rook are on the
same rank as his king. At first a pin seems
nowhere in sight; it would have to to be im-
posed by White's own rook or queen, and nei-
ther can reach the seventh rank. The trick is to
look through the obstacles: White has his
rooks doubled on the same file as Black’s
rook on d7; if the pawn on d6 weren’t in the
way, White could play RxR, pinning and then
winning Black’s queen. The question is how
to get the pawn off of its file. Do it the usual
way: take something the pawn protects. The
only thing it guards here is the knight on e5,
so White plays QxN—a costly sacrifice, but
one that pays off. Black replies d6xQ. Now
the obstruction to the pin has been removed,
allowing White to play RxR and then win the
queen. The rear rook provides the needed
cover for the forward one. White nets a piece
with the sequence.
Dg516: Here is a challenging study. The snug
alignment of Black’s king and queen on the
same diagonal should jump out at you as the
makings of a possible pin. Since the pinned
piece would be a queen, the piece doing the
pinning would need protection; Bc6 therefore
wouldn’t work. Do you have any protected
squares on the king and queen’s diagonal?

Dg516: White to move
Yes: b5. If White’s light-squared bishop were
there, it would pin the queen and also attack
Black’s rook on a6, which you notice (be-
cause you always notice these things) is loose.
So the remaining question is whether you can
maneuver your bishop to b5 fast enough to
achieve the pin. Look for a route to that
square for the bishop and you see just one:
Bd3, then Bxb5. Bd3 doesn’t check or capture
anything, but since it’s the natural move to
pursue the pin you imagine it and see what
response it would provoke. Let’s see: Would
Black move his king to avoid the coming pin?
If he does, then White still plays Bxb5 and
forks the rook and queen. Would Black move
his queen or rook so that he could take
White’s bishop when it lands on b5? He
could, but since the bishop has protection
from a pawn White still would win at least the
exchange.
Black ends up having no good reply to Bd3
despite having a move he can use to defend
against the coming Bxb5. His real problem is
that b5 is both a pinning square for White and
a forking square of a type familiar from the
chapter on bishop forks (notice the familiar
triangle between b5 and Black’s rook and
queen—and the king behind the queen). Plus
b5 is protected by a White pawn. The square
is so strong for White that even with a move’s
notice Black can’t avoid being hurt by it.
Black best response to Bd3 is Rb6; then he
can reply to Bxb5 with RxB and merely suffer
a4xR—losing the exchange and a pawn.
This position does not involve clearing lines.
It just involves moving the bishop over to the
pinning square in two moves, a sequence
made possible by some quirks of the position.
The first lesson is the importance of realizing
when a pinning square exists; once you have
found or created such a square, you can turn
your attention to ways of getting a suitable
piece there. Second, the position shows the
importance of thinking about moves that di-
rect your pieces where you want them to be
and thinking carefully about what your oppo-
nent would be able to do in reply. Sometimes
his options will be more limited than you
might expect.
4.1.09.
Loosening the Pinning Square.
Dg517: White to move
Dg517: Now for a couple of examples where
the basics of a pin are in place but the needed
square is guarded by your opponent. We need
not belabor the techniques here since they are
familiar from earlier work on loosening a
forking square, but a brief look will help
make the patterns more visually familiar. In
the frame to the left White sees an obvious
kernel of a pin: Black’s queen and king are on
the same diagonal. White’s light-squared bi-
shop is available, can reach the pinning
square—d5—in one move, and will have pro-
tection there from its queen. But White sees
that the pinning square is protected. Indeed,
the square is attacked twice by White but pro-
tected twice, by Black’s queen and knight.
What to do? Exchange away one of the
guards. White plays BxN; if Black recaptures
with a7xB, the exchange has left the pinning
square with only one Black defender. Now
White safely can play Bd5, pinning the queen
with support from White’s own queen on d1.
Black’s queen is lost.

Dg518: Black to move
Dg518: Black’s dark-squared bishop is poised
to move to c5, pinning White’s queen. Any
problem with this? Yes: White replies NxB.
Black needs to get rid of the White knight on
b3 before the pin will work. He can't ex-
change away the White knight because no
Black piece attacks it.
So now instead of a capture consider a threat.
Black plays a5-a4, and White’s knight must
flee unless it is to be sacrificed with only
Black’s pawn as compensation. Accepting
that sacrifice actually would be the better part
of valor here, since if White does move his
knight—say, to d2—Black follows up with
Bc5, pinning and then taking Black’s queen
with support from the rook on c8.
The lesson is to think carefully about the
pieces that guard the square you need. Ex-
changing them away or threatening them with
pieces less valuable than themselves may
leave the pinning square (or forking square, or
whatever square) weak enough for occupa-
tion.
By the way, White has another line of reply
that produces a similar material result. After
Black starts with a5-a4, White can try a coun-
terattack: a2-a3, making a hostage out of
Black's b4 bishop. The bishop retreats to e7;
this buys time for White to take his queen out
of danger, too, and with a threat: 3. Qa7.
Again Black retreats: 3. ...Bd8. Remember
that Black still has a pawn on a4 threatening
to take the b3 knight; so now White plays 4.
Nc3xa4, removing that pawn. Alas, Black has
another pawn at b5, and uses it to recapture:
4. ...b5xNa4. White can take that pawn with
his queen, but then Black also has Nc4xe5.
Black ends up with a knight and a pawn in
return for two pawns.
That last paragraph assumes that White deals
with the Black pawn on a4 by capturing it.
You might wonder whether White could in-
stead just move the b3 knight to a safer
square, such as c1. But if play goes as we've
been describing, that knight move has a troub-
ling consequence. White can then move his
bishop (now on d8, remember) to b6, which
forks the White king and queen. By instead
playing Nxa4, White throws an attacker at the
b6 square and so heads off the fork. Black
still takes the knight with his b-pawn, but then
Black has a move to take his queen out of
forking range.
4.1.10.
Protecting the Pinning Piece.
Dg519: White to move
Dg519: We have seen that if you pin the ene-
my queen to its king, the queen always will,
in principle, be able to take the piece that pins
it. The reason, of course, is that the only piec-
es capable of imposing a pin are your bishop,
rook, and queen, and the enemy queen can
move in the same way as any of them. This
generally means that any piece that pins the
queen requires protection. (There are excep-
tions to this statement that we will consider
later, but it holds as a general rule.) We al-
ready have seen the point a few times, so here
we need spend only a few examples on tech-
niques for bringing the needed protection into
existence.
This first position is an easy illustration of the can move to that file with protection from his
goal. White sees Black’s king and queen on other rook.
the same rank. The way is clear for him to
impose a pin with Ra8. But before pinning the
queen, a piece needs protection—something
to prevent Black from playing QxR. He has it
in his bishop. Thus Ra8 safely pins and wins
the queen for a rook.

Dg521: White to move

With those elements in place, the presence of

White’s own knight on e5 becomes an oppor-
tunity rather than an obstacle: it can take
something, and if Black spends any time re-
Dg520: White to move capturing it White then can play Re1. White
spends his free move with the knight playing
Dg520: Here again is the position you want to a capture: NxN. Black can’t afford to recap-
achieve. White sees a possible pin of Black's ture, as he must act to avoid the pin Re1.
queen. He can impose it with his bishop or his
queen. Obviously he will use his bishop so
that the pin is profitable, but it will need pro-
tection to prevent Black from just replying
QxB. Fortunately the pinning square—c4—
already is guarded once by White’s queen, so
he can play Bc4 without concern. Black’s
queen is lost; it can’t play QxQ, and instead
has to settle for taking White’s bishop and
then being taken itself.

Of course White also can make slightly lesser

gains here by playing QxQ; then after the re-
capture RxQ he has Bc4, pinning the rook and
winning it a move later. It’s a classic substitu-
tion of a harder-to-pin piece with one that is
easier to pin—but it’s not necessary.
Dg521: There is a classic pattern in which a
rook on its first rank "here the f1 rook" slides
out onto an open file to pin the enemy queen.
One reason the pattern is common is that a
rook on the first rank often has automatic pro-
tection already in place from its fellow rook,
or the queen, or the king, giving it the protec-
tion it needs to go after the enemy queen. In
this case White sees Black’s king and queen
adjacent on the e-file, and he has a rook he
Dg522: White to move
Dg522: The presence of Black’s king and
queen on the same file cries out “rook pin.”
You have a rook you can use to do it: the one
on e3, which can be transferred to g3. The
remaining question is whether the pinning
square is safe—not only from Black’s queen,
but from the pawn on f4. On inspection, it is:
the rook has protection against the queen from
the knight on h1, and once the rook moves to
g3—which must be carefully imagined—the
pawn on f4 will not be able to capture it, be-
cause the pawn will become pinned to its
queen by White’s bishop on d2.
That is as much as this example is meant to
show, but the probable result after 1. Re3-g3
is 1. ...QxR; 2. NxQ, f4xN; 3. Rf1xRf8+,
BxR; 4. Qe5—forking the Black pawns on c7
and g3, and making the capture on g3 a move
later. White has won a queen and a pawn in
return for a bishop and rook. (Another possi-
bility is that Black replies to 1. Rg3 by inter-
posing his d7 bishop on g4 to disrupt the pin.
Now there's a big round of liquidations in
which White ends up ahead by a piece.)
Dg523: White’s attention to the Black king’s
lines turns up the queen on d4, ready to be
pinned on the long dark-squared diagonal.
White’s dark-squared bishop is prepared to do
the job by moving to c3. But a piece that pins
the queen needs protection, and at c3 the bi-
shop would have none; Black would merely
play QxB. Can protection be arranged?
Dg523: White to move
What White needs are forcing moves that not
only create the needed protection but keep
Black too busy to escape the coming pin.
Checks are best for this purpose, and White’s
queen is in a position to check Black’s king
easily. The concept becomes clear: think
backwards about how the White queen can
check its way onto g3, where it then would
protect the pinning square, c3. He starts with
Qh4+, which requires Black to spend a move
playing Kg8. Then White has Qg3+, which
requires Black to spend more time moving his
king back to h8 (this reconstructs the kernel
of the pin by putting Black’s king back in line
with his queen). Now that White’s queen has
worked its way down to the third rank, he
safely can play the pin Bc3, winning Black’s
queen for a bishop.
Dg524: Black to move
Dg524: Do the standard scan of the lines lead-
ing away from White’s king. Do you see a
pinning possibility? It’s easy to overlook the
bishop on e3, but there it is: a piece lined up
with its king. We know that a bishop on its
king’s diagonal is itself an unsuitable target
for a pin, but we also know that it sometimes
can be swapped out for a better one. If Black
plays RxB, White has to reply QxR to recoup
his loss; and now White’s queen and king
would be aligned. Would Black have a tool
usable to impose a pin? Yes; his fianchettoed
dark-squared bishop on g7 is poised to move
to d4.
One difficulty remains, though: Black needs a
guard for d4, the pinning square. In thinking
about how to do this, don’t overlook pieces
already trained on the needed square but
blocked; for maybe the blockages can be re-
moved. Here Black’s queen is pointed at d4.
The rook on e4 would be out of the way after
the exchange just discussed, leaving only the
f4 pawn cluttering the line. How do we clear a
pawn from its rank? Take something it pro-
tects—as with Nxg5. Put these points together
and we have this sequence for Black: 1.
…Nxg5; 2. f4xN, RxB; 3. QxR, Bd4 and now
the queen is pinned by a bishop that enjoys
protection from Black's queen.
There were other ways you could have tried
to provide protection for d4, such as c7-c5.
But that’s not a forcing move. When you are
playing sequences that are meant to set up a
pin, you want to operate with checks, cap-
tures, and threats that limit your opponent’s
range of replies. In reply to c7-c5, for exam-
ple, White just plays BxR and the pinning
threat is extinguished. The beauty of Nxg5 for
Black is that it not only takes a pawn but
threatens White’s queen immediately and
threatens serious trouble for White’s king
(Nh3 would create lots of problems). So rep-
lying f4xN is hard to resist for White, and it
achieves Black’s goal of getting White’s
pawn off the fourth rank.
4.1.11.
Pushing the Enemy King into Line.
We have examined how to make the pinned
piece a suitable target and how to get your
pinning piece onto the square it needs. But
every example of both issues has started with
the observation that an enemy piece is aligned
with its king. Our next task is to learn how to
create that alignment when it doesn’t already
exist. The principal tools we will use here are
checks that push the king into a line with one
of its fellow pieces, or that require an enemy
piece to jump into line with its king to protect
it. Or sometimes a capture may require a king
to recapture and cause it to walk into a pin.
Dg525: White to move
Dg525: The core idea is illustrated to the top.
White has no pins or other tactical openings at
hand. He might follow the standard practice
of examining the consequences of any checks
he can inflict. There are two: Rxg7 and Ra8.
The first of those loses the rook to KxR, but
Ra8 is more interesting. Black has just one
safe reply: Kf7.
White sees that this brings Black’s king onto
the same file as his bishop—and immediately
causes the bishop to be pinned, since White
already has a rook on the f-file. Black’s reply
to the check thus makes his bishop a sitting
duck, so the question for White is how to at-
tack it. Pawns are best for the purpose whe-
rever they're available; here White plays e4-
e5 and uses the pawn to take the bishop a
move later.
Now try to start not by looking for checks but
by just seeing the visual pattern: the White
rook aimed not just at the Black bishop but
through it. . . and almost at the Black king,
which is one file away. If only the Black king
were on f8, just behind the bishop—so you
look for a check that nudges the king that
way.
When you see an idea like this, it's a good
habit to think about the move order and ask
what happens if you fiddle with it. Here the
thought might be to start with e4-e5. Then if
Black plays Bxe5, White has Ra8 and mates.
Or does he? You have to be mindful of all of
Black’s resources. He has a rook on b3, and
so can reply to White’s Ra8 with Rb8—where
the Black rook would take protection from the
bishop then on e5. So it’s better to start with
the check, create the pin, and then go after the
bishop; but it's important to see both varia-
tions, because the second one almost is better.
Dg526: White to move
Dg526: Again the idea in simplest form.
White has a rook and a bishop against Black’s
queen. How to play from here? Start by ex-
amining your check. White’s only one is
Ra1+.
Black has to move his king to b8. White sees
that this would put the king right behind the
queen on the same dark-squared diagonal; this
invites 2. Bf4, pinning the queen with protec-
tion from the pawn on g3. White wins.
Dg527: White to move
Dg527: These positions tend to start the same
way: White has no immediate tactical options,
so he looks for checks and considers how
Black’s replies to them would change the
board. Here White’s only check is Re8.
Black's only legal reply is Kh7. Now White
asks the usual questions about the position
that then would exist; he traces the lines out
from the new position Black's king would
occupy and sees that it would aligned with his
queen. White’s light-squared bishop is availa-
ble to then play Be4, pinning the Black queen
with protection from the rook. The queen is
lost.
Dg528: Black to move
Dg528: Black has a battery of bishop and
queen trained on h2, a square adjacent to
White’s king. How can he take advantage of
this? Answer this question by playing through
possible checks and captures in your mind’s
eye, then methodically evaluating the board as
it would look after the replies your opponent
might make. Thus we begin by imagining
Bxh2+. KxB would be impossible because
Black’s queen still would bear down on h2;
White would have to play his king to h1 or
g2. Either move puts his king and queen on
the same diagonal. Black thus looks for a pin
with his light-squared bishop and finds Bc6,
paralyzing White’s queen and winning it next
move.
Dg529: White to move
Dg529: The situation is tense for White; no-
tice that his queen is pinned. He could try
moving his king, but one wants to avoid play-
ing defensive moves too quickly. Better to
first consider every offensive option and its
results. Here that means not just looking for
pins like the inadequate Re3, but considering
every available check and Black’s possible
replies. Since White’s queen is pinned his
only check is Rh7+. The d-file is off-limits to
Black’s king because White’s queen is there,
and the same goes for e6. Thus the king’s
only flight square is e8. But this lands the
king on the same light-squared diagonal as
Black’s queen, so you immediately look for a
pin with your light-squared bishop. Bb5 does
the trick. Now Black can’t play QxQ because
his queen is paralyzed. The best he can do is
QxB, allowing White to play QxQ and effec-
tively end the game.
Dg530: Consider White's checks. He has sev-
eral with his queen—e.g., Qc8, Qf7, or Qb5—
but none of them force the king to move; the
best is Qb5, which at least doesn’t lose the
queen, but Black meets it with Qd7. So now
White looks for checks with other pieces and
finds Ba4+.

Dg530: White to move
This time Black can’t afford to play Qd7 be-
cause it forfeits his queen. He has to move his
king to d8 or f8. Either move puts his king
and queen on the same dark-squared diagonal.
Can White take advantage with his dark-
squared bishop? If Black plays Kd8 White has
Bg5, pinning the queen with support from the
knight on f3. If Black plays Kf8, White can
play that same bishop to the other side of the
board with Ba3, again pinning the queen (this
time with backup from the rook on a1). So no
matter how Black replies to Ba4+, his queen
gets pinned by a White bishop a move later.
Dg531: The game is young, but it's never too
early to ask about checks and consequences.
White sees that he can play Bg6 and that this
would require Black to move his king to d8—
on a diagonal with his queen. Then White
plays his dark-squared bishop to a5, pinning
the queen. What’s wrong with this picture?
Dg531: White to move
To pin the queen a piece needs protection, and
on a5 White’s bishop wouldn’t have it. But a
pin with an obstacle preventing it is no reason
to give up. Keep playing with the idea, in this
case by being thorough about considering all
of your checks with all of your pieces.
Here White has a second option: Qh5+. This
check is different because in addition to push-
ing the king to d8 it also provides protection
for the dark-squared bishop once it moves to
a5. (If Black tries g7-g6, then White plays
Bxg6+; this forces the king over, which works
fine since the protection for the pinning place
has been installed.)
Lesson one: When you are trying to pin the
queen, think imaginatively about ways to pro-
tect the pinning piece; consider different
squares it can use, and whether other pieces
might move into position to provide the pro-
tection while also inflicting time-consuming
checks. Lesson two: Often the most interest-
ing result when you force an enemy king to
move is that it steps into alignment with its
fellow pieces and creates the makings of a
pin. So don't just follow the king as it travels;
follow its relationships to the rest of the piec-
es on the board.
4.1.12.
Making Use of Forced Interpositions.
That first batch of studies all involved checks
that forced the enemy king to move itself into
a pin. But a check doesn't always force the
enemy king to move; the other two possibili-
ties are that your opponent might capture the
threatening piece or interpose something be-
tween it and the king. Interpositions, like
moves by the king, can lead to pins. Indeed,
by assumption an interposition causes an
enemy piece to pin itself. You then may be
able to take it if you have enough offensive
power at your disposal.
Dg532: The importance of examining checks
is especially great when the enemy king’s
range of motion is severely constricted, as is
the case for Black in the figure to the left.
White has just one check to consider: Qe5.
Black has no way to capture White’s queen
and no way to move his king to safety. His
only legal reply is to interpose his rook: Rg7,
walking into a pin.

Dg532: White to move
Of course White will not be taking the rook
with his queen; he will throw a cheap attacker
at it with h5-h6. (Attack pinned pieces with
pawns when you can.) The rook is lost.
The point is simple. Anytime a check you can
inflict will cause your opponent to interpose
something between his king and your attack-
ing piece, ask whether you can throw any
fresh attackers at the interposed piece; at least
for the moment it will be pinned and unable to
flee.
Dg533: Black to move
Dg533: Black is down a piece; how should he
proceed? He might, of course, consider any
checks he can inflict and whether they lead to
tactical opportunities. He has a queen and a
rook to examine. Qh3+, Qxh2+, Qf3+, and
Qe2+ can be dismissed quickly, as they all
lose the queen with nothing to show for it.
Then there is Rc2+, which at least is a safe
move. Consider what White would do. Play-
ing Kh1 or Kg1 won't be good for him; Black
then looks for his next check and finds that he
can end the game with Qxh2#. And White
can’t move the king to h3 or f3, nor can he
capture Black’s rook. So he would have to
interpose something. Be2 wouldn’t make
sense, since Black just plays RxB+. White
instead would need to play Rd2, using his
rook to block the check while protecting it
with his queen. The key point to spot is that
this interposition, like any other, leaves the
guardian pinned.
The next step: attack the pinned piece again.
Consider every way you can do it; find Qd1.
Now White is in terrible trouble, for his rook
is in a cross-pin. If he plays RxR, his queen is
lost to QxQ. Anything else he plays is no bet-
ter: if he moves the king, RxR wins the rook
and then the bishop (to QxB) a move later; if
White plays Be2, RxR again wins the rook for
Black and then the bishop a move later, since
it would be pinned. This position is worth
some study, as the key moves and their impli-
cations are a bit counterintuitive.
Dg534: White to move
Dg534: Black moved his king out toward the
middle of the board, which is hazardous in the
middlegame for many reasons (it typically
becomes a good idea in the endgame, but he
wasn't quite at that stage yet). One reason is
that it is easier to pin things to the king once it
is surrounded by accessible lines. Here White
senses opportunity but has no immediate way
to impose a pin, so he considers his checks
and their consequences. Again there are two
pieces to consider: the rook and the queen.
Rc6 loses the rook, and Rf5 loses the rook
(and anyway it would allow the king to es-
cape onto the sixth rank; notice that b4 is off
limits). So how about the queen’s checks?
Qg5 is of great interest because the sixth rank
remains sealed off by the rook. Black’s king
thus has no flight squares, so Black will have
to interpose something between the king and attacked once and protected once; there is no
White’s queen. If he plays Re5, the rook is way to bring Black’s rook into the fray effec-
lost to QxR+ and White mates soon. If Black tively. Don’t give up, though; the White
instead plays Qd5, Black’s queen will have queen’s move to h2 has greatly limited the
walked into a pin. king’s liberty, so think about another check:
Qf3. How would White respond?
How to exploit it? Again, look for other piec-
es (besides the White queen imposing the pin)
that can be used to take Black’s queen now
that it's stuck. White’s only plausible piece for
the purpose is the rook, so try Rf5. This way
the rook takes over the pin (its services no
longer are needed on the sixth rank; its pur-
pose there was to force Black to pin his own
queen on the previous move). And notice,
incidentally, that Rf5 also unmasks an attack
by White’s queen on Black’s rook. The best
Black can do is play his rook to d7 so that it
can recapture when his queen is taken. Now Dg535: Black to move
White has RxQ; Black replies RxR, and
White has won a queen for a rook. By the The king can't move and Black’s queen can’t
way, White now can win even more material be taken, so White would have to interpose
by moving his queen to e7 and giving check either his queen (with Qg2, losing the queen
from there. If Black moves his king to b6, for to RxQ) or his rook with Rg2. Now the rook
example, White’s queen checks again on e6 would be pinned. This time would Black have
and and forks Black’s king and rook. Black a way to throw another piece at the pinned
can move his king back to c5 to protect the target? Yes; with h4-h3. The rook gets taken
rook, but then White has yet another fork with by the pawn on the next move. (If White
Qc8, this time going after the Black knight on plays Qxh3, Black replies QxQ.)
h8. If Black instead replies to Qe7 by moving
his king to b5, White has Qxb7+; Black has to The moral of this position is that if a first
move his king back to c5 or else be mated, check causes changes but creates no tactical
and then White again has Qc8+. If Black rep- openings, see what new checks are available
lies to Qe7 not by moving his king but by and assess the position that results as if it
interposing his rook on d6, White forks were on the board in front of you. Repeat as
Black’s king and knight with Qe5. These pos- necessary.
sibilities may seem a little remote from the
diagrammed position, but it's important to
remember that forking opportunities often can
arise at the end of other types of tactical se-
quences. With the enemy king in the middle
of the board, a loose enemy knight in the cor-
ner, and your own queen so active, possibili-
ties for queen forks should be at the forefront
of your mind.

Dg535: Black has two checks to examine:

RxR, which then loses the rook and amounts
to an unhelpful exchange; and Qh3. White’s
only legal move in reply to Qh3 is Qh2—an
interposition. It’s hard to see how Black could
take advantage of it, since the pinned queen is
Dg536: White to move
Dg536: Now a study in caution. You see the
obvious pin of Black’s knight on f6 by
White’s bishop. It’s a relative pin, a theme we
discuss later: Black’s knight can move legal-
ly, but his queen will be lost. Since the knight
appears to be paralyzed as a defender, the
Black pawn on d5 is free for the taking with
Nxd5. If Black replies NxN, White seems
able to play BxQ. Not so fast, however; this is
a classic trap. When you imagine moving
your pieces around, even just to make a cap-
ture, ask as a matter of course what lines the
moves would open—especially when a piece
like White’s knight starts out aligned with its
king, so that moving it creates a new check
for the other side. What checks would be
possible for Black after White plays BxQ?
Just one: Bb4+. The White king has no flight
squares, so his only reply is to interpose his
queen on d2. Black then plays BxQ, winning
back the queen—and doing it with check, so
that after White plays KxB Black still has a
move to play KxB back at his end of the
board, winning the bishop that took his queen.
Black ends up with a piece in return for a
pawn.
4.1.13.
Making Use of Forced Captures.
We're looking at ways to create pins where
the alignments for them don't yet exist. We
have seen how checks can achieve this by
forcing an enemy piece to step in front of the
king or by forcing the king itself to move.
Now let's look at how attacks on an oppo-
nent's king can force him to make captures
that likewise may result in pins.
Dg537: Black to move
Dg537: A vulnerability in Black’s own posi-
tion here should jump out at you: he has a
loose piece on the same rank as his king; they
are poised to be forked by White’s rook with
Rc7+.
But it's Black's turn to move, and before mov-
ing to stop the fork think about offense. Black
has two checks to consider: Rd2+, losing the
rook to NxR; and RxN+. In reply to the latter
White would not be able to interpose any-
thing, and if his king flees he has forfeited his
knight for nothing. So the likely response for
White would be a capture: KxR. Since this
moves the king, reassess its position. It would
be on the same diagonal as White’s rook. This
calls for a pin using the light-squared bishop:
Ba6.
Now what? It's White's turn to move and his
rook has become a paralyzed target, so ask
what defenders he might add to it. (Remem-
ber that White already sacrificed the exchange
to get here, so he wants to win back more than
the exchange now.) White could play b2-b3.
But then Black has a pawn of his own to add
to the attack with d6-d7. Black wins the rook.
(Black also has another option: play BxR,
inviting the recapture b3xB—and now
Black’s a-pawn and b-pawn can be marched
forward, and the a-pawn soon will promote.)
You might have noticed from the outset here
that Black can impose a pin with Ba6—a rela-
tive pin of White’s rook to his knight. Since
the knight currently is attacked once and pro-
tected once, it will be lost if Black exposes it
to capture a second time by moving the rook.
But the pin fails because Black can break out
of it with check (Rc7+ or Rf4+). This illu-
strates why absolute pins are so powerful: if a
piece is pinned to its king, it can't break out of
the pin in this way.
Dg538: Black is down the exchange and his
queen is in immediate danger. He has no way
to guard it. But before withdrawing it to safe-
ty he of course looks at his checks—Qe2+ or
QxQ+. Either way his queen gets taken, but
on tracing the lines in the resulting positions
Black sees that if the two sides trade queens,
the result is to leave White’s king and rook on
the same light-squared diagonal with nothing
between them.

Dg538: Black to move
Black has an attacker he can use on that axis;
he plays Bb7, pinning and winning White’s
rook.
Dg539: White to move
Dg539: When you consider the checks you
can give, it's important to be thorough in
thinking about all of your pieces—and pawns.
Here White can check with his g-pawn: g2-
g4+. Black can’t retreat the king to h6 be-
cause White’s queen attacks the square. He
can’t interpose anything because there's no
room for that. He has no choice but to capture
the threatening pawn with Rxg4 (Kxg4 is
made impossible by White’s king).
The salient fact on the board as it would then
look is that Black's rook ends up on the same
diagonal as his king. White has a pin with
Qf3. The queen takes the rook next move,
safe against recapture because of the protec-
tion it gets from White's king.
Incidentally, there is another interesting way
for White to win a rook here. Notice that the
Black rook on b4 is loose. A loose enemy
piece, an exposed enemy king, and a queen at
your disposal to attack them: these all are
makings of a fork; you need just to look for
checking sequences that allow you to ma-
neuver your queen into position. First comes
Qf3+, forcing Kh6. Now another check:
Qe3+, forcing Kg7 (if Black plays Kh5,
White mates with Qg5). Now White has the
fork Qc3, picking up the rook next move.
Dg540: Black to move
Dg540: A knot of pieces like those surround-
ing White’s king can create intricate prob-
lems. But before getting buffaloed by the in-
tricacies, try the standard method of consider-
ing checks and consequences. Here Black has
two to ponder. The first is Bxb2+, which ends
up trading the bishop for a rook after White
responds RxB and Black replies a3xR+.
Black's second idea is to start with a3xb2+. In
reply to this White can’t move his king and
can’t interpose anything, so he has to capture
the pawn with his rook—which then is pinned
by the bishop on f6. What do you do with a
pinned piece? Attack it again. Here the only
resource that remains for Black is his king,
but it’s good enough. He plays Ka3, and has
Bxb2 next move. This wins the rook; more to
the point, it leads to mate. (White can take the
c2 bishop with his f2 rook, but this just fores-
talls the inevitable.)
Of course you might as well have seen the
idea here by noting the pin of the b2 pawn
from the start. You upgrade it to a rook with
a3xb2, then hit the rook with Ka3 and BxR.
4.1.14.
Using Threats and Captures without check.
Dg541: Finally, let's look at a couple of other
types of forcing sequences that can lead to
pins. In this first example White has no
checks to give, but there is a natural capture
bishop is guarded just by the king, which will
move to d6 on the recapture.
Dg541: White to move
Dg541: Finally, let's look at a couple of other
types of forcing sequences that can lead to
pins. In this first example White has no
checks to give, but there is a natural capture
to consider in NxB—particularly since the
bishop is guarded just by the king, which will
move to d6 on the recapture. Now assess the
board as it would then look, asking the stan-
dard questions about the king and pieces on
its lines. You see that the king’s move will
cause the knight on d5 to become pinned by
the rook on d1, and thus paralyzed; and you
can take advantage of this by throwing a
pawn at the pinned piece with e2-e4, winning
the knight a move later.
The point: examining forcing moves means
studying any checks you can give. But it
means looking at any captures you can make,
too, since replies to them usually are simple
enough to predict. This is especially important
when you can take a piece guarded only by
the enemy king. Any recapture will then re-
quire the king to move, and its movement
to consider in NxB—particularly since the
may create the usual nice opportunities for
pins and other tactics.
Dg542: White has an inviting prospect here
for a pawn fork: Black’s king and rook are a
square apart on the same rank, and White can
reach them with g2-g4+. (Naturally you might
as well have found this by just looking for
White’s checks.)
Dg542: White to move
True, the pawn has no protection; but it may
have value anyway just as a forcing move. If
Black retreats his king he loses his rook, so he
would instead need to play Kxg4. Imagine the
result and you see that his king and rook
would end up on the same light-squared di-
agonal. Time to go to work with the light-
squared bishop: White plays Be6, pinning the
rook. He takes it a move later with BxR, win-
ning the exchange.
The position appears here because although it
starts with a check, the capture of the pawn
Black makes is not for his king's benefit; it's
meant to save the rook. No matter: anything
that forces a move of the king or a piece near
it may create the makings of a pin.
 Exploiting a Pin.

4.2.01.
Using Pawns to Attack the Pinned Piece.

Once you've imposed a pin, what can you do

with it? Capturing the pinned piece is the
most natural possibility and the one we most-
ly have seen so far. Usually when you threat-
en an enemy piece your opponent can choose
between moving it or giving it more protec-
tion; a pin means the targeted piece can't be
moved, so the quality of its protection is the
sole determinant of its fate. In the simplest Dg543: White to move
cases, where the pinned piece can be taken for
free or where it's worth more than the piece Dg543: In a perfect world the position looks
inflicting the pin, the piece doing the pinning like the one to the left. White scans the lines
on move one simply takes the pinned piece on leading away from Black’s king and sees that
move two. But often the pinned piece will the knight on d5 is ready to be pinned on the
have protection (or will be supplied with pro- fifth rank. It’s a horizontal pin, and White has
tection right away once the pin appears), and a rook at the ready for it; he plays 1. Ra5 and
trading it for the pinned piece is not so attrac- now the knight is paralyzed. But he won’t be
tive. In that case more imagination may be able to play RxN because Black’s next move
needed to bring the pinned piece down. is c7-c6, protecting the knight. Since taking
the pinned piece with the pinning piece isn’t
There are three general ideas to grasp. The practical, White looks for other ways to attack
option of first resort typically is to go after the the knight. A pawn is best. White has 2. c2-
target with a pawn. Where this is possible it c4, and now the Black’s knight protection is
makes no difference how much protection the no consolation: he loses the piece (and then
pinned piece enjoys, because trading it for a trades pawns).
pawn always will be favorable to you.
Second, if none of your pawns are available
for the purpose, you may be able to pile up on
the pinned piece with more of your pieces.
Such positions become a race to see who can
surround the pinned piece with more firepow-
er; your task is get more pieces to the scene of
the pin than the enemy can rally. Third, there
are some other useful tools to consider: you
may be able to drive defenders away from the
pinned piece (especially if one of the defend-
ers is the enemy king), and then there is the
Dg544: White to move
possibility of a cross-pin: you may be able to
pin the pinned piece a second time in another
Dg544: A scan of the Black king’s lines turns
direction. This chapter will examine all of
up an obvious candidate for a pin in the
those options, starting here with the use of
knight on e4. White plays the simple 1. Re1.
pawns to bring down the pinned target.
Now what? Black rushes a pawn to the
knight’s defense with d7-d5, which rules out
RxN for White on the next move. So White
resorts to a pawn: 2. f2-f3, winning the knight
a move later. The protection a pinned piece
enjoys becomes meaningless when it is at-
tacked by a pawn.
Dg545: White to move
Dg545: The current principle in a diagonal
rather than vertical setting, just for the sake of
pattern reinforcement. Black’s knight and
king on the same diagonal should jump out at
you; what also should jump out are the White
pawns that will be able to attack the knight
once it is pinned. White starts with 1. Bb3;
Black backs up the knight with c7-c6, which
prevents it from being taken by White's bi-
shop; so White plays 2. e3-e4, and the knight
is lost.
Dg546: White to move
Dg546: White scans the lines leading to
Black’s king and sees that the knight on c6 is
ready to be pinned; he looks for a resource he
can use on the knight’s diagonal and finds
Qa4. This move also has the virtue of attack-
ing Black’s bishop on a6, which is loose. The
bishop both moves to safety and provides
protection for the knight with Bb7, so White
won't be playing QxN. But now comes the
pawn push: d4-d5, and the paralyzed knight is
lost irrespective of how much protection it
has. This pattern—a pawn in the middle of the
board marching forward to take a piece
pinned to its king on the enemy’s third rank—
is common enough to be worth a moment's
study.
Dg547: White to move
Dg547: This time White already has Black’s
bishop pinned on the e-file. How should he
take advantage of this? The bishop is pro-
tected by a pawn, so RxB is out. The natural
idea is to push a pawn toward the pinned
piece with d4-d5. Of course the pawn needs to
be secure against capture, so study the squares
on the pawn’s road. Here Black would be able
to respond to the pawn thrust with Qxd5; but
then White would play QxQ, and would
Black have a reply? No, because the bishop is
pinned and would be unable to recapture. So
Black is better off succumbing to d5xB. The
point is that when you are pushing a pawn
toward a pinned target, you want to think
carefully about whether it is safe on each of
the squares it needs—keeping in mind that
each square may be guarded by multiple at-
tackers and defenders, but also that the pinned
piece itself will pose no threat.
Dg548: White has Black’s bishop pinned, this
time on the d-file. Again the bishop is pro-
tected; indeed, it is protected twice. So
White’s best bet is to attack the bishop with a
pawn, as this would make the bishop’s protec-
tion irrelevant. White has a pawn ready to go
on c4. The best way to advance a pawn is
with threats that force the enemy to waste
moves getting his pieces out of the way.

Dg548: White to move
Here the pawn can move to c5 with a threat to
Black’s knight. After the knight moves, the
pawn goes to c6 and takes the bishop a move
later. (Or Black moves his king after White’s
c4-c5, inviting White to take the knight on b6
instead.)
There's one loose end: the knot of pieces on
e4-e5 and f4-f5. Black’s e5 pawn attacks
White’s bishop, and White’s g4 pawn attacks
Black’s knight. It would be a simple matter
for White to exchange pieces here with Black,
but should it be done before or after the pawn
push toward the pinned bishop? Answer: be-
fore. It simplifies the rest of your plans after-
wards, and it reduces the number of pieces on
the board (which magnifies the edge you are
about to obtain).
Dg549: Black to move
Dg549: Black checked White’s king by mov-
ing his bishop to a6, and White replied by
interposing his bishop on d3. We know one
way to handle a bishop on the same diagonal
as its king in this setting: trade it for another
piece. Thus Black plays RxB, White replies
RxR, and now White’s rook is pinned: a suit-
able target. The next question is how to attack
it. BxR would make the whole sequence a
wash after White recaptures; Black needs to
summon more force against the rook. He can
throw another rook of his own at it with Rd8,
to which White would reply Rd1—and the
pinned rook still would be guarded as many
times as it’s attacked. What Black really
needs is a pawn on a file adjacent to the rook
that can be used to go after it. The obvious
candidate is the pawn on e6, but it’s two
moves away from the pinned rook. What to
do?
Answer: march the pawn forward. Black
plays e6-e5, and there is nothing White can do
to prevent Black from playing e5-e4 on the
next move and then e4xR a move later. White
can play g2-g3, threatening Black’s bishop,
but then the bishop just retreats and the plight
of the pinned rook is unchanged. The reason
Black’s pawn is free to march forward is that
the few pieces White could use to stop it are
committed to their positions. White’s king
can’t move because it is protecting the pinned
rook, and anyway Black has d2 and e3 sealed
off with his bishop. Nor can White’s knight or
rook be maneuvered into better positions in
time to stop the pawn’s progress.
This is what sometimes happens once a pin is
imposed: it requires your opponent to freeze
his pieces into positions that help protect the
pinned piece; his immobility makes it easier
for you to make offensive moves with your
other pieces. Sometimes the time it takes to
move your pawn will give the enemy a
chance to rearrange his pieces; that is why it
usually is best if the pawn makes threats on its
way up the board that require time-consuming
replies. But as this position shows, that isn’t
always necessary.
Dg550: Here Black starts with a pin already
in place on White’s f3 knight. The knight is
well-guarded, and one of its guards is a pawn,
so Black has no obvious way to capture it. As
usual, though, the goal is to go after the
knight with a pawn, and as we saw in the pre-
vious position pawns sometimes can march
up the board by threatening enemy pieces as
they go.
 Dg550: Black to move
Here Black experiments with a threatening
push: h7-h6. White has to move his queen—
but ask where. Sometimes that question will
be easy to answer, as in cases like this where
the queen’s range of motion is limited. Here it
has to go to h4 or else be lost on the spot.
Now what does Black do? Remember the
objective: to march a pawn up the board.
Black can play g7-g5, again threatening
White’s queen. The queen either takes
Black’s pawn on h6 or moves to h3. Either
way, Black completes the exercise with g5-
g4, at last attacking the pinned White knight
and winning it a move later.
A few lessons to take away from this study:
First and generally, when you have pinned an
enemy piece do not give up lightly on the
hope of throwing a pawn at it. Pawns are
frightening to larger pieces, and this can give
them unexpected mobility. Second, a pawn in
its starting position is—somewhat surprising-
ly—only two moves from threatening a piece
on the enemy’s third rank. Third, the position
shows how pawns sometimes can march up
the board together, with one issuing a threat
and then providing protection for the other as
it too advances.
Dg551: White sees the tempting pattern of
queen in front of king on the e-file. He in-
stinctively thinks of the classic rook pin Re1.
But on consideration of the likely reply he
sees that Black has an interposition to play:
Ne4, blocking White from playing RxQ. Is
White dissuaded?
Dg551: White to move
No, because a piece that defends by interpos-
ing itself often becomes pinned itself, whether
to the king or queen—as happens here. The
knight would be paralyzed upon its arrival at
e4, at least momentarily, because if it moves
it exposes the queen to attack. So White goes
after the knight with a pawn: f2-f3. He has
f3xN next move.
Dg552: White to move
Dg552: White follows the lines out from
Black’s king and sees two pieces on the
king’s rank: the queen and bishop. White’s
rook already is on the scene; indeed, it cur-
rently pins the bishop to Black’s queen. (This
is a relative pin, since the bishop is pinned to
a piece other than the king; for now just see
that the bishop is immobilized and that White
needs a way to exploit this.) The bishop is
guarded, so White can’t play RxB. What
White needs is a pawn attack against the bi-
shop. White has pawns on the right files—at
c5 and e5. But their path to the pinned bishop
is blocked by Black pawns. What to do? Han-
dle it the same way we normally handle
pawns that block needed paths: capture some-
thing that one of the pawns protects. Here the
pawn on e6 protects the rook on f5, which
White can take with RxR. After Black replies
e6xR, the line is clear for White to play the
pawn push e5-e6.
Now notice a side consequence of e5-e6: the
path between the two queens has been opened
as well. But if Black plays QxQ, White recap-
tures NxQ—and the bishop at d7 remains
pinned. White takes it next turn. Notice, too,
the importance of the move order. After
Black’s QxQ, White must not play RxB+.
This might look tempting, since the priority of
check suggests that after Black fends off the
attack on his king, White still will have time
to take Black’s queen. But Black fends off the
check precisely by playing his queen back to
g7. White takes it with his rook, but loses the
exchange once Black recaptures KxR.
Once again there are a few lessons to observe
here. The first is the same as in the previous
position: don’t give up lightly on the possi-
bility of attacking a pinned piece with a pawn.
Second, this position shows how pawns
whose paths are blocked may be able to ad-
vance if the blockers are lured out of the way
by other attacks you launch. Third, when you
are pushing pawns be mindful of the lines—
and especially the diagonals—they open and
close as they move forward. This really is an
application of the principles studied in the
section on discovered attacks. In effect the
pawn here unmasks a discovered attack by
moving to e6, and at the same time it exposes
its own queen to attack.
4.2.02.
Ganging Up on the Pinned Piece.
The beauty of using a pawn to attack a pinned
piece is that the protection the pinned piece
enjoys becomes irrelevant; your opponent
can’t afford to trade one of his pieces for a
pawn. But what if you have no such pawns
available for the purpose? Then you go after
the pinned target with pieces and the question
becomes one of comparative might: all hangs
on whether you can bring more force to bear
against the pinned piece than your opponent
can match with defensive reinforcements.
Thus your first thought upon pinning a piece
(if you can’t take it with a pawn) is to count
how many times it's protected and attacked—
and how many times it can be protected and
attacked if both sides mobilize as fast as poss-
ible. Often this involves creative ways of get-
ting pieces into position—perhaps by ex-
changing the pinned piece for another, where
the trade has the side effect of making room
for another piece you can use to attack the
position.
Dg553: White to move
Dg553: In the simple example on the left,
White’s queen already pins Black’s rook on
f7. The rook is protected by its king, so QxR
won’t do. Can White apply more pressure
against the rook? Not with a pawn, but with a
piece: he plays Rb7, and now the pinned tar-
get is attacked twice and guarded just once.
Black has no way to add protection to the
rook; his queen can’t get to the seventh rank
without being taken by White’s rook. The
rook on f7 is overmatched, and is lost next
move.
So that's the analysis of the pin. But in truth
White can do even better than taking the rook.
He can deliver mate. After 1. Rb7, there are
various things Black might do, but he can't
prevent White from playing Qg8, and can't
escape the mating net that results. (If Black
starts with 1. ...g5xf4, don't forget that White
can use Be3xf4 as a resource later in the se-
quence.) Of course the pin still is important,
because that is what freezes the f7 rook into
place in the beginning and so allows White to
get his own rook into the action.
Dg554: The pin already is in place, this time
of White’s rook by Black’s bishop. The rook
is protected once as well as attacked once, but
since the bishop that exerts the pin is worth
less than the targeted rook it is possible for
Black to simply play BxR, winning the ex-
change after Black recaptures. Possible, but
not optimal; much better is to try to take the
pinned piece cleanly by coming after it a
second time.

Dg555: White to move

Dg555: A scan of the Black king’s lines again

Dg554: Black to move
Thus if Black plays Rf2 White’s rook is at-
tacked twice and protected only once, and
White has no way to add more protection. The
White rook gets taken on the next move, and
Black can't afford to recapture. Black wins a
piece rather than just the exchange.
The point of the position is that even where
the pinning piece profitably can take the
pinned piece, piling on superior force against
the target sometimes is the better course, lead-
ing to a decisive gain rather than just to a fa-
vorable trade. Incidentally, note that Black
had two ways to add pressure with his rook:
Rf2, but also Rb3. What’s wrong with Rb3? It
allows White to add protection to his rook
with Kg2—a move not possible if Black’s
rook is on f2. Moral: when you have more
than one way to add pressure to a piece, think
about how your decision will affect the choic-
es available to your opponent.
Dg555: A scan of the Black king’s lines again
turns up a pin already in place: of Black’s
rook, by White’s queen. But the pin is imper-
fect because the rook is guarded once and
attacked once. White has no other pieces he
can use to put immediate pressure on the
rook; Bf4 fails to QxB. When you seem to be
out of resources, however, consider ex-
changes and their consequences.
turns up a pin already in place: of Black’s
rook, by White’s queen. But the pin is imper-
fect because the rook is guarded once and
attacked once. White has no other pieces he
can use to put immediate pressure on the
rook; Bf4 fails to QxB. When you seem to be
out of resources, however, consider ex-
changes and their consequences. Here QxR
leads to QxQ—and now White imposes a
fresh pin with Bd4, as the bishop gets protec-
tion against the pinned Black queen from the
pawn on c3. Be mindful of the possibility this
position illustrates: the ability of the pinning
piece to initiate useful exchanges.
Dg556: White to move
Dg556: The idea here will be familiar from
the other positions in this chapter, but we'll
talk it through from scratch. Sometimes a
little knot of pieces that attack each other like
those in the middle of the board here can
seem confusing. Just take it apart with first
principles. First, glance at the Black king’s
lines and notice the pin of Black’s rook by
White’s queen; then methodically diagnose
the pin and its prospects. A first question
about almost any pinned piece is whether you
can attack it more times than it’s defended.
Here the pinned rook is attacked once and
defended once, so ask whether White can at-
tack it again. Since the target is on a light-
squared diagonal, White could add an attacker
by playing his f3 bishop to g4. But this
doesn’t work because then Black can play
QxQ; after White recaptures NxQ, Black
moves his rook to safety. The point: White's
bishop's can't be swung into action against the
rook so easily; it is doing important work on
f3. Dg557: White to move

The problem for White is that Black’s queen
not only guards the pinned piece but attacks
the pinning piece. For White to get anywhere
he therefore will have to work with violent,
forcing moves that don’t give Black time to
exchange queens and destroy the pin. When
in doubt, consider exchanges. Here the only
piece White can use to perform a capture is
his queen. He has QxR+. And then what
comes after Black recaptures QxQ? Bd5,
which takes advantage after all of the bishop’s
ability to travel the light squares. This pins
and then wins Black’s queen with support
from the knight on c3.
Since the queen is being pinned White needs
protection for his rook, and gets it from the
bishop on h4.
This sequence is the payoff of the fine coor-
dination of White’s pieces. He effectively
starts with three of them all trained on e8; he
owns that square, and now you see one of the
possibilities such ownership can create. Piec-
es can attack from there and then can be re-
placed by the other pieces that backed them
up.

It’s another example of a recurring principle:

if you are stuck for ways to bring more fire-
power down on a pinned piece, consider tak-
ing it and ask whether doing so would free the
way for you to bring in more reinforcements.
Another way to put the point is that White
does have two pieces he can use to attack the
pinned position here; it’s just that he just
needs to use them to attack sequentially rather
than simultaneously. Dg558: White to move

Dg557: Look at the Black king’s position and
you see a pin of the bishop on e8 by White’s
rook, but no way to take advantage of it since
it is guarded once and there is no immediate
way to call in another attacker against it. So
again: initiate an exchange with the pinning
piece. Imagine 1. RxB, QxR, and now a re-
newed scan of the Black king and its lines,
and of White’s offensive resources, turns up a
new pin to impose: Re8, paralyzing the queen
and winning it next move.
Dg558: Scan out from the Black king and you
see that the knight on d7 is pinned. Size up
the impediments to exploiting the situation:
the knight is attacked twice and guarded
twice, and White has no immediate way to
bring more power to bear against it. What to
do? Consider replacing the target with an ex-
change and ask what would then become
possible. Sometimes exchanges simplify the
board and so clear the way to bring in rein-
forcements. We have been looking at ex-
changes initiated by the pinning piece, but
this time let's do it a little differently, starting
with 1. RxN, RxR. The pinned piece has been
replaced, and the new piece still is attacked
once (by the pinning bishop) and guarded
once (by the king). But this time White has
cleared a way to bring in backup: Rh1-d1, and
now Black’s rook is attacked too many times
and gets taken on the next move.
We see here an example of the strength of
coordinated (or “connected”) rooks. Some-
times one can replace the other, increasing the
power directed at a target in unexpected ways.
Dg559: Black pins the White rook on c5 with
his queen. But the pinned piece is attacked
twice and protected twice, making it hard to
see how Black can capitalize. Try our new
strategy: consider whether an exchange or
two might then make it possible to wheel oth-
er pieces onto squares where they can add
pressure to the pinned position.
Dg559: Black to move
The first exchange that suggests itself to
Black is RxR, to which White replies QxR.
The swap has created a new target, but more
importantly it has cleared the way for Black
to add a third piece to the action with Rb8-c8.
White’s queen is pinned, so its only recourse
is to go down in flames with QxQ. At first
this might seem to leave things a wash when
Black recaptures a7xQ, but there is a better
reply: Black plays RxR+. This requires White
to spend a move avoiding the check; then
Black plays a7xQ. In effect the White queen
was pinned to the loose rook behind it as well
as to its king.
Black’s sequence here is an illustration of the
correct use of the priority of check: if your
opponent captures, sometimes it is best to
hold off on the recapture and do any other
damage you can that will inflict a check on
his king. The recapture you postponed will
still be there after the enemy has evaded the
check, and in the meantime you will have
taken more material than if you had recap-
tured right away. The position also shows
again, of course, how a preliminary exchange
of the pinned piece for a replacement can free
up resources and allow you to put more pres-
sure on the pinned position. Finally, here as in
the previous position we see how two coordi-
nated rooks are especially useful for that task,
as one steps into the shoes of the other.
Dg560: Black to move
Dg560: Now for cases where the pin must be
created before worrying about whether the
target can be brought down. In this case the
possibility of a pin for Black here is not ob-
vious; White’s king is not in line with any of
its pieces. But if you are systematic about
considering any checks Black can give and
their consequences, you see that there is just
one to examine here: Re1+. White’s only le-
gal reply is Kh2. Imagine this and see that the
rook on c7 would become pinned by the
king’s move. Now ask whether you would be
able to exploit the pin by taking the rook. It
would be protected once (by White’s queen)
and attacked once (by Black’s queen). You
want to attack it more times than it is de-
fended; but how? With Re1-c1—moving the
rook that just gave check to put more pressure
on the pinned piece.
It would be easy to overlook Rc1 by staring at
the board, because you might forget that by
the time White moves his king Black’s rook
now would be at the other end of the board
and ready for action on the first rank. When
you imagine a move during a sequence, be
scrupulous in seeing it vacated from its old
square and on the new one—and in consider-
ing what new powers it would have once
those moves have been made.
Note that when you are trying to build pres-
sure against White’s rook, one answer would
seem to be Na6. It doesn’t work, because
White can reply Qc8+ (remember: Black no
longer would have a rook at e8). Black then
has to fend off the check by playing QxQ, to
which White replies RxQ (since the pin has
been dissolved); or Black can move his king
or interpose his rook at e8—and then White is
the one who plays QxQ, again achieving an
exchange of queens rather than losing a piece.
These aren’t problems if Black instead plays
Rc1, because then Black has two pieces bear-
ing down not only on the pinned piece but on
the position White’s queen might be tempted
to take. This takes some careful thought to
see.
The general lesson is that when you have
more than one piece that can be used to gang
up on a pinned target, don’t rush to use the
obvious one. Think about the side effects each
of your choices would have: whether moving
one rather than the other would leave some-
thing loose, or create a bad open line, or—as
here—would create more defensive options
for your opponent. Ask what his best reply
move would be after each of the moves you
are considering, and whether they would be
equally strong.
Dg561: Once again the first order of business
is to create a pin. Black scans the lines lead-
ing from White’s king and finds no useful
targets, so he considers checks he can inflict
and their consequences. He has one with his
rook and a few with his queen. The most nat-
ural queen check to consider is Qf3+, both
because it is safe and because it combines the
attack on the queen with an attack on the
loose bishop at e3. The move forces Black to
reply Bf2, as this blocks the check and also
allows the king to protect the bishop; if White
instead moves his king, he forfeits the bishop.
Dg561: Black to move
This is the difference between Qf3+ and, say,
Qf5+. It’s a study in the usefulness of seeing
loose enemy pieces.
So the bishop interposes and immediately is
pinned, and the question now is whether it can
be taken down. Both sides will rush pieces to
the scene of the pin; the question is which
way the balance of power will tip once each
side’s resources are exhausted. Black’s first
move is Rf8. Moving the rook behind the
queen effectively means that White’s bishop
is attacked twice. (It is important to realize
that one way to increase pressure against a
target often is by adding another piece behind
the one inflicting the pin.) Indeed, since the
king is the bishop’s only guardian, Black’s
threat is even greater: QxB would now be
mate.
Next question: how can White beef up the
bishop’s protection? He has two pieces left:
his queen and rook. The queen moves to b6
and again the forces are balanced; the bishop
is attacked twice and protected twice. So
Black throws yet another piece at it with Ng4,
where the knight takes the square that Black’s
queen originally occupied. White is out of
answers. He can’t get his rook into position in
time to be helpful. The bishop is attacked
more often than it is guarded, and must be
lost. Black will take it with his knight on the
next move. Okay; now backtrack a minute.
When Black played Rf8 on his second move,
he also had the option of adding to the pres-
sure by playing his rook from d8 to d2. But
this would be less favorable. The short reason
why is that Rd2 leaves Black's back rank bare,
which thus allows White to reply with check:
Rb8+. Black can block the check by interpos-
ing his knight on g8; White takes it with his
rook, and Black recaptures; and now White
has another check with Qc8 (at this point
White has to be careful not to give Black a
move he can use to play Rd1#; he has left his
own back rank bare). Things can get messy
here if the Black king tries to run, but Black's
more likely play is Qf8, blocking the check.
After White forces an exchange of queens,
Black ends up ahead the exchange—not as
good a result as we saw in the main line. Even
without working out all these details, though,
you should be able to see that on principle it's
probably better to let the d8 rook do its work
while staying on the back rank (i.e., by going
to f8 rather than d2) and not leaving the king
open to attack.
So: 1…Qf3+; 2.Bf2, Rf8; 3.Qb6, Ng4; fol-
lowed by NxB.
Dg562: Black to move
Dg562: White has just played BxNe4. Was
the move safe? The important thing to see is
that White’s bishop is now pinned to its king
(by the Black bishop on b7). White might
have thought the capture was safe because the
bishop is guarded once as well as protected
once, but let's consider the real question: how
much firepower Black can throw at the piece
and whether White can counter it. Black
would be able to play Qf5 without fear since
the bishop can’t leave its diagonal. This move
is critical because it prevents White from
playing BxB, the usual threat when a bishop
seems to be pinned by another bishop; for
now if White moves his bishop, Black plays
QxQ. By moving to f5, in other words,
Black’s queen imposes a cross-pin of the bi-
shop to its queen. This makes the bishop a
stable target for attack.
Okay, now the bishop is under attack twice
and guarded once (by its queen), with each
side trying to rally force to the scene of the
pin. White provides another defender with
Re1. Black adds another attacker with Ra8-
e8. White adds another defender with Nc3. It
looks like things are still even: the pinned
bishop is attacked three times (by Black’s
bishop, queen, and rook) and defended three
times (by White’s knight, queen, and rook).
But Black has an additional resource he can
bring into play: his rook on f8. He makes
room for it in familiar fashion, by first clear-
ing his other rook with an exchange: RxB.
After White recaptures with NxR, Black can
slide the second rook over to e8. Now the
pinned piece—changed by the exchange from
a bishop to a knight—is protected only twice
(by White’s queen and rook) and it’s still at-
tacked three times (by Black’s queen, bishop,
and other rook). Black will win a piece.
Dg563: White to move
Dg563: First things first: White has Black’s
bishop pinned with his own bishop; and as
there is no way to impose the kind of cross-
pin on it that was used in the previous posi-
tion, the target needs to be exchanged. White
plays RxB, Black replies RxR, and now
Black’s rook is pinned. It is attacked once (by
White’s bishop) and protected once (by
Black’s queen), so each side will now make a
competing show of strength. White aims a
rook at the target with Rf1; Black does the
same with Ra8-f8. White adds his queen with
Qg5. Black adds his king with Kg7. Notice
that by moving his king, Black has caused his
bishop on g6 to become pinned. That means
White now could add another attacker to the
pinned rook with Nh5+ and Black would be
unable to capture. But White has a better idea.
He does not rally any more pieces; he initiates
hostilities with RxR. Black replies RxR.
White plays BxR+, and Black replies QxB.
Now—with Black's queen moved onto f6—
White plays Nh5+, forking Black’s king and
queen and taking the queen a move later. Ob-
serve how the moves Black made to defend
the pinned piece—moving his king, and then
capturing with his queen during the series of
exchanges White triggered—left him vulner-
able. Black would have been better off leav-
ing his king out of the action and accepting
the loss of the pinned piece.
Sometimes the pressure on a pinned piece is
not just a function of the number of pieces
aimed at it. You need also to account for what
your pieces would be able to do after the
smoke clears from the exchanges that are
poised to be set in motion. Being forced to
move your pieces all over the board (in reply
to a pin or for any other reason) is dangerous,
because they may end up in positions where
other things can be done to them—as Black's
king did here. From a defensive standpoint
the lesson is to be careful when you swing
pieces into position to protect a pinned col-
league. You want to make sure there aren’t
untoward side effects of your moves, such as
inadvertently subjecting them to fresh pins or
arranging them to be forked.
Dg564: White to move
Dg564: Here is a little study in failure. See
Black’s pieces lined up on the long diagonal
and you naturally consider Qa1; this position
is similar to one we saw very early in our
study of basic pins. At first it looks like the
result is a relative pin of Black’s rook to his
knight, as the knight is loose. But Black can
both move the rook out of the way and add its
protection to the knight with Rd6. That’s not a
reason to give up; the knight still remains
pinned, this time to its king, so the position
has turned into a new challenge: since the
knight is then attacked once and guarded
once, consider whether you can throw another
attacker at it. All you have for the purpose are
pawns, so imagine marching them forward
and what countermeasures Black would have
available. You start with g3-g4, to which
Black must reply f5xg4; now you have h3xg4,
planning to play g4-g5 next and then take the
knight a move later. But Black isn’t done. He
responds to h3xg4 by playing h7-h6, and now
he is ready to take your pawn when it steps
forward to g5. Black thus saves his knight,
which means White’s original idea of Qa1
doesn’t win any material after all (though it
probably remains White’s best move because
of its positional consequences).
4.2.03.
Using Checks to Separate the King from the
Target.
When you pin a piece to the enemy king, the
king not infrequently may protect the target
against capture. In that case you sometimes
can loosen the target by throwing a check at
the king to drive it away from guard duty. The
cue to look for, and to notice in each of the
next positions, is a piece not only pinned to its
king but on a square adjacent to it.
Dg565: In this first example White again
starts with a pin, this time of Black’s knight
on f6. Count the attackers and defenders of
the pinned piece. There are two of each, so
the knight seems safe; but it isn’t. The pinned
piece is adjacent to its king and receives im-
portant protection from it—a type of protec-
tion that tends to be unstable. To exploit the
situation White just needs to get a piece with-
in harassment range of Black's king.

Dg565: White to move
His rook would be ideal, but its path to the
action is blocked by White’s own knight on
the e-file. We've seen a way to deal with this,
though: clear the White knight out of the way
by letting it take the pinned piece, as with
NxN. This is a powerful move, since it not
only takes a piece but threatens the fork
NxB—which also would be a discovered
check against Black’s king. So Black must
take the knight, and the only piece he can use
for the purpose is his queen. Once Black plays
QxN, his queen has interposed its way into a
pin. It’s a shaky pin, as the Black queen is
guarded and can take White’s queen with im-
punity if given a chance to do so. But White
doesn’t give him the chance. Having cleared a
path for his rook, White brings it to bear—not
on the pinned piece, but on the piece protect-
ing it (i.e., the king). Re7+ requires Black to
move his king away from the job of guarding
his queen. (QxR obviously is out of the ques-
tion for Black; remember that a piece pinned
to its king can do no defensive work.) Black
plays his king to the back rank, and White has
QxQ on the next move.
The point: when a pinned piece is protected
by its king, a check may suffice both to re-
move its protection and to keep your oppo-
nent busy answering your moves. It’s worth
some labor—i.e., making some threats and
exchanges—to create avenues for such a
check.
Dg566: White’s queen is under attack by
Black’s queen and has no protection. The
question is what White should do about it.
Any checks you can give with your queen
have to be examined in any event, and here
White can administer check on the long di-
agonal with 1. Qe4.
Dg566: White to move
You further see that the Black king is terribly
constrained: the rook on a8 cuts off the entire
eighth rank, so it has no flight squares; it's as
if the king were stuck in the corner of the
board. This means that in reply to Qe4 Black
will have to interpose his queen at g6 to block
the check. An interposed piece is a pinned
piece. Think about how to capture it. The dif-
ficulty, common enough when a pin arises
this way, is that the king itself guards its
queen. The natural answer is another check to
drive the king away. White has a resource for
the purpose in his rook. He plays 2. Ra7+. If
Black moves his king to g8, White has 3.
QxQ+ and then uses the queen to mate on the
seventh rank a move later. If Black’s king
instead goes to h8, White still can play QxQ
(not a check) and then mate soon, after Black
exhausts a futile check or two at the other end
of the board. Or, better, White can go with 3.
Qxe5+ (holding the initiative), Qf6; 4. QxQ+,
Kg8; 5. Qg7#.
Notice that Black also can start by interposing
his knight at f5 rather than using his queen;
but then White just renews the check with
QxN and this time Black is left with no alter-
native to Qg6. The two queens then are faced
off on adjacent squares, but it makes no dif-
ference. White still plays Ra7 and play
proceeds as explained.
One final thing: On White’s second move it
might naturally have occurred to you to play
the rook check Rh8 rather than Ra7. This still
wins a queen for a rook, but it has to be con-
sidered a blunder since it blows the chance for
mate. When you need to give a check, be sure
to consider whether there is more than one
way to do it.
Dg567: This one is harder. White starts with
his rook pinning Black’s bishop. The bishop
is attacked once, by White’s rook, and
guarded once, by Black’s king. The king is a
weak guardian because if it is attacked it very
often has to move; it can’t just be protected.
The sight of Black’s king and the pinned bi-
shop flush up next to each other thus should
get you thinking about ways to loosen the
bishop by driving the king away. Here White
can use a check for the purpose: he plays
Rxg7+; Black replies KxR; and now the bi-
shop is loose, allowing RxB. But this trades a
rook for a bishop and a pawn—not a great
deal. Can it be improved?
Dg567: White to move
Yes. White precedes the above sequence with
f2-f4. Consideration of this move by White is
compulsory; you always ask whether you can
attack a pinned piece with a pawn. Here Black
would answer with Rxf4. This is interesting,
for it leaves the rook attacked once by
White’s king and protected once by Black’s
bishop—which is the pinned piece, and is
about to be lost. Now White plays Rxg7. After
Black plays KxR and White plays RxB+,
Black has to spend a move avoiding the
check; and this gives White time to take
Black’s rook with his king. It’s a classic use
of the priority of check. In effect that initial
move f2-f4, and the capture of the pawn by
Black, gave White a kicker to play at the end
of the sequence that made the whole thing
worthwhile.
This position illustrates in simple form how a
check can drag the king away from a pinned
piece that it is supposed to be guarding. The
more challenging lesson is to see the impor-
tance of considering every way of attacking
the pinned piece and the consequences that
would follow from it. At first blush f2-f4
looks futile because of Rxf4, but on closer
examination this is seen to leave the rook vul-
nerable to capture.
Dg568: White to move
Dg568 Now a still harder one. White already
has the Black bishop pinned on the eighth
rank. If he takes it with his queen, the queen
is lost to QxQ. Ne7+ is the more interesting
move, because it attacks the pinned piece and
also gives check. If Black moves his king in
reply to Ne7 (playing Kf8), he loses the bi-
shop since it is attacked twice and protected
just once. So he needs to capture White’s
knight. Could he do it with NxN? No, because
if you imagine the board with both of those
knight moves made you will see that they
would open a line from White’s bishop to
Black’s queen, allowing BxQ. (In effect,
White’s move Ne7 leaves Black’s knight
pinned to his queen.) The remaining alterna-
tive for Black is QxN, which allows QxB+—
apparently an exchange of minor pieces. But
White’s capture of the bishop also imposes a
check on Black’s king, so we must consider
the consequences. The king can’t flee to h7
because White’s bishop guards the square.
Black has no choice but to interpose his queen
on the back rank. The only way for him to do
this is with Qf8, since then the queen enjoys
protection from the king; moving the queen
instead to e8 or d8 results in QxQ#.
Now what? The point to recognize is that by
interposing in this way, Black’s queen has
pinned itself. It is attacked once and protected
once, and so seems safe; but since its only
guard is the king, Black is highly vulnerable
to a check. White has one piece left for the
purpose: he plays Bh7+. Black has no choice
but to play KxB—which leaves the queen
loose. White takes it on the next move.
Dg569: White to move
Dg569: The key thing for White to notice is
that Black’s king and queen are together on
the same diagonal with White’s queen bearing
down on them from b2. There isn’t yet a pin
because White’s knight is in the way, but the
potential is there. At first it’s not clear what
White could do with the pin, but he is familiar
with the concept of the previous positions: if
his queen pinned Black’s queen and Black’s
queen were protected just by his king, then a
check of the king—perhaps by a rook, as in
the previous position—would leave the queen
loose, and easy prey to a capture.
With that general idea hatched, the rest is a
matter of identifying obstacles and eliminat-
ing them. The problems are that (a) there is a
Black pawn on c4 blocking the c2 rook’s path
to the seventh rank; (b) if the rook were able
to reach c7, there still would be a Black pawn
on f7 that would block the rook’s path to the
king; and (c) White’s own knight blocks the
pin, as we have seen. The first problem can be
dealt with simply: the easiest way to clear an
enemy pawn is by taking something it pro-
tects, so White plays RxN, Black replies
c4xR, and our first obstacle is gone. Now
what of the Black pawn on f7 and the White
knight on d4? Pairs of problems like this
should cause you to ask whether they can be
eliminated together: move the knight to a
square the bothersome pawn protects, and
perhaps they both will end up out of the way.
Thus White plays Ne6+, which forks Black’s
rook and king and also unmasks the pin of
Black’s queen by White’s. If Black moves his
king, his queen is lost to QxQ. So Black in-
stead plays f7xN. Now all three of the ob-
stacles listed earlier have been eradicated.
White can play Rc7+, forcing Black to move
his king and leave his queen to be taken with
QxQ.
This position is a good study in the value of
seeing an idea suggested by a pattern and then
calmly removing the impediments to it one by
one. The pattern is the potential pin of a
queen adjacent to its king. The idea is to push
the king away from the queen so the queen
can be taken for free. The impediments are
the three obstructions on the needed lines. As
we see, they can be eliminated with forcing
moves that give Black no time for counter-
play. Black need not take the bait, of course;
he does not have to recapture after White's
initial RxN. White gains in any event.
4.2.04.
The Cross Pin.
We have seen that a bishop can't be effective
in pinning another bishop. The most common
way to deal with this problem is by exchang-
ing the pinned bishop for a better target. But
there is another way as well: it may be possi-
ble to impose a second pin—a cross-pin—
against the pinned piece, so that it can’t afford
to capture the piece that pinned it the first
time. These examples will clarify the point.
Dg570: In the frame to the left, White has
Black’s bishop pinned to his king; this type of
position generally would arise when Black
has interposed his bishop to fend off a check.
Black’s bishop has protection, so playing
BxB+ doesn’t get White anywhere, and
meanwhile Black threatens to win a piece by
playing BxB himself next move. White can't
exchange the bishop for a better target, but he
does have the possibility of a cross-pin.

Dg570: White to move
The point to see is that Black’s bishop is on
the same diagonal with its queen as well as its
king. White takes advantage of this with Qh7.
Now the bishop is pinned twice, and both pins
are doing important work: the bishop can’t
take the queen because then his king would be
exposed; he can’t take White’s bishop be-
cause then White would play QxQ. Nor, of
course, can the bishop run someplace safe. It's
attacked twice and protected just once, so it is
lost next move to BxB.
Dg571: Here's the current principle in less
intuitive form. Black starts with a pin of
White’s bishop by his own. Black’s bishop is
loose, so he has to worry about White playing
BxB next move; but since his bishop does pin
White’s at least for the moment, perhaps
Black can take advantage with a cross-pin.
Structurally it’s about the same as the pre-
vious example, though this time it's a little
harder to see because the winning move, Qe2,
requires Black’s queen to get behind White’s
bishop.
Dg571: Black to move
Still, you wouldn’t miss it if you were careful
to look at all the lines leading away from the
pinned bishop, and then likewise careful to
check whether any of your pieces can get on
the opposite side of the bishop from its queen.
What will White play in reply? You might
reasonably worry about QxBa3. But remem-
ber that when you have a cross-pin like this,
either of your pinning pieces can capture the
pinned piece and give check at the same time.
That’s important because checks seize the
initiative from your opponent. If White does
play QxBa3, Black thus has QxB+. White is
forced to play Ka1; and with Black’s queen
and bishop now lined up, Qb1# then is mate.
Dg572: Black to move
Dg572: A rook has as much trouble pinning
an enemy rook as a bishop has pinning an
enemy bishop—unless, that is, the enemy
rook is pinned twice. Here White’s rook is
pinned by Black’s. The White rook looks safe
enough because it has protection from its
queen, but this protection turns out to be
White's undoing; it causes Black to ask
whether the rook can be pinned to its guard as
well as to its king. He plays Qd2 and now
White’s rook is stuck on its square. Any move
it makes will expose either White’s king or
queen to capture. The rook is attacked twice
and protected once, so Black will be able to
bring it down next move with RxR+.
Your only worry is that White might be able
to disrupt all this by replying to Black's Qd2
with Qd8+. We've seen this general risk be-
fore: a problem with pinning something to
your opponent's queen is that the queen may
be able to make a threat or capture that wrests
away the initiative. In this case Qd8+ would
force Black to move his king; and if White’s
queen could safely keep the king on the run, it
could unpin the rook on d3—and thus allow it
to play RxR, since the rook at b3 would have
been left loose. But once Black replies to
Qd8+ with Kh7, White is out of options.
Dg573: Black to move
Dg573: Black pins White’s bishop to his king
with the rook on g8. But the bishop is guarded
twice (by White’s rook and queen—not by the
f2 pawn, which is pinned) as well as attacked
twice, so it’s hard to see how Black can ex-
ploit the situation. Part of the answer will be
familiar from our earlier work: Black can
bring another rook to bear on the pinned tar-
get by using his first rook to capture; he plays
RxB+, White replies RxR, and now Black has
caused White to expend one of his guards
while making room to bring another attacker
into play with Rg8. The pinned piece has been
turned into a rook that is attacked twice and
protected only once.
The only apparent hitch is that Black’s rook is
pinning White’s rook along the g-file, which
seems to invite White to break out of the pin
with RxR. He can’t, though, because the rook
on g3 is cross-pinned: if it moves up the file,
Black plays QxQ. The potential for this
second pin of the rook was in place from the
beginning. It just was blocked by the presence
of White’s rook between the pinned bishop
and its queen. By playing 1. ...RxB, Black
forced White into the cross-pin. White will
lose a piece. (Actually there are some compli-
cations that can now arise, but they all involve
losses for White and are beyond the scope of
this study. White might try f5-f6+; Black can
play Nxf6, inviting QxN+ from White and
then recapturing KxQ. White has RxR, and
the result is that Black has a queen against
White’s rook.) The lesson to take away is just
that a cross-pin sometimes can be created
using the same logic and techniques used to
create initial pins—here, by consolidating
three enemy pieces into two with a capture.
Dg574: White to move
Dg574: White’s queen pins Black’s queen—
sort of. The Black queen is free to move along
its diagonal, and to play QxQ; it just can’t
move off the diagonal. Since the target is pro-
tected once and guarded once, the pin does
not yet appear to be effective. But White can
change that by throwing another attacker at
the pinned piece with Rd1: a cross-pin. Yes,
Black still can play QxQ; but this has become
costly because now White has the reply
RxR+—and then, after Black moves his king
out of check, White still has the recapture
b3xQ (using the priority of check to gain ma-
terial).
The key to seeing the solution here is to no-
tice, first, that the pinned piece is aligned both
with its king and with another piece that
makes a good target; and secondly that the
loose piece that is the second target is aligned
with its king. This means that capturing it will
create a check, which in essence gives White
a free move as Black has to spend his time on
evasive maneuvers. The free move is critical
because Black's initial QxQ is so costly; the
sequence only works for White if he can
avenge it and pick up the rook on d8.
Dg575: The pattern here is similar to the pre-
vious one but with an important difference.
Again White’s queen pins Black’s, and again
White can add a cross-pin by moving his rook
onto the enemy queen's file: Re1-c1. Notice
two things.
Dg575: White to move
First, White’s queen enjoys no protection;
Black can play QxQ without worrying about
having his queen recaptured. Second, the rea-
son White is comfortable allowing this is that
if Black plays QxQ he is threatened with
worse than RxR; he is threatened with RxR#
(mate). Since White’s other rook seals off the
seventh rank, Black’s king has very little mo-
bility and is vulnerable along the back rank.
The basic idea of throwing another piece at
the queen, and pinning it to a secondary tar-
get, is unchanged; but the power of the cross-
pin is much greater here.
We saw earlier that a piece pinning the queen
normally requires protection. This position
shows an exception to the principle: if you
can add a cross-pin against the queen it may
become too costly for your opponent to use it
to attack the piece inflicting the original pin.
Dg576: White to move
Dg576: Black has just interposed his queen
between his king and White’s queen. White
momentarily has Black’s queen pinned, but he
will have to act fast to make anything of it;
Black is ready to play QxQ, and even if White
guards his queen (say, with Rc1) the resulting
exchange will wipe out the pin and any poten-
tial it held. When your queen pins your oppo-
nent’s this way, a first thought should be to
aim another piece at (and through) the pinned
queen, so that QxQ becomes more costly for
your opponent to play. The natural method
here would be to move the rook over with
Rb1. This might not look like much, since it
just positions the rook to attack the pawn on
b7 if Black moves his queen; but of course the
real significance of the threat is that it targets
the b7 square, which is adjacent to Black’s
king and already attacked by White’s knight.
So if Black plays QxQ he suffers not just
Rxb7+ but Rxb7# (mate). It's our now-
familiar concept: Rb1 cross-pins Black’s
queen to a mating square.
Black can avoid immediate doom by replying
to Rb1 with Nd7, which protects his queen
and gives his king a flight square. But then
White plays Qf5, preparing to take Black’s
knight on its new square. It's a little surprising
to see White move his queen away, but this
turns out to be surprisingly effective. First,
notice that White really doesn't need his
queen on c5 to pin the Black queen anymore.
White's rook has the situation under control: if
Black moves his queen, Rxb7+ follows for
White, with the knight on a5 giving cover;
and then Black either loses the queen or gets
mated. But if Black doesn't move the queen
and lets White play QxN he also has to worry
about White's queen then adding to the mating
attack against b7. And meanwhile from f5 the
queen protects the b1 rook against QxR+ by
Black. All Black can do in reply to Qf5 is
guard his knight with Rd8 and permit White
to play RxQ. It avoids the immediate threat of
mate, but after Black recaptures, White has
won a queen for a rook.
Dg577: Again we find Black’s king and
queen adjacent on the same diagonal with
White’s queen pinning Black’s. White’s win-
dow of opportunity is small: he has one move
to take offensive measures against Black’s
queen or defensive measures to protect his
own. Think offensively first.

Dg577: White to move
With one queen pinning another on a diagon-
al, a cross-pin against the target will have to
be along a rank or file, which means it will
have to be imposed by a rook. Does White
have a way to bring a rook to bear against the
pinned queen? Indeed: he already has a rook
on the d-file. The only trouble is that White’s
own bishop is in the way; this is a case where
the cross-pin can be created not by moving a
piece into position to attack but by moving a
piece out of the way of an attacker.
So where should White move the bishop?
Remember the purpose of the exercise: we’re
trying to make it too costly for Black to play
QxQ. Suppose the bishop is out of the picture
and Black does play QxQ; with the bishop
gone, White would then play RxR+—a check,
but nothing more. It would become a familiar
mating pattern, however, if the rook’s attack
were supported by the bishop. White thus
should play Be7. This not only discovers an
attack on the queen by White’s rook, but also
prepares the way (if Black plays QxQ) for
RxR#. Black therefore can’t move his queen;
the best he can do is NxB. White then has
RxQ, winning the queen for a bishop and a
rook.
Moving the bishop to e7 is a little counterin-
tuitive because it looks like it can be taken so
easily with QxB. Of course it can’t, since
Black’s queen is pinned, but what the eye sees
is that retreating the bishop to c5 or b4 looks
safer and more appealing. To discipline your-
self to consider possibilities such as Be7 it
helps to very deliberately look at moves that
put your pieces en prise to (exposed to cap-
ture by) the pinned piece. Such moves are
easy for your opponent as well as for you to
overlook.
Dg578: White to move
Dg578: Essentially the same concept, but a
move earlier. As yet there is no pin in place.
White’s thinking might be stimulated by the
presence of his bishop and rook on the same
file leading toward e8—almost a mating pat-
tern, but Black’s queen is in the way. Another
approach to the position is to just consider
every check and its consequences. White has
Qa3+. To this suppose Black replies Qe7,
interposing his queen and walking it into a
pin. Now Black threatens QxQ, so what is
White to do? Again, take the offensive by
adding a vertical pin: here as in the previous
case the rook is brought into the fray by simp-
ly moving the bishop on e4 out of the way,
and here as before the best placement for the
bishop is determined by the demands of the
cross-pin White wants to achieve. The point is
to imagine Black playing QxQ and to place
the bishop so that it has the maximum possi-
ble usefulness afterwards. That means Bc6 is
best, because then after Black if QxQ White
will have RxB#, just as he had a similar mate
in the previous position.
We have been assuming Black would inter-
pose his queen in reply to White’s Qa3. Now
we can see that would be a blunder; his better
option would be to remove his king to g8. But
then you should see another pattern: a classic
discovered attack via Bxh7+, followed a
move later by RxQ—the start of a winning
sequence for White, though not so devastating
as if Black had played Qe7. Hence the impor-
tance of seeing the kernel of the discovery on
the e-file from the very beginning: however it
gets used, the potential for it dominates all the
variations that might follow from White’s
check.
Dg579: A case where the critical pattern takes
yet a little longer to come into view. Black’s
king and queen are adjacent but can’t now be
pinned effectively: they are on a diagonal, so
the only White piece usable to impose a pin
would be the queen; and the queen has noth-
ing it can do here. You generally don’t pin
one queen with another by attacking it, be-
cause then your opponent just plays QxQ.
Dg579: White to move
To create a pin of one queen by another you
usually need to check the enemy king with
your queen and force the enemy queen to in-
terpose.
All right, so play with some checks. White
has two to consider: QxR, which just loses the
queen, and Rxc5, which at least is safe; so
consider what follows from it. Black moves
his king to b8. Now what? Look for your next
check. White’s queen can attack the king in a
new way by moving to e5. (Of course when
you imagine this sequence you have to re-
member that White’s first rook move leaves
e5 vacant.) Now Black is forced to interpose
his queen on d6, and you see the emergence
of the pattern we have been considering late-
ly: Black has put his king and queen on the
same diagonal, with his queen pinned by
yours. What do you do? By now you know:
consider throwing a rook at it—and remember
that you have more than one. Thus the right
move is Rf1-d1. Test it by asking what this
would make possible if Black were to play
QxQ. White’s response would be RxR#; in
other words, Black’s queen is cross-pinned to
a mating square, and so is lost.
4.2.05.
Other Ways to Constrain the Pinned Queen.
While we're on the subject of the pinned
queen, consider a few other positions where it
can't bite back against the piece that pins it.
These studies don’t involve cross-pins, but
they are similar in important respects: in each
of them you have the queen pinned; and if it
captures your pinning piece, you achieve mate
or some other decisive gain.
Dg580: White to move
Dg580: The most salient facts of the position
pictured here are two: the alignment of
Black’s king and queen with nothing between
them on the g-file, creating the kernel of a
pin; and the coordination of White’s queen
and d7 rook, both trained on f7 and almost
able to deliver mate with Qxf7. (Anytime
your queen can land on a square next to the
enemy king and get backup from one of your
other pieces, you have a threat worth explor-
ing.) A pin against Black’s queen would need
to be delivered vertically by White’s queen
(which can’t get there) or his d4 rook (much
better anyway as a pinning tool, of course,
because it’s cheaper). A piece that tries to pin
the queen usually needs protection, and the
rook would find none on g4. But it sometimes
is the case that a queen pinned to its king is
performing important defensive functions that
constrain its ability to lash out at a piece that
pins it. That is so here: imagine Black playing
QxRg4 and see that Qxf7 would have a new
significance, attacking the king not only with
protection but without any Black guards to
worry about. Black’s king would have noth-
ing to do but move to h8. White then would
have a crushing queen-and-rook battery on
the seventh rank, allowing him to play Qxh7#.
So Black’s queen wouldn't be free to take the
rook that pins it after all, and Rg4 therefore
wins.
Dg581: White to move
Dg581: You can see where this is going.
Black has his king and queen on adjacent di-
agonal squares; White looks for a pin and
finds it with Bd4. It looks perfect because the
bishop gets protection from the rook on d1.
But this position illustrates a risk to consider
when building a pin: your opponent may be
able to interpose something between the pin-
ning and pinned pieces. In this case Black will
play e6-e5. Now what? One option is simply
to take the pawn with Bxe5, renewing the pin
on the queen. The problem is that White’s
bishop would then lose its protection from the
rook.
Still, don’t assume the idea must therefore be
a failure. Imagine Black actually playing
QxB; ask what would then be possible for
White, especially by way of an attack on
Black’s king. Really White has just one piece
usable for that purpose: his own queen, which
he can play to...h6! Fortunately that’s enough;
Qh6 is mate because the Black king’s position
is so constrained. (A king stuck in the corner
with no pawn cover is at great risk.)
So it turns out that Black’s queen is not free
to take the bishop that pins it, and that Bd4,
followed by Bxe5, is a winning sequence for
White. The general point is that when you
have a possible pin, don't lightly dismiss the
idea just because your pinning piece could be
taken. Pause to ask what would be possible on
the board as it then would look, asking the
same questions about that resulting position
(looking for possible checks, forks and the
like) that you ask about the board in front of
you.
Dg582: Black to move
Dg582: This time it's Black who sees that
White has left his king and queen adjacent on
a diagonal. He looks for a pinning tool and
finds it in the dark-squared bishop, which he
can play to g5. What will White do? He might
play QxB, but his more immediate defense is
the same as in the previous position: f2-f4,
interposing a pawn and disturbing the pin.
Black follows the continuation in his mind—
Bxf4, then White plays QxB. It looks bad, but
before writing off the idea consider the con-
sequences of White’s feared move. Ask in
particular what pieces Black can direct at
White’s king, and with what result, once the
queen leaves its station. Here the answer is
that Black has a battery of queen and rook on
the b-file. It’s another case like the one a
moment ago where your queen can land near
the enemy king, and with protection; and it’s
another case where the move results in mate,
this time on the spot with Qxb2. So again the
pin of the queen (this time with Bg5) works
fine despite the fact that the pinning piece has
no defenders.
The general lesson of these positions resem-
bles a point from the section on knight forks:
if you have a pin (or fork), but it looks un-
playable because the piece you would use to
execute it can be taken, ask what the conse-
quences of such a capture would be and espe-
cially what checks would then become possi-
ble for you. A potential fork or pin is a type of
forcing move that often costs your opponent
material if he doesn’t capture the piece mak-
ing the threat. Forcing him to make that cap-
ture means you're controlling the movement
of the pieces on the board, which in turn is the
key to creating tactical strikes or all sorts.
From time to time a failed pin can be better
that a successful one, as this position shows.
Dg583: White to move
Dg583: You see Black’s king and queen adja-
cent on the same diagonal and so immediately
think about pinning possibilities. The only
piece White has available for the purpose is
his queen, which he can play to a3. Obviously
Black can just reply QxQ; the question is
what would then become possible for White.
Imagine the board as it would look after that
little sequence and you see three White pieces
trained on the Black king’s general position:
the bishop on b5, the rook on d1, and the
knight on e4. Since White by assumption
would be losing the queen, the question had
better be whether he can use those pieces to
mate afterwards. Think in checks. White
would have just one: Rd8+. To this Black
would have to respond Ke7. Now notice that
Black’s king would be trapped on the seventh
rank: White’s rook would seal off the eighth
rank, and his knight would seal off the king’s
only flight squares on the sixth. So now what?
White plays the simple Re8#, a variation on
the standard mating pattern where the rook
mates with help from the bishop, which pro-
tects it and seals off critical flight squares.
The point of all this is that White can attack
Black’s queen without fear that Black will
play QxQ, for Black's queen is frozen in place
by the mate threat. Black will have to reply to
the pin by playing g7-g6 to create an escape
route for his king. White’s task then is to go
to work destroying the pinned queen’s de-
fenders—the king and the knight on g8—so
that the pin is made profitable. First White
uses Rd8+, forcing Black’s king away to g7.
Then he plays RxN+, which loses the rook for
a knight (after Black plays RxR) but destroys
the last of the Black queen’s defenders. No-
tice that although the pin of Black’s queen
was dissolved back when the king moved
away from f8, since White has operated with
checks Black has had no time to play QxQ.
Now the Black queen has been left loose, so
White takes it with his.
Once you realize how much work is being
done here by the threat White’s rook creates
on the d file, a different idea may occur to
you: Black can disrupt White’s plans by rep-
lying to Qa3 with Bd7, blocking the White
rook’s path. It looks good because White
can’t afford to play RxB; that would permit
Black to play QxQ without worrying about
the mate threat discussed a moment ago. (Do
you see why? If White then tries Rd8+, he
loses the rook to RxR; when Black moved his
bishop to d7, he freed his rook on a8 to pro-
tect the back rank.) But White has a different
winning sequence instead. He plays QxQ,
allowing the recapture NxQ—and then he has
BxBd7, as Black’s bishop is left loose. If
Black recaptures the queen with his king ra-
ther than his knight, White plays RxB+ in-
stead; Black’s king can’t recapture because
White's rook has protection from his bishop.
 Other Patterns and Applications.
4.3.01.
Pinning a Piece to Take Its Protectorate.
Our discussion of pins has been focused on
how they can be used to capture the pinned
piece. But there is another whole family of
uses for a pin, equally useful and important:
by pinning a piece you also render it unable to
serve any defensive purpose; any pieces it
formerly guarded are left unprotected or less
protected. A pin thus may enable you to take
material other than the pinned piece (or
pinned pawn), or to gain access to squares
that can lead to checkmate.
Dg584: White to move
Dg584: In the simple position we start with to
the left, White’s queen is under attack by
Black’s bishop from c8. Resist the temptation
to think defensively; if possible you don't
want to spend your time backing away from
Black’s threats. There are two ways to instead
see an offensive idea here. One is to examine
any captures you can make and to inquire into
the protection enjoyed by their targets. Here
the most obviously contested square is f6;
Black’s knight there is attacked twice, by
White’s queen and by the rook behind it on
f3. The knight appears to be guarded twice—
but isn't: since its fellow knight on g8 is
pinned, the f6 knight is protected only by its
queen on b2. As the target is attacked more
times than it is defended, White wins it: 1.
…QxN+; 2. QxQ, RxQ.
The other way to see the idea would be to
follow out the lines from Black’s king and
observe what might be obvious enough any-
way if you were playing this position: Black’s
knight on g8 is pinned. You immediately fol-
low up with a look not only at whether the
knight can be taken but at what it is supposed
to protect. Here you see that the pin of the
knight leaves Black’s other knight attacked
twice and really protected only once.
Dg585: Black to move
Dg585: Starting from White’s king and work-
ing outward, you find a pin of the bishop on
d3. One question to ask is whether you can
take it; another, however, is what it is sup-
posed to be protecting that might now be vul-
nerable because of the bishop’s paralysis.
Here the bishop helps protect the pawns on c4
and e4. The pawn of interest is the one on c4,
as Black already attacks it twice. Because of
the pin on the bishop, the pawn is protected
only once. Black can take it next move.
Dg586: Black has just played his bishop to c5,
where it checks White’s king. White consid-
ers his options: capture the bishop with his
queen (out of the question since the bishop
has protection); move the king to h1 (plausi-
ble); or interpose something between his king
and Black’s bishop. What interpositions does
he have? Bd4 would seem to work; the bishop
would have protection from the queen on c4.
Any problem with this?

Dg586: White to move
Yes; when you interpose a piece to block a
check, remember that this causes the interpos-
ing piece to become pinned. Any defensive
purpose it had been serving is no longer being
served; any pieces it was protecting may no
longer be protected. So before interposing the
bishop White must ask whether bishop is sup-
posed to be protecting anything. It is: the
knight on e5, which will be lost to QxN if the
bishop is paralyzed. So Bd4 is the wrong
move for White; he should move his king.
Dg587: Black to move
Dg587: Now an example of how the pattern
just viewed can emerge from a forcing se-
quence. This time the queens are faced off
against each other. A natural question to ask
is what it would take to enable you—Black—
to play QxQ. White’s queen is guarded by the
knight on f2. Black could simply take the
knight with his bishop, but this wouldn’t get
anywhere; White would reply QxQ, and then
after Black recaptures White would have KxB
and the sequence would be a wash. But the
bishop aimed at White’s knight has another
significance. There are ways of eliminating an
obstacle besides capturing or chasing it; per-
haps it can be pinned if its king can be
brought into line with it. Or just inspect the
consequences of any checks you give. Either
train of thought leads you to Re1+. White’s
reply is forced: KxR. Suddenly the knight on
f2 is pinned, and therefore incapable of doing
any defensive work. Black has QxQ.
Pins meant to capture the pinned piece—the
sorts of pins studied before this section—can
be brought into existence in many different
ways, as we saw; often you can just slide your
pinning piece into place to create the pin and
then start throwing attackers at the target. But
that method usually won't work if your goal
instead is to take something the pinned piece
protects. The reason is that once you impose
the pin your opponent still remains free to
move the target—i.e., the piece protected by
the piece you have pinned. There are excep-
tions, but usually if you want to pin a piece to
take something it guards you must bring the
pin into existence with forcing moves that
allow you to keep the initiative and don’t give
your opponent time to move the target. The
classic means of doing this is with a check—
often a check sacrifice—that forces your op-
ponent to move his king into line with one of
its fellow pieces. In effect you have caused
him to create the pin for you, and now it is
your move again; anything the pinned piece
used to protect suddenly is loose, and you can
grab it. This case introduces the point.
Dg588: White to move
Dg588: Black has just moved his queen out
where it can attack White’s queen. White’s
queen is loose; Black’s queen has protection.
White can move his queen, protect it, or play
QxQ, but it would be rash to do any of these
things too quickly. Think more aggressively,
considering how Black’s queen is protected
and whether anything can be done to under-
mine its security. What you should see is not
just that the queen is guarded by its knight,
but that the knight is attacked by White’s bi-
shop. BxN won’t work, as it is met with QxQ.
The significance of the bishop, rather, is that
it also is aimed through the knight at a square
adjacent to Black’s king. If the king could be
moved over, the knight would be pinned—
and then it might as well not exist so far as the
Black queen is concerned. How to move the
king over? With a check (and sacrifice):
Rd8+. Black is required to play KxR (or
Ke7), which brings the king into line with the
knight and suddenly leaves Black’s queen
without a defender. Now White plays QxQ
and wins the queen without a recapture.
(Black could not reply to Rd8+ with NxR, of
course, because his c6 knight is pinned.)
Now of course another way to see the idea
here is to experiment with the consequences
of any checks you can give. White only has
two, and one of them is Rd8+, requiring
Black’s king to move. When you make the
enemy king move, ask whether any fresh pins
have appeared; here this leads you to the f6
knight, and you ask not only whether you can
take the knight but whether its paralysis has
consequences for anything it is supposed to
protect—like Black’s queen.
This position is an example of the point made
in the previous frame regarding forcing
moves. Suppose Black’s king already were on
d8 (because White played Rd8 a move earli-
er), and White’s bishop were on, say, e3. If
the bishop went to g5 to pin the Black queen’s
guard, nothing would come of it; it wouldn’t
be a forcing move, so Black would be free to
move his queen to safety—or, here, to play
QxQ. But using a check sacrifice dictates
Black’s move in reply and leaves him no time
to prevent White from playing QxQ once the
knight is pinned by Black’s own hand.
For the sake of completeness notice that
White has another good pinning possibility
here, too: 1. QxQ, NxQ; 2. Re1—and now
White’s rook pins the knight on e4. Black can
rush a defender to the knight’s side with Bf5,
but then White can add another attacker with
f2-f3. The knight will be lost. But it’s even
better to win a queen for a rook as you do
with the primary sequence. You might have
seen this second idea first, though, and in that
case the position shows the importance of
looking beyond the first good tactical move
you see. There may be something even better.
Dg589: Black to move
Dg589: Familiar principle, different context.
Black’s queen and White’s queen attack each
other, with each enjoying protection from one
of its fellow pieces. Don’t just think about
whether to exchange queens; think about
whether you can knock the legs out from un-
der White’s queen by paralyzing its guard. Or
just think about any checks Black can give.
He has two to consider: Qh2+, losing the
queen without benefit; and Bxf2+, which
forks White’s king and rook and invites the
reply KxB. What would be the significance of
that exchange? When a move would force the
enemy king to change squares, look for fresh
pins. Here White’s king would step behind
the knight on f3, causing it to become abrupt-
ly paralyzed by a pin from Black’s queen.
Having seen that you have a check which re-
sults in a pin, ask not just whether the pinned
piece can then be taken but whether it was
serving defensive purposes that might now be
unattended. The knight was guarding White’s
queen, so now Black takes it with QxQ.
Shouldn’t Black worry that moving his queen
to play that capture also will release White’s
knight from its pin? Yes, he should worry
about it; but Black’s rook on f7 picks up the
pin once the queen leaves the file.
Dg590: The current point one more time in a
slightly different visual setting. (Its inclusion
here may be tedious; your patience with it
will be rewarded in the next frame, however,
which usefully shows how it came into exis-
tence.)
Dg590: White to move
White’s queen pins Black’s queen, but can’t
capture it profitably because it is protected by
the knight on e7. If White plays BxN, Black
plays the usual QxQ. As before, White can
steal Black’s queen if he can use forcing
moves to create a pin of its defender. Again
he plays Rd8+; again Black plays KxR; again
White now plays QxQ with impunity.
Dg591: White to move
Dg591: Here’s the same position slightly ear-
lier so you can see how it was created. White
has nothing at the moment, so he plays with
any checks he can inflict. He has two: Rd8+
and Qa4+. Rd8+ loses the rook, though it
moves the king over and causes Black’s
knight to become pinned—a good thing to
see, but not yet useful. Qa4+ loses nothing,
and so is of particular interest. Carefully con-
sider Black’s possible replies: any ways he
can interpose something between his king and
White’s queen, move his king out of check, or
capture White’s queen. Here Black’s options
are three:
(a) Black can move his king to f8. White asks
what checks he then would have, and sees
Bh6. This drives the king on to g8. White asks
what checks he then would have, and sees
Qe8#. Conclusion: if Black initially replies
Kf8, White mates.
(b) Black can interpose his knight on c6.
When you imagine an enemy piece moving,
always keep an eye on how this affects any
lines it used to occupy. Here the knight’s de-
parture from e7 would vacate the path of
White’s bishop to d8—a square adjacent to
Black’s king and already attacked by White
rook. White would be about ready to play
Rd8#; the only hindrance would be Black’s
queen. But it can be drawn out of position if
White plays QxN+: for then if Black replies
QxQ, White mates with the rook.
(c) Black’s final possibility is to interpose his
queen at c6. Now analysis proceeds as in the
previous frame, with White again looking
always for his next check and this time find-
ing Rd8+.
It is worth going over these variations until
each of them—and the process of thinking all
of them through—is clear.
Dg592: White to move
Dg592: Look for capturing opportunities for
White and you see RxR, but Black’s rook has
protection. So turn your attention to the piece
that guards the rook—the bishop on f5. You
can’t capture it, and it protects nothing else
you can capture. You might consider chasing
it away with g3-g4, but then Black simply
plays RxR himself; after you recapture BxR,
he moves his bishop to e6 and has lost noth-
ing. The position comes apart promptly, how-
ever, once you notice that the f5 bishop is
aligned with its king and thus is pinnable. Bg4
does the trick for White. A bishop pinning a
bishop can be awkward, of course, but not
when the pinned bishop is supposed to be
protecting a more valuable piece. Suddenly it
is paralyzed and does no defensive work. If
Black plays BxB (his best move), White has
RxR and wins the exchange. If Black instead
plays RxR, White doesn't recapture BxR—
yet. First he plays BxB+, using the priority of
check to gain a move. Black has to move his
king, and then White still has BxR waiting for
him.
Dg593: White to move
Dg593: Examine every check. White has two
with his queen that cause it to be lost without
creating plausible offsetting benefits. (Checks
that lose the queen usually can be dismissed
quickly unless they lead to mate or other
enormous gains.) Bh7+ requires Black to play
KxB, moving his king onto the seventh rank.
(If Black plays Kf8, White looks for his next
check and finds Qh8#.) With the king moved
to a new rank, White looks to see whether any
other Black pieces that might now find them-
selves pinned. He sees that the pawn on f7
would be paralyzed. Next he asks what the
pawn protects—or protected—and sees that
the bishop on e6 would have become loose.
So he can play QxB, winning back his bishop
and gaining a winning position with his queen
and rook both trained on the loose f7 pawn.
Again, the critical point is to study the checks
you can give and whether they cause move-
ments by the enemy king, or interpositions in
front of it, that create pins; and then to ask
whether any pins that result leave other ene-
my pieces underprotected.
Dg594: White to move
Dg594: Here is a more advanced study that
combines the pin with a discovered attack and
shows how a pin can be used to immobilize
the defender of a square you would like to
have. The d-file should be an attention-
grabber—the collection of pieces lined up
there, and the kernel of a discovery in particu-
lar (White's knight masks his queen; he would
be poised to play QxQ if the knight were out
of the way). The trouble is that if White plays,
say, Nxc6+, Black can both erase the threat to
his king and move his queen out of trouble
with QxN. It would be different if the pawn
on d6 were out of the way, for then Nxc6
would create a pin as well as a discovered
attack and prevent the queen from doing any
defensive work. This is the value of studying
the whole d-file, not just individual pieces in
isolation: you then see that Black has his king
at one end of it, and this suggests the possibil-
ity of the pin.
So how can the d6 pawn be removed? The
first thought when an enemy pawn needs to
be moved is to take something it protects, of
course, but here it protects nothing—no piec-
es, at any rate. There remains a second me-
thod for White to consider, though, which
consists of putting a piece en prise to the
pawn and inviting it to capture. This naturally
is most effective where the piece imposes a
threat at the same time. White thus plays Re5,
sticking his rook next to Black’s queen and
threatening to capture it. If Black plays d6xR,
White’s discovered attack—Nxc6—now
works because of the pin. Black then has no
choice but to move his king, after which
White has QxQ. Black can also reply to Re5
with QxR; but then you examine the resulting
board and see that Nxc6+ still works, not as a
discovered attack but as a knight fork. White
has NxQ a move later, and after the recapture
ends up with a queen and two pawns in return
for his knight and rook. The two passed
pawns he has left on the queenside ensure Dg595: Black to move
victory.
Here the g2 pawn protects the knight on h3—
Notice that all this works only because Black or rather it's supposed to protect the knight,
has such a limited range of responses to Re5. but can't. Black takes it with QxN.
Although Black’s queen is in the middle of
the board, its position is quite cramped; there
are no safe squares it can reach once White’s
rook is on e5. But if the pawn on f7 weren’t
on the board, Black would be able to evacuate
his queen to g8 and White’s plans would be
foiled (though Nxc6+ still would win a
pawn).

A collection of pieces of the sort we see on

the d-file here often will give rise to more
than one tactical possibility, especially when
the king lies at one end of it. In this case a Dg596: Black to move
discovered attack, a pin, and a knight fork all
are among the ingredients of the winning Dg596: The cluster of pieces around White’s
idea. king seems full of potential for Black. But the
most important piece is elsewhere; it is the
4.3.02. bishop on g6, because it pins the pawn on c2.
Pinning a Pawn to Take Its Protectorate. If you are thorough in following out the lines
from the king you will not miss a long-
distance pin like this. Why is it so critical?
We have looked at cases where you pin pieces
Because now when you study the cluster
in order to take what they are supposed to
around the king you realize the c2 pawn is
protect. But the power of pins against pawns
doing no defensive work; anything it appears
for the same purpose mustn’t be overlooked,
to protect, it doesn’t. What it appears to pro-
either. Pawns serve critical defensive purpos-
tect is the pawn on b3, which is attacked
es; they make ideal guards for pieces. If you
twice (by White’s a4 pawn and his rook on
can pin a pawn you thus may be able to leave
c3) and in reality is defended just once (by
an enemy piece exposed to capture.
White’s bishop). Black therefore is free to
play a4xb3; and if White replies Bxb3, Black
Dg595: To the top is a simple example. Black
wins the bishop with RxB+. White cannot
scans the lines out from White’s king and
recapture and will suffer more losses soon.
finds a pin of the g2 pawn already in place.
(Slightly better for White after Black’s initial
The automatic question is what the pawn ap-
capture would have been Ka1, but it’s still a
pears to protect—what pieces, what squares—
lost position; Black then plays Bb4, unmask-
and how you might take advantage of its para-
ing a rook pin of White’s bishop on a2 and
lysis.
preparing a discovered attack against the
White rook on d2 and—behind it—the other
rook on e1: e.g., Rc3-c8.)
Dg597: White to move
Dg597: As White you might be thinking here
about your two rooks and how to coordinate
them; there almost is a back rank mate with
Re8+, but Black’s rook on a8 prevents it.
Meanwhile your bishop on g2 might seem an
afterthought, serving a largely defensive pur-
pose since it is not aimed toward Black’s
king. But in fact the bishop plays a useful
offensive role, as often is the case when it is
fianchettoed (sitting on g2 or a comparable
square)—and especially when the center has
been cleared. The bishop is pinning the pawn
on b7 to the loose rook behind it. This is not
beneath your notice, for it means that the
pawn is incapacitated and protects nothing. So
look at what it ostensibly protects: the pawn
on a6. White can take it with Rxa6. If Black
replies b7xR, he loses his rook; if he replies
RxR, this would permit immediate checkmate
by White with Re8#. So the original Rxa6
wins White a pawn.
Dg598: Black to move
Dg598: Black’s queen is pinned by White’s
bishop on c4. Black can’t play QxB because
the bishop has protection from the pawn be-
hind it. This is a desperate situation, so think
hard about what resources Black has availa-
ble. First, his bishop on e4 pins the c2 pawn.
This is important: it means the pawn, despite
appearances, is defensively inert. If it weren’t
there (in a sense it isn’t there), what would
Black do? He would eliminate the bishop’s
defender with check via Rxb3+. (Of course
you might reach idea as well by just examin-
ing every check you can give.) Since White
would be in check he would have no time to
play BxQ; and since the pin of his pawn
would prevent him from playing c2xb3, he
would have to try something else to defuse
the threat to his king—e.g., BxR or Ka1. Ei-
ther way White’s bishop is left unguarded, so
now Black can play QxB after all. It's true
that if White chooses BxR, Black loses the
rook; but in addition to having saved his
queen he ends up with a forced if longish
mate. (His queen, bishop and pawns close in
for the kill in six moves.)
Dg599: Black to move
Dg599: White has just played h2-h3, threaten-
ing to take Black’s bishop. What is Black to
do? He could retreat the bishop, but around
here we don't play defense before looking at
offense. White’s position looks impregnable
but has a subtle weakness: follow the lines
from White’s king and you see that the pawn
on f2 is pinned. That means it can't guard any-
thing; in particular it means White’s knight on
g3 is loose. Instead of retreating his bishop,
Black thus can play NxN and let his g4 bishop
get taken. Why is this better than retreat? Be-
cause after NxN Black’s knight attacks
White’s rook. If White moves the rook, Black
moves his bishop and has won a piece clean-
ly. If White takes Black’s bishop, Black pays
NxR and wins the exchange after White re-
captures. It’s another study in how the pawns
in front of a king usefully can be pinned, leav-
ing pieces on the third rank open to capture.
Dg600: White to move
Dg600: Here White has three checks with his
queen that result in its uncompensated loss;
but he also has Bh5+, which is safe and inter-
esting: it requires Black to move his king over
to d8. When you see a move that will force
the king to change squares, ask whether any-
thing will be pinned to it in its new position.
A cursory scans reveals that the pawn on d7
will be pinned. Next step: ask whether the
pawn is supposed to protect anything that
might now be vulnerable. Answer: Black’s
queen on c6 is loose. There is a complication,
though, because the only piece White can use
to take Black’s queen is his own queen, which
also would be the piece imposing the pin;
once White plays QxQ, will the pin of the d7
pawn still be effective? Yes, because the rook
behind the queen takes over the pin once the
queen moves.
The idea here, though only one move away, is
not easy to see at the start. It promptly be-
comes visible when you play with checks and
their consequences.
Dg601: Again there are a few ways to find the
idea here. First trace out the lines from
Black’s king. On the f-file you see a Black
pawn, Black queen, White bishop, and White
rook. The White rook is most significant be-
cause it drives up the file and has the power to
exert a pin. Of course it doesn’t do that now;
the possibility is there, though, because of the
structure of the file. What would it take to
realize that potential? Well, two of the pieces
in the way can be eliminated together:
Dg601: White to move
if White plays BxN, Black has to reply QxB
to avoid losing his queen to White’s rook via
discovered attack. Presto: now White has a
pin on the f7 pawn. Immediately you consider
what the pin was protecting. Answer: the bi-
shop on e6. Can White now play BxB? No,
not quite yet: Black’s queen, now on e5,
would be protecting it. But this can be cured
by exchanging away the guard with QxQ,
d6xQ. Now Black’s bishop is free for the tak-
ing.
The point is one we have seen before: don't
overlook possible pins because there are piec-
es cluttering the needed line. Think about
ways to clear them and ask what would then
be possible. This includes cases where the
dividend of your maneuvers is a mere pinned
pawn.
Another way to see the idea would be to ob-
serve the pressure on the e5 square occupied
by Black’s knight. It’s attacked twice (by
White’s bishop and queen) and guarded twice
(by Black’s queen and d6 pawn). When you
see an evenly guarded square like this, you
may not be able to win the piece that sits on
it; but you still have the power to control the
look of the board by initiating the series of
exchanges those attackers and defenders are
poised to make. Imagine liquidating the posi-
tion and ask the usual questions about the
resulting position. Here that means White
pictures 1. BxN, QxB, 2. QxQ, d6xQ. Those
exchanges are a wash, but when you imagine
the board as it then would look and trace out
the enemy king’s lines, you see that a pin of
the f7 pawn would have come into existence
and that it would leave Black’s bishop on e6
loose. It's worth reinforcing a few times in
your mind’s eye.
4.3.03.
Pinning a Pawn in Front of the King as an
Aid to Mate.
Pinned pawns, of course, frequently are close
to the king, providing cover for it and defend-
ing squares nearby. Paralyzing those pawns
can do more than leave pieces loose, as in the
previous studies; it can make squares availa-
ble that permit a mating attack. It thus pays to
experiment with ways of putting your pieces
en prise to any pawns pinned in the king’s
vicinity. This practice helps offset the psycho-
logical tendency to think of squares as off
limits because they appear to be protected,
when in fact their defenders are pinned and
inert. Pins of pawns in front of the king along
diagonals, sometimes from a long distance,
are especially common and worth careful
study. Those pawns often are supposed to be
stopping pieces from landing too close to the
king—but really aren't.
Dg602: Black to move
Dg602: In the position on the top, a scan of
the White king’s lines reveals a pin of the sort
just described against the pawn on b2. So look
for pieces and squares the pawn is supposed
to protect, and see that the knight on a3 effec-
tively is loose. More than that, play the cap-
ture (and check) RxN in your mind’s eye and
see that White’s king has nowhere to go; its
position is terrible, as it is backed into the
corner of the board with no flight squares.
RxN# thus ends the game.
Dg603: White to move
Dg603: Again the key to the position is to
study the posture of Black’s king (no freedom
of movement) and the lines leading from it in
search of pins. Here White’s bishop pins the
pawn on g7. Ask what the pawn supposedly
protects—not only what pieces, but what
squares. The pinned pawn here is supposed to
protect f6. The square therefore is loose, at
least for the moment. White tries planting a
piece on it, like the queen, and determines
that Qf6# is mate. Here as elsewhere we are
spelling out the thought process, but of course
in practice the insight should be nearly instan-
taneous: the g7 pawn is pinned; the queen
mates on f6.
Dg604: White to move
Dg604: White’s inspection of the Black
king’s lines turns up a pin of the pawn on g6.
How to exploit this? By making aggressive
use of one of the two squares the g6 pawn is
supposed to protect: h5. Make a threat from
there; deliver a check from there. White does
it with Qh5+. Black is forced to move his
king to the g-file. Whether he moves it to g7
or g8, White now plays Qxg6+, with the
queen enjoying protection from the bishop
that formerly imposed the pin (a common
pattern we will see repeated). The king re-
treats to h8, and now White mates with Qh7#.
Dg605: White to move
Dg605: This time you find no pins, but if you
size up the forces bearing on Black’s king you
see that the bishop on a1 is poised to pin the
pawn on g7 if the king can be pushed into the
opposite corner. Or you consider every check
for White and find two—Qh6, which is no
good, and Rh8, which requires KxR in reply
and places the king on a square that leaves the
g7 pawn pinned. Either way you realize that
h6 now is a loose square, its guard paralyzed.
Threaten the king by putting a piece there:
Qh6+. The king’s only flight square is g8.
The queen’s next check is Qxg7#, which
mates with support from the bishop on a1.
Notice again how the bishop and queen use-
fully are coordinated. First the bishop imposes
a pin that gives the queen a safe square on
which to land; then the bishop provides pro-
tection as the queen chases down the king.
It was noted early that 1. Qh6 fails. Notice
precisely why: it fails because Black has 1.
...KxQ, not because Black can reply 1.
...f7xQ—for that leads to 2. Rh8#.
Dg606: Start with an assessment of Black’s
offensive resources. He has a queen not far
from White’s king; a rook on the e-file, ready
to jump to the first rank; and a bishop on the
long diagonal. The idea should be clear
enough: if the bishop were able to pin the
pawn on g2, Black’s queen could take advan-
tage by moving to h3, then g2, with a mating
attack. How to arrange the pin?
Dg606: Black to move
Hound the king with the rook, and be ready to
sacrifice it. Black plays 1. …Re1+, 2. Kh2,
Rh1+, 3. KxR and White’s king has been
drawn into the corner. Now Black takes ad-
vantage by putting his queen onto the square
that the newly pinned pawn used to protect:
Qh3+, and the king’s only flight square is g1.
Black mates from here with the simple Qxg2,
with the queen again taking protection from
the same bishop whose pin allowed it to pene-
trate White's position.
The first lesson of the position lies in Black's
use of his rook. He sees his own bishop on the
long diagonal, and wants to get White's king
onto h1 so the g2 pawn will be pinned and
allow Qh3+. His first available check—Re1—
doesn’t get this done, because the king goes to
h2. Then comes the key move: Rh1, planting
the rook on the square where Black wants
White’s king to go, and forcing it to capture
there. (This idea sometimes is known as a
decoy; we will examine it in more detail
elsewhere.) Notice that White could not play
Nf1 in reply to Black’s initial Re1+, because
then Black mates with Qxg2. Likewise, White
could reply to Black’s Rh1 with NxR instead
of KxR. But then Black still has Qxg2#.
Dg607: Sometimes we begin by looking for a
visual pattern, sometimes we begin by look-
ing at forcing moves; for it is important to be
able to move between those methods of de-
veloping a combination. Let's start this one by
considering any checks Black can give and
their consequences. Easy enough; there is
only one: Rh6+, which forces Black to play
Kg1. And then what checks would Black
have?
Dg607: Black to move
Again, just one: Rh1+, which forces KxR—a
classic (and now familiar) decoy of the king
into the corner using successive rook checks.
The pawn on g2 now is pinned, thus leaving
h3 available for occupation. Black can occupy
it with his queen, of course. To White’s Qh3
Black can only reply Kg1; now Qxg2# mates,
with support for the queen furnished as usual
by the bishop that imposed the pin.
An important point of the position: when you
consider what offensive resources you have
available to bring down on the king, be care-
ful not to dismiss too quickly any of your
pieces that seem far away or have their paths
blocked. Often the paths can become un-
blocked and those pieces can swoop in quite
rapidly. Here the queen looks at first like it is
in no position to contribute to an attack, and
yet it ends up delivering mate.
Dg608: White to move
Dg608: Size up White’s offensive resources
as they bear on the Black king's position: a
battery of rooks on the d-file; a queen on the
sixth rank; and a bishop on b2 aimed down
the long diagonal. How can this be turned into
a mating attack? It would help White to get
his queen over nearer to the Black king, so
that its pressure on that side of the board
could be coupled with pressure from the rooks
to put the king in a bind. That would be one
way to get at the idea here; another would be
to see that if Black’s king could be pushed or
drawn onto h8, White’s bishop would pin the
pawn on g7, creating a safe square for his
queen on h6. Still another route would be just
to consider every check and its consequences.
To 1. Rd8+ Black replies 1. …Kh7. Now
comes the standard rook sacrifice: 2. Rh8+,
KxR, drawing the king into the corner.
With the pawn on g7 pinned, White takes
advantage in familiar fashion: he plants his
queen on a square the pawn is supposed to
protect: Qxh6. The king is driven back to g8
where it began, but this time White has
trapped it on the back rank by putting pres-
sure down the h-file. He plays 3. Rd8+ and
mates a move later, as the king has nowhere
to go (after 3. ..Re8, 4. RxR#).
Dg609: White to move
Dg609: Black has just played h7-h6, threaten-
ing White’s knight. What would you play in
reply? You know better than to retreat and
forfeit the initiative until you have considered
offensive play. White has two bishops trained
on the king’s position. Search for a pin; if you
can find one, it may present tactical opportun-
ities that aren’t obvious on casual inspection.
Here we find a pin of the pawn on f7. Next
question: what is that pawn supposed to pro-
tect that now is unguarded? Don’t just look
for loose pieces. Consider loose squares as
well. Here the pin weakens e6 and especially
g6. Since the square closer to the king is g6
(and e6 remains protected by a different
pawn), experiment in your mind’s eye with
ways of putting a piece there—preferably
your queen, since you are looking first for a
mating attack and the queen normally is the
best tool for the purpose.
arrayed against the Black king’s position in
devastating fashion. One bishop attacks f7;
another attacks g7; the knight attacks h7. The
key to mate in a position like this is to get
your queen next to the enemy king while giv-
ing it protection. Those bishops and the
knight give White’s queen lots of ways to do
this.

What you discover is that the queen here can’t

get to g6 in one move. But it can move to d3
(or b1—the point is the same); and now if
Black plays h6xN—which after all is White’s
immediate worry—White can play Qg6 with
impunity, taking advantage of the square
freed by the pin. How useful would it be to
have a queen there? Very: Qxg7 would mate a
move later with support from White’s dark-
squared bishop, and there is nothing Black
would be able to do to prevent it in the mean- Dg610: White to move
time. Indeed, 1. Qd3 gives White a forced
mate here no matter what Black does. All Dg610: The Black king’s position may look
Black can try are inadequate interpositions. reasonably secure. It isn’t. White considers
One actual sequence might go: 1. Qd3, Re8; any checks he can give—in this case, just one:
2. Qg6, Re5 (trying to interpose the rook to Qxh7. Black has to reply KxQ. Trace the lines
cut off the queen’s support from the dark- away from the new position you are imagin-
squared bishop); 3. Qxf7 (instead getting sup- ing for the king and see that the pawn on g6
port from the light-squared bishop), Kh8; now would be pinned. That means the two
Qg8# (again, mating with support from the squares the g6 pawn used to protect now are
light-squared bishop instead of the other one). free. White can plant a piece on one of them
with Rh5#, which mates since g7 is off limits
On the second move of the sequence White to Black’s king. A simple case of a queen
also has the option of playing Qh7 instead of sacrifice drawing the king into line with a
Qg6, this time giving check with protection pawn—a measure justifiable as a means to
from the knight on g5 and still mating in a mate.
couple of moves. Yet even then what drives
the position still is the pin of the pawn on f7:
that is what makes it possible for White’s
queen to threaten to move to g6, and that
threat is what prevents White’s knight from
being taken, leaving it available to protect the
queen if it instead moves to h7.

The first thing to take away from this study is

how the pin of a pawn in front of your oppo-
nent’s king can cause his entire defense to
crumble. If you can put a queen on a square
that such a pawn was supposed to protect, you Dg611: White to move
may have a mating threat; naturally it depends
on the rest of your attacking resources, which Dg611: Study what forces White has trained
is the second point to see: White’s pieces are on the Black king’s position: his knight on g5;
his queen on c2; his knight on d5; and his
bishop on b3. The sight of that bishop aimed
down the diagonal should cause you to think
about possible pins; it has the potential to pin
the pawn on f7, which would leave the g6
pawn loose, which the queen then could take
with decisive results. How to create the pin?
By vacating the White knight from the di-
agonal forcefully, leaving Black no time to
escape. White thus plays Nd5xN+, forking (of
course) Black’s king and queen. If Black
wants to save his queen he replies BxN. But
then the work is done; the exchange has
cleared the way for a pin that permits White
to play Qxg6+ with impunity. And since
Black has had to move his bishop, White's
move is a check. The Black king goes to h8,
after which White mates with Qh7—this time
with cover from its knight.
Dg612: Black to move
Dg612: Do you see a mating idea for Black?
The clue is the open h-file occupied by his
rook. If the rook could land on h1 with pro-
tection—the traditional provider of it would
be a bishop; we have seen bishop and rook
mates like this before—it would be mate. As
it happens Black has a bishop aimed that way
on the long diagonal, but there are two things
in its way: the White pawn on d5 and White
bishop on g2. Without those pieces, White
would be unable to avoid mate. The bishop
protects the pawn, and Black attacks the pawn
twice, so a method of clearing the line comes
into view: Black plays Qxd5 (threatening
QxB#); White replies BxQ; Black plays BxB
and now is poised to play Rh1#. Indeed, noth-
ing White does can prevent it; he only has
useless interpositions with his bishop on the
h-file or with his queen on the long diagonal.
What does all this have to do with pins? It is a
pin that stops White from effectively blocking
the mate with f2-f3. White’s f-pawn is pinned
by the bishop on c5, and seeing this might
have encouraged the whole thought process
above: one consequence of a pin on a pawn is
that it can’t step forward to block anything;
diagonals on which it might have interposed
are left free, giving you more liberty to play
on them and arrange attacks using queens and
bishops there.
4.3.04.
Pins of Pieces to Allow Mate.
Pins of pieces may facilitate mating attacks,
of course, just as pins of pawns do. The pat-
terns that can arise from pinned pieces are
more various; to see them you need to be alert
to different ways of delivering mate. Later
chapters cover mating patterns in some detail,
but in our work so far we have been focusing
on two general sorts of ideas. First are mates
where two or more of your pieces are coordi-
nated in attacking a square next to the enemy
king—most often a “queen-plus” mate where
the queen lands next to the king and has cover
from another piece, such as a bishop, though
we also have seen “rook-plus” mates with the
bishop on occasion. (The previous position
involved a threat of a queen-plus mate on g2,
then a rook-plus mate on h1.) The usual way
for your opponent to defend against this pos-
sibility is to keep a friendly piece near the
king to protect the squares on which your
queen might like to land. Sometimes you can
pin that guard, however, making a safe land-
ing for your queen or rook possible.
Another pattern we have been using, and will
see again here, arises when the enemy king is
trapped on the back rank and you are able to
plant a rook or queen there. A common de-
fense against this threat involves pieces that
can be interposed on the back rank if hostile
pieces are put there; and again those interpos-
ing pieces sometimes can be pinned, making
the mate possible after all.
Dg613: The position on the top can be un-
derstood as a back rank mate or a queen-plus
mate. The key point to see is that White has a
battery of queen and rook on the d-file,
trained on a square adjacent to Black’s king.
Dg613: White to move
The critical square—d8—appears to be at-
tacked twice by White and defended twice by
Black, by his bishop and the queen behind it
(setting aside the king’s protection of the
square). But on inspection of the king’s lines
the e7 bishop is seen to be pinned by White’s
other rook. White thus is free to play Qd8#,
ending the game.
Dg614: White to move
Dg614: White has a potent battery, this time
on the f-file. Ideally he would like to drop his
queen to f8, let it get captured by Black’s
rook, then recapture with his own rook and
deliver mate. The only worry is an interposi-
tion: if Black then plays Be8, the mate seems
to be spoiled; for then if White plays RxB,
Black has KxR. This is a common difficulty
in carrying off a back rank mate. But scan the
king’s lines (or the bishop’s vulnerabilities)
and you see that the bishop is pinned and
can’t interpose after all. So 1. Qf8+ followed
by 2. RxR is indeed mate.
Dg615: White to move
Dg615: Assess the threats to your own king
and you see that Black is threatening mate
with Qxh2 (as well as the somewhat less for-
midable, but still troublesome, QxR+). It's
hard to see a satisfactory way to avoid both
threats by moving the White pieces around
defensively. But we know the value of not
reflexively playing defense; in this case, by
taking the time to examine the checks he can
give White finds he can disregard the threat
and achieve mate himself. The first thing to
see is that White almost has a back rank mate
with Re8, but Black’s rook on f8 blocks the
way; and then there is the coordination of
White’s queen and bishop against f7. If
Black’s rook could be drawn up to f7, it
would become pinned and enable the back
rank mate to work. You equally might see the
idea by just looking at any checks you can
give and their consequences. Either way the
result is the same: Qxf7+ requires RxQ in
response—drawing Black's rook into a pin.
You take advantage of this by noting the de-
fensive purpose the rook had served and ex-
ploiting the new vulnerability with Re8#.
Dg616: Black to move
Dg616: Now the same concept pushed out yet
another step and seen from Black's side.
Black is threatened with RxQ. The usual point
repeats: don't retreat without considering how
you might attack. The vague potential for a
back rank mate exists because White’s king is
stuck under its pawns without much protec-
tion except for its queen; the fantasy for Black
is Qxf2 followed by mate on f1 or e1. White's
queen stands in the way of this, so Black ex-
periments with harassing moves like Re8 with
either rook. Now if White plays RxQ, he gets
mated with RxQ#. What else can White do?
(a) He doesn’t want to play QxR; he’ll then
lose his queen on the recapture by Black's
other rook, which renews the mate threat.
(b) If White moves his queen to d1, Black
replies with checks: Qxf2, to which Black
must reply Kh1; then Re1+, to which Black
must reply QxR; then QxQ#.
(c) White can play Qf1, moving the queen out
of the rook’s way but keeping it near enough
to the king to provide protection. But now
comes the pinning pattern we saw in the pre-
vious position. Black plays Qxf2+, taking the
pawn in front of the king’s only guard and
forcing the queen to recapture and become
pinned; after White plays QxQ, Black has
Re1#.
White’s best reply to Re8 was none of those
moves; it was Qe3. This still results in losses,
but it avoids the larger catastrophes that fol-
low from the other moves. Play might go 1.
…Re8; 2. Qe3, QxR; 3. NxQ, BxQ; 4. f2xB,
and Black has won the exchange. Or Black
might reply to Qe3 by moving his own queen
over to b4. (Still another possibility is for
White to reply to Re8 with Ne2. This blocks
the e-file but leaves the rook on d5 loose and
lets it be taken next move; it also leaves
White with a bad position.)
Dg617: Both of White’s bishops are trained
on the Black king’s position; so is White's
rook on g3. His queen isn’t quite there yet,
but it easily enough could be moved into posi-
tion to attack with support from one of those
other pieces. A natural idea would be to move
the queen so it can attack h7; if it landed there
with support from the bishop on d3, it would
mate.
Dg617: White to move
The problem is Black’s knight on f6, which
guards both the square where the White queen
wants to go first (h5) and the square where the
queen wants to end up (h7)—which illustrates
why f6 is a great defensive position for a
Black knight.
But White has a way to deal with this. It is
suggested by the position of his other bishop
on e5. If a nettlesome piece has a bishop
aimed at it and the king is on the same di-
agonal, the position cries out for a pin. Be
methodical in asking what prevents the pin
from existing now. The answer, of course, is
the pawn on g7. In effect there are too many
pieces on the pinning line. Earlier we studied
ways of overcoming this type of obstacle:
take the pawn, causing a recapture that conso-
lidates the enemy’s position. Thus White
plays Rxg7. If Black replies with KxR, now
the knight on f6 is pinned. All the squares it
protected—g4, h5, and h7—are now vulnera-
ble, so White starts by putting his queen on
the first of them: Qg4+. Since it’s a check, the
response Kh8 is forced (if Black moves his
king to h6 instead, White mates with Qg5).
Now White moves the queen to h5, again
loose because the knight is pinned. Mate fol-
lows no matter what Black does; he has a
number of checks he can give to stall for time,
but none of them pan out. Eventually White
will either play Qxh7# or (if Black moves his
king to g8) BxN, then Qxh7#, or some other
accumulation of force against the king’s cor-
ner.
The important lesson is to observe the defen-
sive function a knight positioned like Black’s
can serve, and to see how pinning it can radi-
cally reduce the security of his king by open-
ing up key squares for hostile occupation.
It is impossible with a handful of examples to
suggest all the different ways that a pin can be
used to enable a mating attack, but from these
studies you can take away a few frequently
useful ideas. Once a piece or pawn is pinned,
any squares it formerly guarded become more
vulnerable and often loose. It helps to imagine
placing attackers on those squares to see what
then becomes possible. Pinned pawns and
pieces also become incapable of interposing
themselves between an attacker and your
queen. This can be important when trying an
attack on the back rank, where interpositions
are a common form of defense; it also may be
useful in attacking along diagonals or other
lines, since interpositions there—especially
by pawns stepping forward in front of the
king—often are one way for the enemy to cut
off an attack by a bishop or other piece.
4.3.05.
Pins to Mating Squares.
Since we are considering mating threats, this
is a good moment to consider one additional
type of pin: a pin of a piece not to its king but
to a mating square. A mating attack frequent-
ly depends on whether you can get an attack-
ing piece onto some square in particular—
e.g., whether you can land your queen next to
the enemy king. If one of your opponent's
pieces blocks a move like that, it's pinned: the
game is lost if it moves. The pin may not be
as strong as the usual pin to the king, since a
piece pinned to a mating square at least can
move legally; if it has a strong threat—a
check of its own to deliver, for example—it
may be able to get away with leaving its
square. It still is important to see pins of this
kind, because the pieces subject to them often
are prey to capture and useless as defenders of
other pieces.
Dg618: Notice in this first diagram that
Black’s king is trapped on the back rank and
has no defenders there. This suggests a mat-
ing possibility if White can get his rook on e1
down to e8.
Dg618: White to move
Alas, he can't do it because Black’s bishop is
in the way. But therein lies a tactical idea:
Black’s bishop is pinned to a mating square
(e8); if attacked it cannot afford to leave the
e-file. So White throws a pawn at the bishop
with f2-f3 and takes it a move later.
The key to the position lies in examining
Black’s king and seeing its vulnerability.
From there you reason backwards to ways
you might take advantage and then to ob-
stacles that prevent you from doing so; finally
you consider whether the obstacles are them-
selves vulnerable by virtue of their defensive
role.
You want to cultivate a constant awareness of
the enemy king's status (not to mention the
status of your own): constraints on its move-
ment, pieces aligned with it that might be
pinned, and any pieces of yours that are
trained on its position. There can be great
power in having two pieces—preferably a
queen plus another—aimed at a square next to
the king even if they can't both get there.
Dg619: In the frame to the top, for example,
White’s queen and a5 bishop both are aimed
at d8. This is a mating threat. It doesn’t work
now because Black has a pawn in the way on
d6. But see the implication of this: the d6
pawn is pinned, since mate results if it moves
off of its file. The pawn therefore is not doing
any defensive work and anything it seems to
protect is vulnerable—here, the knight on c5
and the pawn on e5.

Dg619: White to move
White is in position to take the e-pawn with
Nxe5. (Following through, he asks about the
consequences of putting the knight there. It
will attack Black’s queen. Where will the
queen go? Remarkably enough, it has no es-
cape; every square to which it can move is
under attack. White will take it on his next
move.)
The trick to the position comes at the outset:
you can't let the pawn on d6 prevent you from
seeing the pressure White’s queen puts on d8.
The pawn is not (or not just) an obstacle that
ruins the mating idea for White. It is an op-
portunity, because in order to stop the mate
threat the pawn must stay where it is, leaving
its protectorates exposed to capture.
Dg620: White to move
Dg620: Here is a somewhat less usual confi-
guration that depends on a similar principle.
Where does White have two pieces aimed at a
square next to the enemy king? On the long
diagonal, where he has a queen and bishop
(the rook on g2 bears down as well, but for
now focus on the other two pieces). The bat-
tery seems imperfect because the bishop is in
front, but still: notice that none of the pieces
around Black’s king can defend the long di-
agonal. The only piece that can reach it in
principle is the knight on f7, but of course you
see that it is pinned by White’s other bishop
on e6. The obvious obstacle to penetrating the
Black king’s position is the Black pawn on
e5, so play through the sequence that would
be possible if the pawn were gone: 1. Bh8;
and on reflection there would be nothing
Black could do to stop Qg7#. This is the sig-
nificance of Black's inability to defend the
diagonal.
What does this mean? It means the pawn on
e5 is pinned, since if it moves off the long
diagonal White finishes Black’s king. Rather
than obsess over the difficulty of removing
the pawn, exploit its immobility by taking
something it protects—with RxN.
Dg621: Black to move
Dg621: A look at the White king’s position
and the constraints on its movement shows
that it is stuck on the back rank with no de-
fenders there (a rook is a usual defender
against a back rank mate; but White’s rook on
a1 is blocked by his bishop). This means that
if Black could drop a queen or rook onto the
middle of the back rank, he might mate. The
most plausible piece for the purpose would be
his queen on d3, so ask what prevents Qd1#.
There are two things: the pawn in the way on
d2, and the knight on e3 that protects d1. A
“pawn in the way” is a pawn that is pinned,
and this also is the key to dealing with the
knight: it is protected by that same pawn, so
Black is free to take it with RxN. If White
recaptures d2xR, Black plays Qd1#. What
about the other pawn that protects the
knight—the one on f2? It is pinned as well by
the rook on f8.
One way to come at this position in the first
place is with a study of the White king’s lines.
You see that the pawn in front of it is pinned,
and so inspect any pieces the f2 pawn is sup-
posed to protect; you find the knight on e3;
you consider taking it with RxN, and ask
about the consequences; you see that d2xR
could result; you observe that this would clear
the way for Qd1#. So both pawns that guard
White’s knight are pinned, which makes it
free for the taking.
The general point is cognitive. It's natural to
see the d2 pawn and e3 knight here and con-
clude that they are insuperable obstacles to
mate. And they are. But train your mind to
regard the obstacles not as frustrations but as
opportunities. If they really have such power-
ful defensive roles, this also implies that they
may not be able to move and so may signify
other vulnerabilities.
Dg622: White to move
Dg622: White’s knight attacks h7, and
White’s queen is aimed at that square as well:
if Black’s queen were gone White could play
Qxh7#. In this sense Black’s queen is
pinned—to a mating square. What do we do
with a pinned queen? We studied this a little
while ago. One thing to try is a cross-pin, at-
tacking a queen pinned along a diagonal by
adding a rook that attacks it along the file
where it sits. Here that would mean White
playing Rf4, threatening RxQ. The question
about such a move is what White’s rook then
would be able to do if Black’s queen moved
to play QxQ. The answer is obvious: White
plays RxR#, a simple back rank mate. (So
after Rf4, the queen becomes pinned to mat-
ing squares in two directions.) Since Black
can’t afford this result, he must submit to
RxQ.
Dg623: White to move
Dg623: Examine how White’s pieces bear on
the enemy king; consider especially whether
any of them are aimed at the same squares.
White’s queen and rook are is pointed at a
square adjacent to Black’s king: f7. White
could play Qxf7+ if the bishop on e7 were out
of the way; after the Black king moved to h8,
White could follow with QxN#. What this
means is that the bishop on e7 is pinned to the
mating square f7, and is a ripe target.
How to take advantage? When you have a
pinned target, there are two things to do with
it: capture it by amassing force against it, tak-
ing advantage of the fact that it can't run
away; or go after pieces and squares the
pinned piece is supposed to protect. Try the
first route first. Ask how many times the bi-
shop is attacked and defended, and whether
you can make the former number bigger than
the latter. At present the bishop is attacked
once and defended once. White thus adds an
attacker with 1. Bc5. Now Black needs to add
a defender, and his only way to do this with-
out losing a piece on the spot is with Kf8. But
now—and this is critical—the Black king has
moved. When this happens you must consider
whether any old pins are gone and any new
ones have been created. In this case the king’s
move to f8 suddenly causes Black’s bishop to
become pinned again, and this time absolute-
ly, by White’s bishop. The observation is cru-
cial because it means White’s queen now is
free to add yet another attack to the bishop
with Qf6. Black is unable to play BxQ. He
also is unable to add any more defenders to
the bishop. It falls next move to BxB.
Now notice that Black does have another de-
fensive idea: he could reply to White’s 1. Bc5
with Bf8. This allows White to play Qxf7+,
but notice that from its new perch on f8 the
Black bishop guards g7 and prevents White
from mating there next move (after Black
moves his king to h8). Yet it doesn’t help.
After 1. Bc5, Bf8; 2. Qxf7+, Kh8, White
plays 3. BxB and will mate a move later. If
Black plays RxB, White has 4. QxN#; if
Black plays 3. ...Re7, White has 4. BxN#!
Dg624: White to move
Dg624: Apply the current logic to this posi-
tion. White has two pieces trained on the gen-
eral territory of Black’s king: his queen on b2
and his rook on d6. Indeed, they both are
aimed at f6; White almost is able to play
Qxf6+ and then perhaps mate soon after-
wards. The obstacles to this are two. Black’s
bishop is in the way on e6, and Black’s knight
on d5 defends the wanted square, f6. The
payoff of seeing these obstacles is not so
much in efforts to actually execute the mating
possibility just sketched; it is in the vulnera-
bility of the knight and bishop that their de-
fensive roles suggest—especially because the
bishop protects the knight. Maybe the knight
can be taken with BxN, since Black dares not
recapture BxB; with the knight then off the
board and the bishop off the sixth rank, White
would be able to play the dreaded Qxf6+. But
first account for all the knight’s defenders.
There appears to be another in the pawn on
c6, yet on inspection it, too, turns out to be
pinned—to Black’s queen. So while Black’s
knight appears to be defended twice, as a
practical matter it is defended not at all. Both
of its defenders are pinned by the rook on d6.
White is free to play BxN.
If Black replies to BxN with c6xB, White
wins a queen for a rook with 2. RxQ, RxR.
But it must be said that if Black were to in-
stead reply BxB and White then played
Qxf6+, careful play by Black can avoid mate,
though he nevertheless suffers a material ca-
lamity. This is important to emphasize be-
cause before going through with a sacrifice on
the assumption that an enemy piece is pinned
to a “mating square,” you need to make sure it
really is a mating square or that you otherwise
will have enough gains to offset your losses
when the smoke clears. Obviously not every
position where you can land a protected queen
next to the king will yield a mate. Here
Black’s king would be able to retreat to h6.
White then has QxR, which is profit enough
to justify the sequence. Or he can play Qf8+
and continue to try hunting down Black’s
king with checks and captures.
Dg625: White is in trouble, as Black is ahead
in material and about ready to play Qxg2# (or
mate on f1 instead). So be counterintuitive
and think about offense; examine how
White’s pieces bear on Black’s king. Both
bishops are trained on the king’s position,
along with the queen and—don’t overlook
this—the rook on f1. In fact the only two
pieces coordinated against the same square
are the rook and a2 bishop.
Dg625: White to move
That doesn’t mean the other pieces aren’t
doing important work; it just should stimulate
your thinking and cause you to realize that
White is pretty close to being able to play
Bxf7#, with the king unable to flee because
the bishop on h8 cuts off its dark escape
squares. Why does this matter? Because what
prevents Bxf7# is Black’s queen on f2. The
queen is pinned to the mating square.
So: attack it. The one piece White has free for
the purpose—the only piece not participating
in the mating threat that makes the idea go—
is his queen. He plays it to g3 with check,
which is imperative to keep Black busy and
prevent him from delivering mate. To the ca-
sual eye Qg3+ may look dangerous for White,
but the danger is illusory. Black can’t play
QxQ without losing the game on White’s next
move. Black has no choice but to interpose
his knight on g6 and let his queen be lost a
move later.
It’s easy to miss the win for White here by
overlooking the power of the rook on f1 and
the mating threat it creates with the bishop on
a2. The rook looks impotent because it's
pinned (by the Black rook on e1), but that pin
wouldn't prevent the rook from providing
valuable cover to White's bishop if the bishop
were to land on f7. You can only be sure to
see these possibilities by considering how
each of your pieces bears on the enemy
king—and without dismissing possibilities,
either, just because they are obstructed. The
obstructions may turn out to make fine tar-
gets; they may be pinned to the squares your
attacking pieces would like to reach.
Dg626: The usual scanning turns up a pin of
Black’s h7 pawn by your rook. A pinned
pawn is an invitation to take something it pro-
tects. This one protects the bishop on g6,
which now is loose. White’s rook is aimed at
it; the impediment to the capture is White’s
knight on g5. White’s task is clear: vacate his
knight from g5 in a manner violent enough to
force Black to spend a move replying to it and
not moving or defending his bishop.
Dg626: White to move
A check usually is best for the purpose; hence
Nf7+—which also forks Black’s queen, and
so requires Black to capture the knight rather
than just move the king. Black has three ways
to take it: with either of his rooks or with his
bishop. If the bishop thus moves to f7 by
making the capture, what becomes possible?
Qxg7#: for notice that White’s queen and g1
rook both are trained on g7; if Black’s bishop
moves out of the way, White mates there. The
bishop is pinned to a mating square. (Notice
that the movement of Black’s bishop not only
would clear the way from White’s the rook to
g7, but also would block the path of Black’s
rook to the defense of that square.) Black has
to capture instead with one of his rooks—e.g.,
Rc7xN. White then has e6xR, and RxB a
move later.
In this case the pin of the bishop to a mating
square only became significant in the course
of working out a capture made possible by
another pin. The coordination of White’s rook
and queen against g7 nevertheless serves a
key role; without it the capture cannot occur,
since Black replies to Nf7+ with BxN. As
usual, the key to seeing this is to notice that
White has a queen and rook both aimed at a
square adjacent to the king, and not to over-
look this because one of the needed lines—the
g file—is blocked both by an enemy piece
and one of your own. That mating threat in
the background greatly restricts the motion of
the pieces lying in the way.
You could have tackled this position as well
by seeing White’s potential knight fork Nf7+,
and observing that this causes Black either (a)
to lose the exchange by playing RxN (and
suffering the reply e6xR, with more trouble to
come) or (b) to play BxN. But you look for
your next check if he does play BxN, and find
that QxN is mate.
4.3.06.
Breaking an Absolute Pin
The best defense against an absolute pin is to
prevent it from arising by keeping an eye on
lines leading away from your king, on the
board in front of you and as it would look
after any checks or captures that might be
played. If you nevertheless have the misfor-
tune to find one of your pieces pinned, there
are two most usual ways by which escape
might be had. One is to take the pinning
piece; if the pin is properly built this will in-
volve a sacrifice on your part, but perhaps the
pinned piece can make up for it with a capture
once it is freed. The other method is to attack
the pinning piece while giving check at the
same time, and then to capture it a move later.
Time is of the essence when a pin is in place;
if you give your opponent a move, your
pinned piece often will be lost. Operating
with checks keeps the initiative and postpones
the execution. And there are one or two other
methods, as we shall see.
Dg627: In the example on the top, Black’s
pawn on g7 is pinned and so can’t take
White’s queen on f6; White is poised to play
Qxg7#. Can the pin be broken?
Dg627: Black to move
Easily: it is imposed by a single enemy piece
that Black can take with QxR+. White can't
play Qxg7 (with cover from his bishop) be-
cause now he's in check. Instead he has to
play KxQ. This looks like a large sacrifice for
Black, but now it’s his move again, and with
his pawn on g7 freed from the pin he can play
g7xQ—not only avoiding mate but emerging
with a rook (minus a pawn).
Dg628: White to move
Dg628: Black is threatening Qxd4, a safe,
close check; no response White could make
would avoid trouble. (One possibility would
be 2. Ke1, Qh4+; 3. g2-g3 (interposing to
block the check), Qe4+ (queen fork of
White’s king and rook, taking advantage of
the line opened by White’s pawn move)). But
it’s White’s turn to move, so he has a chance
to forestall disaster. The pin of his knight pre-
vents him from playing NxQ, so he looks for
other offensive options and finds the check
Nd6—a knight fork of Black’s king and
queen. It doesn’t work as a fork because
Black plays BxN; but then the pin has been
broken and White now is free to play NxQ.
Lesson: sometimes a pin can be broken by
creating a disturbance elsewhere on the board
that requires the piece inflicting the pin to
leave its post. Ask whether the pinning piece
guards any sensitive squares on which you
can make trouble.
Dg629: We'll assume that by now you spot
the pin of Black’s bishop on f7 with no
trouble. What can Black do about it? Kg6 is
helpful because now the bishop can move,
and in the meantime it is guarded as many
times as it is attacked and therefore is safe.
But Black can do better: he can capture the
pinning piece. It’s protected, so the piece he
uses will be lost; he plays QxR and White
replies NxQ. But now Black’s bishop has
been freed, so he can play BxQ, winning back
his queen with a rook to show for his trouble.
Dg629: Black to move
As this position illustrates, sometimes a
pinned piece is restrained by the pin from
doing great damage—here, taking the enemy
queen. In that case a big sacrifice to wipe out
the pin (such as Black's QxR here) may be
justified by the blow the pinned piece will be
able to inflict once it is at liberty.
Dg630: White to move
Dg630: White can inflict a classic pin of the
enemy queen with his rook, playing Re1 and
drawing protection from his own queen on c3.
The dangers present in the previous position
are absent here. But you also must concern
yourself with another possibility: your oppo-
nent may be able to give check and attack
your pinning piece at the same time. So White
considers every check Black could give in
reply to 1. Re1, and actually there is just one:
Bxf2+. This is a bishop fork and it would in-
deed be a disaster for White. He wouldn’t
legally be able to take the bishop with his
king, so he would have to move the king
away; and then Black would have a move to
play BxR, winning a piece, ending the pin,
and attacking White’s queen to boot. So the
pin of the queen here is not a good idea after
all. (The right move for White is Rd2, defend-
ing the rook and f2.)
Dg631: Black to move
Dg631: Black’s rook is suffering from the
effects of a pin by White’s queen. One way to
ruin a pin is by interposing another piece on
the same line―preferably with a check that
holds the initiative. This thought leads Black
to Qg6+ (his only check anyway). Notice that
on top of its other virtues this move also
creates the kernel of a discovery; White will
have to move his king to h1, and Black then
looks for his next check and finds Rf1+, now
possible because the rook has been freed from
the pin. Of course White can take Black’s
rook; aye, the point of Rf1+ is that White
must spend a move playing NxR and thus
allow Black to play QxQ next move. So a
simple check by Black seizes the initiative,
dissolves the pin, and finally enables the pin-
ning piece to be taken.
Dg632: Black to move
Dg632: You see the pin: Black’s rook is stuck
on c2; White threatens to take it next move
with his bishop. Black’s only hope is a move
that both gives check (and thus requires White
to do something other than play BxR) and
disrupts the pin. Black has nothing he can use
to attack the pinning piece or force the king to
move, but another way to dissolve a pin is to
block it. The idea also comes into view clear-
ly enough if you are insistent about inspecting
every check you have to offer—not just with
each of your pieces, but with your pawns.
Here Black has this one: f7-f5. It blocks the
diagonal on which the pin is imposed, and
after White defends with Rxf5 the pin on
Black’s rook is gone.
Incidentally, what is Black’s next move?
Again the answer is easy if you have a look at
every check you would be able to give, for
here there is only one to worry about: now
that the rook legally can move, Black can play
Rg2—mate.
Dg633: White to move
Dg633: The eventual question will be whether
a pin White can inflict will work, but first let's
take stock of the position. White has a mating
threat in Qa5; it’s a classic case of the queen
and a backup piece trained on a square adja-
cent to the king. But White has other prob-
lems of his own to address. One of your jobs
is to be aware of any unprotected pieces on
the board—on either side, and at all times. A
moment ago White failed to do that here; he
left his knight unguarded, perhaps thinking it
was safe because it was not under attack.
Black saw that this left him an opening for a
queen fork: there was a square—f1—from
which the queen could both attack the knight
and give check. So Black played Qf1+ and
White now has to move his king or interpose
his bishop or rook in front of it, after which
Black will take his knight. But which should
it be: move the king or interpose?
The important thing for White is to not just
think that his knight is about to be taken, but
to see it taken in his mind’s eye and imagine
the board as it then would look—and in par-
ticular to see that Black’s king and queen
would be on the same diagonal. (Or simply
notice that they already are on the same line
and are about to come closer together.) So
White looks ahead and imagines replying to
QxN with a pin of the queen via Bd3. The
bishop would need protection, but White
could supply it with his rook on the d-file. So
thinking backwards, he considers now playing
Rd1, interposing the rook to block the check
and keeping it where it can supply backup for
the coming pin. He doesn’t want to move his
king to a2, since then it gets checked again
when Black plays QxN.
Well and good, but will the pin work? All the
basic elements would be there, but White
must go farther and ask about Black’s re-
sponse. He doesn’t have to worry about
Black’s queen doing any harm; it will be pa-
ralyzed on c4. But he does have to worry
about whether any other Black pieces would
be able to check his king. Here the answer is
yes: once White’s bishop moves to d3,
Black’s pawn on c3 will be poised to fork
White’s king and rook with c3-c2. If the king
moves, the rook gets taken and the pawn
promotes, inflicting yet another check.
White’s other option is to get rid of the pawn
with Bxc2—but then the pin of Black's queen
disappears. So White’s pinning idea doesn’t
work after all. (Starting with the interposition
Bd1 isn’t much better, mind you; Black has
c3-c2+, to which White replies Kxc2; then
Black plays QxN+.)
The simple lesson: never fail to ask whether
your opponent would be able to disrupt your
plans and above all whether he can do it with
check.
Dg634: We would be remiss if we failed to
consider one final possibility for defense: of-
fense. Black finds his knight pinned on the e-
file. Crisis is at hand, for White has advanced
a pawn from f2 to f3 and threatens to take the
knight with it on his next move. Black has no
checks that also go after the pinning piece, but
remember a different and broader point of our
studies: no matter how thoroughly you may
seem to be on the defensive, it pays to look at
the board through fresh eyes and consider
your best offensive move.
Dg634: Black to move
Here a simple scan of the White king’s lines
turns up the kernel of a pin against White’s
queen on d4. Black just needs to put an at-
tacker on the dark-squared diagonal those
pieces share. He does it not with his queen, of
course, but with his bishop, playing it from f8
to c5. He hasn't dissolved the pin against his
knight, but he has done better: he has declined
to be distracted by it and has created an even
stronger pin of his own.
4.3.07.
Strategy and the Absolute Pin.
With our study of the absolute pin complete,
we can use the tactical ideas just examined to
throw light on some principles of strategic
play—in other words, how to position your
pieces to make it easier to impose pins and
less likely that you will be victimized by
them.
An absolute pin requires that the enemy king
and one of its pieces be on the same line with
nothing between them. From this you can
derive several morals. The first is defensive.
We have seen that even where a pawn lies
between a king and a target, a capture of the
pawn may force the king or target to recapture
and then create the kernel of a pin. How to
avoid being at the wrong end of this pattern?
By keeping a defending piece or two near
your king. A knight on f3 or f6 in front of the
castled position is helpful for this purpose; so
is a queen anywhere in the vicinity, and to
some extent a fianchettoed bishop (for exam-
ple on g2 or g7). The idea is to avoid situa-
tions where your king is the only defender of
a bunch of pawns, or for that matter of a
piece; for when that is so, capturing any of
those men requires your king to move to re-
capture, and anytime your opponent can force
you to move your king around you are vul-
nerable.
Any squares protected only by the king like-
wise can be considered weak in another sense:
dropping a queen on one of them with protec-
tion from one of its fellow pieces can create a
mating threat. Whether or not such a threat
can be parried it may serve as the anchor for
pins or forks against other pieces. An insecure
king is the source of a hundred woes other
than the obvious one of checkmate. It would
be too strong to say that it’s always a good
idea to have a defender or two near your king
(there are few absolutes in chess). It depends
on the threats your king is likely to face and
on the opportunity costs of keeping pieces
nearby—in the other words, what else you
might do with them; sometimes you may be
better off using all of your pieces to attack.
The important thing is to understand the value
of having defenders near the king so that you
can take it into account when you arrange
your pieces.
Again, those thoughts are from a defensive
perspective. Treating them from an offensive
standpoint, you now can see some of the ben-
efits of prying apart the pawn cover in front of
the enemy king, whether by storming your
pawns forward to meet his, by exchanging
pieces in ways that draw his pawns forward
and pull them off their original files, by piling
up pressure against the king's position so that
he will feel obliged to step a pawn forward to
block it, or even by taking pawns outright
with a sacrifice. And naturally a king that
does not yet have suitable pawn cover be-
cause it has not castled calls for special atten-
tion, because chances to pin things to it (as
well as to put it at one end of a fork) so easily
can arise in that position. This also is why
move early, and thus lose its right to castle,
can be so valuable early in the game. Any-
thing that exposes the king helps create a suit-
able climate for pins.
In these studies you also see again the value
of open lines for your rooks, bishops, and
queen. It all comes back to pawns, as they
determine whether lines of all types are open
or closed. Attend carefully to pawn move-
ments and captures; apart from whatever im-
mediate consequences they have they also
determine what lanes the long-range pieces on
the board can occupy productively, by impos-
ing pins or otherwise. The prospect of a pin
makes pawns in the middle of the board espe-
cially important. Think of the lines on the
board as if they were roads and the squares
near the center as if they were intersections
through which pins often run. If the enemy
controls them, the likelihood of creating an
effective line from one of your pieces through
one of his pieces and then to the enemy king
is much reduced; also much reduced if the
intersections are impassible is your ability to
rush pieces to the scene of a pin to help cap-
ture or defend the target.
Another theme we saw involved the many
benefits of a mobile, coordinated army: pieces
that can move to lots of squares, and pieces
aimed at the same squares or at least the same
general sector of the board. Most commonly
an effective pin is a multiple-piece opera-
sequences that force the enemy king to
tion—perhaps one to be sacrificed to create
the kernel of the pin, another to impose the
pin, and still another to protect the pinning
piece or to take the target. Occasionally fewer
are needed; sometimes you need more. Mo-
bile and coordinated pieces are especially
valuable for ganging up to take an enemy
piece that has become pinned. Everything
then depends on whether you can get your
forces into position against the target in a hur-
ry. Coordinated pieces also help create mating
threats, which in turn can cause the pieces that
frustrate the threat to become pinned and thus
vulnerable to capture or unable to defend oth-
er pieces they had protected.
From these general points you can see partial
origins of many hoary maxims of strategy.
Early in the game, get your pieces out and get
your king castled, and be reluctant to disrupt
its pawn cover; fight to establish a pawn or
two where they control the center of the
board; create open lines for your bishops and
rooks, and get them out from behind your
pawns; keep your pieces mobile and coordi-
nated. Obviously these guidelines serve many
good purposes, but among them are the op-
portunities they tend to create for pins and the
hindrances they tend to create to pins by your
opponent. It becomes easier to grasp and re-
member those maxims once you see how they
bring about the practical conditions needed
for tactical devices you know how to use.
 The Relative Pin.
4.4.01.
Simple Relative Pins.
This chapter so far has concentrated on abso-
lute pins—in other words, cases where a piece
is pinned to its king. Relative pins arise when
you pin one enemy piece to another that isn't
the king but merely is more valuable than the
target in front of it. These sorts of pins aren't
as reliably devastating as the absolute variety
because your opponent legally can move the
pinned piece; it just is costly for him to do so.
And they can be harder to see because there is
no simple method for finding them that is
comparable to scanning the king’s lines. But
relative pins arise all the time and can be
enormously consequential, so it's well worth
your time to master the patterns involved. Our
searching technique here will involve looking
for enemy pieces on the same lines, and ask-
ing at all times what enemy pieces you attack
(or could threaten) and—the key point—what
lies behind them.
Dg635: White to move
Dg635: In the frame to the top, start with one
of those simple questions: what do you, play-
ing the White pieces, currently attack? An-
swer: you attack the pawns on b6 and e5 with
your knight, and the knight on c6 with your
bishop. We aren’t concerned at the moment
with attacks you can make with your knight,
because knights can’t pin anything; they jump
rather than slide, so they can’t be aimed
through one enemy piece at another. But bi-
shops are superb pinning pieces, so when they
attack something, like Black’s knight here,
ask what lies behind the target. The answer is
a rook. And although the rook is protected, it
is worth more than White’s bishop, so White
has a relative pin: Black’s knight is not quite
paralyzed, but it would hurt him to move it.
What do you do with a pinned piece? The
usual: throw a pawn at it if you can. White
thus plays b4-b5, and now Black must choose
between forfeiting the knight and losing the
exchange. He probably will move the knight
and suffer BxR, then recapture. In that case
the "pin" admittedly doesn't function in quite
the way to which we have become accus-
tomed. The pinned piece moved, which is
precisely what it couldn’t do in the positions
where it was pinned to the king. The result
was that you won the screened piece rather
than the pinned piece. The logic of that out-
come is similar to the logic of the skewer,
which we will be studying in a little while. If
the rook on a8 were unprotected, Black would
have to let his knight go and the result would
be a more classic relative pin.
Dg636: White to move
Dg636: One of our current motifs involves
asking what you now attack and playing with
the answer. In this case the answer mostly is
just the knight on e4; you pressure it with
your rook. But the knight has protection and
there is nothing on the other side of it. So now
move to the second part of our searching
technique: ask what you can threaten with
your next move, and what would lie on the
other side of it. Or look for enemy pieces on
the same line. Either way you should see that
by playing 1. Bf5 White attacks Black’s
knight and that Black’s queen is on the other
side of it. The queen protects the knight, but
then the knight also is attacked already by
White’s rook. So after 1. Bf5 it is attacked
twice and defended once, and it can’t move.
What further protection can Black add to the
knight? Nothing. There is Re8, but it results
in QxR#; or Black could move his other rook
to b4, but this loses the exchange to NxR. The
e4 knight therefore falls on White’s next
move. The relative pin here functions like an
absolute pin.
A large percentage of relative pins occur, as
this one does, along diagonals, so looking for
enemy pieces and pawns on the same diagon-
al is a good habit to cultivate.
Dg637: Black to move
Dg637: The loudest fact on the board is
White’s passed pawn at c7. It threatens to
promote if Black moves his rook, so Black
looks for ways to rid himself of it. He can’t
take the pawn with his rook because then
White plays NxR. But Black could play Bxc7.
Then White's NxB is met with RxN. Look
good? No, for imagine the board after that
first capture you are contemplating and ask
not only whether your piece could be retaken
but also whether you would have inadvertent-
ly created a tactical opening for your oppo-
nent—here, by lining up two of your pieces to
be pinned: Bxc7 leaves Black’s bishop adja-
cent to his rook on the c-file. As soon as you
see this, worry about whether White can run
one of his pieces through both of yours. He
can indeed, with Rc6. Then if Black moves
his bishop, White plays RxR; notice that
Black’s rook is loose. Yet if Black moves his
rook, White plays RxB. And if Black moves
neither piece, White still plays RxB, with the
knight providing cover for the rook. So
White’s pawn cannot safely be taken after all.
(Black’s best move probably is Bd4, moving
his bishop out of danger.)
Dg638: Black to move
Dg638: The first thing to see in this position
is Black’s mating threat: his queen and knight
both are trained on h2; with the knight also
attacking the White’s king’s only flight
square (f2), Black almost can play Qxh2#.
Preventing this is White’s knight on f3, and
Black has no immediate way to get rid of it.
But he does have a rook on a3 aimed at the
knight—through the pawn on c3. The knight
is a sensitive target because of the defensive
work it is doing, so the c3 pawn is relatively
pinned. Another way to see this is to just ask
what Black already attacks. The list is not
long. His rook on a3 attacks the pawn on c3,
and the c3 pawn has something good on the
other side of it: the knight.
Since the c3 pawn is pinned, Black can toy
with taking what it is supposed to protect: the
pawn on d4. The idea thus is Bxd4+. Now if
White plays c3xd4 (he must address the
check), Black has RxN. Granted, the knight is
protected, and trading a rook for a knight is
not normally profitable. But you have to see
the capture in light of the mating threat men-
tioned earlier: with his knight on f3 gone,
White won’t have time to recapture because
he has to fend off the threat of Qh2#. Black
wins a pawn. (1. ...Nf3xBd4 is out of the
question, of course, since it allows that same
mating move: Qxh2#.)
There is still another way to see all this, natu-
rally: just examine every check and see that
besides Qxh2, which doesn’t quite work yet,
Black has Bxd4+. The check is easily
thwarted with c3xB, but the point is to see
what the board looks like afterwards. The
sequence opens a line for RxN, which is a
clean capture for Black because of the fresh
mate threat it creates.
Dg639: White to move
Dg639: Inventory White's threats. He has
possible captures to make with his a1 rook,
his g2 bishop, and his c3 knight. One of the
knight’s captures—Nxb5—is particularly
interesting because on first inspection it looks
safe: the pawn currently is attacked twice and
defended just once. But again you want to
take account not only of how many times an
enemy piece is defended but also of how the
board will look if you take it and whether any
worrisome patterns will then be in place. Here
Nxb5 is safe only in an immediate sense. Pic-
ture it and you should see that it puts White’s
knight and queen on the same file. This could
be trouble, and it is: Black can play his rook
from a8 to b8, and now the knight is para-
lyzed: if it moves, White’s queen is lost.
Since the knight is pinned, the next question
is which side can bring more force to bear on
it. From the start Black attacks it twice and
White defends it once; and White has no way
to add any more defenders. (There is Ra5, but
you must ask whether such a move is safe.
Here it loses the rook to QxR.) So the pawn
on b5 is not as vulnerable as it looks.
4.4.02.
Loosening the Screened Piece.
A loose piece makes a great target anytime. It
therefore makes a fine basis for a relative pin:
if you attack two enemy pieces in a line and
the rear piece is loose, it becomes costly for
your opponent to move the piece in front.
This simple point forms the basis of a com-
mon and valuable pattern. Suppose one of
your pieces is aimed at an enemy piece; for
the sake of the example, assume your rook is
aimed at your opponent’s bishop. On the oth-
er side of the bishop is your opponent’s rook.
Both his bishop and his rook are protected.
This might not look like a pin, or indeed like
anything; your rook simply is aimed at a piece
that it can't afford to take, and behind it is
another piece you can't afford to take. Ah, but
if you somehow can loosen your adversary's
rook, the bishop in front of it suddenly does
become pinned; for behind the bishop now
lies a target that now is vulnerable. Now the
bishop can be attacked with a pawn and may
not be able to afford to run away (or if it does
move, you can take the rook behind it); or
perhaps something the bishop used to protect
now is loose, since the bishop no longer is
free to leave its square. This is the most inter-
esting and important technique to understand
involving the creation of relative pins: the art
of loosening a screened piece, so that the
enemy piece in front of it becomes pinned.
Dg640: White to move
Dg640: Let's apply this thinking to the current
example. What does White now attack? There
are lots of ways that asking this question dur-
ing your games can lead to good ideas. Here
is one: you may find an enemy piece you at-
tack that has another enemy piece behind it.
In this case we find that pattern on the c-file,
where White’s rook bears down on a bishop
and rook, one behind the other. At first it
doesn't look like a pin or anything else useful
for White: the bishop on c7 is guarded by the
rook on c8, which in turn is guarded by the
rook next door. So what?
Well, if you could loosen the c8 rook the bi-
shop would be pinned, because by moving it
would expose the rook in the rear to uncom-
pensated capture; and if the bishop were
pinned in this way your pawn on b5 would
assume a new significance as an attacker. So
think about loosening the rook on c8. White
has nothing he can use to capture it and force
Black to replace it, but there are other ways to
loosen a piece: one can pry away its defender,
perhaps by distracting it—i.e., by attacking
something else the defender protects. Here
that means getting the d8 rook off the back
rank by going after the other piece it guards—
the bishop on d7, which White can take with
NxB. Black replies RxN. Now White has suc-
ceeded in splitting Black’s rooks, depriving
them of the protection they offered to each
other. Since the rook on c8 is loose, Black
can’t move his bishop without suffering RxR
uncompensated. In other words, the bishop is
pinned.
What to do with a pinned bishop? Idea one is
to throw a pawn at it, as with b5-b6. But as
usual you consider whether the square where
you propose to move your attacking piece is
safe. It isn’t: Black would be able to take the
pawn with his knight. Yet this, too, can be
corrected with an exchange. White takes out
the knight with BxN, and after the forced re-
capture e6xB the board is ready for White to
play b5-b6. The bishop comes off next move.
Dg641: There are a couple of good ways for
White to play this position. Start here: what
does White currently threaten? His bishop
attacks Black’s knight, and his rook attacks
Black’s bishop—behind which is the knight.
Dg641: White to move
This last point—the two Black pieces lined up
with White’s rook aimed through them—
suggests a pin. Well, but it might seem that
the bishop isn't yet pinned, since if it moves
the knight on b8 is protected against capture.
Then again, the knight already is attacked by
White’s bishop, too; so if the Black bishop on
b5 moves, the knight on b8 finds itself pro-
tected once but attacked twice. So the b5 bi-
shop is pinned.
But taking advantage of the pin is another
matter. Imagine an attack against the bishop
with the pawn push c3-c4. Black has a great
reply: e7-e5, blocking the White bishop’s path
to b8 and threatening to take it next move if
White plays c4xB. So the pin doesn't quite
work, because it depends on multiple lines of
attack against b8—and one of those lines can
be disrupted.
Yet White can fix the problem easily by re-
versing his order of operations: first he ex-
hausts the threat against Black’s knight with
BxN. Black recaptures RxB. Now see how
things are different: Black's bishop on b5
blocks an attack against a loose piece; in other
words, White has a good old fashioned rela-
tive pin in place. The pawn push that didn't
work a minute ago—c3-c4—now works fine.
Black can’t help losing a piece. (It would be
different if the pinned piece were a dark
squared bishop, because then it could leave
the b-file and perhaps still protect the rook;
but it isn’t.)
There is, as mentioned before, another direc-
tion for White to take here, and it works even
better. Begin by noticing how close White is
to delivering mate. Look at his checks and
you find Ra1. You see that b4 won't work as a
flight square for Black's king; it would have
to move to b3. So White can begin by playing
Nd2, which doesn't look very menacing at
first but actually is quite scary for Black; the
knight now seals off b3, so Black faces mate
on the next move. He can reply by moving his
bishop to d3, which gives his king a new
flight square (b5) and also makes a threat
against White's rook. But now White executes
his threats against b8: RxN; and then when
Black recaptures RxR, White has BxR.
This last sequence shows that there's more
than one way to take advantage of a piece that
is subject to a relative pin. You may be able to
attack it with a pawn (perhaps with a bit of
preparation first); or, as in the second scenario
just described, you may be able to make a
threat that requires the relatively pinned piece
to leave its square and sacrifice whatever lies
behind it.
Dg642: White to move
Dg642: On examination of what White at-
tacks you see his rook on the c-file aimed
through the pawn on c6 and the queen behind
it. The pawn is pinned—relatively—since it
can't move without exposing the queen. The
greatest value of pinning a pawn lies in your
power to take something it protects. Here the
pinned pawn protects the rook on b5, but the
only piece White can use to take the rook is
his own queen. Thus after the sequence 1.
QxR, c6xQ; 2. RxQ, RxR, White hasn’t
gained any material.
It would all be different, though, if Black’s
queen were loose. The first thought thus
might be to capture or drive away the rook on
a8, but White has no way to achieve this.
There is another way to loosen the queen,
though: rather than driving its guard away
from it, drive it away from its guard. Of
course you need to keep Black’s queen on the
c-file to preserve the pin you are trying to
create, but if it could be drawn forward to c7,
it would be loose and the pin would work
fine. One way to attract a piece onto the
square you want it is to put one of your own
pieces there in a way that invites or requires
its capture. The resource White can use for
the purpose is his knight, via Nc7. Examine
what threat the move would make and see that
it forks Black’s rooks (as a color scan would
have showed you anyway: the knight is on a
light square, and so are both Black rooks). So
Black might play QxN to avoid losing the
exchange. Yet then he loses it anyway be-
cause now White can play QxR: if the pawn
on c6 moves, White plays RxQ without wor-
rying about a recapture.
In this case there already was a relative pin in
place at the start, but it was weak. Since
Black's queen had protection, and since White
could only take advantage of the pin by
throwing away his own queen, there was
nothing to be made of it. Loosening Black's
queen changed the profit structure of the pin,
as it were, and made it much more powerful.
We have talked about three different ways of
loosening a piece in the rear to create or im-
prove a pin in front of it: capturing the rear
piece and allowing a recapture by a piece that
then is loose; going after the defender of the
rear piece by taking something else it protects
(attacking the defender directly is a possibility
as well, of course); and drawing the piece
away from its protector by putting a threaten-
ing piece en prise to it and attracting it for-
ward on the line of the pin. Be mindful of all
these techniques. They are useful methods for
creating loose enemy pieces in many circums-
tances, as we have seen elsewhere; and loose
pieces are your fondest sight as a tactician.
They make a fine basis for a fork, a discovery,
or a pin.

Dg643: White to move
Dg643: Here's a different application of our
current logic. White already seems to have the
makings of a pin of Black’s bishop, but it’s
not quite there because the piece behind the
bishop—Black’s d8 rook—is protected by
Black’s other rook on a8. Thus Black's bishop
can move without worry. How can White im-
prove on this? It would be nice if he could
loosen the Black rook on d8, but he can’t.
What he can do, however, is play his own
rook on h4 to d4. This has the same conse-
quence as loosening the rook on d8, because
now that rook has two pieces aimed at it and
still is protected just once. This means the
bishop no longer can move freely; White
takes it next move with RxB. Here we see an
alternative to loosening a piece in order to
create a pin in front of it; instead you can
amass enough force to make the piece in the
rear overmatched if the piece in front of it
moves.
Dg644: White to move
Dg644: Unpack the cluster of pieces in front
of Black’s king. Actually there are two pins
here. One is obvious if you look methodically
at what White currently attacks with his slid-
ing pieces: his bishop on g5 pins the f6 knight
to Black’s queen. The other is less obvious.
Notice that White’s queen attacks Black’s
knight on f5, and that behind this knight is
another one on f6. If that rear knight on f6
were loose, the knight in front of it obviously
would be pinned. But the knight in front
equally is pinned if moving it would cause the
piece behind it to be overmatched. The rear
knight currently is attacked twice and de-
fended twice. If Black moves away the knight
on f5, the knight on f6 suddenly is attacked
three times, since an attack by the queen has
been added. White will take it immediately.
So the knight on f5 is pinned, too.
White can use everyone's favorite way of ex-
ploiting a pinned piece; he can attack it with a
pawn: g2-g4. If it moves, the knight behind it
is lost as just discussed. If Black instead plays
h5xg4, White imagines how he might recap-
ture and with what consequences. He could
play Ne5xg4, and now the knight on f6 would
be attacked for a third time even without mov-
ing the knight in front of it. Again White
takes the f6 knight next move. (Remember
that it’s pinned to its queen and so cannot
move.)
Examine this one until it sinks in. Once more
the point is to see how a piece can be relative-
ly pinned if moving it would cause the piece
behind it to be loose—or attacked more times
than it is defended.
4.4.03.
Other Issues That Arise in Creating Relative
Pins.
We turn now to a few mechanical issues that
can arise in building relative pins. Most of
these involve familiar ideas; only the settings
are new.
Dg645: The point to notice here is that Black
has his bishop and rook arrayed on the same
diagonal. White can reach the same line with
the c1 bishop. For the idea to work, Black’s
bishop needs to be replaced with something
White’s bishop can attack without fear, so
White performs an exchange: 1. RxB, NxR.
Now Bg5 pins the knight that has moved to
f6; if the knight moves again, Black’s loose
rook on d8 is lost.
Dg645: White to move
Black has no way to add protection to the
knight (if he plays his rook to d6 it gets tak-
en), so White gains the piece a move later.
You also could have seen this idea by consi-
dering any captures you can make. White on-
ly has one—RxB—so analysis is simple. The
important thing to see is not just that Black
replies NxR but that this puts a knight and
rook on a dark-squared diagonal, poised to be
pinned by White’s dark-squared bishop.
Dg646: White to move
Dg646: Here is another more advanced appli-
cation of our current principles. The germ of
the idea is on the c-file; when you see pieces
lined up like this, thoughts of a pin should not
be far behind. You see that Black’s queen is
loose and lies behind his knight. White’s
queen on c2 is aimed through both of them,
though White’s knight is in the way on c3.
The point: you would have a pin if your own
knight could be cleared out of the way in a
fashion that required a time-consuming reply
by Black. If there were some simple capture
White’s c3 knight could make that would call
for a recapture by Black elsewhere on the
board, the solution would be simple: play that
exchange, then go after Black’s newly-pinned
knight with the pawn thrust b2-b4. The diffi-
culty is that White’s knight has no such ob-
vious harm to inflict. An opportunity must be
created for it.
You might think through the situation back-
wards in the following way. The most plausi-
ble square White’s knight can reach with the
potential to make a threat is e4; on that post it
is safe and could threaten f6, and also would
add an attacker against the c5 knight that is
the target of these operations. The problem
with the threat to f6 is that Black has a knight
there that can strike back against the knight
White is thinking about using for this opera-
tion. So maybe White can force a replacement
of Black’s f6 knight by capturing it: BxN, met
with BxB. Yes, that leaves a loose piece on
f6; so now if White moves his c3 knight to e4,
he has a threat against the bishop on f6 that
requires a response from Black. If Black’s
response is Bd8, protecting his queen, you
play NxN, taking his knight, which now is
attacked twice and protected only once. If
Black instead replies to Ne4 by moving his
bishop to e7, the knight is defended twice—
but now it is pinned, because the queen be-
hind it remains loose, so White can throw the
pawn at it with b2-b4 and win the knight with
b4xN a move later.
To summarize, White plays 1. BxN, BxB
(performing an exchange on f6 to leave be-
hind a loose Black piece that White can attack
with his knight); 2. Ne4 (attacking Black’s
loose piece, clearing his knight off of the c-
file, and leaving behind a pin on Black’s c5
knight while also making a second attack on
it). Now White has threats against enough
enemy targets that he will win a piece no mat-
ter what Black does.
Dg647: Another tricky one. Start by looking
at and through everything White attacks so
that you see what lies behind any possible
targets. You notice that his rook on e1 attacks
Black’s bishop, and that behind it is Black’s
queen. The bishop is pinned. One useful thing
to do to a pinned piece is take something it
guards.
Dg647: White to move
Here the pinned bishop protects the rook on
d5. White can’t take the rook with his queen
because his own knight is in the way. The
challenge again is to find a violent way to
vacate the knight, this time to give Black no
chance to avoid the coming capture of his
rook. Yet White also mustn't disrupt the piec-
es in the pin.
So examine the knight’s circle of possible
moves, and consider Nc6. It has the needed
forcing quality, because it threatens Black’s
queen and also threatens a knight fork (always
the question when you are moving your
knight around) at e7, where the piece would
attack Black’s king and rook. If Black wants
to avoid that result he has to move the queen
where it still can guard the forking square, e7.
So he might play it to d7 or g5. Either way,
what does White do? Remember the objec-
tive: we want the same position as at the start,
but with White’s knight out of the way; but
now Black’s queen has moved and so has
unpinned the bishop. White therefore restores
the original position by going ahead and play-
ing the fork Ne7+, planting a piece on the
square where he wants Black’s queen to re-
turn. If Black does capture the knight with his
queen, White’s mission is accomplished:
Black’s bishop is pinned to his queen again,
and now White’s queen has a clean line on
which to play QxR, winning the exchange
after Black plays BxQ and White replies
RxQ. If Black doesn’t bite and keeps his
queen away from e7, White wins the ex-
change nevertheless by playing NxR.
The key to the position is to imagine threats
and their consequences. Don’t dismiss Nc6
because Black’s queen then moves. Note
where it will move, and what you might do
next. Putting one of your pieces on the square
where you want an enemy piece to come is a
useful technique we have seen before and will
see again. It is known as a decoy.
4.4.04.
Ganging Up on the Relatively Pinned Piece.
Once you have found or created a relative pin,
the process of exploiting it usually resembles
the process of exploiting a piece pinned to its
king. The visual appearance is a little differ-
ent, however, and in any event a few positions
to reinforce the basic ideas can’t hurt.
Dg 648: In the example to the top, White is
thinking about using his bishop to inflict a
common pin on Black’s knight with Bg5. Is it
worth the bother? Ask what attacking and
defending forces each side would be able to
summon to the knight’s position. Black could
try Kg7, defending the knight; White then has
with Qh4, adding a second attacker (or Qc3,
making the pin absolute).
Dg 648: White to move
Now Black is out of resources; he has nothing
else he can use to defend the knight, whereas
White’s movement of his queen has cleared
the way for another attacker: Rf1. White can
aim more pieces at the pinned target than
Black can rally in reply, so eventually the
Black knight will be lost. The pin is well
worth playing for White.
As with most of these positions, of course,
you should not imagine that all these moves
actually would get played. Assuming he antic-
ipates where this sequence is going as well as
you do, your opponent has better things to do
than swarm reinforcements behind a piece
that is a goner.
Dg649: White to move
Dg649: Does White have a pin in place here?
Almost, but not quite. Consider each of his
pieces and you can see that his queen seems
to pin Black’s rook to Black’s queen, but that
the Black queen has protection; so if the
Black rook moves, the most White can do is
exchange queens. The position would be quite
different if Black’s queen were loose, and this
White can achieve by going after its guard.
White takes it with BxN; after Black recap-
tures with b7xN, the exchange has left the
queen without a defender—and the rook on
d2 pinned, since if it moves White now plays
QxQ for free.
All right; the next step is to ask how much
force each side can bring to the scene of the
paralyzed piece, which currently is attacked
once and defended once (by a queen on each
side). White plays Rd1, and Black plays Ra8-
d8—a standard summoning of rooks by both
players. Does White have any other pieces he
can use to attack the d2 square? Yes: Bc1.
Black is out of defensive pieces, so the rook
goes to White.
Dg650: White to move
Dg650: A more demanding position. Look at
what White attacks and you see that he has a
relative pin in place: his bishop on d4 pins
Black’s bishop to Black’s queen. Before
White starts amassing attackers against the
pinned piece, he should improve it; a pin of a
bishop by a bishop is nothing much, since
Black can just play BxB. It gets much better if
White plays RxB, inviting RxR, for then
White has given away the exchange but has a
real pin of Black’s rook and can get to work
ganging up on it.
The rook would start out attacked once (by
White’s bishop) and protected once (by
Black’s queen). The attackers need to out-
number the defenders for the piece to fall.
White starts with Rc2 and Black replies Rc8,
again a common rallying of the rooks on ei-
ther side to the scene of the pin. Can White
bring one more piece to bear? Perhaps his
queen; but how? Consider Qb5. This looks
dangerous because Black remains able to play
RxQ, causing an exchange of queens to fol-
low. The point to notice, however, is that by
moving his other rook over to c8 Black has
caused the rook on c5 to be caught in a cross-
pin: if he moves it to the b-file (as by playing
RxQ), White plays RxRc8+—and the priority
of check means Black now will have to waste
a move evacuating his king from the back
rank. Then White takes Black’s queen with
his bishop.
The more likely sequence after 1. RxB, RxR;
2. Rc2, Rc8; 3. Qb5 is 3. …RxRc2; 4. BxQ,
Rxa2—and now Black attacks the White bi-
shop on a7 with his rook, and also threatens
Rc1+ (with his other rook), which would re-
quire White to interpose with Qf1 and thus rook is loose, the pawn in front of it is pinned;
lose his queen for a rook next move. (So no- and since the pawn is pinned, the piece it is
tice the work done by Black’s Rxa2: aside supposed to protect is loose as well. Thus the
from picking up a pawn, it also prepares target of operations is Black’s knight on b5,
Black to control both of the first two ranks which White takes with NxN.
with his rooks if he can play Rc1.) White can
all avoid this, though, by replying to Black's
Rxa2 with Bc5, taking his bishop out of dan-
ger (since it's then protected by its queen,
which is still on b5) and using the bishop to
block Rc1.

Yes, there's a lot to keep straight here. To

understand the dymanics of the position at the
end you have to keep straight a lot of differ-
ences between the board in front of you and
the board as it then will look. Going over the
flow of the position a few times is a worth-
while exercise in visualization.
4.4.05.
Taking the Protectorate of the Relatively
Pinned Piece.
Just as was true when we looked at absolute
pins, relative pins can be exploited in two
general ways: by capturing the paralyzed
piece through an accumulation of force
against it, or by taking something the para-
lyzed piece is supposed to protect. We turn
now to the latter theme, and in particular the
use of relative pins against pawns (a pattern
not yet considered) to enable their protecto-
rates to be taken.
Dg652: White to move
Dg652: This position will not be difficult if
you remember to scan in all directions, in-
cluding side to side. For then you see White’s
rook aimed through a Black pawn to Black’s
queen on the fifth rank, which means the
pawn on e5 is the subject of a relative pin.
The next thought should be automatic: what
does the pawn purportedly defend? The
knight on d4. So White plays QxN and wins a
piece.
Dg653: As usual, before you make any moves
you want to be mindful of what you attack—
what enemy pieces or pawns are targeted by
yours, and with what significance. Here
White’s bishop and knight both attack the
Black pawn on c5. The knight also attacks the
pawn on b4.

Dg651: White to move

Dg651: On the diagram, follow the lines of

attack out from each of your pieces and you Dg653: White to move
see that the White rook attacks a pawn and a
rook behind it on the c-file. Since the Black
The attack by the bishop is of greater imme-
diate interest because the bishop can impose
pins. We therefore look not only at what it
attacks but at what lies behind what it attacks,
and here we see that behind the c5 pawn is a
bishop—and it’s loose. So if the c5 pawn
moves, White takes the bishop; in other
words, the pawn is pinned. When you find a
pinned pawn, look to what it is supposed to
protect that may now be easy prey. In this
case the pawn protects another pawn—the
one on b4. White takes it with his knight,
winning a pawn.
Dg654: White to move
Dg654: Don't be confused by the compression
of the pieces. Just approach them methodical-
ly, asking standard questions and tracing
through their answers. What does White at-
tack? His rook on e4 attacks the bishop on e5,
but the bishop is protected and there is noth-
ing behind it. The rook on b5 attacks the
pawn on c5, which also is protected—but this
time there is something behind it: a rook, and
it's a loose one. So the pawn on c5 is pinned.
One thought is to try to take it, but the more
fruitful inquiry when you see a pinned pawn
is to ask what it protects. Here it protects the
pawn on b4, so White takes it for free with his
other rook.
For the sake of completeness, you would not
want to play this until you made sure you
were not setting yourself up for trouble from
the passed pawn that Black ends up with on
the b-file: after play goes 1. Re4xb4, c5xb4;
2. RxR, b4-b3, Black has a pawn steaming
toward promotion and White has no imme-
diate way to take it. But he has other ways to
deal with the problem. For example, he can
play 3. Kd3 and then meet b3-b2 with 4. Kc2.
The pawn on b2 then is stuck; so long as it
stays on b2 it is protected by Black’s bishop,
but if it moves to b1 it gets taken. White puts
the pawn out of its misery with 5. Rb5 and 6.
Rxb2, a safe capture since the rook takes pro-
tection from its king. White ends up with an
extra pawn and a won endgame. There are
other routes to the same outcome as well. The
important point is to double-check the options
your opponent will have when the smoke
clears.
4.4.06.
Taking the Protectorate: More Involved Cas-
es.
To repeat our current theme: When you see a
pin of any sort, consider two ways of exploit-
ing it: by attacking the pinned piece or by
going after whatever it protects. In this case,
for example, you see the pieces lined up on
the b-file and realize that White has a relative
pin on Black’s bishop. The pin creates a pair
of potentially vulnerable targets for White to
consider: the bishop (because it is paralyzed)
and the rook on c3 (because it is left loose by
the pin). There are, in turn, two general ways
to attack a loose target: by piling up more
attackers against it than your opponent can
counter with defenders (but it's hard to win a
piece this way unless it's paralyzed); or by
making it the subject of a fork. The idea be-
hind the fork is that you throw an attacker at
the target and at the enemy king simulta-
neously. Your opponent then has no time to
add a defender to the target to offset your at-
tack, as he is too busy moving the other
piece—hopefully his king.
Dg655: In this case the workable target is the
Black rook, and the preferred method of tak-
ing it is a fork. Your queen is available, so
your first thought is to find a square from
which it can attack the rook and Black's king
at the same time. If no such square yet exists,
maybe you can make one by playing with
checks that force Black to move his king and
allow you to move your queen around, too.
Thus you consider Qe8+; this forces Kg7.
Now you follow up with the fork Qe5+ and
take the rook next move.
 Dg655: White to move
The natural result you might visualize after
you take the rook is Black's reply BxQ, after
which you play RxQ and have won the ex-
change. But actually Black can do a little bet-
ter; after White’s QxR, Black plays Qxg2+,
picking up a pawn. (Black's queen was going
to be lost anyway, so he might as well try to
take something with it.) White responds KxQ,
and then Black still has BxQ. The sequence
nevertheless remains worthwhile for White,
as a rook is much more valuable in the end-
game than a bishop that can only patrol
squares of one color.
This position has more to do with building a
queen fork than with pins; but what makes it
go is the observation in the first place that
Black has a loose rook worth forking—and
this because his bishop is laboring under a
relative pin. The position thus is a good ex-
ample of how a pin and fork can work togeth-
er. It also shows yet again the value of having
a look at any checks you can give. Even if
you overlooked all other patterns at the start
of this position, looking for checks and find-
ing Qe8 (and then the next check—the queen
fork Qe5) would have led you in the same
direction.
Dg656: There is nothing new here except the
use of the pin. First figure out where the of-
fensive action is for White. You might try
looking piece by piece. His rook attacks
Black’s bishop; his bishop attacks Black’s
knight; and his queen attacks the pawn on
d6—which has two Black pieces behind it.
When you see a line arranged like the d-file
here, take notice and consider pinning possi-
bilities.
Dg656: White to move
It’s not just the queen bearing down on the
Black pieces and pawn that is of interest; it’s
also the bishop attacking the knight on d7.
Taken together these resources suggest possi-
bilities for play on that file; and one way to
play on a file is to pin something in the front
to something in the rear.
So experiment with exchanges you can force.
White can initiate 1. BxN, RxB. Now White
pins Black’s pawn on d6 to the rook behind it.
This is a classic case where a preliminary ex-
change by White creates a loose piece, draw-
ing the rook forward and away from its
guard—and thus also creating a pinned pawn
in front of it. And the pin of the pawn
means...? It means the bishop on c5 can be
taken with White's rook.
A comparable way to see the idea is to note
the lineup of Black material on the d-file and
ask whether White’s queen has a pin because
of it. The answer is no; but why? Because the
knight behind the d-pawn is protected. One
way to loosen such a piece is to take it and
cause it to be replaced by a piece that then is
loose; White uses that method here with BxN.
Dg657: Ask what White attacks. There are
three answers: his rook on g1 attacks the
knight on g4; his bishop on d3 attacks the
bishop on g6; and his queen on h3 attacks the
pawn on h5. All three possibilities are useful
and important. The first thing to see about
them is that White has the makings of a pin
on the h-file, as his queen bears down on
Black's pawn and then also a piece behind it.
 Dg657: White to move
This is of particular interest because the h5
pawn is all that guards the Black knight that
your rook would otherwise be able to take.
What prevents the pin from succeeding is the
protection the rook takes from the Black king;
White's threat to take the rook with his queen
isn't scary so long as the rook is guarded. The
challenge is clear: interrupt that protection.
We know a few ways to do this. One is to
distract the guard by taking something else it
protects. In this case the king also guards the
bishop on g6. So White plays 1. BxB, KxB;
this leaves the rook loose and thus causes the
pawn on h5 to be pinned. Now White can
play RxN+. If Black recaptures with h5xR,
White takes Black’s rook with his queen and
still has won a piece.
As you can see, the idea of loosening a
screened piece to create a pin of whatever lies
in front of it has great practical importance.
Whenever you see enemy men lined up in
front of one of your attackers, consider
whether loosening one of the rear ones—by
any of the means we have considered here—
would leave the one in the foreground pinned
and useless as a defender.
Dg658: A pawn in the middle of the board
with opposed rooks on either side of it, like
White’s pawn here on d4, is a natural candi-
date for a pin; what makes the pin work for
Black, of course, is that White’s rook on d1 is
loose. This amounts to an offensive opportu-
nity: the d4 pawn is defensively inert, so
Black should search for ways to seize what-
ever it is meant to protect. It is meant to pro-
tect White’s knight on e5, so study the knight
and ask whether it can be taken.
Dg658: Black to move
Not quite: if Black plays f7-f6, the knight
simply moves. And Black can’t take the
knight with his h8 bishop because the knight
has one other guard in the pawn on f4. What
is to be done? Since Black has the prospect of
winning a whole piece, he can afford to make
a sacrifice to get rid of the f4 pawn. He simp-
ly takes it with Nxf4. After White recaptures
RxN, White’s knight has no guard other than
the pinned d4 pawn, which is to say it is
loose. Black plays BxN and wins a pawn with
the sequence.
The structure of the position is simple: a piece
that White seems to protect with two pawns
actually is protected by just one. So if Black
takes the pawn, allows a recapture, and then
takes the piece the pawn was supposed to pro-
tect, he ends up ahead a pawn.
Dg659: White to move
Dg659: White’s rook aims down the d-file,
where Black has a pawn and then a queen
behind it. The pawn almost is pinned, leaving
the knight on e5 loose; the only obstacle to
the pin is that White’s own knight is in the
way. Toy with vacating it violently so your
opponent will have to spend a move on his
response. The simplest way to move a piece
violently is with a capture, so White looks for
things his knight can take and plays Nxb6.
Indeed, this not only is simplest but also is
most profitable: if Black decides now to move
his queen and avoid the pin, White at least has
used the threat of the pin to win himself
something—a pawn. If Black instead opts to
recapture with c7xN, the pawn on d6 is
pinned and White can play QxN+. If Black
then recaptures with d6xQ, White plays RxQ,
winning back his queen and again netting a
pawn with the sequence. Do not turn up your
nose at the gain of a pawn. But the larger les-
son to take away from the position is the look
of the d-file, the pinning possibility it con-
tains, and the implications of the pin for the
knight on e5. It would be easy to miss this in
game conditions.
Dg660: Put together the lessons of the last
few positions and you have this one. Ask
what White attacks. His bishop on h3 attacks
Black’s knight on d7. His rook on d1 attacks
nothing as such, but is aimed down the d-file
where Black has a pawn, a knight, and a rook.
Dg660: White to move
White’s power directed at the d-file suggests
that he consider play there and keep pinning
possibilities in mind. What stands in the way
of a good pin? White would need to clear his
own pawn on d4 out of the way, but that can
be done easily enough with a capture (d4xe5).
The other problem is that behind what Black
has in front on the file (his pawn at d6), he
has a piece that is protected. As we know, a
routine motif in creating a relative pin in-
volves loosening one enemy piece that lies
behind another. Can Black’s knight on d7 be
loosened or replaced with a loose piece? Of
course; that is the significance of White’s
bishop on h3. White plays BxN, and when
Black replies RxB he now has a loose rook on
d7 behind his d6 pawn. The pawn would be
pinned if White’s own pawn were out of the
way, so now it's time for d4xe5. Black recap-
tures f6xe5. White has created a classic rela-
tive pin on Black’s pawn at d6, so he takes
what it is supposed to protect: Nxe5, winning
a pawn and improving his knight's position.
Notice how this position combines the ideas
in this section: accounting for all of the at-
tacks White can make, and seeing how they
might be coordinated; identifying a latent
pinning possibility on a file where White di-
rects force, even though the possibility is ob-
scured because White’s own pawn is in the
way and Black’s screened piece is guarded;
methodical loosening of the piece on the
screened square with an exchange; and then
violent evacuation of the file by White’s pawn
that had been in the way. All this to win a
pawn.
Incidentally, if you’re alert you might wonder
whether Black can escape trouble by replying
to White’s initial BxN with e5xd4, taking a
pawn and making a counterthreat against the
knight on c3. After this move it looks like
Black will be able to take either White’s
knight or his bishop next move, and without
stepping into a pin in the process. But White
has a clever answer: Bxc6, winning back the
pawn and creating a fresh threat "perhaps a
counter-counter-threat" against Black's bishop
on b7. Now Black has to play BxB (or else
suffer it himself), after which White has
Nxd4. In this variation White thus wins a
pawn, just as he does with the primary se-
quence considered above.
4.4.07.
Breaking a Relative Pin: Moving the
Screened Piece.
Breaking out of a relative pin is easier than
breaking out from an absolute pin, of course,
because there are many more options. The
pinned piece legally can move, and some-
times the benefits of doing so may be great
enough to offset the loss of the piece exposed
to capture. And the screened piece, unlike the
king, can move more than one square at a
time, and so may be able to both end the pin
and launch an attack of some sort that leaves
no time for the formerly pinned piece to be
taken. Here, as when we studied ways of
breaking absolute pins, the lessons are impor-
tant for those occasions when you may find
yourself the victim of such a tactic and need a
way out; but it also is important to understand
them so you will know when a pin you are
contemplating will succeed. We will start
with a series of positions where a relative pin
may (or may not!) be broken by moving the
screened piece.
Dg661: In this first example White doesn't
attack anything much. But what can White
attack on his next move, and what patterns do
you see in Black’s position? Notice Black’s
knight and queen lined up on the same di-
agonal, and realize White can play Bb5, pin-
ning the knight. Would the move result in any
gains?
Dg661: White to move
If you just consider the forces that each side
can bring to bear on the pinned piece, it might
seem promising: White next will be able to
play his queen to a4 so that he has two pieces
trained on the knight, whereas Black has
nothing to use in defending it except his
queen.
There is, however, another question to ask:
could Black interrupt White’s sequence by
moving one of the two pieces out of the pin?
Normally Black wouldn’t dare move his
queen, because while it is causing the knight
to be pinned it also is the only thing prevent-
ing the knight from being captured. One ex-
ception we will see later is when the screened
piece—here, the queen—can leave its square
with a threat; another exception, and the sav-
ing option in this case, arises when the
screened piece can move out of the pin while
still protecting the pinned piece. Thus after
White’s Bb5 Black looks for another square
for his queen from which it can guard the
knight; he finds a8 and moves his queen there.
The pin is dissolved and the knight still is
protected, so now if White tries to gang up on
the knight with Qa4 Black can simply move it
to safety.
Dg662: Black’s knight on e5 is pinned to his
rook. This causes Black to ask what offensive
threats either his pinned or screened piece
could make by leaving their squares; he
searches for one that would buy time—just a
move—that would allow him to take the other
piece out of harm’s way, too. In this case the
answer is easy if you practice an awareness of
any loose pieces on the board, for then you
are drawn to White’s bishop on c2.
Dg662: Black to move
It is a simple matter for Black to attack it with
his rook via Rc8. Now if Black’s knight gets
taken, so does White’s bishop. If White
doesn’t like this, he can move the bishop—
but then Black has time to move his knight.
The pin is ruined.
That’s the simple answer. There is another
more complex possibility here that is worth
noting as well. Suppose Black instead plays
NxN. Does this break the pin? Consider this
as an exercise; the answer will follow in the
next paragraph.
Okay, the answer is yes. The risk, of course,
is that White will reply with BxR; the ques-
tion is what reply you could make to this. You
look first for a check and see Qc5, a move
that also has the useful feature of attacking
the loose bishop on c2. This check forces
White to either move his king back to h1 or
interpose a pawn at d4. If White chooses Kh1,
Black has NxBb8—and now he has won two
pieces for his rook. White still has QxN avail-
able, but then Black still has QxBc2 as well,
and after those captures he still has three
pieces in return for a piece and a rook. It’s
about the same if White instead replies to Qc5
with d3-d4. This time Black has to move his
queen to prevent it from being taken, so he
plays QxBc2 now and saves the threat of NxB
for his next move. Once more Black ends up
with two pieces in return for a rook.
But it's enough if you just grasp the basic
principle here: the idea of breaking out of a
relative pin by making a threat with one of the
pieces involved in it.
Dg663: Black to move
Dg663: Do you see the pin that is troubling
Black? His knight on e2 cannot move without
exposing his rook, which is loose, to capture
by White. And if it were White’s turn he
would win a piece, as the pinned knight is
attacked twice and protected just once. But
it’s Black’s move, so look for an offensive
option with one of the pieces that is party to
the pin; perhaps it can create a sufficient dis-
traction to allow both pieces to escape.
Can either piece give check? No. Can either
attack a loose White piece? No. What else is
there? Always be aware of the enemy king: its
constraints and any pressure you are exerting
against it—and especially any pieces current-
ly attacking any squares adjacent to it, for that
is what mate threats are made of. Here
Black’s other rook on b6 bears down on the b-
file next to White’s king. A move that adds
another attack against the b1 square—say,
Nc3— would add to the pressure on the king,
because it would put Black in position to play
Rb1 with protection. That threat doesn’t quite
seem decisive here because White also pro-
tects b1 with his rook now on e1. But an idea
comes into view: if Black plays Nc3, he in-
vites White to execute the pin with RxR—
which is fine, because then Black would mate
with Rb1. White can decline RxR, of course,
but he has to do something with his e1 rook
because it would be under attack. Probably he
would move it to c1, which again suits Black
fine; for now the pin is broken.
Notice, then, all that Nc3 does: it’s a discov-
ered attack, unmasking a threat against
White’s rook by the pinned piece while also
launching a fresh threat against the mating
square b1. White can extinguish both threats
with Rc1, but by then Black has escaped
trouble.
4.4.08.
Breaking a Relative Pin: Moving the Pinned
Piece.
We have been considering cases where the
player facing a relative pin tries to break it by
moving the screened piece—in other words,
the piece at the rear of the pin. Now we con-
sider another scenario: the possibility of
breaking a pin by moving the relatively
pinned piece and leaving the piece behind it
exposed to capture.
Dg664: Here Black’s knight on c3 is pinned
to his queen by White's bishop, and the knight
is attacked three times but defended just once.
Does Black have a defense? He needs to find
a move with one of the two pieces in the
pin—his knight or his queen—that makes a
threat; he seeks a threat severe enough to
force White to let the other piece in the pin go
free on the next turn. The queen has no such
threats, but it often is easier to create them
with a piece like a knight because knights are
more expendable and so can make bold at-
tacks with less fear.
Dg664: Black to move
So Black examines the knight's circle of
moves in search of one that makes a threat
great enough to offset the loss of his queen
that he risks if the knight moves. It probably
would need to be a threat against White’s
king or queen. The knight can’t check
White’s king because they have one square
between them on the same diagonal, a non-
working pattern familiar from our work on
knight forks. But it can attack the queen with
NxN, which also has the virtue of being a
capture. If White recaptures, Black moves his
queen and the pin has been dissolved with no
loss. If White takes Black’s queen, Black
takes White’s queen—and has won a piece,
since White's queen is unprotected.
Black could play Nb5 here, planning to reply
to White's BxQ with his own NxQ. The prob-
lem then is that White's queen still is pro-
tected (since Black hasn't taken out the knight
on e2), so White gets to finish the sequence
with NxN and gains a piece.
Dg665: On the e-file we find a classic relative
pin of Black’s bishop by White’s rook. The
pinned piece is attacked once and defended
once; to get mileage from the pin White needs
to attack the bishop again. The usual tech-
nique would be to advance a pawn toward the
target with f2-f4. Any problem with that here?
Yes, for ask whether either of the enemy
pieces in the pin would be able to leave their
squares with threats—especially checks.
Dg665: White to move
The key observation here is that once White
moves his pawn off of f2, he opens a line to
his king. Now Black would be able to play
Bd4, giving check. White has to move his
king, which not only buys time for Black to
move his pieces; it enables him to play RxR,
winning a piece. As we see here, an advan-
tage of breaking a relative pin by moving the
pinned piece in a time-consuming manner is
that sometimes the screened piece then is able
to take the offensive against the piece that had
been inflicting the pin.
Dg666: White to move
Dg666: What offensive possibility do you see
for White? No doubt the alignment of the
Black queen and knight on the long diagonal
is self-evident by this point; likewise White’s
ability to impose a pin with Bd4. Black’s
knight seems then to be attacked (by White’s
bishop and queen) more times than it is de-
fended (by Black’s queen); so it appears at
first that the pin is a winner. But before im-
posing any pin—and especially a mere rela-
tive pin—ask what your opponent could do in
reply. You are looking in particular for time-
consuming offensive threats he would be able
to make with either his pinned piece or his
screened piece, and especially any checks
either piece could give. Here Black’s knight
could exit the pin with check: Nf3+. Of
course White just takes it with his bishop or
queen, but this costs White a move (the priori-
ty of check); and now Black takes White’s
bishop, which has been left loose, with his
queen. The pin therefore doesn’t work. It is
another example of a case where Black moves
the pinned piece with gain of tempo, which
allows the screened piece to go on the offen-
sive next move.
Dg667: White to move
Dg667: White pins Black’s rook with his
queen. But it’s only a relative pin, so it has to
be exploited with delicacy. The rook can
leave its position, and safely leave Black’s
queen en prise, if it can give a check in the
process that requires White to spend a move
playing something other than QxQ. This
doesn’t seem like a worry on the board as it
now looks, but the point has to be kept in
mind at all times; it has a way of becoming
important at unexpected moments. Here, for
example, how should White take advantage of
the pin? The rook doesn’t defend anything, so
the usual idea would be to add attackers to the
target until it comes down. White’s only
available attacker is his own rook, so he might
naturally consider playing Rc1. But now the
point mentioned a moment ago has bite:
Black then plays RxR+; and after White fends
off the check with QxR, Black’s queen is free
and the pin has resulted in no gain.
How can White avoid this problem? He must
use his rook to attack Black’s in a way that
does not allow RxR+. There are two ways to
do this. He can play Rf2 now and then Rc2 a
move later; or he can play Kf2 now and Rc1 a
move later. The point either way is that when
White’s rook attacks the pinned piece, it must
not be on the same line with its king. Of
course with either of these sequences Black’s
rook still can leave its square with check (via
Rc2 or Rc1, as the case may be), but that’s
okay; White would be able to take the rook
with his queen on either of those squares and
win the piece. What you want to avoid is let-
ting Black make a move that is a capture and
a check, or that lets the rook check without
White being able to capture it. (It’s true that if
White plays Kf2 here he gives Black a move
to regroup, but there is nothing useful he can
do with the time.)
Dg668: White has just pinned Black’s knight
with his bishop on g5. How should Black re-
spond? This is a common sort of pin, and
when the bishop that inflicts it is unguarded,
as it is here, it is dangerous for White. Notice
that it sets up the kernel of a discovered attack
against the pinning bishop; if the knight can
move out of the way with check, Black will
be able to play QxB a move later.
Dg668: Black to move
You will want to be careful about so leaving
pieces loose even when they are inflicting
pins. In this case it might not seem like a
problem because the pinned knight cannot
reach White’s king to give check. Yet. But
Black looks for any checks he can give and
finds this one: Bxf2. White presumably rep-
lies KxB (we will consider another option in a
minute). This moves his king forward a rank,
which is far enough. Now Black plays Ng4+,
checking White’s king. The king must move,
and then Black plays QxB and collects the
bishop. The pin is broken, Black gains a
pawn, and White is on the defensive and has a
king that cannot castle.
Now a few afterthoughts:
(a) When Black uses his knight to attack
White’s king, notice the importance of play-
ing Ng4+ rather than Ne4+. The latter move
allows White to reply Ke3 and then KxN next
move; for if Black’s knight is on e4 it has no
protection after Black plays QxB. If the
knight instead is on g4, then Black’s capture
QxB also gives the knight a guard and makes
it impervious to attack by White’s king. It
might seem Black could solve this by playing
the knight to e4 and then using the knight
(rather than the queen) to take White's bishop
on g5; but then White plays h2-h4, and
Black's knight suddenly has no safe place to
go.
(b) You might wonder what happens if White
replies to Bxf2 with Kd2 rather than KxB. He
gives up the piece that he otherwise would
have taken; does he get it back? No. It is true
that now Black is forced to check with Ne4
rather than Ng4, and that the knight still has
no protection on e4. So White can reply to
Ne4+ with Kd3 and then reply to QxB with
KxN. But it’s costly: Black plays Qe3+,
where the queen takes protection from the
bishop now on f2. Now White’s only legal
move is Kf5, which Black meets with a de-
lightful discovered checkmate: d7-d6#. It will
take a moment to see how this works and to
realize that White’s king has nowhere to go at
the end. It’s worth it. A moral: venturing your
king out onto the board early in the game is a
hazardous business.
(c) Black has a different sequence in this posi-
tion that also works to break the pin. He can
simply play Ne4. Now if White plays BxQ,
Black mates with Bxf2#. So instead of BxQ,
White instead has to retreat his bishop to e3.
Now Black plays BxB; White replies f2xB;
Black has Qh4+; and White is forced to inter-
pose with g2-g3, leading to further complica-
tions and leaving his pawn cover in unfortu-
nate shape.
Dg669: White to move
Dg669: This looks a bit like a mirror image of
the previous position: the pin Black imposes
on White’s knight is structurally the same.
Can White use the same idea to escape? Per-
haps Bxf7+, requiring Kxf7 (if the pawn’s
loss is to be avenged), allows White to then
play Ng5+ and break the pin. But not quite. It
worked last time because the knight was safe
on the square from which it gave check, and
because the pinning bishop was loose. Here
the conditions are different. After 1. Bxf7+,
KxB; 2. Ng5+, Black is not required to retreat
his king and give White a free move. He can
capture the checking piece with his queen,
QxN. Now that charming discovered attack
from last time, culminating with the queen
taking the bishop that used to impose a pin,
no longer looks so great for White, because
Black’s bishop suddenly has protection from
the queen on g5. True, White can play BxQ
(the knight was not loose when it gave the
check), but then Black can also can play BxQ.
After White takes the bishop with RxB, he
still hasn't made up for the bishop he sacri-
ficed at the beginning to smoke out Black’s
king. The point is the importance of not play-
ing patterns like the previous one as mechani-
cal gimmicks. Treat them as ideas, and care-
fully study each side’s best replies. (White’s
best move is simply Qb3.)
Dg670: Black’s knight on f5 is pinned to his
queen. It is attacked more times than it is pro-
tected, and Black has run out of ways to add
more defenders to it. The queen has no checks
or other scary threats to make to break the
pin.
Dg670: Black to move
But there remains another resource to consid-
er: threats with the pinned piece. There is a
check to be had with Ng3, but you see that
this loses the knight to h2xN; and this time
Black has no compensating capture to make
with the screened piece because White has
protection for the piece administering the pin
(thus Black’s QxB would be met with QxQ).
Threatening the enemy king remains a good
idea, but Black needs a way to do it with the
pinned knight that does not allow it to be tak-
en. The key is to look for other Black pieces
already trained on squares adjacent to White’s
king. Black has one bishop attacking g1 and
another attacking g2. Can his knight safely
and usefully add an additional attack against
one of those squares? Yes, with NxB: now the
knight bears down on g2, and Black threatens
Bxg2# if White takes Black's now-exposed
queen. White instead needs to take a defen-
sive measure like Bf3.
Dg671: Black to move
Dg671: Where does Black labor under a pin?
On the fifth rank; hence the importance of
scanning horizontally as well as vertically and
diagonally in search of pieces lined up with
each other. It looks like trouble. The f5 bishop
is attacked twice (by White’s queen and bi-
shop) and protected once (by Black’s queen);
if it moves, White plays QxQ. Black has no
safe way to bring more pieces to the bishop’s
defense. He needs a different idea. Consider
what threats the pieces in the pin can make.
The queen has no threats to make that do not
result in its capture. But what about his bi-
shop? It can't give check, but don’t stop there.
Ask how Black’s other pieces bear on White’s
king, and whether the bishop can be coordi-
nated with them to create a mating threat.
Black currently has one bishop that cuts off
the White king’s flight squares e1 and d2; and
his rook cuts off e2. The king’s position thus
is perilous, and White can make it more so by
playing BxB. This adds a second attack on e2,
and so threatens Be2# on the next move if
White plays QxQ. But if White decides to
defend against the mate threat with c2xB,
Black is the one who plays QxQ. (Qxd3+
might seem tempting at that point, but then
White interposes with Nd2.) So c2xB would
be a blunder for White; the correct way out of
the situation Black creates with BxB is for
White to save his queen first with a check that
consumes Black’s reply move and gives
White time to fend off the mate threat. Thus
in reply to Black’s BxB, White's best play is
Qg4+. White can't carry out his mate threat
because he's in check, and he's about to lose
his bishop (to c2xB) if he leaves it where it is;
his best bet now is to address both issues by
using the bishop to block Black’s check: Bg6
moves the bishop out of danger while extin-
guishing the threat to his king. When the
smoke clears, Black not only has saved the
bishop that was pinned at the outset but has
won a piece.
Notice the importance of paying attention to
how you can create mate threats—not neces-
sarily because you expect to be able to carry
them out, but because they allow you to con-
trol your opponent’s moves and, in this case,
buy time to escape trouble.
Incidentally, Black also has a simpler way out
of the pin that is not quite as strong but is
worth seeing anyway: Be4. Now the bishop is
guarded twice, and it also guards the piece
(the queen) that was at the back of the pin.
Dg672: White to move
Dg672: White is down a rook and subject to a
pin: Black’s queen pins the rook on b5 to the
queen behind it. Of course you also notice the
concentration of activity on the seventh rank,
where if White’s knight were to move,
White’s queen would pin Black’s bishop. But
the immediate issue is the fate of the rook on
b5. If it leaves its square its queen gets taken,
so its reason for doing so had better be to give
check or join in a mating attack. Does White
currently attack any squares adjacent to
Black’s king that might serve as the basis for
a mate threat?
Yes: the bishop on b2 attacks the bishop on
g7, and the knight on f7 attacks h6 and h8.
The rook can add another attack to h6, too,
with Rh5. If Black takes the rook with his g6
pawn, White obviously has QxQ; less ob-
viously but more importantly, White has
Qf5#. But that doesn't settle the issue; the
important question is what White's rook
would be able to do from h6 after Black plays
QxQ. The first follow-up to consider—
checking with the rook via Rxh6+—doesn't
work; it results in Black simply playing BxR.
Yet with three White pieces then surrounding
Black's king, and the king’s movements high-
ly constrained, one must press hard. Look for
another check White could give once the rook
is on h5 and Black has spent a move playing
out the pin with QxQ.
All right, did you see it? White has a checking
option besides Rxh6+; he has Ng5+. Black’s
pawn on h6 would be unable to take the
knight because it would be pinned by the
rook. Instead Black would have to move his
king to h8. Every time the king moves you
ask whether new pins have been created;
when the king moves to h8 here, it creates a
pin of the g7 Black bishop by White’s bishop.
Black takes advantage by moving onto the
square Black’s bishop formerly protected:
Rxh6#. Indeed, after White’s initial play of
Rh5, mate follows soon no matter what Black
does.
The point is to not be afraid to think about
moving a relatively pinned piece if in doing
so it would be joining an attack on the enemy
king. Careful analysis may reveal that the
move leads to a mating attack. Think in terms
not just of saving the piece but of using it.
Chapter 4.B
The Skewer.
 4.5.01.
Simple Skewers Through the King.
A skewer is similar to a pin but with the logic
reversed. You attack two pieces in a line, and
often one of them is the enemy king; but in-
stead of the king being in back with a piece
that is paralyzed in front of it, the king is in
front of one of its fellow pieces, and is forced
by an attack to step out of the way and allow
the piece behind it to be captured. Or instead
of the king it may be a queen or other piece
that starts in front and must yield to the at-
tacker. The point is that since your opponent
is required to spend a move relocating the
piece in front, you get a free shot at whatever
was behind it. (In the diagram, Black can ad-
minister a skewer with Bg7. We'll return to
the example in a minute.)
Since a skewer is based on the idea that a val-
uable piece in front is forced to jump out of
the way of a less valuable piece behind it, we
can make some useful generalizations about
where we might find one. A skewer almost
always will run through a king, queen, or rook
(just as a pin almost always has a king, queen,
or rook at the back end of it); and like pins,
skewers can be inflicted by the bishop, rook,
or queen. The instinct for spotting skewers
also is similar to the instinct for seeing pins:
become sensitive to any enemy pieces (or any
pieces of your own) arranged on a line; trace
the paths between pieces in search of oppor-
tunities.
The simplest skewers to analyze run through
the enemy king, so we'll start by looking at
some positions based on that model. Skewers
of this sort tend not to occur until the middle
or later parts of the game. The reason is that
for the pattern to arise, either the enemy king
has to get out in front of the target piece or the
skewering piece has to get behind the king;
one way or another, in other words, the king
has to be between one of your pieces and one
of his, and this generally isn't possible early in
a game. Occasionally such a skewer can be
administered along the back rank, as we shall
see, but usually only after many of the king’s
fellow pieces are off the board. Skewers
through the king thus are an especially potent
weapon in an endgame, when the king may be
put on the run and your pieces have more
ways to get behind it.
Dg673: Black to move
Dg673: There are two general ways to find
skewers, just as with any other tactic: by spot-
ting the visual pattern or by asking questions
and finding a skewer in the answers. The key
visual pattern in this first example is the pres-
ence of White’s king and queen on the same
diagonal; this always should raise a red flag.
But if you don't see a pattern like this, you
still might think of it by considering any
checks Black can give. He has two with his
queen (Qf3 and Qd8) and two with his bishop
(Be7 and Bg7). If you imagine Bg7 you
should see the line from the bishop through
the king to the queen. Or when you consider
the reply to Bg7 you realize that Black can
neither interpose anything nor capture the
bishop: he must move his king. When the
king moves, you ask what this makes possi-
ble, especially by using the checking piece
that now may have a clean line where the king
used to sit. Here Black can of course play
BxQ, winning the queen.
Dg 674: The sight of Black’s king and knight
aligned on the same diagonal should be strik-
ing. Until now it might not have seemed mea-
ningful because no pin is possible; the posi-
tions of the king and knight would have to be
reversed for that. But this ordering neverthe-
less makes possible a skewer. Examine any
checks White can give and see that there are
two: Bh3+ and Bc4+.

Dg 674: White to move
Both require the king to move; but when you
imagine it moving in reply to Bc4+ you see a
line left clear to the loose knight on g8—
which you take.
Dg675: Black to move
Dg675: The sight of White’s king and queen
on the same line here may seem less conspi-
cuous than the alignments in the other prob-
lems of this sort we have seen. Take notice:
pieces on squares adjacent to the enemy king
can be skewered—especially the queen,
which often is a good catch even if the king
can protect it when it steps out of the way (an
issue we will examine in detail later). But
when in doubt you can't go wrong by just
looking at every check you can offer. Black
has six with his queen that go nowhere and
two with his bishop: Be2+, which loses the
piece, and Bd5+, which keeps the piece safe
and forces the king to move. Safe checks that
force the king to move are always of great
interest, in part because they may leave what-
ever lies behind the king exposed. Here Black
follows Bd5+ with BxQ.
Dg676: The examples so far in this chapter all
have involved enemy kings that had wandered
out a couple of ranks from their starting posi-
tions; they also have involved skewers im-
posed by bishops.
Dg676: White to move
That’s no coincidence: the king has to be out
a few squares on a diagonal before it can lie
between a bishop and anything else. But other
pieces can give skewers, too. The pattern of
Black’s king and rook on the same rank is
unremarkable in itself, but it can lend itself to
a rook skewer in the right circumstances—
such as those shown here. Notice the layout;
or examine any checks White can offer and
find just one—Rd8. Since the square is pro-
tected by White’s bishop, Black wouldn't be
able to capture the rook with his king, nor
would he be able to interpose anything. The
king would have to move, and in moving it
would leave the loose rook on h8 exposed,
allowing White to play RxR.
Dg677: White to move
Dg677: This position illustrates why skewers
take practice to see. If you look casually for
pieces lined up with Black’s king, it would be
easy to conclude that there is nothing except
perhaps the queen on d7; and that would be
correct if we only were concerned with pins.
But since we also are looking for skewers, the of the rook rather than behind it, this calls for
rook that lies behind the king on f8 is another a skewer rather than a pin. But how?
target to notice. Realistically you might be as
likely to find the idea here by looking for any
checks you can give and seeing Bh6+. Since
the bishop has backup from its queen it can't
be captured, and again interposition is im-
possible. The king must move. When you can
give a check that forces the king to move,
taking whatever lies behind it is something to
consider automatically. White’s next move is
BxR.

Dg679: White to move

White can’t play Be6+ because then Black’s

Dg678: White to move
Dg678: Black’s king is lined up with his bi-
shop on the f-file and also with his queen at
d8. A skewer against the f8 bishop is possible
with Qf4, but it doesn’t work because the bi-
shop has plenty of protection. How about a
skewer against Black’s queen? Notice that
White has two ways to do it: Bg5+ and Qh4+.
Bg5+ just loses the bishop to KxB, but Qh4+
is safe. We aren’t quite finished, though, be-
cause Black has a defense to consider: he can
interpose a pawn on g5. This presents no real
problem, however, as White merely plays
Qxg5+ and restores the skewer. (By the way,
if Black's queen had protection you wouldn't
want to use this particular sequence; instead
you would reply to g7-g5 with Bxg5+, letting
the bishop take over the skewer with protec-
tion from the queen now behind it on h4. This
way the capture of Black's queen would then
be made with the bishop, and the sequence
would be a winner even if the bishop were
recaptured at the end.)
Dg679: Look for alignments between Black's
king and its pieces and see that it is lined up
with its rook on c8. Since the king is in front
king takes the bishop. He can’t play Qg4+
because then Black plays QxQ. But one pos-
sibility remains on that light-squared diagon-
al: Qh3+, where the queen administers a
skewer from safety. Black has nothing to do
but move his king away from the rook (which,
importantly, is loose). He can’t play the king
to d8 to protect the rook because White at-
tacks the square with his bishop. So next
White will play QxR. The point is to see that
there often are several ways to land a piece on
the diagonal or other line needed for a skewer.
You want to be thorough in considering not
just every piece that can do the job, but every
path your pieces can take to the needed line.
Dg680: White to move
Dg680: Do you see the skewer for White?
Which one? When a king ventures out into
the middle of the board late in the game, it
can becomes prey to multiple skewers as its
fellow pieces often end up behind it. Here you
can see that Black’s king is in front of its bi-
shop, rook, and queen. White can skewer any
of them. The queen can check the king along
two diagonals, its rank, and its file. Thus
Qc2+ wins Black’s bishop; Qe2+ wins a rook;
Qg2+, best of all, wins the queen. (Notice that
since White is down a rook and a pawn, only
the availability of Qg2+ saves the game.)
Dg681: White to move
Dg681: The pin White’s queen exerts against
Black’s queen on the seventh rank is such an
arresting sight that it would be easy to be con-
sumed with thoughts of exploiting it some-
how; alas, Rd3 doesn’t prevent Black from
playing QxQ. What would? A check—so ex-
amine any that White can give. He has two
with his queen that are unhelpful, but one
with his rook—Rh7—that is helpful indeed,
as it forces the king to move and so exposes
the queen to capture with RxQ. The pin turns
out to have been a sideshow. Notice that
Black could also reply to 1. Rh7 by interpos-
ing his own rook at f7. That gives White RxR;
if Black recaptures then with his king, he
leaves himself vulnerable to QxQ+.
Dg682: White to move
Dg682: You should see that Black’s king and
queen are on the same file with no pawns nor
anything else between or behind them. Go for
a tactic on the file. Black’s king is up off the
back rank and White’s rook is beneath it, a
classic invitation to a skewer. The only hitch
is that the square White needs—f8—is
guarded by Black’s knight. But notice that
White’s rooks are doubled on the back rank.
Part of the power of doubled rooks arises
from the fact one can be sacrificed on a
square to then make it a safe place for the
other to land. So go ahead and play the check
Rf8. Black replies NxR, and now White has
RxN+, reestablishing his second rook on f8
now that Black’s defense of the square has
been exhausted. Black has to move his king
and allow his queen to be taken with RxQ.
Dg683: White to move
Dg683: This is structurally the same as the
previous position; it's just a little different
visually. Again there are two key facts here:
the doubling of White’s rooks on the h-file,
which is open, and the alignment of Black’s
king and queen on the seventh rank. Rh7+
almost skewers Black’s king and queen, but
the square is defended by Black’s knight.
Once more the two rooks suggest the answer:
play Rh7+, allowing the recapture NxR; then
comes the other rook with RxN+, and Black is
out of ways to keep a skewering piece off of
h7. He moves his king and White takes his
queen.
Dg684: Instead of doubled rooks, White has a
battery of queen and rook this time; but it can
work the same way as the batteries we have
just examined. White plays Qh8+, sacrificing
his queen to BxQ—but clearing the way for
the follow-up RxB+, and then after the Black
king moves, RxQ. White gains a piece with
the sequence (the Black bishop).

Dg684: White to move
Needless to say, you might have spotted the
idea by just experimenting with checks (and
then the new checks they make possible).
Dg685: White to move
Dg685: White has an apparently simple cap-
ture of a loose piece with RxB. Any problem
with this? It's not enough to ask whether the
piece you want to take has protection. Ask
what tactical possibilities would be available
to your opponent after the move. One impor-
tant clue that you are creating tactical risks is
that a capture will leave your piece lined up
with another of your pieces—especially your
king—since you may be creating the kernel of
a pin or skewer. Here the glaring fact about
BxR is that it puts White’s rook and king on
the same rank. Black can exploit this with
Rh2+; White’s king is forced to step aside,
and after RxR Black has won the exchange.
Dg686: Now let's look at some skewers that
run through the queen rather than the king.
Start with the same general searching strate-
gy: scan the board for enemy pieces on the
same line. Here White sees Black’s queen and
bishop on the same diagonal with nothing
between them.
4.5.02.
Simple Skewers Through the Queen.
Dg686: White to move
Take note of this general visual pattern; it is
common, and cries out for a skewer—if
White can run a piece through the queen with
protection against capture. Here White has
Bb4, where the bishop takes protection from
the pawn on a3. Black must move his queen
rather than protect it, and once he does this
the bishop on e7 is loose and is taken for free
with BxB, which also forks the rooks on d8
and g5.
Take note, too, of how the bishop became
loose. If you see a piece protected only by its
queen, that means the piece is aligned with its
queen—and that you may have a nascent tac-
tical opportunity. This is especially important
as the queen moves farther out onto the board,
since then skewers become increasingly poss-
ible.
Dg687: White to move
Dg687: There are two things you should see
as soon as you lay eyes on this position. First,
the Black bishop and queen are lined up on
the same rank; enemy pieces on a line with skewers. This queen in particular is aligned
nothing between them always suggest the with several of its pieces.
possibility of a pin or skewer. Second, the
bishop on a5 is protected only by the queen;
this too should cause you to think about a
skewer. The pattern is structurally the same as
the previous position: the bishop will become
loose if the queen is driven off, and so will be
a safe and suitable target for a capture by any
skewering piece. White thus plays Re5, where
the rook attacks the queen with protection
from the knight on f3. The queen must move,
and it has no place to go where it can keep
protecting the bishop. Now White plays RxB
and wins the bishop for nothing. Dg689: White to move

What you need is a piece of your own that can

attack the queen safely while also aimed
through it at a worthwhile target. Bf4 fits the
bill: the bishop attacks the queen, and is pro-
tected by the rook on f1. Black can use his
queen to guard the rook on b8, but that's okay.
White still wins the exchange.

Dg688: White to move

Dg688: There are lots of cues to suggest the

winning idea here. One prominent pattern is
the presence of three Black pieces lined up on
the c-file. This should cause you to think
about tactics that take advantage of enemy
pieces on a line: pins and skewers. And if you
size up the protection each Black piece en-
joys, you see that the bishop on c7 is pro-
tected only by the queen in front of it—
another tip-off. The natural thought would be
to put a rook on the file, as with Rf-c1. The
rook has the protection it needs to attack
Black’s queen, and the queen has nowhere to
go that still protects the c7 bishop. White
plays RxB next move.
Dg689: Black’s queen has taken the offen-
sive, attacking your knight on c5. Consider
your counterattacking possibilities before re-
sorting to defensive play. A queen sitting as
far toward the middle of an open board as
Black’s does here should generate thoughts of
Dg690: White to move
Dg690: The idea can be slightly harder to see
in a position like this where the queen is nes-
tled back among its own pieces. Get used to
spotting the significance of patterns like the
alignment of Black’s rook and queen on d8
and c7 with open squares on the diagonal
ahead of them. Pieces so arranged invite an
attack by a bishop, as with Bb6—this time
taking protection from the White knight on a4
and again winning the exchange after Black
moves his queen to safety.
Dg691: We're looking at lots of these posi-
tions because it's so important to become vi-
sually sensitive to enemy pieces on the same
line. There are several here on the seventh
rank, but more critical is the alignment of
Black’s queen and rook in the corner—the
same kernel as in the last problem.
Dg691: White to move
White has several ways to put an attacker on
that diagonal with his queen, but of course
that’s no good since Black just plays QxQ.
White needs to attack with his bishop from a
protected square to prevent Black’s queen
from biting back. Bd5 accomplishes the mis-
sion. So you think: 1. Bd5, Qc8; 2. BxR,
QxB, and White wins the exchange. Good,
but now look for better. After Black moves
his queen to c8, White can play the check
Qe4+; once Black moves his king, White can
take Black's rook with impunity because his
bishop now has the queen's protection.
Dg692: Black to move
Dg692: White's position looks solid and well-
fortified. Is there a weakness? Yes: the kernel
of rook-plus-queen on a diagonal, as White
has here on e2 and f1, once again is a vulne-
rability. The pieces are on a light-squared
diagonal, so Black just needs to get his light-
squared bishop into line with them—with
protection, of course. He plays Ba6, made
safe by the knight on b8, and wins the ex-
change after White’s queen moves.
Before plunging ahead, though, take a mo-
ment to ask whether White would have any
defenses against Black's skewer. One idea to
consider is an interposition: can White block
the attack by planting something in its way?
Here he could, with Nb5. But notice that
White's knight then has pinned itself to its
queen. So Black rethinks the resulting posi-
tion, now looking at it as a pin, and goes after
the paralyzed knight with c7-c6. White could
add a defender with a2-a4, but it doesn’t mat-
ter; extra defenders are no consolation when
one of your pieces is about to get taken by a
pawn.
Dg693: Black to move
Dg693: Where is the key weakness in White’s
position? Look for alignments of his pieces;
by now it should be no trouble to spot the
White queen and a2 rook on the same diagon-
al. An attack by Black with a protected bishop
will scare the queen out of the way, leaving
White no time to move the rook behind it.
White can use the queen to protect the rook,
but so long as Black is using a bishop rather
than a queen he is happy to make a trade that
wins the exchange. He plays a bishop to the
diagonal with Be6, the protection being fur-
nished this time by a pawn, and wins the ex-
change next move.
Dg694: White looks at everything his pieces
attack and sees an apparently attractive oppor-
tunity: a loose pawn on e7 that he can take
with his queen. Any problem with this?

Dg694: White to move
The capture is a disaster for White because
now he has done Black the favor of clearing
the e-file of everything except White’s own
queen and rook. A queen and rook on an open
file can form a powerful battery and serve as
part of an effective mating attack, but it also
can serve as the kernel of an unwelcome pin
or skewer. The vulnerability of the pair de-
pends in part on the quality of the protection
the pieces enjoy. Here White’s rook on e1 has
no protection on the first rank, and indeed no
protection from any piece but the queen—a
characteristic of many targets of skewers.
Black thus is able to reply with Re8, where
the rook forces the queen out of the way with
protection from the knight on f6 as well as the
rook on a8. The queen has no square to which
it can retreat and keep protecting the rook on
e1, so Black will take the rook next move. Or
White will have to let his queen go and recap-
ture with the rook. The lesson: before making
any capture—even of a loose piece or pawn—
consider whether you are aligning your pieces
in troublesome ways that would allow a
skewer or pin by your opponent.
The actual best move for White here is Nd2,
which enables him to threaten Qxe7 for real;
moving his knight out of the way like this
connects the rooks on his back rank, allowing
them to defend each other and thus immuniz-
ing the e1 rook—and the queen—from the
threat of a skewer.
4.5.03.
Simple Skewers Through Rooks.
Dg695: White to move
Dg695: Our next pattern to consider involves
skewers where a rook has to jump out of the
way and leave a piece behind it to be taken. In
this first case, notice the little knot created by
Black's rook and knight. Their alignment sug-
gests the usefulness of running them through
with Bd5, which wins a piece: when the rook
moves, the loose knight behind it gets taken.
It would be different if the rook could move
and protect the knight at the same time, but it
can't.
Not all skewers involve loose pieces, but
many of them do; so when you see a loose
piece, look for other enemy pieces on the
same line—and be especially sensitive to
clustered pairs like Black’s knight and rook
here.
Dg696: White to move
Dg696: What is White’s strongest move?
There are two ways to see it: look for Black
pieces on the same line, and spot the two
rooks on the same dark-squared diagonal; or
look for loose pieces, find the rook on d6, and
experiment with attacks on it—especially
along lines it shares with other enemy pieces.
Either way the answer is straightforward:
White plays Bb4, attacking both rooks. Black
can move one of the rooks to protect the oth-
er, but he still loses the exchange.

This is an important pattern to remember.

Anytime two enemy rooks are lined up on a
diagonal, consider whether you might run
them through with a bishop. Dg698: White to move

Ask what now becomes possible and you find

the same skewering idea we saw a moment
ago: Bf7, winning the exchange next move. In
effect this position involves two skewers;
with Bb3, White skewers Black’s king to the
skewering square f7. The key here, as before,
is to recognize that rooks on the same diagon-
al create a good target for a bishop or (some-
times) a queen. Once you see that possibility,
whether right away or after the check, the rest
is engineering.
Dg697: White to move

Dg697: Perhaps the most obvious pattern of

interest on the board is the alignment of
Black’s king and rook on the fifth rank. The
most obvious, but not the most useful; more
significant is the alignment of the two Black
rooks on the same diagonal—another clus-
tered pair. In this case the rooks are on light
squares, so White finds his light-squared bi-
shop and charts the course Be8. Black doesn’t
have time to save both pieces; the best he can
do is play the rook on g6 to h6 so that it can Dg699: Black to move
recapture after White plays BxR. White nev-
ertheless wins the exchange. Notice that a Dg699: This should be an easy one now. Your
search for Black loose pieces would have typical search for ideas includes a scan for
turned up this idea as well: having found the loose pieces and any enemy pieces on the
loose rook on h5, you look at ways to attack it same line. Here those inquiries point to the
on every one of its lines, including the see- rook on a1, which is loose and is lined up
mingly remote diagonal leading to e8. with the other White rook on d4. Your first
choice of attacker on a diagonal is a bishop.
Dg698: This position is the same as the last In this case Bf6 skewers the two rooks, again
one, but with a Black pawn on c6 that blocks winning the exchange after one moves to pro-
the bishop’s path to e8. Now what should tect the other.
White do? Answer (of course): examine every
check. This leads you to Bb3, which forces
Black to move his king (probably to c5).
 4.5.04.
Substituting the King to Create a Skewer.
Dg700: Black to move
Dg700: Most of the techniques involved in
creating skewers where elements are missing
will be familiar from our work with pins, but
the visual patterns look a little different. In
this first study Black has a powerful resource
in his doubled rooks but no immediate way to
exploit it. Rather than obsess over the g-file,
pause and obey the first law of tactical opera-
tions, viz., look at any checks you can give
and their consequences. It doesn’t take long,
as there are only two: Rg2+, which loses the
rook to BxR, and RxB+, which loses the rook
to KxR—but in a capture that requires the
king to move, and thus requires an inspection
of the king's new position. Survey the king’s
new lines and anything else on them. Here
White has put his king into alignment with his
rook on the light-squared diagonal leading to
d1. This calls for a skewer. Black plays Bg4+,
and White has to move his king away; it can't
guard the rook, so White wins a piece with
BxR.
The alignment of White’s king and rook after
the preliminary exchange would be a visual
cue to the skewer. You could have proceeded
as well, of course, by simply looking for any
checks Black can give on the board as it
would look after White’s king moves, again
seeing just two: Rg3+, which moves the
White king unhelpfully, and Bg4+, which also
moves the White king but this time allows
BxR afterwards.
The large theme of the position is the idea of
forcing a king to move by taking a piece that
it protects—and then skewering it on its new
square. Let's look at a couple of other applica-
tions of the same idea...
Dg701: White to move
Dg701: It would be easy enough to become
preoccupied in this position with the pinned
Black bishop, but White has no way to exploit
it. If he throws a bishop at it, as with Bc3, the
trouble is not merely that Black can answer
with Rd6; it's that Black then has a check in
Rb1+, White having opened a line to his king
when he moved his bishop. White then must
interpose his bishop at e1, as all of his king’s
flight squares are under attack. With White’s
bishop now pinned and Black to move, he hits
the immobilized piece with a pawn: f3-f2.
Black wins.
The key to the position for White is to step
back from the pin and look for other patterns.
Black’s bishop and rook are aligned on the
same diagonal, and this is grounds to consider
possible pins or skewers. White has a bishop
that can attack on the dark-squared diagonal
with Bf2, but this runs into the same trouble
just described (Black’s reply of Rb1+—look
for your opponent’s next check, not just your
own). It would be different if White’s move
gave check. Might this be arranged? Yes, with
the substitution 1. RxB+, KxR. Another route
to the same conclusion is to just consider any
checks White can give; here there is only
one—RxB. Black is forced to reply KxR, and
with his king moved you look at the new lines
it occupies and see that the kernel of a skewer
now has been created. Bf2+ attacks Black’s
king, requiring him to spend a move taking it
out of the way. Then BxR takes Black’s rook
before it has time to give check.

Dg702: Black to move
Dg702: With Bg5, Black can aim a bishop
through two White pieces: the bishop on d2
and the rook on c1. In itself this won't do any
good, so think about ways to force substitu-
tions by making captures. Black has RxB,
inviting White to play KxR. Now Bg5+ be-
comes wonderfully productive; the king must
move off the diagonal and leave the rook be-
hind it loose (because the g4 bishop attacks
d1). After BxR, White has netted a piece.
4.5.05.
Other Substitutions: Queens, Rooks, etc.
Dg703: Black to move
Dg703: We have seen that sometimes forcing
your opponent to substitute his king for
another piece will create a working skewer.
The same goes, of course, for forced substitu-
tions of other pieces. Take the position to the
left. White has no loose pieces and Black has
no checks to give. What remains as a source
of tactical ideas? Captures. In addition to
considering any checks you can give, look
piece by piece for any exchanges you can
force. Here the only capture available to
Black is NxB. Unless he is content to lose a
piece, White has to respond with QxN. The
question is how the board will look after the
exchange, and whether anything not possible
now will become possible then. In this case
we see a now-familiar pattern: White’s queen
would be lined up with the rook on a1 on the
long dark diagonal. Black still has his dark-
squared bishop, and he can get it onto the
vulnerable line with Bg7; now the queen must
evacuate and allow BxR. Black doesn’t care
that the rook on a1 has protection, as he still
wins the exchange.
You might also have seen this just by observ-
ing the alignment of White’s bishop and rook
on that same diagonal and looking for a way
to substitute a better piece for the bishop. This
isn’t an easy train of thought, because by it-
self a bishop in front of a rook often will not
signify anything. It nevertheless is a good
habit to notice every time two pieces are lined
up like this, so observe the pattern closely.
Dg704: Read the board, again looking for
alignments of enemy pieces—and especially
enemy pieces aligned with nothing between
them. White has a few pieces so arranged: his
bishop and queen are on the same diagonal, as
are his bishop and rook. With Be6 Black can
run a bishop through the latter two pieces. In
itself this doesn't achieve anything, but with a
substitution it might.
Dg704: Black to move
So imagine exchanges and consider whether
they would improve your prospects. Here
Black’s knight on e5 can take White’s bishop
on c4. This requires White to recapture with
QxN. Now we have the kernel of a productive
skewer; we have created again the classic
queen-before-rook pattern. All that’s left for
Black is to get a bishop safely onto the same
diagonal. He plays Be6, which in effect at-
tacks two pieces: the queen and the rook be-
hind it. White retreats the queen to e2 so it
can guard the rook, and then Black wins the
exchange.
Dg705: White to move
Dg705: Notice the diagonal alignment of
Black's bishop and rook, and that White can
run his own bishop through both of them with
Bb4. A bishop skewering a bishop is no good,
but it invites a look for productive substitu-
tions. Here NxB+ provokes the recapture
QxN, luring the queen onto the same dark-
squared diagonal with its rook. White swoops
in with his dark-squared bishop on b4, where
it makes a protected skewer of Black’s queen
and rook and, again, wins the exchange next
move.
Dg706: White to move
Dg706: There are a couple of alignments in
Black’s camp. Rather than sort out each one,
probably the more efficient thing is to see
what emerges from forcing sequences you can
set in motion. You have no checks, but there
are two captures to consider: each White
knight can take a pawn and then be recap-
tured. In reply to Nxe5, Black plays d6xN and
nothing much has changed. But in reply to
Nxb5 Black plays QxN. His queen would be
lined up with its knight on d7—which is
loose. Now White can skewer them with his
light-squared bishop by playing it to a4,
where it retains protection from the queen
back on d1. Critically, Black’s queen has no
flight square from which it can continue to
guard the knight. White takes the knight next
move, and he nets a pawn with the sequence.
Skewers of the king are everyone’s favorite
type, but often the king spends much of a
game on the back rank where it is hard to
skewer it to anything. The queen, though,
does venture into the middle of the board ear-
lier in the game, putting lots of its own pieces
behind it where you can make targets out of
them. This position is an example. The cap-
ture Nxb5 goaded the queen into the middle
of the board, and in front of the Black knight
on d7.
Dg707: White to move
Dg707: You know the drill: examine checks
and captures in search of any sequences that
will leave enemy pieces lined up for forks,
pins, or (our concern here) skewers. White
has no useful checks, but he has a capture that
is of some interest: BxN. It provokes the re-
capture BxB, a classic trade of minor pieces.
Now consider the board as it then would look.
The exchange would have left Black’s bi-
shops lined up on the f-file—and both of them
loose. Two loose pieces make a great target
for a skewer, so White plays Rf2 and wins
one of them next move. You might also have
seen the idea by noticing Black’s knight and
bishop on the f-file from the start. They don’t
make for a good skewer because the knight
has protection and so cannot be chased out of
the way. But one way to deal with a piece that
has protection is to capture it; for after the
recapture the piece that replaces it may be
loose. That is White’s procedure here.
Dg708: White to move
Dg708: This one is harder. Black has just
played his knight to e3, attacking the rook on
f1 and the pawn on g2 (for the third time).
White’s instinctive response might be defen-
sive: move the rook to safety. But by now you
know to ask first whether you might take the
initiative and inflict damage with checks or
captures of your own. Perhaps you notice that
Black’s knight is aligned vertically with one
of his rooks and diagonally with another. The
knight and both rooks all are protected, so a
skewer doesn’t quite work yet; but an ex-
change can change the picture markedly, so
experiment. The only capture for White to
consider is RxN. Black replies RxR. Now you
see that Black’s two rooks would be left
aligned on a diagonal with no pawns on the
line—a pattern that invites a skewer by your
bishop if it can be arranged. The trouble is
that the bishop cannot safely get onto the
rooks’ line from where it now sits; if it moves
to g5 it gets captured. The challenge: ma-
neuver the bishop onto that line, and with
threats that give the enemy no time to avoid
the emerging skewer. The solution: plot a
course to h6 for the bishop that allows it to
give check along the way. First Bg7+, with
protection from the rook on g3; then Bxh6
after Black moves his king. Now the bishop
attacks both rooks and will take one of them.
Or rather all that is the idea. Before putting it
into motion think carefully about the move
order, for in this position it makes a great dif-
ference:
(a) Suppose White starts with RxN, expecting
RxR and setting the stage for the skewer by
leaving the rooks aligned. He will be in for a
nasty surprise: Black ignores the loss of his
knight, plays Rxg7+, and mates in two more
moves (White’s king is forced to h1; Black
plays Rxh2, then moves his other rook to g2
on the next move, ending the game). Lesson:
don’t take for granted that your opponent’s
reply to a capture is forced, especially when
he has threats against your king. He may be
able to ignore the capture and go for mate or
threaten some other terrible result.
(b) Now suppose instead that White starts
with Bg7+, forcing Ke7; then White imme-
diately plays Bxh6, expecting to play RxN
next move. Well, but Black simply replies to
Bxh6 with NxR. The problem is that White’s
Bxh6 isn’t a check; it gives the initiative back
to Black. Again, every step of White’s se-
quence needs to be forced to ensure success.
(c) So the right sequence is to start with 1.
Bg7+, Ke7—then to play RxN+ back at
White’s end of the board, since that move
now is a check (remember that Black’s king
would now be on the e-file!). Black would be
forced to deal with the check by playing RxR,
and now the pieces at last are arranged for the
skewer Bxh6. Two checks, then a skewer:
that’s what makes it work, as the checks keep
White in firm control of the action. (By the
way, if Black replies to Bg7+ with Kg8, he of
course walks his king into the discovered
check Bxh6+, which White follows next
move with BxN, winning a whole piece.)
The skewer described in the main line here
(sequence (c), above) costs White a bishop
and a rook and gains him a knight, a rook, and
a pawn. But apart from winning a pawn it also
defuses a bothersome threat Black was build-
ing with three pieces in the White king’s
neighborhood. The best defense is a good
offense.
Dg709: Black to move
Dg709: Here is a common pattern: a hotly
contested piece or pawn near the middle of
the board. In a typical case each side has sev-
eral pieces trained on the square in conten-
tion—perhaps an equal number, suggesting
that if you try to take the piece or pawn there,
you will gain nothing and perhaps lose some
material when the smoke clears. You take, he
takes, you take, he takes. But it still is impor-
tant in such cases to imagine liquidating the
position, with all possible exchanges ex-
hausted; for it may be that you then will have
a kicker in the form of a fork or skewer
against the last piece standing.
Look at how the logic applies here. The con-
tested point is White’s pawn on e5. Black
attacks it with both knights and his queen;
White protects it with a bishop, his queen, and
the rook behind the queen. So if Black takes
the pawn with his knight on d7, White recap-
tures (or could recapture—we’re just imagin-
ing possibilities) with his bishop. If Black
takes again with his queen, White retakes
with his queen. If Black takes a third time
with his last knight, White retakes a final time
with his rook. The rook is the last piece stand-
ing, and this still is true even if the move or-
der goes a little differently than just sketched.
Now don’t give up once you see this; look for
a kicker against the rook. The key is to re-
member to remove from your mental picture
of the board all those pieces that were ex-
changed away in the interim: White’s bishop,
queen, and rook, as well as three of your own
pieces. With those off the board and a rook on
e5, you should be able to see an alignment
that results. White’s two rooks are on the
long, dark-squared diagonal with nothing be-
tween them. Now Black plays Bf6, a move
that wasn’t possible in the beginning because
White would have taken the bishop with his
e5 pawn. In this position the move skewers
White’s rooks, both of which are loose and
one of which will be lost. You have to keep
track of the tally, of course. White will take
one of Black’s pawns while Black is playing
BxR, so in the end Black ends up losing a
pawn, two knights, and a queen, but gaining a
pawn, a bishop, a rook, and a queen. In other
words, he wins the exchange.
Assuming he sees all this, too, White will not
play even the first move in the sequence,
BxN. He will instead accept the loss of a
pawn to Nxe5. This is another illustration of a
general point: in chess games between good
players it is relatively uncommon to see
skewers, forks and the like actually carried
out. Both sides see them coming and avoid
them by accepting lesser losses. But of course
the tactics nevertheless play a crucial role in
the game, because the potential for them dic-
tates each side’s moves and the losses to
which each side decides it must consent.
4.5.06.
Checking the King into Position.
When your opponent’s king is checked he has
three possible replies: move the king, capture
the attacker, or interpose something between
them. The last two frequently are impossible,
which is why checks often can be used to
push a king around, and which helps explain
why the king makes an ideal middle piece in a
skewer: often it has to move out of the way
when attacked, exposing whatever is behind it
to capture. And this same principle also
means that even if the king doesn't appear to
be in position to be skewered, you may be
able to push it into position with a preliminary
check or several of them. In addition to im-
proving your ability to create skewers, these
next studies thus will sharpen your ability to
see not just what checks you can give, but
what checks you will be able to give a move
later—and then a move after that.

Dg710: White to move
Dg710: We'll start with cases where a single
check pushes your opponent's king into posi-
tion to be skewered. In this first simple posi-
tion, each side has a king and a rook. Black
would mate with Rh8 if it were his turn, but
instead White has the move. At a time like
this one must operate with checks that hold
the initiative. How many checks does White
have to consider? Only one: Ra6. White's
rook can’t be captured and there is nothing to
interpose, so Black has to move his king. No-
tice that White’s king attacks the three
squares on the seventh rank where Black’s
king might like to go; with those off limits
there is nowhere for Black to move his king
but the fifth rank (to c5, d5, or e5). Naturally
you see now that Black's king and rook are
aligned: White thus plays Ra5+, again forcing
Black’s king to change ranks (perhaps back to
its original position), and then comes RxR,
ending Black’s mating threat and winning the
game.
Dg711: White to move
Dg711: Here Black’s king still is settled on
the back rank, so at first the possibility of a
skewer may not seem obvious. But consider
any checks White can deliver. He can move
either rook to e1, which allows Black to inter-
pose his own rook at e7 or move his king
along the back rank. More interestingly,
White can play the rook on h1 to h8. This
forces Black to move his king to the seventh
rank—and into line with the rook on c7. Now
White moves the rook from h8 to h7, and the
king has to move again. Notice that it cannot
protect the rook it will be exposing to capture;
White’s rook on d1 bars the king from the d-
file. White wins a rook.
Dg712: Black to move
Dg712: Another pretty simple case. White’s
king has ventured far enough onto the board
to have queens to its north and south, so you
are thinking actively about the skewer that
would become possible if you could get
White’s king and queen lined up with one
another. How can you force your opponent to
so align them when that is the last thing he
wants to do? With checks that force his rep-
lies. Look for every check Black can give and
you see five; most of them would force the
king to move, but Qe1+ is the one you jump
to because it’s safe and puts the king under
the greatest pressure, sealing off all its flight
squares on the second rank. The d-file also is
out, so White’s king is driven to f3 or f4—and
into line with his queen. Now Black plays
Qf1+, and the skewer picks up White’s queen
once the king is forced out of the way.
Dg713: Survey the lines on the board and see
that Black’s king and queen are aligned.
White has nothing usable to create a pin, but
his queen almost can get behind Black’s king
and impose a skewer; Qg8, however, loses to
KxQ. Might he be able to push the king away
from g8 a bit?
 Dg713: White to move
It would have to be done with checks. White’s
queen checks, such as Qc7, Qd7, and Qf6,
either lose the queen, which White can't af-
ford, or cause Black’s king to leave the di-
agonal it now shares with his queen, which is
no help (or Qe7 pushes the king to the back
rank).
How about checks with White’s other piece—
his knight? There is one: Ne5+. The knight
can't be taken and Black can't interpose any-
thing, so the king must move. Note the
squares where the king cannot go: the back
rank is forbidden, and e7 and f6 likewise are
attacked by White’s queen. (It is important to
see invisible constraints of this kind on the
king’s movements.) The king legally can
move only to e6. This creates room behind it
for White to play Qg8+ safely. When the king
moves, as it must (though it can’t take the
knight, which has protection), White plays
QxQ and suddenly has a won game.
Any chance to squeeze in behind the enemy
king should be considered carefully, as this is
the stuff skewers are made of.
Dg714: With Black’s king out from the back
rank and White’s queen now behind it, the
threat of a skewer again is live. Inspect any
checks White can give. There are four, all
with the queen: Qb6, Qd6, Qe8, and Qg8. As
we have seen, the check of greatest interest
frequently is the one that gives the enemy the
smallest range of replies—here Qg8, which
seals off the king’s flight squares on the se-
venth rank and so requires Kf6 as Black’s
only legal reply.
Dg714: White to move
Presto: the king and queen once more have
been forced onto the same file. Now White’s
queen moves to f8, applying another check,
forcing the king out of the way, and then win-
ning Black’s queen with QxQ. The queen
does all the work by itself.
Dg715: White to move
Dg715: Black has a material advantage—a
queen and a bishop against White’s two bi-
shops. But having two bishops trained on the
Black king’s vicinity is strong, too, and with
Black’s queen behind his king White should
be alert to any way of forcing an alignment
between them. He begins his thinking in the
customary way: by looking at any checks. He
has Bg5, which loses a piece, and Bd4, which
requires Black’s king to move. Where? The f5
and g6 squares are sealed off by White’s other
bishop, so the Black king is driven to f7. Now
the desired alignment is in place. White
reaches for his next check, using the other
bishop to play Bc4+. Black’s king moves to
f8, from which square he will be able to re-
capture White’s bishop after it takes his queen
on the next move.
A pair of coordinated bishops, like a pair of
coordinated rooks, is stronger than the sum of
its parts.
Dg716: White to move
Dg716: An unguided search for a good move
would be inefficient here. Much better to look
at every check. And your looking can be fur-
ther guided by a concept: see how Black’s
king is out in the open with fellow pieces be-
hind it on the first rank and White rooks to its
north and south. These conditions are favora-
ble for a skewer if White can nudge the king
onto an appropriate line. The tools he has for
the purpose are one check with his rook (Re7)
and two with his knight (Nd4 and Ng7). Re7+
doesn’t work; Black moves his king to f6,
farther away from his other pieces, and if
White tries to check again with Rf7, Black
just takes the rook with his king. Nd4 loses
the knight to Black’s pawn.
Ng7+, however, is another matter. Examine
the squares surrounding the king and ask
which are off limits. Black wouldn't be able to
move his king to the f-file because White has
a rook there. The seventh rank likewise would
be made off limits by White’s other rook. The
only option would be to move the king to d5
or d6. Either move aligns the king on the
same file as its rook—its loose rook. White
rushes his rook to the same file with Rd2+.
The king has to move, and it can’t protect the
rook because it is forbidden to enter the se-
venth rank. White wins Black’s rook next
move.
This position is a vivid study in how a single
check, carefully examined, can for all practic-
al purposes end a game. To the untrained eye
Black’s position does not look so precarious.
Dg717: White to move
Dg717: The first thing you might see in
Black’s position is the alignment of his king
and bishop on the sixth rank. But there is no
way to fashion a productive pin out of it be-
cause the bishop has protection from its
queen; if White plays Ra6 the king just
moves. The more important patterns here are
a little subtler, though by now familiar.
Black’s king is out far enough to suggest that
White’s rook might be able to get behind it.
You might also see that Black’s king and
queen are almost lined up on the same file.
Put these points together and a goal comes
into view: if you could force Black’s king
onto f5, you would have a skewer with Rxf7
that would take Black’s queen and finish the
game.
Anyhow, whether or not you saw this entire
idea in advance you naturally should try your
checks to see what they would achieve. With
the rook there is one—Re7—that loses a
piece. With the queen there are several: Qc4,
Qd5, Qd6, Qd7, Qg4. Your first preference in
sorting these is to make Black’s king move in
ways that you control without losing anything
in the process. Qc4+ allows Black to play
Kxe5, and Qd7+ loses the queen to Black’s
bishop; so instead consider the safe Qd6+,
where the queen takes protection from the
pawn on e5. This is a snug check. Black’s
king can’t move to the seventh rank or to f6;
it must go to f5. See how this puts his king
and queen on the same file, making a skewer
a simple matter. White plays Rxf7+ and wins
Black’s queen a move later. Black will recap-
ture White’s rook with his king, but then
White will take Black’s bishop with his
queen.
Dg718: White to move
Dg718: You have doubled rooks on the b-file
and a bishop bearing down on c8. It’s hard to
find a mating possibility, but all this power
focused on the king still gives you the upper
hand; your threats may be enough to allow
you to push your opponent’s pieces around,
especially his king, and thus create a tactical
opening. Start in the usual way by looking for
checks. There's just one: Rb7+. The king has
to leave the seventh rank and can’t go to the
sixth, so Black plays it to d8. White naturally
might like to mate by dropping his rook down
to b8, with the thought of then playing the
other rook to b7; but Black's knight on c6
guards b8, and anyway the king would be able
to slip away onto e6.
The important thing is to avoid being discou-
raged by the failure of the mating idea and to
focus on the side effects of the Black king’s
movements: as it jumps around to escape
checks, it may move on and off of lines occu-
pied by its other pieces and so create chances
to take them. Thus when Black plays Kd8 he
moves his king onto the back rank with its
rook at h8, which is loose. White thinks of
dropping a rook onto the same line for a
skewer. First the skewering square must be
examined, and we see that Black guards b8
with his knight. But we know that when you
have doubled rooks you can use the first to
exhaust the enemy’s defensive resources and
then follow up with the second; so White
plays Rb8, and after Black plays NxR White
has RxN+, reestablishing a rook on b8 with
nothing more Black can do in reply except
move his king and allow RxR.
An initial lesson of the position is something
we have seen once or twice before: you don’t
always have to get behind the king to skewer
it; skewers along the back rank also are possi-
ble. You also can see here an illustration of
the varied powers of coordinated rooks. First
one of them provides cover for the other, forc-
ing the king from the seventh rank down to
the eighth; then one is sacrificed on b8 to
clear the way for the other to take its place,
giving the skewer.
Dg719: White to move
Dg719: Ever mindful of the enemy king, its
constraints, and any of your pieces that attack
it, you see that you almost have the makings
of some sort of mate with the rook and bi-
shop. Almost—but Black’s rook guards the
back rank, his bishop guards f8, and his king
has escape routes. Still, a mating threat that
doesn’t quite work may still contain enough
power to force a tactical gain by pushing
Black’s king around. The standard inspection
of any checks White can give turns up Rf7
and Rh1. Rf7 lets the king slip away to h6.
Rh1 is different, though; with the dark di-
agonal forbidden to Black’s king by the bi-
shop on c3, he has to move his king to g8—in
line with his loose rook on d8. Now White is
able to play his rook to h8, with the bishop on
c3 furnishing cover. Black has to move his
king off the back rank and allow White to
play RxR, another little study in the back rank
skewer.
 4.5.07.
Working with Multiple Checks.
Dg720: White to move
Dg720: Now the fun part. We have seen that a
check sometimes will force the king into line
with one of its own pieces, allowing a skewer
on the next move by the same piece that gave
the first check or perhaps by a different one.
The principle can be extended, of course;
sometimes a first check has to be followed
with a second or third or fourth that continues
to push the king until at last it is forced
against its will into a skewer. Those patterns
will be our focus in this section.
The patterns considered here are reminiscent
of the positions requiring multiple checks in
the chapter on queen forks. The habit in-
volved has immense value: examining not
only any checks you can give, but every
check you then would be able to give after
your opponent’s response (and every check
you then could give, etc.). But chasing out all
of these possibilities can take a long time, so
it is much more efficient if your pursuit of
checks is guided by ideas. As you see what
you can do to the enemy king—what is possi-
ble in the way of engineering—you also see a
visual pattern coming into view—an idea.
You play back and forth with the idea and the
forcing moves until those checks are being
used to try to achieve a clear goal. It might be
a fork that becomes possible once the king is
on a square that your queen can attack while
also going after a loose piece; or it might, as
in these positions, be a skewer that becomes
possible once the king is lined up with its
queen or with a loose piece.
There are subthemes that also help narrow the
process of studying check after check. Focus
first on checks that tightly control your oppo-
nent’s replies, and especially those that force
the king to move. And keep in mind not only
your piece that gives the first check but any
other pieces or pawns in the king’s vicinity
that might add checks of their own—or a
skewer at the end.
In example to the left, White has a powerful
battery on the a-file, so imagine the conse-
quence of driving both pieces through to the
back rank: 1. Qa8+ is answered with BxQ;
and now follow through with more checks: 2.
RxB+, Kc7—and Black’s king and queen are
aligned on the seventh rank, making the
skewer easy. 3. Ra7+, K moves; 4. RxQ.
White has traded queens and won a piece.
The thought of a skewer probably wouldn't
come to mind right away in this position. To
see it you need to play with your checks, push
through the discouragement of the big materi-
al loss on the first move, and notice the
alignment of king and queen that results from
Black’s second move. It is natural at first to
think of a battery like the one White has on
the a-file here as mostly a mating tool, and
thus to turn attention away from it when you
see that the enemy king escapes; but often the
payoff of pressure against the king is the
chance to unleash some other tactic made
possible by its attempts to escape.
Dg721: Black to move
Dg721: In this one the idea, at least, should be
visible from the start; as long as you are care-
ful to look for alignments between White
pieces, you can't fail to see his king and queen
on the same rank. A skewer comes to mind—
but how? Black cannot yet maneuver his
queen—his only plausible piece for the pur-
pose—into position behind White's king. Yet
with well-placed checks miracles sometimes
are possible, and here the needed miracle
would be minor: some combination of push-
ing White’s king toward his queen and getting
Black’s queen on the other side of them both.
The only checks Black can give are with his
queen, but there are several: Qe1, Qf1, and
Qg1; Qb2, Qc2, and Qd2; Qe3; and Qf4.
These don't all require much analysis, of
course. Several of them lose the queen right
away, and others, such as the checks on the
first rank, drive White’s king up the board
where it has lots of room to run and Black is
likely to lose control over it. Most promising,
then, is Qf4+: safe for the queen, and since it
pressures the king from above it keeps the
escape options for it narrow—especially in
conjunction with the bishop on d3. White’s
only reply is Ke1 (if he plays Kg1, Black
mates with Qf1). The mission is partly ac-
complished: Black’s queen has gotten behind
White’s king. Now the alignment of White’s
king and queen must be restored. Black uses
the safe check Qf1+, where the queen has
protection from its bishop. This forces the
king off the first rank and back onto the
second one: Kd2. The skewer has been pre-
pared. Next for Black comes Qxg2+; the best
White can do is play KxB and allow his queen
to be taken. (Notice that instead of Qxg2+
Black can play Qe2+ to try to protect his bi-
shop. But then White moves his king to c3
and will take the bishop anyway after Black
plays QxQ.)
If you are more than a check away from ar-
ranging a skewer—if, as here, you need to
push the enemy king around more extensively
to get everything into place—your queen of-
ten will have to play an important role. Its
flexibility of movement allows it to inflict
successive checks from different angles that
are very useful. But usually you also will need
another piece as well to play the sorts of roles
the bishop did here, such as cutting off some
of the king’s flight squares and providing
cover for the queen as it gives snug checks.
There are more examples of both themes to
come.
Dg722: Black to move
Dg722: Black again has lots of queen checks
he can consider, but it will be more efficient if
you look for White pieces lined up together or
other patterns that can guide your experi-
ments. White’s king and queen once more are
on the second rank. These are the making of a
possible skewer even if Black obviously is in
no position to impose one yet. White’s king
would need to be pushed out at least two
squares, and Black’s queen would need to get
behind it. On the other hand, Black has a
queen and bishop both close to White’s king,
and as we just saw this may be enough to al-
low you to control its movements with some
precision. Play with your checks and see what
can be done. Since we’re trying to drive the
king away from the side of the board, a check
on the h-file is indicated: Qxh4+, requiring
White to play Kg1. (Notice how Black’s bi-
shop again seals off other flight squares.)
Next? Keep taking advantage of the bishop by
sidling the queen up closer to the king: Qh1+.
The king is forced onto f2, and the pattern for
the skewer is in place: with a pair of queen
checks Black has moved White’s king over
two squares. Now he can play Qh2+, and
when White’s king moves off the second rank
his queen is lost. Black’s bishop plays the
same dual roles here that it did last time.
Dg723: This one is tougher because at first
glance the idea of a skewer probably wouldn't
suggest itself at all. White’s king is two ranks
away from its queen. More likely you would
have to experiment with checks and see that
one of them, Qh1, causes White's king to
squirt down and over onto g3.
Dg723: Black to move
The idea of the skewer should begin to come
into view then, as the position starts to look
like the previous ones. Might Black force the
king further down and over onto f2? It seems
hard because Black’s queen doesn’t have a
bishop this time to furnish cover as it delivers
close-up checks. But remember that other
pieces can chip in with checks of their own.
Other pieces—or pawns. Black plays h5-h4+,
and this time the queen is the piece providing
cover. White's king is forced to f2. The usual
pattern for the skewer has been perfected.
Black plays Qh2+ and wins the queen next
move.
Dg724: Black to move
Dg724: Black has some pieces poised for ac-
tion against the White king’s area, but the
king seems safe enough because it is pro-
tected by its queen and because Black can’t
quite coordinate his pieces to deliver mate.
Again, before the idea can emerge you proba-
bly will need to experiment with Black’s
possible checks. There is only one: QxQ, to
which White must reply KxQ. The exchange
of queens leaves White’s king a little more
exposed, but Black’s rook is on the wrong file
to be able to deliver a classic rook-and-bishop
mate at e1. Still, examine Black’s checks in
this resulting position and again there is just
one: Rd1+. This forces White’s king up onto
the second rank, onto e2—and into line with
his rook, which is loose. Now the idea is
clear; the checks have forced an alignment of
White’s pieces, perhaps unexpectedly. This
calls for a skewer. Black now is able to get
mileage after all from that bishop on b4, as it
allows his next and final check: Re1+, mov-
ing the rook next to the king with protection.
The king moves, and now comes RxR, win-
ning a rook.
When you push the enemy king around, be
mindful of skewering possibilities in every
direction—vertical, horizontal, and diagonal.
Dg725: Black to move
Dg725: As usual in these positions, you likely
wouldn't be thinking of a skewer right away;
you would be worrying about White’s threat
of Qxg7#. No matter how dire the threat,
however, remember: inspect your own
checks; so long as you are playing checks
your opponent probably will be kept busy and
won't be able to play threats of his own. It
doesn’t always take long to inspect those
checks, either. Here Black has just one—
Qh1+. White’s only move is Kg3. Now it
starts to get interesting, as White’s king is
pushed toward the f-file where his queen sits.
What checks then would be possible? The
appealing one is Qxh3+, where the bishop
serves its familiar dual purpose of protecting
the queen against KxQ and also limiting the
king’s flight squares. The king has to go to f4.
The kernel of the skewer is in place, and in-
vites one last check: Qf3+, made safe by the
protection still supplied by the bishop.
White’s king moves and his queen then comes
off the board.
Dg726: White’s offensive resources are li-
mited to a queen and knight, which don't seem
likely to be the makings of a decisive attack
on an open board like this. But skewers flou-
rish in such a climate. Work with your
checks. White has two with his knight, both
of which merely lose the piece. So consider
White’s three others with his queen: Qh3,
Qxg6, and Qd7. Qxg6 loses the queen; Qh3
causes Black to move his king to g8, and
since White has no safe check to use as a fol-
low-up, the results are inconclusive.
Dg726: White to move
The most interesting possibility thus is Qd7+:
utterly safe, and it forces the king to h6. (If
Black plays Kh8, White mates immediately
with Qg7.) With the king on the move, and
with Black’s queen in front of it and White’s
queen now behind it, a skewering idea comes
into view.
Keep working with checks. White can play
Qg7+, and here the knight serves the same
purposes the bishops did in earlier examples:
it provides cover for the queen and cuts off
flight squares for the king. The king’s only
legal move is to h5. Just keep nudging it with
checks. White plays Qh7+, and where can
Black’s king go? Only to g4, as White’s
knight seals off g5. Now Black’s king and
queen are aligned, and White is ready to play
Qxg6+. The king moves, and White wins
Black’s queen with a skewer.
A lesson: notice the astonishing power of the
queen in an open position. Its ability to run
the length of the board in one move, and to
attack from different angles, enables it to give
surprising checks with devastating results and
makes it especially formidable late in the
game. Once many of the pieces cleared off the
board, you also are more likely to find an
enemy target that is loose, which is important
when you are using the queen as a skewering
tool; only loose targets will do, because the
queen usually is too valuable to trade away.
Dg727: White to move
Dg727: Another challenging one. White ap-
pears to be overmatched; he is down a piece.
But he still has his queen, which we know can
do wonders on an open board like this. Skew-
ers are especially suited for such positions
because they take advantage of pieces that
may be aligned but far apart on the board with
nothing between them. White has a check
with his g3 pawn that lacks a good follow up,
but three others he can give with his queen.
The safe one is Qe8+. Black’s only reply is
Kg5 (notice the crucial work White's pawns
do in sealing off flight squares). What next?
With imagination an objective comes into
view: get the king onto the long, dark-squared
diagonal with its queen, then skewer them.
Checks from behind with White’s queen tend
to force the king south toward White’s pawns,
which doesn’t help. So now use one of those
pawns to do the checking: f3-f4. This gives
Black two choices: he can move his king to f6
or g4. If Kf6, the kernel of the skewer is
made; White plays Qh8 and wins the queen a
move later. If Kg4, what should White do?
The obvious: keep asking what checks he then
could give. One of them is Qe2—mate, sur-
prisingly enough.
Pawns near the enemy king can be easy to
overlook when you are busy focusing on your
attacking pieces; but pawns, too, can play a
key role not only in cutting off flight squares
but in delivering checks.
Dg728: White to move
Dg728: Most of the skewers we have been
studying have used the queen; this one is an
exception. We know the White rooks on the
same file create a powerful battery. One rea-
son is that they can push around a king: one
drives the king off of its rank while the other
provides cover or seals off other ranks. Begin
with a check, of course, and there is only one
that keeps the battery intact: Re2+. Black’s
king must evacuate the second rank. If it
moves to the third rank, White imposes an
immediate skewer with Re3+. If the king in-
stead moves to the first rank, White continues
with another check: Re1+. This drives the
king back up to the second rank. Now White’s
second rook drops down to e2, and both the
first and second ranks are off limits to Black’s
king. It must move to the third rank, creating
the kernel of that same skewer. Now White
plays Re3+, and after the king moves, RxQ.
Dg729: Consideration of 1. Qh7+ is obligato-
ry; it’s a safe check with the queen, and such
moves often force useful changes on the
board. In this case it pushes Black’s king to
f8. You see Black’s queen over on b7 and
thus wonder whether any succession of
checks you can give might produce a skewer.
Dg729: White to move
The natural next one would be 2. Qh8+, forc-
ing Ke7. Now you imagine 3. Qxg7+, execut-
ing the skewer—and see that Black puts out
the fire with NxQ. The problem is that the
skewering square is guarded, so now you
back up and think about pausing to take out
the knight with 3. RxN. There is a little prob-
lem with that move, though, too. Since it’s not
a check, it gives Black time to move his
queen; and since White would have just
cleared his rook from f3, Black would have a
particularly attractive option: Qh1#, ending
the game. It would be quite different if
White’s RxN gave check and thus held on to
the initiative. Ah, but RxN does do that if
White plays it a move sooner when Black’s
king still is on f8. It goes 1. Qh7+, Kf8; 2.
RxN+, e6xR—and now the rest works fine: 3.
Qh8+, Ke7; 4. Qxg7+, Kd8; 5. QxQ. (If Black
replies to RxN by moving his king instead of
recapturing, the sequence goes a little diffe-
rently: White brings his rook into the act on f7
a couple of moves later; soon he uses it to
pick up Black's queen, with an eventual
forced mate.)
The position is a study in the value of work-
ing with checks at every turn. It also illu-
strates the importance of staying conscious of
your opponent’s threats and the trouble that
can arise if you give him an unforced move to
play in the middle of a sequence you are
planning. On a more visual note, this is a po-
sition where the possibility of a skewer should
be evident to you fairly quickly just from the
layout of the pieces—the Black king and
queen arrayed like this, with White’s queen
able to slip in behind the king. A possibility,
not a certainty, of course; there are a hundred
ways it could have failed if the surroundings
were a little different—if White’s rook had
been on e3 instead of f3, etc. But if you at
least can see the idea early it will help direct
your thinking along useful lines that may turn
up the tactic.
Dg730: Here is a slightly different sort of
position. It begins not with a check but with
an observation. White has a rook on the se-
venth rank, a great position.
Dg730: White to move
In addition to threatening to wipe out Black’s
holdings on that rank, the rook also threatens
to support attacks against the king if another
White piece—the queen—can be added to the
seventh rank and serve as part of a battery
there. So in addition to looking at what he can
do on the f-file where he already has a battery
of one sort (but with attacking possibilities
that are inconclusive), White should think
about trying to convert these assets into a ho-
rizontal battery on the seventh rank. A typical
way to do this is by moving the rook over to
make room for the queen to come down the
board, but that would be impossible to do
effectively here. Another method—and the
winner in this case—is to move the queen
over preparatory to dropping it down. Thus
White plays Qh3 or Qh1, looking forward to
Qh7—and notice that this will be mate unless
something changes. In a sense Qh3 is nothing
more than a type of mate threat we have seen
many times before, with White adding an at-
tack by his queen to a square next to the ene-
my king that he already attacks with one of
his other pieces.
The reason Qh3 looks so strange is that it
leaves the rook en prise to Black’s king;
Black’s obvious move is to simply play KxR,
ending the threat. But if you picture the posi-
tion that results from these moves, perhaps
you can see why White allows it: now Black’s
king and queen are on adjacent ranks; the
king can't advance any farther up the board
because of White’s pawn on g5; and White’s
queen now has a clean shot down the h-file.
These elements suggest a possible skewer on
the back rank of the kind we have seen recent-
ly. White thus plays Qh7+, forcing Black to
move his king to e8 or f8. With Black’s king
and queen now aligned again, Qh8+ skewers
them and wins the queen next move.
The lesson is to make sure you are not so dis-
tracted by your battery on the f-file in a posi-
tion like this that you do not see a critical vul-
nerability in Black’s position: the alignment
of his king and queen on the back rank. This
should cause you to think about a skewer,
which would be decisive even if achieved at
great cost. The possibility becomes more
plausible when you see that the h-file is open.
You can afford to let the rook go if it will
enable you to get your queen down the h-file
safely and effectively, which you can do here
with a threat that makes Black’s reply easy to
forecast.
4.5.08.
Getting the Skewering Piece to the Skewer-
ing Square.
Sometimes the square your skewering piece
needs to reach is guarded. The techniques for
coping with this really are no different than
the methods for loosening a forking square, a
pinning square, or any other square you need
to make safe, but it will be useful to see how
they look in this context. Here we also will
consider some related issues: cases where
your piece finds its path to the skewering
square blocked, or where its guardian’s path
to the skewering square is blocked.
Remember: if the two enemy rooks are on the
same diagonal, they're poised to be skewered.

Dg731: White to move
Dg731: Thus in the frame to the top the ar-
rangement of Black’s rooks looks inconspi-
cuous, but since neither of them can afford to
be taken by a bishop they are inviting prey.
White reaches for his dark-squared bishop to
play it to a5. But there is a complication: the
square is protected by Black’s queen. How to
cope with this? The answer is easy: White
exchanges the defender away with 1. QxQ,
b7xQ. Now Ba5 wins the exchange after one
rook moves to protect the other.
Dg732: This one is a bit visually deceptive.
Where does White have the makings of a
skewer? Not against Black’s king, clearly; nor
is Black’s queen on any usable lines. Look for
loose pieces. Black has one: his knight on a4;
and in general two knights together on the
same line, like two bishops or two rooks to-
gether, often are vulnerable and should cause
you to think about a pin or skewer. Can White
get a piece onto that line?
Dg732: White to move
At first it might not seem so; he has no way to
get a rook in front of those knights. But he
does have a way to get his queen behind
them: Qa6. That's a potential skewer, though
it's foiled by the Black rook on a8. White can't
take out the rook, but there are other ways to
get rid of a defender. One is to take something
else the defender protects, thus prying it away
from the primary target. So ask what else the
a8 rook defends, and you are drawn to the
rook on b8—which you can take, with RxR+.
White plays that, Black replies RxR, and now
the board is safe for White to play Qa6, ske-
wering the two knights that both now are
loose. He will win one of them on the next
move.
A first thing to take away from this case is the
queen’s ability to jump behind two enemy
pieces to skewer them. Second, the position
illustrates a general skill at the chessboard:
rather than concluding that there isn’t a skew-
er, concluding that there almost is; seeing a
near-possibility, so that you can start using
your tools to make it happen. When you start
to see a tactical idea, try to avoid saying “no,
that doesn’t work.” Say, “that would work if
only…” and then see if there is a way to take
care of the “if only”.
Dg733: Here is another “if only” position.
Look for alignments in White’s camp and you
see his king and queen adjacent on the same
dark-squared diagonal. Black has his dark-
squared bishop available, and could inflict a
skewer on h6 if only White’s bishop on g5
weren't in the way. How can Black overcome
it?
Dg733: Black to move
He can't capture the bishop, and it protects
nothing else that he can take. On the other
hand it is loose, and indeed White has nothing
he can use to defend it promptly. So threaten
it. Black plays Qf5, and the bishop is forced
to move to a square where it has some protec-
tion: Bh4. Now the skewering square is loose
and the line is clear for Black to play Bh6+.
White’s only way to save the position is to
interpose his knight on f4 (always check for
interpositions!), but then Black takes the
knight with his e5 pawn, winning a piece.
Dg734: White to move
Dg734: And then there are positions where
you can't loosen the skewering square but
where this isn’t as important as it seems.
Where does White have a skewer this time?
Of course you see the alignment of Black’s
king and queen and so imagine Qa3. It would
be easy to dismiss the idea almost immediate-
ly because there seems to be no room for your
queen; a3 is guarded by Black’s king. But that
capture by the king would, among other
things, be a forced move (if Black wants to
avoid QxQ). Anytime you would lose a piece
to the enemy king, ask what the king’s new
square would mean to the position. The first
way to ask that question as a practical matter
is by considering what checks would be poss-
ible against the king in its new position—
here, on a3. There would be two: Nc4, which
Black can escape with Kb4, and Nc2—which
is mate! When the enemy king is in traffic, as
Black’s king is here, it is especially important
to see whether any checks against it may be
unexpectedly effective.
Do not dismiss ideas too quickly because they
seem not to work. Ask why they would not
work, and what the board would look like if
they were to fail.
Dg735: White has firepower directed at the
Black king’s territory; the question is how
best to take advantage of it. What prevents
White’s bishop and rook from converging on
the square next to the king? The pawn on b7.
Or you might see that White has no checks
and that his only capture of a piece is BxB. Or
you might have seen that Black’s rook is
loose, and that Black’s king and rook form the
kernel of a back-rank skewer that White can
exploit if a clear path can be manufactured for
his rook to use to reach b8.
Dg735: White to move
One way or another you are led to consider
BxB for White. If Black recaptures b7xB,
White now has a new check to consider:
Rb8+—a skewer, since after Black moves his
king White plays RxR. It's a little study in
clearing the path to the skewering square.
Dg736: Black to move
Dg736: We see here the telltale arrangement
of White’s rooks adjacent to one another on a
diagonal, a configuration that lends itself to a
bishop skewer. If you catch that pattern, the
position boils down to the logistical problem
of getting your light-squared bishop from b7
to f3 where it can run through the rooks. The
impediment to Bf3 is Black’s own queen on
d5. With the obstacle identified we know
what to look for: a move by Black’s queen
that will create a threat to White grave enough
to require him to spend a move fending it off,
thus allowing Black to play his skewer next
move. A check would be best, but Black’s
queen has none. What can it do to threaten
White’s king?
Study the king’s position and vulnerabilities,
including restrictions on its range of motion.
It's trapped on the back rank, and Black finds
an avenue there with Qa2, threatening the
back-rank mate Qa1. White is obliged to
avoid it, probably by creating a flight square
for his king: c2-c3. But now the distraction
Black created has bought him the time to play
Bf3, taking a rook next move and winning the
exchange.
In reply to Black's Qa2, White could also
create a flight square for the king with a move
like Qe3, which seems to have the advantage
of also guarding the skewering square, f3,
where Black wants to land his bishop. But
notice that Black's f8 rook guards f3, making
it a safe place to put the bishop anyway.
Dg737: The clustering of Black’s pieces
makes skewering possibilities harder to see
than if the targets were aligned with plenty of
space between them.
Dg737: White to move
You can simplify analysis by viewing the
Black position in light of whatever offensive
pieces you have positioned to attack it—a
significant limitation, since the center is full
of pawns that obstruct the paths of your piec-
es. But White does have a dark-squared bi-
shop on a3 that is outside his pawns, and
Black has the alignment of queen and rook—
and on a dark-squared diagonal—that we
have seen can form the basis of a skewer. So
Bxd6 is the idea, and of course it might just as
well have been seen by methodically looking
at any captures you can make.
A piece that runs a skewer through the enemy
queen, like a piece that pins the enemy queen,
needs protection to prevent the enemy queen
from gobbling it up. After Bxd6 White’s bi-
shop would have none, so White asks if he
can add a guard to that square. He seems to
have no way to safely move a piece into posi-
tion for the purpose, but consider also what
you already have aimed at the square that
might be brought into play by moving things
out of its way. Here White has a rook pointed
at d6. Granted, there are two pawns in its
way, one White and one Black. But a pair of
pawns like this, two ranks apart and especial-
ly in the center, sometimes can be removed
with a single exchange. Thus White removes
his own pawn from the d-file violently with
d4xe5. If Black replies d6xe5, suddenly both
pawns are out of the way and the path of the
rook—White’s guardian of the skewering
square—is clear. White plays Bxd6 and wins
the exchange after Black’s queen moves.
(And if Black allows you to play d4xe5 with
impunity, that's fine, too.)
4.5.09.
Consolidating Excess Enemy Pieces.
With skewers as with pins, it sometimes hap-
pens that there are too many enemy pieces on
a line: a skewer requires two of them, but in-
stead there are three or four. The first impor-
tant thing is to see these cases when they
arise, and to notice the possible skewers de-
spite the distracting extra men in the way. The
second important thing is to know how to turn
these situations into skewers that work. Again
the techniques are familiar; only their applica-
tion in this setting will be at all new.
Dg738: Turning to the diagram, observe that
Black has three pieces on the d-file. This sug-
gests a possible pin or skewer, especially in
view of a second point: White not only has a
piece aimed through them on d1, but has two
other pieces on the back rank; this is impor-
tant because it means the piece on d1 is ex-
pendable. If it is sacrificed the rook on c1 can
take its place in the manner we've seen in our
earlier work with coordinated rooks.
Dg738: White to move
Thus White can simplify matters with a cap-
ture: he plays RxN and Black replies QxR.
With this small and temporary sacrifice of the
exchange White has created the kernel of a
skewer; now with Rd1 he forces Black's
queen out of the way, and once it moves it has
no way to guard the rook. The d8 rook thus is
left loose, so now White plays RxR+ and nets
a piece—the knight he captured at the outset.
Dg739: White to move
Dg739: First pattern to see: Black has three
pieces on the same light-squared diagonal,
including his king. This suggests a possible
pin or skewer, especially when you see that
your light-squared bishop is ready to go to b5.
Three Black pieces is too many, though, so
White simplifies them in the same fashion
seen in the previous frame: with a capture. He
plays RxB; Black recaptures KxB, and now
Bb5 gives check and takes the rook on e8
after Black’s king moves. (If the rook weren’t
loose, the sequence would be a wash.) Inci-
dentally, RxB was White’s only capture at the
start of the position; and after Black replies
KxB, Bb5 is one of only two possible checks.
So the position comes apart easily enough
using the traditional method of examining
checks and captures and the follow-ups to
them. This nevertheless is a case where the
visual pattern on the board is apparent enough
that just seeing it is probably the most effi-
cient way to conjure up an attack on Black’s
position.
Dg740: White to move
Dg740: Start by noticing two facts: Black’s
king and queen abut one another on the d-file;
and the d-file is half-open, meaning that
White has no pawns on the line and so can
place a rook or queen on it and attack whatev-
er lies at Black’s end. The hard and important
thing is to avoid being distracted by Black’s
pawn on d6; it is an obstacle to executing a
skewer, but mustn't be an obstacle to seeing
the potential for one. The objective is clear:
get the pawn off the file. How? The usual way
to clear a pawn is to take something it pro-
tects. Thus White plays RxN; and if Black
replies d6xR, Rd1+ has become a working
skewer, winning the queen when the king
moves. White ends up with a knight and
queen in return for two rooks. Again, RxN
was White’s only capture, and Rd1 was
among his only checks afterwards (all of
which were on the d-file in any event). So
faithful use of first principles leads to the
same outcome.
Dg741: Be alert at all times for alignments
between your opponent's pieces (as well as
your own). A look at Black’s position here
turns up a few of them, the subtlest and most
interesting of which is the alignment of
Black’s king and his rook—which is loose.
Dg741: White to move
The pieces are on a dark-squared diagonal,
and White easily can get his dark-squared
bishop to g3; so the possibility of a skewer
comes into view. The pawn on e5 is the only
impediment, and so must be cleared away.
How? Again, with a standard capture of a
piece it protects: White plays NxN, and if
Black recaptures with e5xN, White has the
skewer Bg3+. He then wins the rook after
Black’s king moves.
Dg742: White to move
Dg742: Again the more obvious alignment is
between Black’s knight and king; but push
beyond it and spot the less obvious but more
important alignment of Black’s king and
rook—his loose rook. True, the diagonal on
the other side of the king is occupied by two
Black pawns (at h4 and g5). So go to work on
them. You see that your bishop on f2 can take
the h4 pawn when it administers the skewer.
The issue the pawn on g5. An enemy pawn
that clutters the line you need generally can
be cleared in either of two ways: you can take
something it protects, inviting it to recapture
and leave its square; or you may be able to
capture the pawn directly if the recapture will
be performed by one of the enemy pieces you
mean to skewer. Here as in the previous ex-
amples the former method is the one that
works. The g5 pawn protects Black’s knight
on f4, so White plays RxN+. If Black recap-
tures with g5xR, White has the skewer Bxh4+
and takes the rook next move, winning a piece
and a pawn.
Dg743: White to move
Dg743: You are trying to gain sensitivity to
aligned pieces on files and ranks and diagon-
als. This time you naturally see the king and
two other pieces clustered here on the fifth
rank. You also see that White has two rooks
on the b-file. Neither of these facts leads to
anything decisive yet, though, particularly
since the bishop and rook both are protected
by pawns. So look harder at the Black king’s
lines and see that his rook on c2 is aligned
with it. Once more the key fact is that the
rook is loose, making it more vulnerable than
Black's other pieces to tactical strikes. Is
White in position to conduct operations on the
c-file? Yes; not only does he have rooks ready
to move there, but one of them is behind
Black’s king, which is out toward the middle
of the board where skewers most easily can
occur. In fact White could play Rc8 right now
and win Black’s c2 rook a move later if Black
didn’t have a pawn on c6. How to eliminate
the pawn? The usual way: take something it
protects. Here it guards Black’s bishop and
rook but only has exclusive responsibility for
the bishop. So White plays Rb3xB+. If Black
recaptures with c6xR, the c-file has been sim-
plified and White now has Rc8+, skewering
Black’s king and rook and winning a piece.
(He trades a rook for a rook and a bishop.)
Dg744: White to move
Dg744: You see right away that Black’s king
and queen are aligned. You see that White’s
bishop is aimed through them. You see that
there is a Black pawn in the way. The ques-
tion is how to get rid of it. You can’t take
something the pawn protects because it
doesn’t protect anything. On the other hand,
you do have another piece—your queen—
which can do whatever the bishop can do. So
this pawn can be handled in direct fashion:
just take it. White plays Bxf6+, and after the
recapture KxB White’s queen has room to
take over the skewer with Qh4+. Once
Black’s king moves, White plays QxQ and
wins. Notice that in addition to removing the
pawn, White’s initial Bxf6 has the effect of
drawing Black’s king forward so that it no
longer can protect his queen. This is a useful
idea that we will consider in more detail in a
little while (see dg748).
Dg745: Do you see a vulnerable pattern in
Black’s position? Where does he have pieces
aligned? His queen is in front of his rook on
the same diagonal, a pattern that we have seen
can often yield a bishop skewer that wins the
exchange. White has a bishop on c3 that can
get to the diagonal easily enough and would
have protection on e5 from the knight on f3.
Most of the elements of a skewer thus are in
place, but there is a pawn in the way on d6.
White can't take anything it protects, for it
protects nothing, and anyway that method
works best when you want to draw a pawn off
of a file rather than a diagonal.
Dg745: White to move
Better to just capture it and invite a recapture
that consolidates the line down to two Black
pieces. White can take the irritating pawn
with a pawn of his own via c5xd6. Indeed,
you see that this would be a pawn fork of
White’s queen and knight. To avoid the loss
of a piece Black has to play Qxd6. Now
comes White’s Be5, and Black’s queen and
rook are skewered. Black moves his queen
over to b6 so that it can recapture after White
plays BxR, but White still wins the exchange.
Dg746: White to move
Dg746: Sometimes a skewer is nowhere in
sight at the start of a position; you have to see
that it will emerge during a sequence you can
force. Here White is behind in material and
has no checks that lead anywhere. But he sees
a weakness in Black’s position: the rook
trapped in the corner. The natural thought is
to attack it and see what would happen, so
White imagines Qd5. The rook can’t move, so
Black has to interpose his knight with Nc6.
Now imagine the board with those changes
and notice their consequences: the knight has
left behind just a king and rook on Black’s
back rank, and White’s queen has moved into
position to drop safely to g8. These are the
makings of a skewer, as would be obvious if
that resulting position were set in front of you
in the first instance. After White’s 2. Qg8+,
Black has to move his king to e7 and lose the
rook.
The lesson is to be alert to whether any se-
quence you can force might clear lines be-
tween the enemy king and other enemy piec-
es, setting the stage for an unexpected skewer
or pin.
Dg747: White to move
Dg747: Now combine the present theme with
an earlier one: checks that force the enemy
king and queen into line with each other. Note
that White’s queen is under attack by Black’s
knight. What to do about it? You can move
the queen or take the knight. When you think
about queen moves you start with any checks
it can deliver, and here there are two: Qg6 and
Qh7. White is operating with a battery of bi-
shop and queen on the diagonal, which makes
the queen secure on either square against cap-
ture by Black’s king. But it doesn't make the
queen secure against capture by a pawn, as
would occur if he played Qg6+. And if he
plays Qh7+, the queen is taken by Black’s
knight.
So now the next thought: perhaps taking the
knight is the best way for White to get rid of
his problems after all; and since NxN is
White’s only possible capture of a piece, con-
sideration of it is compulsory in any event.
Black's first reply to examine would be h6xN.
Now White takes a fresh look at any checks
he would have and sees that Qh7 would be
checkmate. All right; suppose Black sees this
and so instead replies to NxN by recapturing
with f6xN. Again take a fresh look at your
checks and their consequences. This time
Qh7+ isn't mate; it forces the king to f6,
where it is safe—momentarily. But when you
see the king move you look at the lines run-
ning through its new square, and here notice
that Kf6 puts the king on the same rank as its
queen. White then has the skewer Qxh6+.
After Black moves his king, White takes his
queen.
This position is included here because it in-
volves clearing a pawn from between the
enemy king and queen as well as moving the
enemy king into line with its queen. The
clearance of the pawn occurs first as a by-
product of NxN, but it might have occurred
after the king was nudged into position if the
board were arranged a bit differently. The
important point is just to see how these
themes involved in creating skewers can be
combined.
4.5.10.
Preventing the Middle Piece from Guarding
the Target.
Sometimes when the middle piece in a skewer
jumps out of the way of your attacker, it can
move to a square where it protects the piece
behind it—the piece you were hoping to take.
This isn't necessarily fatal to the skewer’s
success; we have seen cases where the ske-
wering piece is a bishop and it can turn a
profit by taking a queen or rook regardless of
whether they have protection. But a skewer
delivered by a queen usually will be worth-
while only when the piece targeted by it is
loose. In those cases an otherwise fine skewer
may be ruined if the middle piece can move to
protect the rear one, so we need techniques to
prevent this from occurring. They are consi-
dered here.
Dg748: This first position illustrates the prob-
lem in insoluble form. Black’s rooks are ar-
ranged in a pattern that should be immediately
recognizable as a setup for a skewer. White’s
queen can run through them by moving to c4.
Is the skewer sound?
Dg748: White to move
No, because when one rook moves out of the
way it can protect the other; thus Black can
play Re6-f6, and now if White captures he
would be trading his queen for a rook. It
would be okay if White were using a bishop,
but since he only has a queen for the purpose
the skewer doesn't work out.
Dg749: Now a position where the same sort
of possibility is a non-problem. Where does
White have a skewer?
Dg749: White to move
Look for aligned Black pieces and see that his
king and bishop are set up for a skewer on the
back rank; White’s rook can do the job with
Rc8+. But since the skewering piece (the
rook) is less valuable than the targeted piece
(the bishop), the move only works if the bi-
shop is loose and will stay that way. So White
has to worry that Black will reply Kg7 and
thus protect the bishop with his king. The
worry is only momentary, however; the first
thing to inspect is whether Black can in fact
play Kg7. He can't, because g7 is under attack
by White’s h6 pawn. Instead Black’s king
will have to move to e7, allowing the clean
win of a piece with RxB.
Dg750: White to move
Dg750: Black has a king and queen adjacent
to each other on a diagonal. The position
seems to call for a skewer, and would be easy
if White safely could run a bishop through the
two Black pieces; he would be happy to trade
his bishop for a queen. But if the bishop goes
to e5 it gets taken by Black’s king, and if
White’s queen instead goes to the needed di-
agonal Black plays Kc6 and White can do no
better than a trade of queens. White needs a
way to pry Black’s king and queen farther
apart before his own queen skewers them, so
that Black’s king can't make it back to pro-
vide protection. How to achieve this? By
playing those skewers just described in suc-
cession. First comes Be5+, which requires
Black to play KxB. Now that the king is two
squares away from its queen, the skewer with
White’s queen (Qf4+) works fine, thanks to
the protection furnished by the pawn at g3.
Dg751: White to move
Dg751: You see Black’s king and queen on
the seventh rank, of course, and realize this is
an opportunity; if there is a way to make a pin
or skewer out of these materials, you must
find it. White’s Rc7 fails to create a working
pin because the rook has no protection against
QxR. But an examination of every check
White can give turns up Qxh7+. This has
great promise, as it seems to skewer Black’s
king to his queen. The hitch is that the king
can move to e6, giving the queen protection.
(A king and queen with one square between
them often will present this problem.) White
needs to stretch the two Black pieces a little
farther apart. Last time we saw this done by
attacking the king, causing it to move farther
from the queen; this time we can try attacking
the queen first, causing it to step away from
the king. White plays Rc7, and as noted above
Black must play QxR to save his queen—
which then, however, has been moved beyond
the reach of his king. Qxh7+ now skewers and
wins Black’s queen in trade for the rook
White sacrificed.
Notice a key point about these preliminary
attacks used to drive apart the pieces meant to
be skewered: in each case the attack has been
made on the same line as the planned skewer,
thus requiring the enemy piece that performs
the recapture to stay on that line and preserve
the alignment that makes the tactic possible.
That isn’t always how it has to work, but it
often is.
Dg752: Black to move
Dg752: Observe the four White pieces lined
up on the first rank, including his king and
queen; and see the battery of queen and rook
that Black has on the open h-file. Where does
Black go from here? He examines every
check. There are two: QxR and Qxg3. Qxg3+
seems safer, but QxR+ is the stronger move.
Imagine White’s recapture KxQ and interro-
gate the resulting position. The exchange
would leave behind a striking pattern: White’s
king and queen would be one square apart on
the same rank; Black’s rook would be ready
to drop down to h1 for a classic back-rank
skewer. Need Black worry that when White’s
king moves, it still will be able to protect his
queen? Not this time. The king will be re-
quired to leave the back rank and will not be
able to reach the preferred square—e2—
because one of his own pieces already occu-
pies it. Instead the king is squeezed up to g2
(f2 is attacked by Black’s knight), leaving his
queen loose and exposed to capture by
Black’s rook. Black wins a rook with the se-
quence.
Dg753: Black to move
Dg753: You should have no trouble seeing
the concept for Black here: White’s queen and
rook are aligned on the e-file, and the queen is
the rook’s only guard. This should be enough
to cause you to play with a skewer; if Black
could attack with his rook on the e-file—and
he already has a rook there, ready to attack if
his bishop moves out of the way—White
would have to move his queen out of the way
and allow White to play RxR. But would it
turn a profit? When the middle piece is a
queen rather than a king, of course there are
many more ways the middle piece can leave
its square while still going to the defense of
the piece behind it. This isn’t necessarily a
fatal problem. Its seriousness depends on the
value of the skewering piece and its target.
But here Black would be trying to use a rook
to a win a rook, and this only will be produc-
tive if the targeted rook is loose.
So Black has to worry about moves by
White’s queen that will take it to safety and
yet protect the rook. He studies the White
queen’s lines and sees one way White might
accomplish this: Qb1. Can Black do anything
to prevent that move? Remember that Black’s
skewer has the structure of a discovered at-
tack, meaning that as he unveils it he has a
bishop move to make. Perhaps he can use it to
attack b1 and so make the square inaccessible
to White’s queen. Indeed he can: he plays
Bxa2, and now White’s queen has no squares
where it both is safe and protects the rook.
Black wins the rook next move—unless
White prefers to sacrifice his queen and use
his rook to recapture. (Black also has the op-
tion of Bf5, likewise attacking the b1 square;
this time White’s response is QxR, again sa-
crificing his queen for a rook.)
4.5.11.
Skewers Where Enemy Pieces are Underde-
fended.
We have seen that the protection enemy piec-
es enjoy is important when planning a skewer
of them. Loose pieces make the best targets.
But as we also know from our work else-
where, sometimes a piece that appears to be
guarded actually is as good as loose because it
is attacked once as well as protected once: it
cannot survive the addition of another attack-
er.
Dg754: White to move
Dg754: It would be malpractice to proceed in
the position to the left without examining
Black’s king and seeing what is aligned with
it—not just the bishop on b4 but the pawn on
a7. It occurs to you that the pawn can be won
with a skewer: Be3+. Yet then you see that
the pawn is protected by Black’s rook on a1.
Does this ruin the skewer?
No. We know a few standard ways of dealing
with this sort of difficulty; one which would
work here is to loosen the target by capturing
it and causing it to be replaced by a recaptur-
ing piece that then has no protection. Thus
White can play Rxa7, and if Black replies
RxR White then plays the skewer Be3, win-
ning back his rook a move later with a pawn
to show for it. The new point to see here,
however, is that in this position none of those
maneuvers are necessary—or desirable. The
pawn is as good as loose, since the pressures
against it are in equipoise from the start.
White can just play Be3+, and then Bxa7 after
the king moves. If Black then recaptures RxB,
White plays RxR and has won the exchange
as well as the pawn.
Be mindful not only of whether enemy pieces
are protected but of how they are protected
and whether that protection is offset by offen-
sive pressures you can bring to bear on them.
Dg755: Black to move
Dg755: Do you see the geometry of a skewer
for Black? Look for two White pieces on a
line that one of your pieces can reach with an
attack; see that on the first rank White has a
queen and rook. Black can put a rook on c1,
skewering them with protection from the
queen on e3. But since this would be a case of
a rook taking a rook (after White’s queen
moves), it only works if the targeted rook is
loose, which it isn’t. Or is it?
It has protection from White’s king; then
again, it also is attacked already by Black’s
queen, so White’s king wouldn’t be able to
recapture. Black thus should play Rc1 after
all. When White moves his queen, the coast is
clear for RxR or QxR+.
There is a little more to say about that last
choice. Which is better? QxR+: it's a check,
and so keeps Black in control. To illustrate
the point, suppose White replies to Black’s
initial Rc1 with Qh5. Now if Black plays
RxR, White has Qe8—mate! Whereas playing
with checks wins Black the game: after
White’s Qh5 is 2. …QxR+; 3. Kg3, Rc3+
(another check to protect against the afore-
mentioned mate threat); 4. Kh4, Qf2+ (still
another check); 5. Kg5, Rg3+, and with care-
ful play Black has an eventual forced mate as
the White king is driven into treacherous terri-
tory infested with Black pawns. Assuming
White sees all this, he will respond to Rc1 in
the first place not with 2. Qh5 but with 2.
QxR, BxQ, accepting the loss of a queen for a
rook.
Dg756: White to move
Dg756: Look for useful alignments between
Black’s pieces. See that his queen and rook
are lined up on the fifth rank, and that his
queen and knight both are on the d-file. White
has nothing he can do with the horizontal
alignment, but he has a rook available to send
pressure down the d-file with Rd1. White’s
rook is safe there because his queen protects
it, but does the move accomplish anything?
The target of the skewer would be the knight
behind Black’s queen, but the queen can pro-
tect the knight when it moves by going to b7.
Attacking a protected knight with your rook
generally is a bad idea. Generally—but not
here, because from the outset Black’s knight
already is under attack by White’s queen as
well. Once Black moves his queen the knight
will be attacked more times than it is de-
fended and must be lost. White’s queen does
dual service as guardian of the skewering
piece and additional attacker of the targeted
piece in the rear. The simple lesson of the
position: when you have the geometry of a
skewer and are deciding whether it can be
made profitable, be careful to consider not
just whether the enemy pieces involved are
loose or have protection, but also whether
they already are under attack from other di-
rections.
But now let’s go beyond the simple lesson
and think about how the knight will be lost
after White plays Rd1. If Black replies Qb7,
White has to choose between QxN and RxN.
Which is better? QxN, because of how the
board looks afterwards: White then has a bat-
tery of queen and rook on the d-file, with the
queen ready to invade the Black king’s posi-
tion. Black is obliged to prevent this by trad-
ing queens—playing QxQ, and letting White
recapture RxQ. That’s fine with White, as he
is a piece ahead; his advantage gets larger as
other pieces are exchanged away. If White
instead takes the knight with his rook, he pos-
es no such threat. Black can play Qb1+ and
harass White’s king.
But Black doesn’t have to reply to White’s
initial Rd1 by playing Qb7. Another option is
Ra5, meeting White’s threat not with defense
but with a counterthreat. Black is hoping that
White’s queen will move to a square where it
no longer attacks the knight on d7. The threat
doesn't achieve that goal, but it still turns out
better for Black than Qb7; instead play goes
2. RxQ, RxQ; 3. RxN, Rxa2 and Black has
traded a knight for a pawn instead of giving
up his knight for nothing. (Or it can run 2.
QxN, QxQ; 3. RxQ, Rxa2. The result is the
same.)
Finally, consider one other way for Black to
respond to 1. Rd1: he can play Nb6. Notice
the appeal of the move. Again it counterat-
tacks White’s queen; and it also removes the
knight from the d-file, preventing White from
following RxQ with RxN the way he did in
the previous paragraph. The fantasy is that
play will go 2. RxQ, NxQ; 3. RxR, NxR—and
Black is even. Unfortunately this all fails be-
cause White replies to Nb6 with Qe8+. (When
Black moved his knight, he inadvertently
opened a line to his back rank for White’s
queen.) Now Black’s king and queen are both
being attacked; after Black moves his king, he
will lose his queen in return for a rook. So
Nb6 is a disaster, but it’s still important to
see. If his king were on h7 here rather than
g8, Nb6 would save the position for Black.
Play would go as described in the fantasy
sketched a few sentences ago. The point: a
relative skewer can be broken just as a rela-
tive pin can be broken if one of the pieces
being skewered can go make a serious enough
counterthreat of its own. And this brings us to
our next topic.
4.5.12.
Breaking a Skewer.
Dg757: Black to move
Dg757: White has just skewered Black’s king
and rook. Must the Black rook be lost?
Among other things Black is confronted with
a check, so in principle he can deal with it in
one of three ways: capturing the menacing
piece, moving the king, or—the only thing
that helps here—interposing something. Bd8
blocks the skewer and (importantly) gives the
bishop protection from the king behind it.
Dg758: Two loose bishops on the same rank,
like two rooks on the same diagonal, often are
prey for a skewer, as White has shown here
by playing his rook to d6. What can Black do
about it? Again, the first line of defense
against a skewer often is an interposition.
Black can get a piece between his bishops and
White’s rook with Rc6. The critical point is
that the interposing piece must have protec-
tion; else White just renews the skewer with
RxR and gains material to boot.
Dg758: Black to move
Here Black’s knight protects his rook on c6,
so interposing the rook defuses the threat.
There is a fancier defensive idea worth seeing
that works as well. Black can play 1. …Bf2,
launching a counterthreat; now if White plays
RxB, Black has BxN and has just traded mi-
nor pieces. The consequences of Bf2 are more
complicated than this, though, as White can
reply to it with 2. Nd3—removing the knight
from danger and using it to attack the bishop
that was menacing it. Indeed, now both Black
bishops are under attack by different White
pieces. Yet Black has effective replies to this
as well: 2. …RxBc2; 3. KxR, BxNd3 (the
point of RxB was to clear the diagonal for this
capture); 4. RxBd3, NxRd3; 5. KxNd3—and
now the only pieces left on the board are a
White knight and a Black bishop! A little
more simply, at the third move Black can skip
KxR and play RxBa6, which gets even but
ends the bloodletting as Black now moves his
rook to e2 where it is safe and can guard the
bishop at f2.
The lasting point of this messy exercise is to
see the value—and also the difficulty—of
replying to a threat by making a new threat of
your own elsewhere. This can be a surprising
and effective option for breaking out of tac-
tical trouble, but it often isn't for the faint of
heart; it can give rise to lots of complications,
as both threats may play out and interact with
each other.
Dg759: Black to move
Dg759: To repeat a worthy refrain: two ene-
my rooks on the same diagonal should cause
you to think about skewers. That is what
White did, and as a result he just played Bf4,
bringing us to this position. Black is threat-
ened with the loss of the exchange. He can
put a pawn in the way at e5, but since the
pawn would be loose this is a good example
of a useless interposition. White just plays
Bxe5 and the skewer is renewed. What Black
needs is a way to seize the initiative, breaking
a piece out of the skewer with a threat that
White has to take time to fend off. The natural
choice is a check if one is available, so Black
plays Rd1+. After White moves his king,
Black has time to move his other rook out of
the White bishop’s path as well.
Lesson: examine every check, even when you
are under attack. And examine any checks the
enemy can play in the midst of whatever you
are planning. This position also shows why
“relative” skewers—i.e., those not involving
the enemy king—are, like relative pins, easier
to escape than the absolute variety. The pieces
involved have greater freedom of movement,
and so can create bigger threats to save them-
selves.
Dg760: Once more a player has allowed his
rooks to become loose and aligned on an open
diagonal and so has found them skewered,
this time by Black’s queen on c7. Can White
interpose anything? No. Can he give check
with one of the rooks? No. So what else is
there? A mate threat. Remembering not to
panic and to take the time to study the enemy
king and the pressures he exerts against it,
White sees that he has his queen aimed at h7.
Dg760: White to move
If one of White’s rooks were aimed at that
square, White would threaten Qxh7#. So he
plays Rh3, this time moving the rear rook
rather than the middle one. After Black puts
out the fire, White moves his other rook to
safety.
Another idea for White would be Qe3, adding
a guard to the rook on e5; since it’s no longer
loose, White doesn’t have to fear that Black
will play QxR. But this is not such a good
idea for two reasons. The first is that Black
wins the game immediately with Qxc2#
(White’s queen was doing important defen-
sive work on d3!). But even if that weren’t an
issue (imagine that the rook on c8 instead
were on b8), Black would have another a re-
sponse of his own: Bd6, adding another at-
tacker against the e5 rook. White can't save it.
Dg761: The situation looks unfortunate for
Black, does it not? He was caught with his
queen and rook on the same diagonal, and
now White has played his bishop to d6, ske-
wering them with protection from the pawn
on c5 and apparently ready to win the ex-
change. There is no room for Black to inter-
pose anything, and he has no checks. What
else could be ?

Dg761: Black to move
Again, a mate threat. Always remember to
consider what pieces you have trained on
squares next to the enemy king. Here Black
has a bishop aimed at g2. If he can tear his
queen out of the skewer and attack g2 with it
at the same time, White will have to waste a
move avoiding the threat of Qxg2#. So Black
plays Qg5 and then relocates his rook on the
next move, ending the threat of the skewer.
Dg762: Two enemy pieces on the same di-
agonal call for consideration of a skewer by
your bishop or queen. White saw Black’s
rook and knight so aligned here, and then
played Bd2; now Black faces a skewer and
the threat that he will lose the exchange (or, if
the rook moves, that he will lose his knight).
Dg762: Black to move
Black’s only interposition—Qf4—is worse
than useless. He has a check in Rxg2, but it
loses the rook for a pawn and so defeats the
purpose of breaking out of the skewer. What
remains? A mate threat, of course. Black’s
queen attacks h2, adjacent to White’s king. If
he had further support for an attack against
that square, he could threaten mate. Can either
of the Black pieces in the skewer leave their
squares with an attack against h2? Yes: Black
can play Ng4. Now White has to worry that
Black will play Qxh2+—and then, after the
reply Kf1, Qh1#. After White takes defensive
measures to prevent this (e.g., f2-f4), Black
has time to move his rook. White’s threat is
extinguished.
Notice that Black had another option as well:
moving the middle piece—his rook—not with
check but with a threat against White’s queen
via Re5. The rook would have protection
from the pawn on f6. Since the threat Black
creates with this is larger than the gain White
could obtain from following through with
BxN, he has to abandon the skewer in favor
of a retreating move with his queen like Qd1.
Dg763: Beware of leaving your pieces lined
up on the same rank. They may get skewered,
as has happened here to Black: White saw
Black’s queen and knight so aligned, and thus
played his rook to c6 with protection from his
bishop on f3. There is no room to interpose
anything, and Black has no way to give check
with his queen that does not lose it on the
spot. And this time he has no mating threats.
Now what options remain?
Dg763: Black to move
If you are in Black’s shoes you mustn’t allow
the threat you face to distract you from your
usual tasks, including a scan of the lines lead-
ing away from White’s king. In this case the
scan reveals that White’s rook can be pinned.
Black plays Rc8 and the skewering threat is
over. White’s cannot legally play RxQ; he can
play RxR, but then Black recaptures RxR+
and it’s a wash.
 4.5.13.
Strategic Implications.
Now some strategic pointers. First, the best
skewers tend to run through kings, and you
forth onto the board. Endgames with mobile
kings on a relatively open field often are dom-
inated by threats of pins and skewers. Earlier
in the game, when the king doesn't serve of-
fensive purposes (because you have other
pieces for that), a more retiring attitude is
appropriate and helps keep skewers away.
Putting the king with its back to the wall gen-
erally is good practice; one also wants to keep
an eye on the files to the side of it, and partic-
ularly the h-file when castling has occurred on
the kingside. An open h-file can lead to fine
skewers when a heavy piece runs down it and
ends up aimed through a king on the back
rank.
A few other morals may be derived from the
"relative" skewers we saw. One involves how
fensive work because it is stationed out where
it can reach lots of points on the enemy’s side
of the board.
Finally there is the recurring significance of
open lines. The bishop is the most often use-
ful of the skewering pieces because it typical-
ly can get out from behind your pawns and
onto good lines more easily than your rooks
can, and because the bishop is worth little
enough that it profitably can threaten lots of
enemy pieces—including protected rooks.
Bishops, like rooks, are at their best—and
can turn this point into a strategic caution
against sending your king out from the back
rank. Late in the game such travels can be
important because the king may have good
offensive uses, but you always need to worry
about skewers as soon as the king ventures
you protect your pieces. We know that loose
pieces are prey to unexpected tactical strikes
of many different kinds; skewers are yet
another addition to the list. The same goes for
pieces protected only by other pieces. They
may be loosened or become as good as loose
when enough offensive pressure is put on
them or their guardians, and then become tar-
gets for skewers (or forks, or...). These risks
are much reduced when a piece is guarded by
a pawn, for then if it is taken its replace-
ment—the recapturing pawn—is not an at-
tractive target for a follow-up attack. All this
also helps explain the importance of maintain-
ing control of the center, or at least keeping a
pawn there. The pawn can serve to protect a
piece from being captured or loosened too
easily, and in turn the piece can do good of
most capable of executing skewers—when
they have open lines on which to run. So here
as elsewhere, much of the relevant strategy
comes down to controlling the center and
thinking carefully about the arrangement of
pawns there and in other sectors. The place-
ment of pawns determines the openness of the
lines on the board, and so is a great determi-
nant of how tactically useful your pieces will
be.
 Chapter 5.
Removing the Guard.
 Capturing the Guard.
5.1.1.
Introduction to the Section. Simple Cases.
Suppose you make a threat against one of
your opponent’s pieces; perhaps your knight
attacks his bishop, and the bishop is loose. He
can respond either by moving the bishop or
by guarding it. If he guards it, you now have a
second offensive focus besides the bishop: the
guard itself. Undermining it can become your
immediate task or can hover as an ongoing
issue in the game. With time, more such is-
sues come up: at any given moment several of
your pieces may be aimed at pieces, pawns,
and possible mating squares belonging to
your opponent. A critical question in every
position is whether those points you have un-
der attack can be made vulnerable; they all
may have guards, but can the guards be cap-
tured, or blocked, or driven or lured away?
This section is devoted to methods for achiev-
ing those aims: ways of removing or disabling
the pieces that guard targets in the enemy
camp. It covers material that has been labeled
in a wide range of ways in the literature, in-
cluding terms such as destruction, deflection,
diversion, decoying, damming, drawaway,
driving off, breaking communication, block-
ading, overloading, attraction, interference,
interception, and obstruction. While some of
those terms have useful meanings, on the
whole the proliferation of jargon is unfortu-
nate. All of those devices can be assimilated
under the heading of “removing the guard”;
we can then subdivide this theme into four
methods—four ways to loosen a piece or
square you would like to take. (a) You can
capture the guard; (b) you can attack the
guard (i.e., threaten it so that it becomes ob-
liged to leave its square); (c) you can take
something else the guard protects (distracting
it, or demonstrating that it is “overworked”);
or (d) perhaps you can interpose something
between the guard and its protectorate, inter-
fering with the defensive work the guard is
trying to do.
Each of those themes gets a chapter of its own
in this section. We have seen most of them in
earlier chapters as ways to create forks and
other tactical strikes; they are the methods we
have used to loosen targeted pieces or to loo-
sen the square needed to impose a fork or pin,
etc. Here we focus on them as ways of loo-
sening pieces and mating squares so that you
can capture or occupy them straightaway.
Dg764: White to move
Dg764: Our first theme involves capturing
the guard: simply taking it, so that its protec-
torate becomes loose. We begin with simple
examples like the position to the left. In this
section, as in the others, we will be dwelling
on a single technique to guide our searches; in
this case it will be to ask what enemy pieces
you threaten (and then investigating whether
the threat can be made to work). Here, then,
you start by noticing that your rook attacks
Black’s bishop, which is protected by a pawn
and rook. And your queen attacks Black’s
knight, which is protected by...his bishop. In
those observations lie a tactical idea: play
both captures in succession. First comes RxB,
removing the knight’s guard. Black’s recap-
ture RxR momentarily wins the exchange but
replaces the bishop with a rook that no longer
can guard the knight on g4. Now White plays
QxN, winning two pieces for a rook.
Black has a defensive idea here, by the way,
that doesn’t quite work but is important to
notice. He can reply to RxB by taking the
offensive with Nxf2. Now Black has picked
up a pawn and he attacks two pieces at once;
his knight (which was a goner anyway) at-
tacks White’s queen, and his rook (and also
his f7 pawn) attacks White’s rook. The move
fails to impress, though, because White can
keep pressing his rook forward with RxR+,
not only taking a rook but inflicting a check
that Black has to fend off. Now White is the
one who attacks two pieces at the same time.
Black can play RxR, but then White has
another move he can spend taking Black's
knight or moving his own queen to safety. So
Nxf2 doesn’t help Black here; he ends up
trading rooks and losing a piece for a pawn.
But the idea behind Nxf2 is valuable: when
one of your pieces is taken (as happens to
Black here when White plays RxB), you
might be able to profit by delaying or forfeit-
ing your recapture and instead playing a threat
of your own elsewhere. If Black’s pieces were
arranged a little differently, the idea would
have helped him to reduce his losses here.
Now return to the correct sequence (1. RxB,
RxR; 2. QxN) and see what can be learned
from it. You already know from prior studies
that it is dangerous to send a piece out onto
the board loose (i.e., with no protection).
Even if it sits on a square that is not being
attacked, such a piece easily can become the
subject of a fork and get taken for nothing.
Here Black avoided that problem—in part.
All of his pieces were protected; but they
were not protected equally well. The bishop
was protected by a pawn, and so was very
safe in the sense that it could not itself be tak-
en profitably. The knight, however, was pro-
tected not by a pawn but by a fellow piece. It
often is hazardous to venture a piece into
enemy territory with no better protection than
a fellow piece farther back on the board. This
position shows why. A knight advanced to
close range, like Black’s knight here, is easy
for White to attack. It then becomes only as
safe as the piece that defends it—Black’s bi-
shop. Even if that bishop is well-protected by
a pawn, the pawn provides no security against
the risk that White can throw a piece at the
bishop—even with a sacrifice, as where
White uses his rook in this case—and thus
cause an exchange that leaves the knight
loose.
All this shows why the better practice usually
is to avoid planting a knight in enemy territo-
ry until you have created a suitable home for
it: a square protected by a pawn. It would be
too much to state this as a rule; like every-
thing in chess, it depends on the position, and
sometimes the benefits of putting your knight
in a riskier position outweigh the costs. The
important thing is just to be aware of the dan-
gers involved in protecting pieces with pieces.
Dg765: Black to move
Dg765: Again the pieces at issue all are pro-
tected but aren't equally secure. Black attacks
White’s bishop with one of his rooks and he
attacks White’s rook with the other. The bi-
shop is protected by a pawn, and so cannot
itself be taken with any gain. White’s rook is
protected by—his bishop. So first Black takes
the bishop with RxB. After White recaptures
with his pawn, White’s rook is left to be taken
with RxR. To put it more simply: you ask
why you cannot play RxR, and see that the
rook is protected by the bishop; so you cap-
ture the bishop.
Removing the guard requires you to think
backwards. You notice something you might
be able to take but see that it has protection.
Instead of dismissing the idea as unworkable
you ask how the piece is protected and wheth-
er you might change that. Thus you never stop
with the conclusion that a piece is protected;
you always finish the sentence: protected by
what?
Dg766: White’s rook is under attack by
Black’s king. He has to move it. Before re-
treating, though, think about ways of taking
the offensive. What does White himself
threaten?
Dg766: White to move
His king attacks Black’s rook in mirror-image
fashion (the position basically is symmetrical,
of course). The rook is guarded by the knight,
so White simply removes the knight from the
board: RxN+. This forfeits the exchange, but
for the sake of loosening Black’s rook. How-
ever Black recaptures, White has KxR next
move and wins a piece.
Dg767: Black to move
Dg767: You want to be thinking all the time
about any enemy pieces you can capture and
what guards them. Here Black would like to
play KxR, but the rook is guarded by a pawn.
But he can take out the pawn with Rxf5; once
White recaptures (RxR+) the White rook on
g6 is left loose, so Black takes it with his
king. He nets a pawn and takes control of the
rest of the game.
We have seen that pieces tend to be especially
vulnerable when they are guarded by other
pieces rather than by pawns. But as this posi-
tion shows, even an enemy piece protected by
a pawn may present an opportunity to make
gains.
Dg768: White to move
Dg768: To repeat the key introductory point:
before thinking about what move to make,
consider what points you currently attack in
the enemy camp and whether any of the pos-
sibilities can be made profitable. Here White
has two captures to consider: QxQ and BxN.
What prevents QxQ from succeeding? The
protection Black’s queen enjoys from his
knight. So White eliminates the defender with
BxN+. After Black replies b7xBc6, White
takes Black’s queen for free. Notice the check
White’s bishop gave when it captured the
knight. The check is critical, as otherwise
Black replies QxQ+, and then after his queen
is retaken plays b7xBc6—a wash. Giving
check with the capture denies Black the time
to make mischief with the piece that has just
been stripped of its guard.
Dg769: Focusing again on what captures you
might make, you see that your bishop attacks
Black’s knight and that your queen attacks—
and is attacked by—Black’s queen. The press-
ing issue is that Black is about to play QxQ,
as your queen is loose. You could force the
exchange of queens first with QxQ (after
which Black recaptures NxQ); or you could
move your queen or protect it with a pawn.
But all this would be unambitious. Consider
how you might seize the initiative; in this
case, consider in particular what would be
needed for you to take Black’s queen at a
profit.

Dg769: White to move
As we saw, its only guard is the knight. Okay,
so take the knight: play BxN, and if Black
replies e6xB, you have QxQ. More likely,
Black would reply to BxN with QxQ—but
then White plays BxQ and still has won a
piece.
When you are trying to kick the legs out from
under the enemy queen so you can take it for
free, you have to be careful; it's a dangerous
type of hunt. Generally you will be planning
to play QxQ (if you have a lesser piece than
your queen aimed at your opponent’s queen,
you typically take it without bothering to re-
move the guard!). But if QxQ is available to
you, it also is available to your opponent. You
therefore have to find a way to remove the
enemy queen’s protection that doesn’t allow
him to just reply QxQ and ruin your idea. In
the previous frame, we dealt with this by giv-
ing check when White captured the queen’s
guard; thus there was no time for the enemy
to play QxQ. In the current frame we deal
with the risk by ensuring that when White
captures the queen’s guard he also supplies a
defender for his own queen. The result is that
when White recaptures after Black's QxQ, he
takes his bishop out of range of the pawn on
e6. If that weren't so, the sequence here
wouldn't work.
Dg770: What captures are available to Black?
BxN and QxQ. Both queens are protected, but
that is only an invitation to probe deeper into
the strength of the protection. White's queen
is guarded by his knight, and the knight can
be taken. Thus if Black plays BxN, White’s
queen suddenly is bereft of protection. Now
of course White would not be inclined to play
the recapture e3xB, permitting his queen to be
taken by Black on the next move. Instead he
will send his exposed queen on a suicide run:
QxQ. But then Black has BxQ and wins a
piece with the sequence.
Dg770: Black to move
Notice the delicacy of it all. Here as in the last
case, the sequence works only because the
bishop that removes the guard continues to
protect Black’s queen against QxQ, thus
enabling Black to both make the recapture
and evacuate the bishop from danger with the
same move. The lesson repeats: when you are
removing the enemy queen’s guard, you have
to think carefully about the danger that he will
reply QxQ; make sure either that he cannot do
it or that if he does, you will have a recapture
that does not leave one of your other pieces in
the lurch.
Dg771: White to move
Dg771: The cluster of pieces on the left side
of the board might seem hard to untangle; the
two rooks that attack each other on the fifth
rank both are protected by pawns, so what can
be done with them? Meanwhile White’s
knight is under attack by a pawn, and presum-
ably must flee to White’s half of the board
since all the squares it can reach on Black’s
side are guarded. But this line of thinking
would be all wrong. Holding the initiative is
important. Think offense before defense. It's
really simple: White wants to play RxR; it
doesn't work because of the pawn on c6; so
first he takes out the pawn with Nxc6+. After
Black recaptures with NxN, White plays RxR
and has won a rook and a pawn for a knight.
Notice again the power of the check. Every-
thing here depends on the fact that Nxc6 is an
attack on Black’s king and thus keeps Black
busy for a move. If it were not—if Black’s
king were on, say, e8—then Nxc6 is met by
Black with RxR. After White recaptures
d4xR, Black has NxN and ends up winning a
piece for a pawn. When you're trying to make
a capture and the pieces involved are making
symmetrical attacks (queen against queen, or
rook against rook), you always have to con-
sider the possibility that the other side will try
to play QxQ (or, here, RxR) before you do.
Dg772: White to move
Dg772: The striking feature of this position
should be the open (devoid of pawns) f-file,
and particularly the kernel of a discovery that
White has there: his knight masks his queen.
The Black target on the other side—the knight
on f7—is protected. Well, but by what? The
bishop on e8. So the discovery can be ex-
ecuted and the guard eliminated with the same
blow: NxB. Black recaptures RxN, and now
the f7 knight is loose, permitting QxN with
the gain of a piece.
There are two points to take away from this
frame. The first is the importance of keeping
in mind different tactical tools and ways you
can use them together: the logic of the dis-
covered attack can be joined with the capture
of a guard in powerful ways.
The second point is that it is common during a
game for minor pieces to be aimed at each
other. One of your knights or bishops often
will be pointed at one of your opponent’s
knights or bishops, with the pieces on both
sides having enough protection, and with the
pieces at stake similar enough in value, to
make the situation seem stable. Remember
when you see such a pattern that if either side
pulls the trigger and so forces a trade of piec-
es, the consequences can be very signifi-
cant—not for the pieces exchanged, but for
anything they used to protect. Minor pieces
frequently are used as supports for other piec-
es, which after a capture and recapture may be
left loose and thus become good targets for
forks or discoveries. So when either side has
an unexecuted opportunity to capture a minor
piece, think habitually about whether such a
capture would have the side effect of remov-
ing a guard.
Dg773: White to move
Dg773: What does White attack? Not much, it
might initially seem; his c1 rook and his bi-
shop each attack a pawn, and both pawns are
protected. But combine these inquiries with
the other studies we have made elsewhere.
Find a chance for a fork by stepping back
from the board and looking for a geometrical
pattern in Black’s position; or look for any
checks you can give; or imagine those pawn
captures just mentioned. In any of these ways
you want to see that Bxd5+ is a pretty triangu-
lar bishop fork of Black’s king and rook. The
move won't yet work, of course, because d5 is
guarded by a knight. But the first thought then
is to destroy the guard if you can. White plays
NxN, and after the recapture a5xN the fork
Bxd5+ works nicely.
This position is no different from several stu-
dies in the chapter on bishop forks showing
how they can be set up by loosening the fork-
ing square. The point of including the position
now is to show again how the ideas consi-
dered here relate to our earlier work, and also
to serve as a reminder that when you look for
points you attack in the enemy camp you start
with enemy pieces at which your forces are
aimed, but do not end there: look as well for
sensitive squares—e.g., forking squares and
mating squares. More on this later.
5.1.02.
Cases Involving Multiple Steps.
Dg774: White to move
Dg774: The positions so far in this section
have enabled you to remove the guard with
one move and take the piece it protected a
move later. Now let's see how the same ideas
work in positions involving an additional step
or two. In this first example White’s queen is
loose and is attacked by Black’s queen. White
has no way to add protection to it. Should he
move it, or perhaps initiate QxQ himself?
Black’s queen is protected by a pawn that
White’s knight attacks, which seems tantaliz-
ing. But as we have seen, one must do better
than just capture the guard when trying to
loosen a queen; here Black would reply to
Nxc6 with QxQ. The point is familiar: in this
sort of position, the knight must take the pawn
with a check that keeps the opponent busy.
Unfortunately Nxc6 is not a check; yet it
might be turned into one by dragging the king
onto a closer square. White therefore starts
with Rd8+ (his only check on the board, so
inspection of it was mandatory anyhow). Af-
ter Black plays KxR (or Ke7, if he somehow
prefers it), White’s Nxc6 is indeed a check.
Black has no time for QxQ; he must defend
his king with QxN. Now the Black queen’s
protection is gone, and White is the one who
plays QxQ. To summarize: 1. Rd8+, KxR; 2.
Nxc6+, QxN; 3. QxQ wins White a queen and
a pawn for a rook and a minor piece.
Notice the backwards style of reasoning.
White starts with the thought of taking
Black’s queen. He sees that to do this, he first
needs to take the pawn behind the queen; but
to take the pawn without losing control of the
action, he has to give check at the same time;
and to give check with that move, he first
needs to move Black’s king onto a square the
knight will be able to reach from c6. So White
starts with the check Rd8 and it looks like he
is seeing three moves ahead. But it might be
more accurate to say that he is seeing three
moves beneath the position on the board. The
issue is not so much extending your ability to
see forward in time; it is extending your abili-
ty to perceive the chains of cause and effect in
front of you.
Dg775: Black to move
Dg775: The Black and White queens attack
each other, and both are protected by their
knights; Black can't take White's knight, so
the position might seem to be deadlocked—
but not if you obey the practice of examining
your checks. For then you see Black's Nf3+.
If White deals with the check by capturing the
knight with his rook or g2 pawn, consider the
resulting board: now Black's bishop has a
clear line to the knight on d4, and Bxd4+ is
another check that continues to keep White
too busy to play QxQ. White extinguishes the
check with c3xB, and then loses his loosened
queen to QxQ. In effect Black played a dis-
covered attack against the guard of White's
queen.
In reply to Black’s original check Nf3, White
also has the better option of moving his king
to h1. That ruins Black's follow up of Bxd4
because the move no longer gives check; thus
White can instead reply QxQ+. But White's
Kh1 allows Black a different follow up in-
stead: NxN, also removing the guard. True, it
doesn’t give check; but now the piece that
removes the guard also now protects its
queen. Thus when White now plays QxQ+,
Black can respond with NxQ. He has won a
piece and moved his knight out of danger.
Dg776: White to move
Dg776: We still are looking for targets and
vulnerabilities in their protection, only now
the chain to be examined is a little longer.
What does White threaten? His bishop attacks
the pawn on c4, and his rook attacks the bi-
shop on d4. Black’s bishop is the prize. It is
protected by a knight. So White hacks away at
the chain with Bxc4+. This attacks Black’s
knight, which is not worrisome to Black in
itself since the knight remains protected by a
rook; the threat is that if the knight gets taken,
the bishop on d4 will be exposed. Normally
Black could deal with this by just moving his
bishop, but not here—for the beauty of Bxc4
is that it checks Black’s king and leaves him
no time to save the bishop. He spends a move
relocating his king, and now White plays
BxN. In effect White has simply played a
bishop fork to take out the Black bishop's
guard.
At this point Black could recapture with RxB,
to which White would reply by likewise play-
ing RxB; Black then finishes with Rxb2, win-
ning back a pawn but losing a piece with the
sequence. Black can do a little better, though.
After 1. Bxc4+, Kf8; 2. BxN, each side has a
rook that attacks the other side’s bishop. But
instead of trading pieces Black can play
Bxb2; this saves his bishop and picks up a
pawn. Now White has to play Rd3 to protect
his own bishop, and this gives Black time to
finish with Bxa3, picking up still another
pawn. Black thus ends up with two pawns to
help offset his loss of a knight, though White
has a won game in any event.
The process of removing the guard often in-
volves exchanges that are a wash in them-
selves but that leave other pieces loose for the
taking. If the guard is protected by a second
guard and so forth, you sometimes can start
by attacking the last link in the chain, ex-
changing your way toward a target that will
be left loose in the end. But those preliminary
exchanges must be studied carefully. They are
partially forcing moves, but only partially;
your opponent is likely to reply to your cap-
tures with predictable recaptures, but in prin-
ciple it usually is open to him to decline the
recapture and play some other threat that
takes the initiative or otherwise ends your
threat. That is why it is so valuable to include
checks in your sequences when possible, as
White does here with Bxc4+. The check
forces your opponent to pick from a short
menu of replies, and keeps you in control of
the action.
Dg777: Here is a cautionary tale to illustrate
the warnings just offered about removing the
guard without paying attention to the side
consequences. Ask what White threatens; see
that his bishop on b2 attacks a Black knight
and that his rook on d1 attacks a Black bi-
shop. The Black knight guards the Black bi-
shop. The position seems to call for a classic
removal of the guard: White exchanges minor
pieces with 1. BxN, BxB; and then comes
RxB, with White winning the loosened bishop
on d7.
Dg777: White to move
But when you imagine this or any sequence of
captures, pause to consider how the board will
look when the action is over. What will be
loose? What lines will be left open? There
may be a kicker you can play at the end—or a
kicker for your opponent. In this case notice
that after the first pair of moves Black is left
with a bishop aimed at White’s rook. So after
White plays RxB, Black plays BxR. Would
White then be able to recapture in the corner
with RxB? No, because his rook on d1 would
have been used to take Black’s bishop. So the
attempt to win a piece by capturing the guard
would end up losing the exchange.
This position is worth a good look, as it
shows the importance of carefully visualizing
each piece vacated from its old square and on
a new one. It also shows the importance of
considering all of your opponent's possible
recaptures; a rudimentary way to blunder here
is to imagine that after 1. BxN, Black would
reply g7xB. BxB obviously is stronger, since
it not only takes aim at White's rook but more
generally makes the bishop active and keeps
the pawn cover in front of Black's king intact.
Dg778: Do you see an apparent opportunity
for White? A pawn in the center always is an
important focus of attention; here Black’s
pawn on e4 is attacked twice by White and
guarded once by Black, making it possible for
White to play Nxe4 with impunity. Or so it
seems. But before making even a simple cap-
ture, assess the board as it would appear af-
terwards. Once White plays Nxe4, what are
Black’s options? What does he threaten?
Dg778: White to move
The important answers are the attacks by
Black’s queen on White’s queen and by
Black’s knight on White’s knight. The for-
tunes of those attacked pieces are linked.
Black can play QxQ+; and then, after the re-
capture f2xQ, he plays NxN, having loosened
White’s knight. Another way to see the point
is that even at the outset of the position
White’s queen is under attack by Black’s
queen. This makes the White queen a poor
defender of anything else, as it can be elimi-
nated by Black in a single stroke. The simple
lesson: don’t send your pieces on adventures
with protection only from fellow pieces that
currently are attacked. (Actually there is an
even better reply for Black here that we will
revisit in the chapter on distracting the guard.
Perhaps you can see it already...)
Incidentally, notice an idea here for White
that nearly saves the day—but not quite. After
1. Nxe4, QxQ, White almost can play NxN+,
pushing the same knight onward not only with
a capture of an enemy piece but also with a
fork of Black’s king and rook that requires
Black to spend a move recapturing (the priori-
ty of check). (And if Black plays Ke7, White
next plays NxR+ and checks yet again.) The
only reason this doesn’t work is that Black’s
prior move—QxQ—is itself a check that re-
quires White to spend a move replying f2xQ.
But all this would give White a fine out if his
king were positioned a little differently.
Another old lesson repeats: don’t take for
granted that your opponent will reply to your
captures by recapturing; he may be able to
make other captures or threats of his own
first. The beauty of working with checks is
that they avoid those risks.
5.1.03.
When the Target is Protected Twice.
Most of the positions just reviewed involved
targets that were protected only once. Their
guardians may have had guardians, creating
lines of protection that had to be traced out;
but even then there usually was just one such
line of protection to worry about. Often, of
course, a piece will be protected two or three
times—in other words, with two or three
chains of guards, short or long, that prevent it
from being taken. The logic involved in re-
moving the guard doesn't change much in
those cases, but a new wrinkle or two can
appear in the resulting patterns. And seeing
the tactical opportunities latent in such posi-
tions takes a little practice, because to the
untrained eye a piece protected two or three
times will not seem vulnerable at all. Yet per-
haps it is. And liquidating a position where
there are multiple guards on each side also
may shake up the board sufficiently to permit
a fresh and unexpected tactical blow—a fork
or pin or discovery—during the sequence or
at the end of it.
Dg779: Black to move
Dg779: In the study to the top you are playing
the Black pieces; your bishop is loose and is
threatened by White’s queen. A lesser player
would move the bishop or add protection to it,
but you, the seasoned student of sharp play,
step back to inspect your offensive options,
starting with a look at what threats you cur-
rently make. Your rook attacks the bishop on
g2—which is protected by White’s king. Your
queen and bishop attack the knight on e4—
which is protected twice, by White’s bishop
and queen. A natural idea would be to take
out one of the knight’s guards with a capture:
RxB+, sacrificing the exchange to gain a
piece next move. Since the move is a check, it
leaves White no time to reply QxB; he must
recapture with KxR. Now the knight on e4 is
guarded only once and attacked twice. Better
still, either capture of it—with your bishop or
queen—then forks White’s king and rook on
b1. (Observe the triangle.)
But which way of taking White’s knight is
best? If you use your bishop, then White
moves his king and you win back the ex-
change with BxR. If Black instead takes the
knight with his queen, play might go 3. Kh2,
QxQ+ (a discovered attack against the b1
rook); 4. e3xQ, BxRb1; 5. RxB. (Or 3. QxQ,
BxQ+; 4. Kf2, BxR; RxR.) The final gain in
material is the same in all these variations:
you end up a whole piece ahead. The differ-
ence is that starting with 2. QxN also ends up
eliminating both queens from the board. This
is good for familiar reasons. The fewer the
pieces left on the board, the more significant
your advantage becomes and the harder it is
for your opponent to climb back into the
game. So a sequence that gets both queens off
the board as well as winning a piece generally
is better than one that wins a piece without
more.
Dg780: White to move
Dg780: What does White threaten? His rook
attacks the bishop on e6. His queen and bi-
shop attack the knight on d5—which in turn is
protected by Black’s queen and bishop. The
balance of pressures on the knight are even,
but they won’t be if one of the knight’s guards
is exchanged away. White captures one of the
knight’s guards with RxB, once more sacrific-
ing the exchange temporarily. No response
Black can make will save the knight; no mat-
ter what he does, it will be two attackers
against one defender. But Black’s response
does have significance, for if he plays QxR—
and here he has nothing better—he finds his
queen fatally pinned a move later by White’s
BxN. (The potential for this should have been
clear from the alignment of two of Black’s
pieces with his king.) Black can swing his
rook over to e8 to protect the queen, but he
still ends up trading his queen, a knight, and a
bishop for White’s bishop and rook.
Is it surprising to hear that after White plays
1. RxB Black has nothing better to do than
play QxR and let his queen be pinned? Look
at his predicament: his queen is attacked by
White’s rook; if he doesn’t take the rook, then
after White plays BxN—winning his second
piece—he will have the kernel of a discovered
check and both pieces will be well-guarded.
Sooner or later Black has to sacrifice his
queen to forestall checkmate, which now will
come soon enough anyway.
The position is an example of a theme we will
visit several times in this section: the impor-
tance when removing the guard of remember-
ing to consider how other tactical tools might
be put to work as well. Exchanges to remove
a guard (or for any other purpose) often open
lines that create openings for pins and forks.
In fact this position could as easily have ap-
peared in the chapter on creating pins. Seen
from that standpoint, this would be a case
where tracing the lines out from Black’s king
turns up, via BxN, a potential pin of a bi-
shop—an unsuitable target. So White swaps it
out for a queen with RxB, QxR. Now the pin
succeeds, as after BxN the bishop has protec-
tion from its own queen.
Dg779: Productive thinking begins with an
idea, and a good place to look for ideas is
anywhere that you attack an enemy piece.
Here White has just one such capture in view:
his queen threatens Black’s f6 rook, and in-
deed pins it to the king. Why can’t he play
QxR?
Dg781: White to move
Because the rook is guarded twice, by Black’s
king and knight. Kings generally make poor
defenders of other pieces because in reply to a
check they cannot just be fortified with more
protection; often they must flee their positions
and abandon guard duty. So White looks for
any checks he can give and finds two with his
rook: Rg8 and Rb7. Rg8+ allows Black’s king
to escape to h6 and leaves White without a
decisive follow-up. Rb7+ is more interesting
because after the king moves White is posi-
tioned to play RxN—capturing the second
guard of the rook on f6. After RxN White has
won a piece; if Black recaptures KxR, the
material outcome is the same: the king’s cap-
ture takes it away from the rook, which White
gains with QxR—again netting a knight with
the sequence.
The position demonstrates a valuable idea:
when an enemy piece has more than one
guard, sometimes it's possible to take out two
of them with one stroke. You capture the first,
and the second is moved out of position when
it performs the recapture. Or threatening one
forces it to move and so makes it possible to
capture the other—the case here.
Dg782: Black just played c7-c5, moving his
c-pawn from a loose position to a square
where it has protection against the White rook
that dominates the file. Count the pawn’s at-
tackers and defenders. It is attacked twice, by
White’s d4 pawn and the White rook; it is
defended three times, by Black’s b6 pawn,
knight, and queen. Since White can't win the
pawn unless he has more force against it than
Black has defenders, the position may seem
secure. It isn’t.
Dg782: White to move
Look for ways to capture any of the guards,
keeping in mind the possibility mentioned a
moment ago: when a piece has multiple de-
fenders, sometimes the defenders also protect
each other; and then capturing one defender
may have the effect of taking out a couple of
them. Here White can force a trade of minor
pieces with BxN. Black’s only recapture is
QxB—but the queen was another of the c5
pawn’s guardians. Thus the single capture by
White has left the pawn with one defender
against two attackers. White now plays
d4xc5—and if Black replies b6xc5, White has
the last word with Rxc5.
Dg783: White to move
Dg783: There need be nothing mysterious
about a position like this if you take it apart
methodically, asking what enemy pieces you
threaten and how they are defended. White’s
rook on e1 attacks Black’s bishop, which is
protected by his knight and rook. White’s
rook on c1 attacks Black’s knight, which is
protected by his rooks. See how these obser-
vations fit together? True, the bishop on e7
has two guards, and White only attacks one of
them. But the guard you attack—the knight
on c6—is protected by the bishop’s other
guard, the rook on c7. So if you capture the
knight with RxN, you kill two birds with one
stone: Black’s only recapture is RxR, and
now both guards of the Black bishop have
been either captured or dislodged. (The rook
on c7 was overworked, a theme we consider
in detail in the next chapter.) White then plays
RxB, winning a bishop and knight for a rook.
Dg784: White to move
Dg784: Where does White have a target? In
the Black knight on f4. White attacks the
knight with two pieces, and it also is protected
twice: by the pawn on e5 and by the bishop
behind it on d6. Those guardians are them-
selves guarded, the e5 pawn by the queen as
well as the bishop, and the bishop by the
queen as well as the pawn on c7. The first
point to grasp is that so long as Black’s knight
is guarded by a pawn, White is going to have
a hard time turning much profit by capturing
it; whatever he uses to take the knight will get
recaptured by the pawn, which then can be
taken without great loss to Black. So the first
order of business is to force Black to substi-
tute a piece for the pawn. White plays d4xe5,
and Black has to recapture with his queen.
(Do you see why? If he recaptures with his
bishop, the knight on f4 now has just one
guard and is taken next move.) Now Black’s
knight is protected by two Black pieces. Both
guards are protected, but that isn’t the point.
The point is that White now can perform a
classic exchange of minor pieces with NxB,
forcing Black to retake with the queen or with
the pawn on c7. Either way the protection of
the knight on f4 has been whittled down to
just the queen. White plays BxN, and now
Black dares not recapture because he would
be sacrificing a queen to the cause.
We already knew that pieces defended by
other pieces are potentially vulnerable be-
cause you can take their guardians without
much (or perhaps any) sacrifice; pieces pro-
tected by pawns are hardier because any sacri-
fice you would make to get rid of the pawn
tends to be such a poor trade. This position
shows one way to take advantage of the point.
If the pawn that protects a target can be taken
by one of your pawns, resulting in a recapture
that causes the target to instead be defended
by an enemy piece, you may then be able to
win the target by capturing its new protector
without sacrifice.
Dg785: White to move
Dg785: Black’s knight on e4 is a menace to
White; an enemy knight advanced to your
side of the board is a constant forking threat.
White could try to chase the knight away with
f2-f3, but consider more forceful offensive
measures before resorting to punier threats.
The knight is protected twice, by the pawn on
d5 and the bishop behind it on b7. The knight
also is attacked twice, by the knight on c3 and
the bishop on g2. White has no cheap way to
force Black to substitute a piece for the d5
pawn, but he does have a more expensive
method that works: Nf4xd5. If Black recap-
tures BxN, then of course the outnumbered
Black knight gets taken with NxN or BxN and
White has gained a pawn. (If Black instead
recaptures QxN, White plays Nc3xQ.)
Black’s other option is to take his doomed
knight and attack with it, playing NxN. Then
White plays Nd5xN, still up a pawn and now
in control of the center.
The immediate point of the position is that
even where one of the guardians of an enemy
piece is a pawn, removing it with a sacrifice
still may enable you to make small material
gains—and to improve your position or wea-
ken your opponent’s. The broader point is that
when there are pieces or pawns in the middle
of the board, they frequently will have mul-
tiple guards and attackers. When you see such
tensions, do not lightly conclude that the pres-
sures on both sides are evenly balanced; a
capture of one of the defenders, even a de-
fender that is itself defended, may tip the
pressures on the contested square in your fa-
vor.
Dg786: Black to move
Dg786: Another study in destabilizing a pawn
in the center. The White pawn on e5 looks
secure; it is attacked by both Black knights,
but defended by White’s queen and knight.
Yet those White guardians of the e-pawn are
themselves attacked by Black’s queen. Is
there some way for Black to cause an ex-
change that allows the pawn to be taken? An
initial unappealing thought is QxN, since after
the recapture QxQ both White guards have
been eliminated—but of course this loses the
queen for a knight and a pawn, which is no
good. If only the positions of White’s queen
and knight were reversed; then Black could
play the straight trade QxQ, removing a guard
at no cost. Yet in that fantasy lies a solution:
Black plays Nc6xe5, and after White recap-
tures NxN, Black then is able to play QxQ.
After White recaptures h2xQ, Black still has
time for NxN, again picking up a pawn and a
positional advantage: White’s pawn in the
center has been eliminated, and the defenses
in front of his king have been gutted.
Notice a nifty sidelight here. White could re-
ply to Black’s initial capture with Nb1-d2; the
move adds a defender to the f3 knight and
also attacks the Black queen in its current
position, leaving it nowhere safe to stay on
the third rank. It’s almost good, but Black has
a riposte: Ne5xN+. Since it’s a check, White
has no time to play NxQ; he has to capture
Black’s knight. Black holds on to the pawn.
But it’s still important to see the idea of Nb1-
d2, as it illustrates again a recurrent theme.
Do not take for granted that your opponent
will respond to your capture with an imme-
diate recapture. He may be able to play a zwi-
schenzug—German for an “in between” move
inserted before a recapture you had been ex-
pecting—that throws off your plans. Here
Black nevertheless succeeds by countering
with a different recurring principle: the priori-
ty of check.
Dg787: White to move
Dg787: Which square is the focus of opera-
tions here? White attacks Black’s knight on
e5 with his knight and rook, but the knight is
guarded by two pieces as well: Black’s queen
and rook. The pressures on the knight seem to
be in equipoise, making it safe; to get any-
where you usually need more attackers
against a piece that it has defenders. So your
next thought should be to disturb the balance
by knocking at least one of the legs out from
under the target. The way to do this is clear if
you look at what other attacks your pieces
make. White’s queen is aimed at Black’s
rook. Trading a queen for a rook is unattrac-
tive under normal circumstances, but here the
sacrifice is a means to an end. White plays
QxR; Black recaptures QxQ; and now the
balance of pressures against Black’s knight
has been changed to two White attackers
against one Black defender. White plays
NxN, and has won a rook and a knight for his
queen.
Hey, wait; that doesn’t sound like a good
trade. You've exchanged a five point piece
and a three point piece for a nine point piece.
But remember to consider the position as it
will look after the smoke clears and to ask
whether you will have a kicker—a fresh tac-
tical strike after the first one has played itself
out. This is especially important when you
finish a sequence with a knight placed well, as
White’s knight would be here on e5, because
often such a piece can then administer a fork.
Here White threatens Ng6, forking Black’s
king, queen, and rook, and discovering an
attack against Black’s queen. It's Black's
move, of course. But if he tries to defuse these
threats by playing QxN, then he loses his
queen to RxQ. If he moves his queen out of
harm’s way, he must permit the fork; he can't
go after the knight once it reaches the forking
square, because the bishop on b1 will protect
it there.
It gets worse for Black. Once the White
knight does reach g6, Black’s king only has
one move: Kh7. When the knight then takes
the other piece in the fork—the rook on f8—it
discovers a check against Black’s king by the
bishop on f8. Material calamity is unavoida-
ble for Black.
This position is a great study in the power of a
kicker. The removal of the guard here with
QxR does looks unworthwhile if you stop
after just playing out the immediate ex-
changes that result in your mind’s eye. But if
you look for the threats you would be able to
play after the pieces are repositioned by the
exchange—and especially for any checks you
then could give—you find that the original
move QxR essentially ends the game.
 5.1.04.
Capturing the Guard of a Mating Square.
We sometimes have spoken of the importance
of looking at any points you have under attack
in the enemy camp—points, not pieces, be-
cause sometimes your attackers will be
trained on significant squares, the occupation
of which would permit you deliver a fork or
(our concern here) checkmate. Mating squares
have been discussed in several places else-
where; the most common example is a square
next to the enemy king at which you already
have a piece aimed. If you could land another
piece there, it would be mate. There are many
variations on the theme. Often the piece that
threatens to deliver mate on the attacked
square is the queen, but there are other possi-
bilities, especially involving aggressive rooks;
and sometimes only one of your pieces is
needed to threaten (or deliver) mate, as where
landing a piece on the back rank would do the
job because the enemy king is trapped there.
In any event, mating squares commonly are
defended by an enemy piece or two. Captur-
ing such a piece may cause it to be replaced
by another that does not have the same defen-
sive powers, and that therefore allows you to
end the game a move or two later.
Dg788: White to move
Dg788: The first important thing is to spot
potential mating squares wherever they exist.
Our basic techniques for this are two. The
first is to look for any of your pieces that at-
tack squares adjacent to the enemy king. The
second, which partly overlaps, is to study the
enemy king’s position and any constraints on
its movement. White’s mate threat should be
obvious enough in the position on the left.
Look for pieces trained on squares near
Black’s king and you see that White’s queen
and bishop are lined up against g7; Qxg7
would mate were it not for Black’s knight on
e6. Next step: remove the impediment. White
attacks the knight with his rook, so he plays
RxN. If Black recaptures with QxR, White
mates with Qxg7. Since Black can't afford
this he will have to try something else instead,
letting White keep the knight.
Aye, White wins more. His rook now attacks
Black’s queen; if Black wants to avoid both
mate and the uncompensated loss of his
queen, he needs to play Nd4. This interposes
a knight on the long diagonal, blocking the
mate threat; more importantly, after White
plays RxQ it allows Black to play the fork
Ne2+, winning back his queen on the next
move—but then eventually losing his knight.
But seeing the first few moves of this se-
quence is enough for now.
Dg789: White to move
Dg789: White has two pieces trained on h7,
almost poised to execute a classic bishop-and-
rook mate with Rxh7. Black understands this,
and so has posted a knight on f8 where it can
protect the mating square. The knight in turn
is guarded by Black’s queen, but the fact that
it is protected is itself of no consequence; the
important question is whether the guardian
would be able to perform the same defensive
services as the knight. It would not. Thus
White plays QxN+, and after the reply QxQ
Black is unable to stop Rxh7#. Indeed, Black
is unable to prevent checkmate no matter how
he replies to QxN; the most he can do is delay
the execution by a couple of moves with Kh5
(to which White responds Rxh7+), then Kg4
(resulting in White's Qg8#).
Dg790: Black to move
Dg790: Size up Black's threats. His rook is
aimed at White’s knight, but the more arrest-
ing sight is Black’s queen and knight both
trained on h2—and also on f2. Thus Black is
close to a queen-and-knight mate with Qxh2,
but the mating square is defended by White’s
knight on f1. (Qf2 doesn't work because the
king can retreat to h1.) Rather than being
stopped by the sight of White's knight, your
thinking should turn to ways to be rid of it.
We saw that Black has the knight under at-
tack, so suppose he takes it with RxN+; White
has no choice but to capture the rook, as the
king has no flight squares and there is no
room to interpose anything. If White does it
with QxR or BxR, the mating square has been
freed up for Black to play Qxh2#. If White
instead plays KxR, Qf2# now works because
White’s king no longer can make it back into
the corner. So Black's initial move RxN+ is
conclusive.
Dg791: Consider what threats, if any, each
Black piece makes. Answer: both Black rooks
(in addition to being forked by the knight at
f4) are trained on g2, the square in front of
White’s king. This could be turned into mate
if that square were not guarded by the now-
familiar defensive knight, this time on f4.
Removal of the piece requires the large sacri-
fice QxN, but where mate is available the size
of the sacrifice is neither here nor there. If
White recaptures QxQ, Black mates in three
moves. He operates exclusively with checks:
first comes Re2xg2+; White is forced to move
his king to h1. Now Black plays Rg1+, and
White is forced to play his king to h2. The
final blow is Rg6-g2#.
Dg791: Black to move
This is a common pattern; the idea is to get
the two rooks onto adjacent ranks with the
king’s progress up the board blocked (in this
case by his own pawn on h3). This way the
two rooks protect each other as well as seal-
ing off the king’s escape routes. The artful-
ness of the sequence just described is that it
manages to corner White’s king without ever
putting a rook on h2 where it could get
nabbed by White’s queen from f4.
The upshot of all this from White’s standpoint
is that in reply to Black’s initial QxN, he
should not recapture. He should play Qc8+,
giving a check of his own (always ask wheth-
er you can take the offensive). Black probably
interposes his knight at f8, and now White
plays his queen to g4, trying to interrupt
Black’s attack along the g-file. White’s queen
is lost to RxQ, but then he can play h3xR and
at least the immediate mating threat has been
avoided. White’s material losses have essen-
tially ended the game anyhow, of course.
Dg792: The mating threats get a little more
involved as we go along. This time White
doesn't have two pieces aimed at a square
adjacent to Black’s king. But if you study the
king’s position you find it notably con-
strained. His own pawn blocks f7 as a flight
square; White’s pawn on f6 seals off g7. So
an attack on the back rank would push the
king onto h7, its only available square. Look
for checks you could give against the king in
that position and see that Bf5 would be mate.
So the idea of a back rank combination comes
into view.
Dg792: White to move
The difficulty is Black’s rook on a8, which
guards the back rank and so prevents White
from starting the process just described with,
say, Qe8 or Rd8. When an enemy piece
stands between you and a mating idea, a first
thought is to capture it. This White does with
QxRa8+. Black recaptures NxQ, but winning
material wasn’t the point; the point was to
follow up with Rd8+. Black’s king is forced
to h7 (the interposition Re8 is useless, as it
just results in RxR+ and the threat is re-
newed), and now comes Bf5#.
Lesson: when the king’s range of motion is
limited, consider whether you can force it
onto particular squares and whether you
would have additional ways to attack it once
it got there. If such things would be possible
but for some enemy piece that prevents them,
turn your attention to the enemy piece. It may
be as good as pinned to its position; or, as
here, you may simply be able to capture it.
Dg793: Examine Black's checks. The most
conspicuous are the two with his rook: Rg1
and Rf4. Rg1 doesn't seem too good; it allows
White to play his threatened KxB. Rf4 almost
seems to work, as the rook takes protection
from the pawn on e5 and the White king turns
out to have no flight squares. Alas, f4 is
guarded by White’s queen and knight. But
when the only obstacle to a mating move is
defense of the needed square by other enemy
pieces, turn your attention to the removal of
those pieces. Black sees a capture available in
1. QxN+ and so experiments with it; it calls
for the recapture QxQ—and now both of the
guardians of f4 have been eliminated, permit-
ting Rf4#.
Dg793: Black to move
It might seem that if White is attentive he
therefore will not play the recapture QxQ af-
ter all, but then Black mates in a few moves
anyway; for if White keeps his queen where it
is to prevent Rf4#, he loses it to QxQ next
move.
The position is, of course, yet another study in
a theme seen earlier in the chapter: the cap-
ture of one guard that incidentally removes
another as well.
Dg794: White to move
Dg794: Here we find another constrained
king. White has three pieces—his queen and
both bishops (don’t overlook the one on c3)—
aimed at squares adjacent to it, though not the
same ones. You pursue a mating idea in these
circumstances by thinking about checks and
their results. The most powerful tool for at-
tacking the king is your queen, so start there.
White can play Qg6+, but Black ends the fun
with NxQ. White has no other checks that go
anywhere, so you turn to that knight and a
way you might capture it: RxN. Once his
knight has been taken, Black has to either
accept its loss or recapture with QxR. Now
reconsider Qg6+, drawing protection for the
queen from the bishop on f7 and forcing
Black to put his king on h8; and then Qxg7#,
drawing protection from the bishop on c3 and
mating. The initial capture RxN actually re-
moved two guards: the knight, which was
eliminated, and the queen, which was dragged
away from the protection of the g7 square that
White turned out to need.
Black should understand the consequences of
recapturing with QxR, and if he does he will
look for other options—and particularly for
some way to provide a substitute guard
against the mate threat, such as Bf5 to replace
the knight’s protection of g6. This loses the
bishop to QxB+, but then gives the king a
chance to move to h8 and end the immediate
threat of mate. (Mate follows sooner or later
anyway, as Black now is badly overmatched
in material and his king’s position is
cramped.)
Dg795: White to move
Dg795: The previous position did not quite
involve a mating square; it involved a square
(g6) that White needed on the way to deliver-
ing mate. Here is a similar idea. White's rook
is aimed at Black’s knight, and that seems to
be it—so far as attacks on Black pieces go.
But observe that White’s bishop and queen
both are trained broadly on the Black king’s
position. They aren't yet attacking the same
square, but there are lots of ways for a bishop
aimed like this to be combined with an attack
by the queen to create a mating threat. The
problem is that the good ideas require the
queen to get to g4 or h5 or both, and those
squares are protected by Black’s knight—and
so is h7, where the White queen might even-
tually like to land. This illustrates why
knights on f3 or f6 in front of the castled king
make such effective defenders.
So don’t just stand there; take the knight.
White pictures RxN and imagines what he
would be able to do if Black recaptured g7xR.
The g-file would now be open, so now White
could play Qg4+; it forces Black’s reply
(Kh8) and so keeps control of the initiative.
White’s bishop already attacks the square in
front of the king’s new home (h7), so next
White aims his queen there as well with Qf5.
It isn’t a check, but there is nothing Black can
do to prevent Qxh7# next move.
As usual, you have to assume Black will see
these consequences and so will not play the
recapture g7xR that leads to them. That
means you win the knight, but let's look farth-
er and consider what Black instead will do.
His simplest good reply is Re8, giving his
king some breathing room to the side; for
what drives the mating attack here is the
king’s trapped position in the corner. Re8 also
keeps the g-file closed (i.e., it avoids moving
the g7 pawn), and so prevents White from
taking control with moves that give check.
Now White has no straightforward route to
mate—but it was the mating threat that turned
his removal of the guard into the clean win of
a knight.
Dg796: White to move
Dg796: White's queen can capture the Black
rook or bishop, and his knight could give a
fork on d7 if Black's bishop didn't protect the
square. But the most important feature of the
position is not any of this; it's something con-
siderably harder to see. It is that White’s
bishop and e1 rook both are aimed at e8, a
square adjacent to Black’s king. Yes, it helps
to see pieces so aimed even where obstacles
lie in their path; for it may be possible to clear
the obstacles away. As a practical matter you
see this by going piece by piece and noting
that you bishop has a clean attack on e8,
which at least is interesting. You look for a
way to throw a heavy piece at that square,
recognizing the makings of the bishop-and-
rook mating pattern we have seen elsewhere.
You see that you already have a rook on the
e-file, and the question becomes whether the
idea can be executed with Re8#. Diagnose the
obstacles.
First, White’s knight and Black’s bishop
block the rook’s path. Second, Black’s rook
on c8 protects the mating square. When you
are removing multiple obstacles, the order of
moves can be quite important; the first stage
of your operations may affect the second. In
this case it is clear that White can capture the
guard of the mating square with QxR, but if
he starts with this move, Black recaptures
BxQ—and now there is no way for White to
vacate his knight from e5 with a threat that
leaves the path to e8 clear (if he plays Nd7+,
Black plays BxN and e8 still is guarded). But
if you play the reverse move order, the se-
quence works fine. Nd7+ comes first, requir-
ing Black to play BxN to quash the fork. No-
tice that the e-file now is clear. Then comes
QxR+, removing the guard of e8. Black’s
bishop takes White’s queen and is left unable
to protect e8. Now Re8 mates for White.
If Black is observant he will see all this com-
ing as soon as White plays the fork Nd7+; so
instead of capturing with BxN, he will play
Ke7, avoiding mate but forfeiting his queen.
The removal of the guard via QxR never quite
occurs, but the threat of it forces Black to
make terrible concessions.
A simpler way to see this? Just spot the knight
fork Nd7+, imagine Black thwarting it with
his bishop, ask how the board looks after-
wards, and see the e-file opened for the e1
rook to use to drive through to the Black
king's position. The rook on c8 and bishop on
d7 are in the way, but then White removes
them both easily enough with the check QxR.
 Distracting the Guard
(The Overworked Piece).

5.2.01. what prevents you from taking each of them.

Simple Cases: One Guard Protects Two Men. White’s a1 rook attacks the bishop on a3,
which is protected only by Black’s queen.
In earlier work we have studied many ways of White’s c3 bishop attacks the knight on f6—
loosening a piece or square. One is to capture which also is protected only by Black’s
the guard. Another is to make a capture on the queen. The logic of the opportunity becomes
contested square, allow a recapture, and see if clear: the queen can't effectively protect both
the piece left standing there is loose. Still pieces; if you take one, the other should be
another is to ask whether the guard also is left loose.
protecting something else that you might take.
That last method is our focus in this chapter.
We will be looking at cases where you want
to take something. It's guarded. We ask
whether the guard also is guarding any other
targets—another piece, or a mating or forking
square. If it is, the guard is said to be over-
worked: it has too many defensive responsi-
bilities. The next question is which of the two
things it protects you should try to take first.
Different move orders can have different con-
sequences, as we shall see. You may be able
to distract the guard from the first target by Dg797: White to move
taking the second one; or you may be able to
take one of them for free. Thus White starts with BxN, using the less
valuable of his two attackers first and inviting
Notice that there are two general ways to see it to be taken. If Black recaptures QxB, his
the pattern described here. You can examine bishop on a3 is loose and White takes it with
your opponent’s defenses with an eye out for his rook.
any pieces with more than one defensive job;
or you can spot a target you want to take (a
piece or a square), see that it is guarded, and
ask whether the guard has other responsibili-
ties. It amounts to the same thing either way,
and you will want to be at home with both
trains of thought.

We start here with simple cases where a sin-

gle guard protects two enemy men. We will
look at quite a few of these. It is important to
be comfortable with them, as this theme arises
Dg798: White to move
often.
Dg798: White’s immediate problem is that his
Dg797: In this first position to the left, be
queen is attacked by Black’s bishop. White
aware of the enemy pieces you attack and
looks at the attacking possibilities he has
available and sees two principal candidates:
QxBd5, which doesn’t much help as Black
replies QxQ; and RxBe7, which is more inter-
esting because the rook then attacks Black’s
queen, creating a reciprocal threat to offset
the threat Black has pending—a hostage.
True, Black can play QxR, momentarily win-
ning the exchange; but then White safely
plays QxB+ after all (almost a good queen
fork, but the rook on a8 has protection). No-
tice the visual relationships here. Black’s
queen provides the only protection for both of
his bishops. Since both bishops are under at-
tack by White, one of them has to give.
Again, the usual and obvious maxim is to start
by making the capture that uses the less valu-
able of your two attackers—here, the rook.
If you find that your queen is attacked, re-
member that the attacker usually must have
protection; so take a moment to ask whether
its guardian has other responsibilities as well.
Dg799: White to move ]
Dg799: Look for any captures White can
make. Observation one: White can take
Black’s knight with his rook. Observation
two: Black’s queen guards the knight. Obser-
vation three: Black’s queen guards other
things, too—including the bishop on f6,
which White also can capture. So now the
remaining question is the order of operations
best used to take advantage of Black’s over-
worked queen. White can start with NxB or
with RxN. We have seen that the usual choice
would be to start with your less valuable
piece, in effect offering it up as a sacrifice
with the threat that you will make a worse
capture afterwards. But that principle doesn't
always hold. Let's think through its applica-
tion here:
(a) White could begin with NxB+, forking
Black’s king and rook. Now Black plays
QxN, seemingly allowing White to follow up
with RxNc8. But not so fast: once the queen
moves, the knight at c8 still is guarded by the
rook on f8. So White actually loses the ex-
change with this sequence. Correct play for
White instead is...
(b) 1. RxN—this time capturing with the
more valuable of his attackers (and indeed
making a temporary sacrifice of the ex-
change). If Black recaptures QxR, White now
has NxB+—not only a capture but a fork of
Black’s king and rook, allowing White to win
back the exchange that he sacrificed at the
beginning of the sequence. White emerges a
piece ahead.
The lesson: when you see that an enemy piece
is trying to guard two pieces, think carefully
about which to take first; imagine each cap-
ture and its consequences. Move order mat-
ters, sometimes making it better to start by
capturing with your more valuable piece after
all.
Dg800: White to move
Dg800: The current idea may become slightly
harder to see, but structurally no different,
when the pieces involved are compressed in a
small space. White has attacks against Black’s
bishop and knight. Black’s queen and knight
protect the bishop, and his queen protects the
knight as well. The fact that his queen is pro-
tecting both pieces suggests a vulnerability.
White experiments with captures and the
move orders involved in them and sees that if
he plays BxB, Black is in trouble no matter
how he replies: if he recaptures QxB, he
leaves his knight on c5 loose for the taking; if
he recaptures NxB, he leaves his queen loose
for the taking.
Dg801: Another case of compression, this
time at the other end of the board. Black has a
little knot of pieces in the corner. They protect
each other in a circle.
Dg801: White to move
The rook on g8 guards the rook on h8. The
bishop on h7 guards his rook on g8. The rook
on h8 guards both the bishop and the other
rook. That last observation is the critical one:
we see one enemy piece guarding two oth-
ers—a clue that it may be overworked. Play
with captures in various orders to see if the
replies leave one of the other pieces an odd
man out. White might like to try 1. RxR, but
then Black replies RxR and the Black rook
left on g8 remains guarded by the bishop on
h7. But 1. RxB for White is different: once
Black plays RxR, his rook on g8 is left loose.
White takes it with his remaining rook on the
g-file. Or Black can reply to RxB with
RxRg1; then White plays RxRh8. Either way,
White wins a piece.
Dg802: Black’s rook on a8 is under attack, as
is his queen; but consider your offensive op-
tions before worrying about it. Take apart the
knot of pieces near White’s king by asking
methodically what attacks what (and what
defends what). There are no fewer than four
pieces that Black's queen might take. The
most attractive capture, of course, would be
QxQ. What prevents it?
Dg802: Black to move
White’s bishop on g2. So now you ask what
else the g2 bishop protects and are led to the
knight on h3, which you can take with RxN+.
The beauty of the move is that White has no
choices to make in reply. His king is under
attack and has no flight squares, nor does
Black have anything to interpose, so BxR is
compulsory. Now White has QxQ+ in return
for his sacrifice of the exchange, and an even-
tual forced mate.
Notice from the beginning the telltale visual
pattern in which the White bishop supplies
protection two fellow pieces in a Y forma-
tion—a sign of weakness.
And again we see the importance of move
order. It might have seemed plausible, but
would have been mistaken, for Black to start
with QxQ, inviting BxQ and then planning to
win a piece with RxNh3+ followed by RxBf3.
Actually, though, this wins less than a whole
piece. In reply to 2. RxN+ White has 2. ...Kg2
and suddenly both of Black’s rooks are under
attack—one by White's king and the other by
White's bishop; and now the king guards the
bishop, making it safe. Black plays Rh3xBf3,
but then White replies KxRf3 and Black only
ends up winning two pieces for a rook. He
still is losing, since he was laboring under a
larger material deficit than that from the out-
set.
Dg803: You are playing the Black pieces.
Inventory your attacking options and what
stops them from working. Your queen attacks
White’s rook. Your bishop attacks White’s
knight and pins it to White’s king. Your
knight attacks White’s bishop. All of the at-
tacked pieces have protection, but don’t stop
there; look at the extent of the protection and
its stability.
Dg803: Black to move
The rook on b1 is guarded by White’s queen,
so turn your attention to the guard: does the
queen also have responsibility for something
else that you might therefore be able to take?
Yes; for one thing, it is the only guard of the
bishop on f3 (the pinned knight is no defen-
sive help). So Black plays NxB+. If White
recaptures QxN (he shouldn’t—he should
play Ke2), Black has QxR+.
Dg804: Black to move
Dg804: This study resembles the previous one
but with Black’s queen positioned on a5 in-
stead of a2. This changes the analysis in sig-
nificant ways. Once more White’s bishop is
attacked once and defended only once, since
the knight on d2 remains pinned. But this time
that knight on d2, rather than the rook on b1,
becomes the other offensive focus for Black.
He attacks the knight twice, with his bishop
and with the queen behind it. The knight ap-
pears to be guarded twice, by its king and
queen. But a king is a suspect defender; it
cannot recapture on a square that remains
under attack. And the queen has responsibili-
ties elsewhere, as we have seen. So the knight
only seems to be protected twice; perhaps it
would be more accurate to say it is protected
one and a half times, since the queen that de-
fends it is stretched thin. In this case either
piece it protects can be taken first:
(a) Black can play 1. ...BxN+. You might
suppose that White would reply 2. QxB,
threatening to take Black’s loose queen with
his own; Black replies 2. ...QxQ, and after
White’s recapture 3. KxQ, Black has 3.
...NxB+, winning a piece. But Black has bet-
ter in reply to 2. QxB: the delightful 2.
...NxB+—which, when so played a move ear-
lier, is a knight fork of White's king and
queen. The priority of check requires White to
move his king and lose his queen to NxQ a
move later. White’s better reply to 1. ...BxN is
just to move his king to e2 where it can pro-
tect his bishop and limit his losses to a piece.
Or (b) Black also can begin with 1. ...NxB+.
Now if White recaptures with 2. QxN, White
has 2. ...BxN and again wins a piece. If White
moves his king instead of playing QxN, Black
has NxNd2 on the next move.
Dg805: White to move
Dg805: As we have said, the current idea can
be a bit harder to see in cases where the target
is attacked twice and appears to be guarded
twice, but where one of the guards is over-
worked and the extra protection it supplies
therefore is illusory. In this example White
has a possible capture in QxB. He can't play it
because Black’s queen guards his bishop. So
carefully examine what other work the queen
is doing; follow its lines and examine every-
thing it protects or seems to protect. The f7
pawn is the eye-catcher because White al-
ready attacks it twice (with his queen and bi-
shop) and because it's next to Black’s king.
The pawn appears to be guarded by both
Black’s king and queen, but here as in the last
position we remember that the king is a sus-
pect defender of other pieces, and we already
know that the queen has responsibilities else-
where. So White plays 1. Bxf7+. Since it
gives check the move can't be ignored. Black
must play carefully, as White has three pieces
closing in on his king against only two imme-
diate defenders; if Black merely moves the
king out of check (i.e, to h7 or f8), he will be
mated soon. His best bet is QxB, removing
one of the attackers. Now White plays QxBd6
and has gained a pawn—and will pick up the
loose pawn on e5 with his queen a move later.
White emerges with a material advantage and
better position.
To keep the exposition manageable we mostly
have been focusing on how enemy pieces are
defended, not pawns. But as this position
shows, of course, pawns make perfectly good
targets as well and mustn't be overlooked.
Dg806: White to move
Dg806: White's bishop on b5 attacks one of
Black’s knights, which is guarded by Black’s
other knight and his queen. Meanwhile
White’s queen attacks the other knight on f6,
which is guarded—again—by the queen and
by the first knight (the one on d7). The key
observation is that Black’s queen is guarding
both pieces. This suggests that the queen is
overworked. Normally we might take advan-
tage by capturing one of the pieces the queen
guards, but here that won't quite work because
of the extra protection those two pieces have;
whichever knight White captures, Black re-
captures with his other knight and avoids
trouble. But we still can exploit the over-
worked queen. The trick in this case is to
throw another attacker at one of the pieces the
queen guards. White does it with Bg5, which
also pins the f6 knight to the queen. Notice
that even with the pin, each of Black’s knights
is protected as many times as it is attacked;
but Black nevertheless is in trouble because
the queen is doing too much work. If White
next were to play BxNd7, Black would have
to recapture with QxB—and now the knight
on f6 would be loose. Black's likely reply to
Bg5 by retreating his queen, say to f8. Then
White plays BxNf6 (not BxNd7, which allows
Black to escape with no loss after he recap-
tures). Black recaptures NxBf6, and now
White wins a piece with QxN.
Dg807: White to move
Dg807: In the position on the left White has a
possible capture in RxN. It's prevented by
Black’s bishop on d6, which protects his
knight. So that raises another question: does
the bishop protect anything else you might
therefore be able to take? Yes—the e5 pawn,
which White can capture with his f3 knight.
After he does, Black is stuck. He can forfeit
the pawn straightaway or he can recapture
with BxN—but this allows White to play
RxN, still gaining a pawn. The Black bishop
was overworked; it had too many defensive
responsibilities. Whenever you see that an
enemy piece guards more than one of its fel-
lows, consider whether a blow like this might
be possible.
It all looks simple enough, but complications
lurk nearby. Suppose that after White’s Nxe5
Black moves his knight from b4 to c2: a zwi-
schenzug (or “in between" move) that post-
pones the recapture and instead attacks
White’s rook on e1. What would you do as
White? It would be natural to move your
rook, perhaps to c1 where it attacks the invad-
ing knight. Natural but wrong; for you must
ask about Black’s next check and see that he
would then have Nxe3+. Of course you just
take his knight with your f2 pawn, but the
priority of check has done its work: now
Black takes your knight that still is sitting on
e5—and there no longer is a Black knight on
b4 for you to capture in reply.
What went wrong? When Black played Nc2,
White should not have moved the rook from
e1. Better just to leave it there and push for-
ward again with the knight you used the first
time—the one then on e4. With Nd7 White
suddenly forks both of Black’s rooks, so now
White can afford to let Black play NxRe1+.
White replies with the recapture Rb1xN and
then wins back his rook a move later at the
other end of the board (Black only has time to
save one of them). In the end White keeps the
pawn he set out to capture.
Dg808: White to move
Dg808: First you size up White's possible
captures and find two: RxB and KxN. Second
you ask what prevents them from working
and see that the trouble in both cases is the
rook on h8—so something has to give. White
starts with RxB (obviously he can’t start by
capturing with his king), and then if Black
plays RxR White has KxN. You might as well
have reached the same result by a trivially
different train of thought: seeing that you al-
most can play the capture KxN, noting that
you can't because the knight is prevented by
the rook on h8, and then asking whether the
rook also protects anything else. This leads
you to the bishop on e8 and its capture by
your rook. White wins two minor pieces for a
rook.
That much should be easy enough to see. But
can you spot the zwischenzug that—again—
almost foils the whole thing? After White
plays RxB, Black can postpone the recapture
and play Nf3+, removing his knight from
danger and requiring White to spend a move
responding to the threat against his king. This
he can do easily enough with BxN; but if
White’s bishop weren’t on the long diagonal
(if it were instead on, say, a6), White’s se-
quence here wouldn’t work. He would have to
move his king, after which Black would play
RxR.
The subtheme repeats: don’t assume your
opponent necessarily will respond to your
capture with a recapture. Especially in these
positions where one enemy guard defends two
of his pieces, it is natural for your opponent
(or for you when you are playing defense) to
react to the capture of one of those pieces not
by recapturing right away but by making a
time-consuming move with the remaining
piece—maybe a check, maybe some other
kind of threat—while taking it out of danger.
Dg809: White to move
Dg809: The overworked defender most often
is a piece, but it can be a pawn as well. Look
at Black’s pawn on e7 and see how it protects
two pieces, the bishop and knight to each side
of it. Treat this little visual formation as a sign
of weakness; it means that one of those pieces
has less protection than appears. Here White
has attacks against both pieces and neither of
them has any other defenders, so his course is
clear: take one of the pawn’s protectorates; if
he recaptures, then take the other. First comes
1. BxN, capturing with the less valuable
piece. If Black replies e7xB, White has 2.
RxB.
This time Black has no zwischenzug to of-
fer—nothing interesting he can do with his f6
bishop after the knight on d6 has been taken.
But there still is something more to notice:
strange as it may seem, the whole thing works
only because of White’s rook on a1. For no-
tice that after White plays 2. RxB, Black can
play Rb3, pinning White’s knight to his bi-
shop—or skewering them; each piece is loose
and time is too short for White to move them
both. White can escape trouble by leaving
both pieces where they are and playing Rc1,
protecting the knight. But if the a1 rook were
off the board or not within reach of c1, this
maneuver would spoil White's whole se-
quence (remember that the other rook would
now have moved to f6). How could you be
sure to see this? By keeping tabs on loose
pieces all the time. White has two of them on
the third rank, a vulnerability that has to be
kept in mind constantly—especially with a
Black rook so close by.
Dg810: White to move
Dg810: Take stock of White’s threats. (a) His
queen attacks Black’s knight on c6, which is
guarded by a pawn and by the knight on d7.
(b) His queen also attacks Black’s bishop on
a5, which is protected by the knight on c6. (c)
His bishop on a3 attacks the knight on e7,
which is guarded by the knight on c6. The
first thing is to see all those threats; the
second is to ask how they relate to each other.
The key point: White attacks two pieces
guarded only by the knight on c6. He there-
fore plays 1. BxNe7, obviously preferring to
start by offering up his bishop rather than his
queen. If Black recaptures NxB, White has
QxB, winning a piece in any event. (Black
can get a little something back by replying to
1. BxNe7 with Ba5xc3, threatening White's
rooks. After White recaptures with the knight
from b2, Black can make his own recapture
NxBe7 without exposing any of his other
pieces to fresh capture. In effect he picked up
a pawn to help mitigate his loss of a piece.)
Again, a shorthand route to the same result is
to see that White’s queen attacks Black’s bi-
shop at a5, but is prevented from taking it by
the knight on c6; to ask what else that knight
protects, and then be led to the knight on e7;
and thus to play BxN, putting Black to the
choice of forfeiting his knight or recapturing
and then losing his bishop.
Dg811: White to move
Dg811: Now consider our theme from a de-
fensive standpoint. White looks for anything
he can take and sees that he has the possible
capture Bxa5. The pawn is guarded by
Black’s rook, but White attacks the pawn
twice—with his bishop and with the queen
behind it. Yet there is a fly in the ointment.
White is imagining that Black will hesitate to
play RxB because then White has QxR. But
when you have that train of thought—in other
words, when you imagine that you need not
worry, because piece A will protect piece B—
pause to ask whether piece A already is pro-
tecting anything else. In this case the queen
presently is the sole defender of White’s
knight at d4. Black therefore can reply to
Bxa5 with BxN. If White recaptures on d4
with his queen, he loses his bishop at a5. Thus
White foresees that an apparently safe capture
would leave him with an overworked piece,
and so isn't safe after all.
You might have supposed that play would go
1. Bxa5, RxB; 2. QxR, BxN—and concluded
that White ends up with a pawn and rook for
two minor pieces. As we see, though, Black
can do better by playing BxN a move earlier
than that. Remember this idea: captures may
be forcing moves, but they don’t necessarily
call for a recapture on the spot; a fresh capture
or threat elsewhere also is a possibility. Your
opponent has choices of his own to make
about move order. In this case White's initial
capture 1. Bxa5 suddenly leaves his queen
overworked. Black exploits it best by starting
with the less valuable of his attackers—his
bishop on f6 rather than his rook on a7—and
inviting White to capture it.
A larger lesson of the study: be cautious about
overextending your pieces. If you're thinking
about sending a piece into enemy territory
(the temptation to snatch a pawn there is
common), consider carefully how you will
protect it; if your plan is to guard it with
another piece, ask how secure the protection
will be. One danger is that your guard can be
taken in an exchange, leaving the advanced
piece loose. Another danger, seen here, is that
your guard suddenly will become unable to do
defensive work elsewhere, in effect leaving
some other piece or pawn loose. One way to
stay alert to these dangers is to be aware of
any threats your opponent already has against
any of your pieces.
Dg812: Back to offense. White has two
checks. One is QxN, the other Rxf6. QxN
doesn’t win anything because although White
also has a bishop trained on d5, the Black
knight is defended twice as well by its king
and queen. Rxf6 doesn't seem effective, ei-
ther; it forks Black’s king and queen, but
Black simply plays QxR.
Dg812: White to move
Put these ideas together, however, and there is
a way to make them work after all: you see
that Black’s queen is overworked, defending
both the f6 pawn and the knight on d5; or you
see that after 1. Rxf6+, QxR, Black’s queen
suddenly is out of position to prevent QxN+.
That little sequence leaves White with a
knight and a pawn in return for a rook, which
is okay, but the important thing is to keep
nudging the analysis forward. Both of White’s
moves so far are checks. As long as he is con-
trolling the initiative in this way and pushing
Black’s king around, he may have other tac-
tical gains to exhaust. Thus after 2. QxN+,
Ke7 (forced—the king’s only flight square),
White asks what his next check would be, and
since he is working with his queen he natural-
ly is watchful for forks. Thus 3. Qxc5+, fork-
ing Black’s king and rook and taking the rook
next move. White nets a knight and two
pawns.
The point of this case is that sometimes you
can't see the full payoff of exploting an over-
worked piece by just looking at the first cap-
ture you can make; you have to follow
through and consider what would become
possible from your new position. Here the
idea of the queen fork that concludes the se-
quence is impossible to see in a first glance at
the position. It’s something that comes into
view as you keep thinking about checks and
the enemy king’s resulting movements. The
winning train of thought really starts with a
willingness to consider Rxf6 even though it
appears to lose the rook on the spot. Don’t
focus on the immediate material loss; focus
on the changes the exchange creates on the
board that is left behind—what lines are af-
fected, what checks would be made possible,
and what pieces would have been left with
less protection than before.
Dg813: White to move
Dg813: White’s queen is aimed at a diamond-
shaped cluster of Black material. It looks hard
to make headway because the bishop on e5
seems solidly guarded. But notice a great
weakness in the bishop’s position: it is
flanked on both diagonals, by a Black pawn
and queen. It therefore has no way to retreat,
and is vulnerable. (This visual pattern is
worth remembering.) White thus can create
great trouble by simply attacking it with a
pawn: d2-d4. No piece, no matter how well
protected, can sit still when threatened by a
pawn. Since the bishop has no safe flight
squares, Black is obliged to play Bxd4 (well,
“obliged” is a bit strong; more on this below).
In itself this gains White nothing, but look at
the changes that have been forced on the
board: once Black’s bishop steps forward to
d4 it is attacked once (by White’s bishop on
f2) and guarded once (by its queen on d6).
And the Black bishop’s movement also has
opened a line from White’s queen to the
knight on e7—which also is guarded only by
Black’s queen. The Black queen has become
overextended, so the position invites White to
play one capture or the other. Which should it
be? Clearly not QxN, since it loses White’s
queen for a knight. No, White starts with the
cheaper piece and plays BxB, gaining a piece
for a pawn. (If Black recaptures QxB, then of
course White has QxN.)
As suggested a moment ago, Black doesn’t
have to reply to 1. d2-d4 with Bxd4. He can
forfeit the bishop and try to improve his situa-
tion in other ways, as by playing his knight to
g6 so that after 2. d4xB Black can use the
knight to recapture. Black still has suffered a
loss, and indeed has a lost game, but at least
he ends up with a nicely-placed, well-
defended knight on e5.
The point: overworked pieces sometimes can
come into view unexpectedly, after some ini-
tial threat or capture and your opponent's re-
ply to it. Practice asking not only how his
pieces are defended, but how they will be de-
fended after the changes you can force.
5.2.02.
One Piece Guards a Mating Square and
Something Else.
Dg814: Black to move
Dg814: Now suppose you study the enemy
king’s position and see that you are close to
being able to mate but are stopped by an ene-
my piece that guards the square you need to
reach. The same procedures apply here as in
the cases just examined. Turn your attention
to that enemy piece and ask if it protects—or
seems to protect—anything else that you
might be able to take.
The most basic mating pattern involves two
pieces—frequently the queen and some oth-
er—aimed at a square next to the enemy king;
the queen lands there with protection and the
king has no escape. In the diagram here Black
has a classic formation for such a mate on the
g-file, where he threatens Qxg2#. All that
prevents this is White’s bishop on f3. So fo-
cus on the bishop: since it is committed to the
protection of g2, it is incapable of performing
defensive work elsewhere. Ask what else it
appears to protect, just as you would if it
were pinned, and you are led to the knight on
e2. The knight effectively is loose. Black can
take it with his e8 rook, gaining a piece.
Dg815: Look at how White’s pieces relate to
Black’s king; see that he has two pieces
trained on g7, a square adjacent to the king.
White’s queen is about ready to mate there
with support from his dark-squared bishop.
All that prevents this is the protection g7
takes from Black’s queen on e7. This means
the Black queen is inflexible, and the protec-
tion it appears to provide to any other pieces
may be illusory.
Dg815: White to move
Look for something else it seems to protect
and find the bishop on d6. White can play
RxB for free.
Dg816: Black to move
Dg816: Black doesn't have two pieces aimed
next to White’s king, but when you study the
king’s position you see that it has another
problem: it's trapped on the back rank and has
no defenders there. Black almost can mate
with either Rc1 or Qe1. Both possibilities are
prevented by White’s queen, which protects
the two mating squares. Next question: so
what else does the White queen purport to do?
It guards the rook on g2; but really the rook is
as good as loose since the queen cannot afford
to leave d2. Black takes it with his queen.
Dg817: White’s queen and bishop are pointed
at f7; White imagines the mating sequence 1.
Qxf7+, Kh8; 2. Qg8#, and sees that it is pre-
vented only by the Black queen on d7.
Dg817: White to move
Next he sees that the queen also protects the
rook on c6. Time to play RxR? Actually no;
for Black’s reply QxR will open the seventh
rank and permit the rook at a7 to assume the
defense of f7. (The mating square f7 was pro-
tected twice; you want to be sure to notice
attackers or defenders stacked one behind the
other.)
Yet it’s true that the queen is stretched too
thin, and as we have seen elsewhere it is im-
portant in such cases to consider both move
orders: imagine first taking one of the points
the queen is trying to defend, then imagine
first taking the other. Since 1. RxR doesn’t
work, White thus considers 1. Qxf7+. This
seems odd because it obviously doesn’t
work—as a mate threat. But it does work to
distract Black’s queen, which is required to
make the recapture. Now White has BxQ+,
and after his bishop is retaken (the priority of
check requires it) White finally has RxR,
winning the exchange and a pawn.
 Dg818: White to move
Dg818: Here you want to see two things: that
White is stopped from playing QxQ only by
Black’s bishop; and that White is stopped
from mating on the back rank with his queen
or rook only by Black’s bishop, which can
interpose at f8. Ordinarily you might therefore
like to play QxQ, but not here; for once Black
replies BxQ, his king has a flight square and
Rd8+ just results in Kg7. So again try turning
it around and playing the mate threat first,
expecting it to fail—but to leave the queen
loose. Thus White starts with Rd8+; after
Black plays Bf8, his only legal move, White
has QxQ.
This position arose when Black played Qxb2.
The move seemed safe because the queen was
guarded by its bishop from g7. A valuable
lesson recurs: if you send a piece on an ad-
venture and rely on a fellow piece to protect it
on its new square, pause to ask what else that
other piece already is protecting—any other
pieces, and also any squares on which the
enemy would be able to mate.
Dg819: This position has two foci. The e5
pawn is heavily contested, being attacked
twice and guarded three times. White also has
the makings of a threat against Black’s king:
his rook is nearby, and his bishop can take the
pawn on c6 with check. This doesn’t get any-
where because Black replies QxB—but then
you remember that Black’s queen also is one
of the pieces guarding the e5 pawn, and so
you wonder whether the queen is overworked.
Dg819: White to move
Start playing with one of the two offensive
ideas and see if it loosens up the other one. A
natural way to begin is by liquidating the
pressure on the e5 pawn: 1. Bxe5, RxB; 2.
QxR, QxQ. This loses White’s queen, but
again you’re just experimenting; it also moves
Black’s queen out of position to guard c6. So
now comes the follow-up in that direction: 3.
Bxc6+, Kb8 (forced); 4. Rb7+ (the next check
you can give), Ka8 (forced); 5. Rxb6# (the
coup de grace—discovered checkmate).
Thus the idea is clear: the e5 pawn is more
vulnerable than it looks, because if Black de-
fends it he ends up mated. His queen is over-
worked. But you can’t assume Black will play
into your hands so cooperatively; you need to
consider what else he might try if you start
with 1. Bxe5. His queen would be threatened
by the move, so he has to do something to
save it—either by capturing the bishop or by
moving the queen. We have seen that captur-
ing the bishop doesn’t work out for him, so if
Black is astute he will avoid 1. …RxB and
instead just move his queen over to g6. This is
good for White; it wins an important center
pawn, takes the b8 square away from Black’s
king, and also threatens Black’s bishop on g7.
Now White can play Qf3 to beef up his mate
threat, unpin the e5 bishop, and add pressure
against f7. It's all fine.
The point of thinking all this through is to
make sure Black is not left with any bad
threats, and he isn’t. After 1. …Qg6 he could
play 2. …Qb1+, but then White interposes
with Bf1 or Rd1 (where the rook has protec-
tion because White’s queen would have
moved to f3), and soon has Qxf7 and the
probable win of roughly a piece. E.g, 1. Bxe5,
Qg6; 2. Qf3, Qb1+; 3. Bf1, Be4; 4. Qxf7, Bg6
(protecting his rook); 5. QxBg7, and now
White has evened things up (with an advan-
tage in pawns) after starting the position be-
hind by a piece. Another way it could go: 1.
…Qe6; 2. Rc7, Ne7; 3. Bxg7.
The result: Bxe5 works for White.
Dg820: Start with a look at your attacking
options. You have one principal capture to
consider (QxN) and three pieces all trained on
Black’s back rank but not quite coordinated
(they attack different squares). What should
strike you is that Black’s queen is serving
more than one defensive purpose. It protects
the knight on e5; it also protects d8 from oc-
cupation by White’s rook.
Dg820: White to move
So think a little more about what the rook
could do if Black’s queen weren’t there be-
cause White had played 1. QxN, QxQ. You
see that 2. Rd8+ then is safe, and it gives
check; Black has no good interposition (there
is just Qe8, which loses his queen), so he
would have to move his king to e7. Ask about
the next check you might give. One would be
Re8+, which achieves the coordination of
White’s rook and bishop that was impossible
on White’s first move. As you consider
Black’s choices in reply, don’t think about the
queen you now have on f5; the premise of this
train of thought is that it would have been
replaced by Black’s queen. But do notice the
knight on e4, which would continue to seal
off d6 and f6 as flight squares. Indeed, 3.
Re8+ leaves Black’s king with no moves and
thus is mate.
So at least at first it looks like White can take
the knight on e5. With the idea now clear, go
back and make sure it works; in other words,
ask whether the Black responses you are
counting on really are forced—and if not,
what his alternatives are. White’s initial 1.
QxN not only captures a piece but also threat-
ens mate (Qe8#), so Black can’t ignore it; but
he doesn’t have to reply QxQ. He can play
Qc8, taking his queen out of danger and de-
fending the mating square e8. But that's okay;
White has won a piece.
5.2.03.
When a Piece Guards Two Mating Squares.
Now we extend the progress of our current
logic a bit farther. Sometimes a piece can be-
come overworked by defending no pieces—
but two mating squares.
Dg821: White to move
Dg821: Examine the Black king’s position
here and you see that White’s pawn on h6
seals off g7 as a flight square; Black’s king is
stuck on the back rank. White can put a piece
there with RxR, which would be mate were it
not for the protection supplied to e8 by
Black's queen and knight. Look for ways to
disrupt the work of those pieces and you find
QxN+. The move threatens Qg7#, which is
what will happen if Black replies by moving
his king to g8. Nor does Black have any in-
terpositions to offer. The best he can do is
capture White’s queen with his own; yet then
e8 has been left loose, so White plays RxR+
and mates anyway a move later (Black only
has a useless interposition with his bishop).
In a sense Black's queen was overworked in a
familiar way: it guarded two Black pieces (his
rook and knight). But the real significance of
its defensive role involved not those pieces
but the squares on which they sat. The posi-
tion works the same way with the Black piec-
es gone from e8 and f6.
Now one way to blunder in this position is to
start with RxR+, inviting QxR; you imagine
then playing QxN+—not because it’s a queen
fork that picks up Black’s bishop, but because
it allows you to mate with Qg7 next move.
But this fails because the initial move RxR+
is instead met by Black with NxR, where the
knight still guards f6 from its new square, e8.
The morals are several. First, the idea of cap-
turing first with your less valuable piece ob-
viously is less important when you're going
for mate. Second, move order matters—but
you knew that. Last, you want to carefully
look at all the ways your opponent can recap-
ture, not just the first that comes to mind.
Dg822: Black to move
Dg822: You might begin by observing the
battery of queen and bishop Black has aimed
at f1, next to White’s king; he would mate
there were it not for the knight on e3 that pro-
tects the needed square. The other thing to see
is that White’s king is trapped on the back
rank, nearly able to be mated with Rd1—
another possibility thwarted only by White’s
knight on e3. Thus while the e3 knight pro-
tects no pieces, it protects two mating squares,
and this is one too many. Rd1+ makes
White’s position untenable. He has to take the
rook with his knight, or White is mated now
(interposing the other knight on e1 just delays
things a move). But if he does play NxR,
Black mates with his queen on f1.
An initial lesson here is to look not just for
the first mating threat you see, but for all of
them; for if there is more than one, it may be
that attempting to execute one of them (and
failing) allows you then to carry off the other
successfully. Another point to take away:
when you see an enemy piece guarding a
square you need for mating purposes, ask not
just what pieces it might also guard but also
what other sensitive squares near the king it
protects.
Dg823: Black to move
Dg823: Look for pieces aimed toward White's
king and you find Black's battery of queen
and bishop on the long light-squared diagonal,
threatening to mate on g2. White defends
against the threat with his queen. Again, what
you also must see is that White’s king is
trapped on the back rank, nearly able to be
mated with Re1—another possibility thwarted
only by White’s queen. Re1+ thus makes
White’s position untenable, just as a similar
rook move did in the last position. If White
takes the rook with his queen, Black mates on
g2; if he takes the rook with his knight, Black
mates on h1.
Dg824: Black has a queen and two other
pieces—his knight and bishop—all trained on
e2, next to White’s king. All that prevents
QxN+ from mating is White’s queen. Notice
as well that White’s king has no flight
squares. As we know, such immobility means
that any direct thrust at the king may threaten
mate. Black can administer such a check with
Nc2.

Dg824: Black to move
Since White can’t move his king his only le-
gal reply is QxN—but now Black mates on
e2. In effect White’s queen again was caught
trying to guard two mating squares. When
you see the first one, look for another vulner-
able square the queen guards from which you
might be able to give check, distracting it.
Dg825: White to move
Dg825: White has a traditional threat: a queen
and a minor piece aimed at a square next to
Black's king (c7). Qxc7# is prevented by
Black’s queen on c5. Two trains of thought
leave from here. The first is simply to imagine
going ahead with 1. Qxc7+, QxQ, and asking
what checks you would have after that forced
exchange. There would be one with your d2
rook (Rd8) and another with your e2 rook
(RxR), neither of which helps; but then there
also are two with your knight—Nd6 (no
good) and Nxa7, which is mate because the
d2 rook seals off the Black king’s flight
squares.
The other way to see this is to focus on the
Black queen that prevents mate in the first
instance and ask what other duties it therefore
cannot perform—whether it protects any other
pieces, pawns or important squares that you
can exploit. You see here that Black’s queen
also protects the pawn on a7; more to the
point, you realize, it protects the a7 square on
which White’s knight otherwise would mate.
Once you realize Black’s queen is guarding
two different mating squares the position just
becomes a matter of figuring out which threat
to use first.
5.2.04.
Adding a Mate Threat to Create an Over-
worked Piece.
Mostly we have concerned ourselves so far in
this chapter with cases where an enemy piece
is guarding two sensitive points on the board
in front of you. But it also is possible to
create an overworked piece. You see an ene-
my piece guarding against mate; so you build
an additional mate threat on another square it
also protects. It becomes stretched too thin,
and then one of the threats works or you win
material that your opponent has to sacrifice to
save the game.
Dg826: Black to move
Dg826: In this first example you see that you
(playing the Black pieces) have a queen close
enough to White’s king to menace it. Think
more precisely about how it could become a
mate threat. If the queen had a supporter at-
tacking h2 or g2, it could mate there. Black
could furnish such support with Re2. The
rook on e1 obviously seems to prevent such a
move, but hold that thought anyway. Now
notice that since the king is cornered, Black
also has the makings of mate with QxRf1.
This, too, is prevented by the rook on e1.
Aha: the e1 rook can be overworked; it guards
(or will guard) against two mating threats. So
you go ahead with Re2, which results in mate
one way or another: (a) If White plays RxR,
Black plays QxRf1#. (b) If White for some
reason plays Rg1, Black plays Qxh2#. (c) If
White plays Rf2, Black plays RxRf2 (not
RxRe1, since then White has BxR); and now
nothing can stop Black from mating with his
queen on h2. (White has a couple of futile
checks on Black’s back rank that delay mat-
ters for a move or two.)
The e1 rook can be understood as overworked
in that it guarded both the mating square f1
and also e2, which was a stepping-stone to
mate for Black and not guarded by anything
else. Another way to look at this position is
that Black creates an overworked enemy de-
fender. The e1 rook was frozen in place be-
cause it needed to protect f1; once Black sees
this, he takes advantage by sticking a rook
next to it and creating a fresh mate threat in
the process.
Dg827: White to move
Dg827: Start by looking at the captures you
have the power to make and ask what stops
them from working. Here you would like to
play QxQ but are stopped by Black’s knight
on f5. You can’t take the knight, but maybe
you can experiment with ways of overwork-
ing it since you have other threats pending
against Black’s king. Building a mate threat
often is a matter of finding a square next to
the enemy king that already is under attack by
one of your pieces and then adding another
attacker to it. To use the principle to overwork
an enemy piece, try planting that second at-
tacker on a square that the enemy piece pro-
tects. Here you see that you already have a
rook aimed at h7, so you add another with
Rh4—a square Black’s knight defends. Black
can't sit still for this; he has to take one of
White’s rooks to prevent mate next move with
Rxh7#. His knight is his only piece that at-
tacks either rook, so his best move is to play
NxRg7 (we will consider his other options in
moment). Now you have QxQ, winning a
queen for a rook.
That’s the sequence as it goes with best play
by Black. But a move like 1. Rh4 does not
force your opponent’s reply in the strong
sense we see with checks or (sometimes) cap-
tures. Black has a couple of other ways he
could respond to it, and they all need to be
seen and considered:
(a) Black could play 1. …h7-h5. No problem;
for of course you also see that you have the
kernel of a discovery—indeed, a discovered
check—with your rook and queen. Thus 2.
Rxg6+, and there is nothing Black can do to
stop you from mating: 2. …QxQ, Rxh5+; 3.
Nh6 (a futile interposition), RhxN#.
(b) Black could play h7-h6. This seems better
because Black's pawn has protection from its
knight. So now your discovered check doesn’t
work; Rxg6+ again is met with 2. …QxQ, and
this time it won't work to give check with
your rook on the h-file because Black replies
NxR. You would have to simply recapture
RxQ—and then Black has NxRh4. But you
can do better in reply to 1. …h7-h6: play 2.
Qf7, and Black cannot escape mate (e.g., if 2.
…NxRg7, 3. Rxh6#). The best Black can do
is throw checks at White’s king until he is out
of them.
(c) Speaking of checks, Black can reply to 1.
Rh4 with Ng3+. It doesn’t work. You come
back with 2. Kh2. This looks a little scary
because you are creating the kernel of a dis-
covered check with Black’s knight and queen.
But now no matter what he does you will be
able to play QxQ. Even if Black plays Nf5+,
you still play 3. QxQ, NxQ; 4. Rxh7#.
The main line of analysis in this position is
another example of how an overworked piece
can be exploited two ways. If it protects a
piece and a square needed to mate, the first
thought may be to take the piece; then again,
it sometimes works better to play the mating
attack, allow it to fail, and then take the ene-
my piece left vulnerable by those defensive
efforts.
Dg828: White to move
Dg828: You see that White has a standard
formation for a mate: his queen is ready to
land next to Black’s king on g7 with protec-
tion from his knight. Black’s queen prevents
this, so White considers what else the Black
queen is trying to protect—and finds the rook
on g5. White can take it with RxR, but this
won’t quite work; once Black recaptures with
QxR, his queen still guards g7. What White
needs is a capture of a piece that Black can't
defend without pulling his queen out of reach
of g7. The queen guards nothing else, but
notice that the pattern might be completed if
Black’s rook could be forced onto a different
square. Or if you prefer, simply consider any
checks White can give. By either route you
find Rh4+.
How is Black to reply? White’s rook cannot
be captured, so Black’s only choices are to
interpose something or move the king. Con-
sider his principal alternatives.
(a) Black can move his king to g8. When the
enemy king moves, ask what checks you
would have against it on its new square; be
especially alert to moves by the king that put
it on the same color square as your knight if
you have one in the neighborhood. Here Kg8
is met with Ne7+—a knight fork that wins the
queen. Mate follows a couple of moves later.
Or (b) Black can interpose his rook at h5. But
now it becomes as good as loose; if White
takes it with RxR+, Black no longer can reply
QxR (for White then mates with Qxg7). Yet
White soon mates anyway: after White plays
2. RxR+ Black has to move his king to g8,
and now comes the knight fork 3. Ne7+, etc.
That sequence is why the position appears in
this section. Rh4 creates a fresh threat of dis-
aster that only Black’s queen can address, but
it already has a mortal threat to worry about at
g7. Once Black’s rook interposes on h5, the
Black queen thus is overworked in a
straightforward sense. It guards a mating
square and a rook that both are under attack,
and if it recaptures in one place it abandons
the defense of the other.
Dg829: Black to move
Dg829: You should have no trouble seeing
that Black’s queen and knight both attack g2,
that Black nearly is ready to mate there with
Qxg2, and that White prevents this with his
queen on d2. The question is how you best
can take advantage of the constraints this pat-
tern imposes on White’s queen. The only
thing the queen protects that you can take is
the pawn on d4. That would not be a bad gain
by itself, but in any event it is not just any
pawn; once Black takes it with Rxd4, his rook
now adds to Black’s offensive thrust by bear-
ing down directly on White’s queen and the
rook behind it. So consider White’s possible
replies to Rxd4 and their consequences.
(a) If he plays QxR, Black mates with Qxg2.
(b) White might search for a square where the
queen is safe and still protects both g2 and the
rook on d2, and so play Qc2. But then Black
plays RxRd1+ and mates next move no matter
what White does.

(c) White’s best move is to evacuate his

queen from d2 and try to take out the mate
threat on g2 directly by playing QxN. Black
doesn’t play QxQ now because White’s queen
still is guarded by his bishop. He plays RxR+,
winning the exchange and gaining a tempo he
can use to keep his own queen safe after
White’s king is forced to h2.
Dg830: White to move
This position could have gone in the next
chapter, which covers threats against a guard; Black has no flight squares for his king, so his
Black’s Rxd4 was an attack on White’s only legal reply is RxR. This leaves his queen
queen, which was protecting a mating square. loose and so allows White to play QxQ.
But the position also fits here because of the Black’s rook was overworked; it protected its
(b) line described above: Rxd4 adds a second queen and also the mating square c8. (Notice,
threat of mate—RxR—on top of the existing of course, that the reverse move order ends in
threat of Qxg2. White’s queen is responsible disaster for White, as the Black king gets a
for preventing both. If White isn’t careful, one flight square on g7.)
of the threats will succeed; and even if he is
careful he loses material. We see again a Dg831: This position is structurally similar to
standard method for overworking a piece: the first one in this section, though it looks a
observe that it is preventing mate; then make little different because of the compression of
threats on squares that it appears (perhaps pieces at White’s end of the board. Take it
deceptively) to be able to guard. apart the same way. Black would like to play
QxQ, but White’s rook on d1 guards the tar-
5.2.05. get.
Distracting a Rook from Duties Up the
Board.

Now we consider a single rather common

pattern. Sometimes a rook on the back rank
will protect a piece that lies somewhere up the
board on the same file. This can be a perilous
arrangement, because a rook so positioned
often is needed as well to protect its king
against attacks on the back rank. Such a rook
quickly can become overworked. Here we
examine this theme and variations on it in
Dg831: Black to move
some detail.

Dg830: This first diagram presents the point
in simplest form. White has the power to cap-
ture Black’s queen with his own, but the
Black queen has protection from its rook at
b8. When you see a piece drawing protection
from a rook on the back rank, ask whether
you can make trouble elsewhere on the back
rank—as with a check like Rc8+.
Since the queen’s defender is on the back
rank, test its stability by putting one of your
pieces there: Rb1+. White’s only legal re-
sponse is RxR—leaving his queen to be taken
with QxQ. White’s d1 rook was overworked.

Dg832: White to move
Dg832: White has a single capture available
with QxQ. It's prevented by Black’s rook on
his back rank. White considers dropping one
of his own rooks onto that rank, testing
whether the Black rook there might be over-
worked. This time Black can move his king to
g7—an option that, as we shall see, can com-
plicate matters a bit. Here White’s recourse is
clear enough, though: he then has RxR; and if
Black replies QxR, White has QxQ. (Or if
Black plays QxQ, it is met with RxQ.) The
point: once your rook is on the enemy back
rank, be broad-minded in thinking about what
it might do there.
Dg833: You look at White's capturing options
and see that he would like to play QxQ, but to
make it rewarding he needs to loosen Black’s
queen first. This he tries to do by adding one
of his own rooks to Black’s back rank—with
check—via Re8. If Black plays RxR, White
plays QxQ.
Dg833: White to move
Again, though, Black has the option of mov-
ing his king to g7; so now what? Here, unlike
in the previous position, playing RxR then
ruins everything for White: Black replies
RxR, and now his queen has just as much
protection as it did at the start. But this posi-
tion also differs from the prior one because
Black has a second rook loose on his back
rank. So White replies to Kg7 with QxQ. If
Black recaptures RxQ, now White has
RxRa8. In effect Black’s rook on c8 gets
pinned to the other rook when White plays
Re8. It's another example of the same point:
think broadly about what your rook can do
once it's on the back rank.
Dg834: White to move
Dg834: White’s queen is loose and is about to
get taken by Black’s queen. White naturally
would like to play QxQ himself, but at this
point it would just trade queens. Better to dis-
tract the Black queen’s guard first with 1.
Rc8+. Black has to play 1. …RxR and so
leave his queen loose. Time for White to play
2. QxQ? Not quite yet; for then Black has 2.
…RxR+ and ends up with two rooks in return
for his queen. No, before White plays QxQ he
should exploit the priority of check and finish
the job on the back rank. He plays 2. RxR+,
RxR. Now comes QxQ, and White has won a
queen and a rook for his two rooks. He enters
the endgame with a queen against Black’s
rook and should have no trouble winning.
The general lesson is not to be hasty in play-
ing a payoff move like QxQ. Make sure you
have exhausted the damage you can do with
checks that hold the initiative; and make sure
you have not left your opponent any damage
to do (look at his checks) after you play your
concluding capture.
 Dg835: Black to move
Dg835: Black’s queen is loose and is about to
get taken by White’s queen. He can retreat the
queen or play QxQ; and QxQ would be a
coup, rather than a wash played for defensive
reasons, if he could first get rid of White’s
rook on a1. He has a way to do this: he can
drop a rook to the back rank with Rb1+. This
gains him time; White has to save his king
rather than play QxQ. But White isn’t re-
quired to play RxR and then lose his queen.
Instead he can move his king to f2. But notice
that now White's rook on a1 is attacked twice
and defended just once; so Black can take it
with QxR (if White replies QxQ, Black then
has RxQ). It's another example of broad-
mindedness on the back rank: if the enemy
king moves, maybe there is other damage to
be wrought there.
Ah, but not so fast. Taking White's rook ac-
tually is a mistake; Black has better. When the
enemy king moves you religiously want to
examine any checks you can give against it in
its new position, even if that means interrupt-
ing a sequence you planned to play elsewhere.
Here 1 ...Kf2 for White gives Black a new
option against the king: 2. Qe1#.
Dg836: White’s queen is loose and under at-
tack, so as usual he considers whether to re-
treat or take the offensive. He could win
Black’s queen if he first could be rid of the
rook that protects it from d8, so of course he
thinks about putting one of his own rooks on
Black’s back rank. The trouble is that he
can’t: his rook on e1 is aimed the right way,
but the knight on e4 blocks its path. What to
do?
Dg836: White to move
Move the knight, and do it violently so as to
force Black to spend a move making a reply.
A check is best, and a fork is best of all; so
White plays Nf6+, attacking Black’s king and
queen. After Black replies g7xN, the way is
clear for White to play the traditional Re8+.
Black’s king has no flight squares, so RxR is
compulsory for him. Now White has turned
the tables and plays QxQ; he has won a queen
for a knight and a rook, a favorable trade.
(Consider it as a matter of points. White con-
verted the three-point advantage he had at the
outset with his extra knight into a four-point
advantage: now he has a queen and a rook
against two rooks.)
Dg837: Black to move
Dg837: Black has a possible capture in QxR
but it won't work now because of the protec-
tion provided by White’s other rook on c1.
Black considers RxB+, asking whether it
would either draw the c1 rook away from
guard duty or win the bishop for free. Sure
enough, it requires White to play RxR, after
which Black plays QxR—recovering his rook
and netting a piece. By now that much is easy.
Yet there is a still stronger sequence; you find
it by playing with the alternative move orders
available to achieve your aims. This time start
with QxRc3. Now White plays RxQ; Black
replies RxBd1+; and since Black’s rook can-
not be captured White must interpose his
queen on f1. Black plays RxQ, winning back
his queen. After White recaptures KxR, what
is the net result? Black’s gain is the same: he
has won a queen, a rook, and a bishop for a
queen and a rook. The difference is that here
Black has traded queens as well as winning a
piece—a favorable adjustment, since the ad-
vantage of an extra piece becomes more mea-
ningful as the number of pieces on the board
decreases. That is why the usual goal once
you obtain a material advantage is to trade
away pieces, simplifying the position to make
your advantage loom larger. Better still if you
can simplify pieces away during the course of
your tactical sequence.
The larger point is to remember that there are
two ways to proceed if you find an over-
worked enemy piece. You can, at least in
principle, go after either of the targets it pro-
tects (whether pieces or squares). Sometimes
the right move order is obvious; sometimes it
isn’t. Here it might seem obvious since the
most familiar move order does win a piece,
but there is an advantage to taking a second
look at the counterintuitive second sequence
that leads with a more valuable piece—the
queen. Notice, by the way, that if White’s
king had a flight square (e.g., if his h2 pawn
were on h3), the second sequence wouldn’t
work: White could reply to the rook check at
d1 by moving his king rather than by inter-
posing his queen. But the first sequence still
would be productive.
Dg838: White to move
Use our current logic: when a rook on the
enemy’s back rank is frustrating your offen-
sive plans up the board, consider putting one
of your heavy pieces—a rook or queen—onto
that same rank to threaten his king and over-
work his rook. The path for such a piece can
be diagonal as well as vertical. Here White
does it with Qe8+. Black is forced to play
RxQ. Now the coast is clear for White to play
Bd5+; he mates a move later (after Black ex-
hausts a futile interposition with his rook on
e6). At first the queen’s move to e8 may seem
counterintuitive because you imagine that it is
doing important work hemming in Black’s
king. But most of that work is being done by
the pawn on g7, and the rest of the job—the
sealing of the f7 square—is done by your bi-
shop once it moves to d5.
Now as a quick exercise, consider the conse-
quences of starting here with 1, Bd5+. Well,
that works, too: 1. …RxB; 2. Qe8+, Nf8; 3.
QxN, Kh7; 4. Qh8#.

Dg838: White has a battery of queen and rook

(and a pawn, too) on the g-file, but let's as-
sume he can’t quite find a way to mate with it.
So examine the Black king more closely and
notice that it is completely immobilized.
When a king has no flight squares the merest
check may be fatal. Look for such checks, and
especially for open lines leading toward the
king on which you might put, say, a bishop;
look for these things and see that Bd5+ almost Dg839: White to move
mates. The trouble is that Black’s rook on d8
guards the mating square. What to do? Dg839: Here is the same position just viewed
but with one change: Black’s queen is on c8.
This alters the payoff but not the basic idea.
Now after 1. Qe8+, RxQ, 2. Bd5+, Black’s
interposition of his rook on e6 is not quite
futile; for the rook is protected by Black’s
queen. But White still has 3. BxR+, QxB; 4.
f5xQ, winning the exchange. The initial move
1. Qe8 performs the same function as before.
It forces Black to move his rook out of posi-
tion so that it can defend against mate only
indirectly (by costly interposition) rather than
directly (by capturing your bishop).
Dg840: White to move
Dg840: Again your inspection of Black’s king
shows it to be tightly constrained. Its only
flight squares are on the long dark diagonal,
which is almost as good as it having no flight
squares at all; either way an attack along that
diagonal will be a potentially lethal threat.
White’s queen has the ability to make such a
threat, and it's essential to see that there are
two ways to achieve it: Qc3 and Qe5. Neither
move works because both squares are de-
fended; but examine the quality of the protec-
tion carefully. Qc3+ is made ineffective by
Black’s rook on c8. We know a way to ad-
dress this: White puts his rook on d8 with
check. Now what is Black to do?
(a) If he plays RxR, White has succeeded in
distracting away the guard of c3. He plays
Qc3+ and mates (Black has two futile interpo-
sitions which White’s queen eats up).
(b) If Black plays QxR—an important possi-
bility to notice—White still wins by using his
queen’s other route to the long diagonal:
Qe5+, and again he mates after Black ex-
hausts an interposition (Qf6).
(c) Black’s king has a flight square and is
well-advised to use it: in reply to 1. Rd8+ he
plays Kg7 and escapes mate. But then White
simply plays RxR.
Sometimes, as here, threats meant to over-
work a rook on the back rank can end up win-
ning the rook itself, and of course there is
nothing wrong with that. You still need to see
all the mate threats in play, though, because
they are the reason Black is forced to forfeit
the rook.
Dg841: White to move
Dg841: By now the vulnerability of Black’s
king in this position should be obvious: it has
no flight squares; an attack against it on either
of the light squared diagonals leading to its
position has mating potential. If White puts
his light-squared bishop on b5, Black stops
him by interposing a pawn on c6. So White
turns his attention to the other diagonal and
the possibility of Bf7, where the bishop mates
but for the Black rook guarding the square
from h7. Fine: now White has a target in
Black’s rook. He has a way to attack it and
take something it protects with Qxh5, but to
this Black can reply g6xQ. So White works
backwards and sees that he first needs to get
rid of the g6 pawn by taking something it pro-
tects. He therefore begins with 1. RxB.
Black’s only recapture is 1. …g6xR; and now
White plays the fork 2. Qxh5+ (notice that the
movement of Black’s g-pawn extended the
open line to his king) and mates with Bf7 next
move no matter what Black does. (E.g., Black
plays RxQ, and then White has 3. Bf7#.)
Now of course if Black sees this coming he
will not reply to White’s initial RxB with
g6xR. He will play something like Qd6 or
Nd7, refusing to move his pawn on g6. So
White wins a piece. Again, however, the fruit-
ful train of thought started with the mating
idea and worked backward from it—not be-
cause the sequence ended up achieving mate,
but because it would have achieved mate if
Black recaptured every time you captured. It
is the threat of mate that forces Black to for-
feit material in order to stop you.

This is another of those positions which could Dg842: White to move

fit comfortably in the next chapter on attack-
ing the guard, but it fits here as well because
in the end the Black rook is overworked: it
protects the mating square f7, but also what
turns out to be an alternative mating square
for White's queen: h5.
5.2.06.
Forking Squares and the Overworked Piece.
Starting with the knight fork doesn’t work; for
after Black replies RxN, White has nothing
left (he needed both his knight and rook to
mate on f8). But if you start with the mating
threat Rf8+, Black has to reply RxR—and
now the fork Ne7+ does work, because you
only needed the one piece to execute it. You
win a queen for a rook.

Sometimes a forking square guarded by an

enemy piece can be loosened by taking some-
thing else the enemy piece protects; or maybe
the other piece it protects can be taken for
free, as the enemy concludes that recapturing
only results in a more costly fork a move lat-
er. We saw lots of examples of this in the
chapters on the double attack. Now we can
see those studies in fuller context: they all
were cases where the guardian of the forking
square was overworked. Here are some other
Dg843: Black to move
examples of how these two concepts—the
overworked piece and the double attack—
Dg843: Black has a single capture of a piece
usefully can be combined.
available: QxN. Obviously it doesn’t work
because White’s knight is guarded by his
Dg842: With a knight so deep in Black’s ter-
queen. But at least you see that White’s queen
ritory the thought of a fork can't be far from
is working. Is it protecting anything else?
your mind in the position on the left. Here
Yes; the queen also is the sole guardian of the
Ne7+ suggests itself, but the forking square is
bishop on b2. You have nothing you can use
guarded by Black’s rook. Meanwhile you also
to take the bishop, but you inspect your knight
have a rook on the open file leading to the f8
moves and see that Nd3 attacks it—and also
square next to Black’s king—and your knight
forks the king. How might White reply to this
attacks that square as well, so you almost can
move?
mate with Rf8. The problem is that f8 is
guarded by Black’s rook. So: your two best
(a) If he plays QxN he loses his queen to
offensive prospects both are frustrated by the
Black’s rook, so instead he no doubt will
same enemy piece, suggesting it may be
move his king.
overworked. Try going through with one of
the two ideas to see if the other then becomes
(b) If White moves his king to f1, his queen is
feasible.
left overworked: it is the only guard of the
knight on f3 and the bishop on b2, both of
which now are attacked by Black pieces. Thus
Black plays NxB; and if White recaptures
QxN, Black has QxN.
(c) If White instead responds to Nd3 by mov-
ing his king to d1, be alert: he has just walked
into the kernel of a discovery on the d-file;
now Black plays Nf4, discovering check and
taking White’s queen next move.
It is common enough for an enemy piece to
guard two others, and for you to attack only
one of them—as we find in the initial position
here. Throwing an attacker at the other enemy
piece (i.e., moving a piece into position to
attack White’s bishop) usually does not create
a crisis for your opponent, because now it's
his turn and he can either move one of the two
attacked pieces or give it another guard. An
exception to this logic arises, however, if you
can add an attack to the second piece with a
double threat—as Black did here with his
knight fork. Then there is no time for White
to move one of the attacked pieces. He has to
spend his time saving his king, and after he
does that his queen is left overworked.
Dg844: White to move
Dg844: Do nothing without examining any
checks you can give; and if you have active
knights, do nothing without inspecting their
prospects for forks. In this case either inquiry
leads you to Nxe6+—a fork of Black’s king,
queen, and rook. The only trouble is that the
forking square is protected by Black’s bishop
on c8. The bishop could be taken out first by
your d6 knight, but then Black plays QxN and
nothing has been accomplished; now his
queen guards e6. So move to the next ques-
tion: does the c8 bishop protect something
else you can take? Its only other protectorate
is the pawn on b7, but don’t be shy about con-
sidering a capture of it. The piece White has
for the purpose is his other knight, and he sees
that Nd6xb7 is another fork, this time of
Black’s queen and rook. So this is what he
plays, and it wins the exchange (plus a pawn)
after Black ushers his queen to safety on e7.
Black can’t play BxN because he needs his
bishop to keep guarding e6 against White's
worse forking threat.
The Black bishop was overworked. It pro-
tected two different forking squares. In re-
trospect you therefore can see that the pres-
ence of Black’s pawn on b7 was unimportant;
what made b7 significant was that a fork was
available from there, and this would have
been no less true—though it might have been
a little easier to overlook—if b7 had been
empty. The point to take away is that a piece
can be overworked just as easily by having
responsibility for too many forking squares—
empty or occupied—as it can be when it
guards too many mating squares or too many
pieces or any combination of these things. So
while your tactical investigations can begin
with a look at any pieces you can capture,
they also need to include high awareness of
any forks or mating possibilities and how the
enemy fends them off.
Dg845: White to move
Dg845: First see the convergence of the paths
of White’s queen and rook at h7, where he
would mate were it not for the protection sup-
plied to that square by Black’s queen. One
way to interpret this is to say Black's queen is
frozen on the seventh rank (it can’t afford to
go anyplace out of reach of h7); another is to
say that White can, by playing RxN, force
Black’s queen over to h7. Both perspectives
are accurate; the question is which is more
useful. To answer this you need to consider
your other offensive options (or near-options)
and how Black’s queen bears on them. Per-
haps the simplest thing is to imagine Black’s
queen over on h7, for then it's easier to see the
triangle between Black’s king, rook, and f6
pawn—and thus a queen fork for White with
Qxf6+. Black’s queen is revealed to be over-
worked: it protects the mating square h7 (and
the knight that sits there), and it also protects
the forking square f6. The fork doesn’t come
into existence until the queen moves out of
the way, so RxN rather than Qxf6 is the right
way for White to begin.
There still is a loose end, of course: the rook
that is the target of the fork is guarded by the
knight on c6. So naturally you start with 1.
BxN, b7xB—then 2. RxN+, QxR; 3. Qxf6+
and 4. QxR, winning a piece.
You also might have seen the idea here by
simply examining your checks: Qxf6 and
RxN. You see that Black’s queen recaptures
in both cases—and this causes you to wonder
what happens if you play one of the checks
and then the other.
Dg846: White to move
Dg846: We saw this position in the chapter on
capturing the guard (see 5.1.2.5.). White is
considering Nxe4, which looks plausible be-
cause the pawn is protected once and attacked
twice. But in the earlier chapter we saw that
Black can reply QxQ+, removing the knight’s
guard; after White recaptures, Black has NxN
and wins a piece. Now you can see another
refutation for Black as well. After White
plays Nxe4, his knight is guarded by his
queen; that is what prevents NxN. Look at
what else the White queen protects, or look
for any checks Black can give, or look for any
intriguing visual pattern; the result by any
route is Qxc3+—a triangular queen fork that
wins the rook on a1. So after White starts
with Nxe4, Black goes ahead with NxN, invit-
ing White to play QxN. If he does, he leaves
the forking square loose and Black plays
Qxc3+, gaining a rook. White overworked his
queen, using it to guard his knight and a fork-
ing square.
We revisit an earlier point: if you venture a
piece out onto the board, perhaps to grab a
pawn, and expect it to be safe because one of
your pieces will protect it, you must pause to
ask not only if the guardian can be taken, but
also what else it is supposed to protect—what
pieces, and what squares.
Dg847: White to move
Dg847: Start, as ever, by reconnoitering: what
captures do you have the power to make?
White’s queen threatens the rook on c7. The
rook’s only guard is the queen on e7. This
means the Black queen lacks flexibility,
which invites you to look for ways to exploit
other squares the queen appears to protect.
One would be to give check with 1. Nf6,
where White’s queen pins the g7 pawn and
thus gives the knight a safe berth. If Black
plays QxN, then of course White has QxR and
wins the exchange. But Black can avoid that
outcome by instead moving his king to h8, so
the question is what comes next. Since you
just moved your knight, ask whether it has
fresh forking prospects. This leads to the
charming move 2. Ne8, attacking the rook on
c7 a second time and also creating the star-
tling mate threat Qxg7#. Black can extinguish
the threat with QxN, but now comes the
much-awaited 3. QxR—followed by 4. Qxa7
(after Black moves his b8 rook up the board;
he can’t move it to a8 because White’s bishop
covers the square). White wins the exchange
and a pawn.
The only variation to worry about occurs after
White plays 2. Ne8. Black doesn’t have to
play QxN; he can block the mate threat with
g7-g6. But this is much worse for him, be-
cause by failing to make a capture on that
move he has left his rook on c7 attacked twice
and guarded just once. So after White plays 3.
NxR Black dares not recapture. White wins a
whole rook, not just the exchange.
The trickiest part of the position is seeing the
finisher Ne8, as knight moves to an oppo-
nent’s crowded back rank are not common.
The way to ensure that you see such moves is
simply to be vigilant in looking for forks any-
time your knight is in enemy territory, and
reinspecting for them after any move of the
other side's pieces—especially his king.
Dg848: White to move
Dg848: The tension is high anytime the
queens are faced off against each other, as
they are here. Each side looks at how the op-
posite queen is guarded, asking whether the
guard might be undermined or whether there
is a way to exploit its required attendance by
the queen's side. In this case Black’s queen is
guarded by the knight on e5. White can’t take
the knight, but that isn't the point; the point is
that the knight can’t afford to leave its
square—and thus that White can play his only
check (1. Nc6) with impunity. Black replies
Kb7. Other king moves are possible, but this
one seems most attractive as it puts some heat
on White’s knight. Now ask: why doesn’t
Black instead play RxN (with either rook)?
The answer is that when White played Nc6 he
unmasked the threat of BxN, which would
destroy the guard of Black’s queen. If Black
tries RxN, White thus has BxN+—and since
it’s a check (a crucial point), Black would
have to spend time moving his king. White
then has QxQ. Replying to 1. Nc6 with Kb7
means that if White plays BxN it won’t give
check and so won't be nearly as dangerous.
All right; think of the position resulting from
1. Nc6+, Kb7 as a little adjustment of the
board White can force at no cost. What would
then be possible? Since your knight is in the
picture you should be thinking about forks
and see 2. Ne7, attacking both Black rooks.
This sounds good, but now wait. 2. Ne7 is not
a check, so it gives Black time to make any
move he likes. The danger is not that he will
play QxQ, for then White replies Nc1xQ and
the fork still hangs over Black’s head. No, the
problem is that Black will reply to Ne7 with
RxNc1+, a crushing riposte; for now Black is
the one who has destroyed the only guard of
White’s queen and has done it with check.
After White plays RxR, Black has QxQ. So 2.
Ne7 doesn’t look so good for White after all.
Yet White can rehabilitate the idea by pausing
to play QxQ on his second move—then play-
ing 3. Ne7. Now if Black plays RxNc1 it
doesn’t matter. White recaptures and wins the
exchange.
Black still has an idea. Remember that after 1.
Nc6+, Kb7; 2. QxQ, NxQ; 3. Ne7 (the fork),
Black now has a knight on g4. He, too, thus
has a knight fork to offer of White’s two
rooks: Nf2. Thus it can go 3. Ne7, Nf2—but
then White plays 4. NxRg6, and after 4.
…NxR, 5. RxN, White has won material.
(Black's rook was loose; White's rook wasn't.)
Okay, but now suppose it goes 3. Ne7, Re6; 4.
NxRc8, Nf2. This way Black is hoping to take
one of White’s rooks and then capture the
knight on c8. Ah, but this doesn’t work either,
for now White has 5. NxBb6 and he still wins
a piece. So Black is better off losing the ex-
change as described at the end of the previous
paragraph. You need to see these variations,
though, as they might have ruined everything.
The point to remember is that when either or
both sides are moving their knights around, as
both are here, you have to keep asking about
the next capture or fork the pieces can give
from their new squares. And when you're op-
erating without checks, as White largely is
here, it makes life complicated. You have to
keep asking what counterthreats the enemy
could make elsewhere.
This position is full of other useful lessons
large and small. Start with the small: as you
look back on the position you can see that the
knight on e5 was overworked. It guarded
Black’s queen and also the c6 square, which
White was able to use as a springboard for a
double attack with his knight. Second, the
layout of Black’s rooks here is worth a stare;
they are nicely arranged for a knight fork.
But the most important lesson here is the
question of move order. It all works for White
so long as he liquidates the queens at precise-
ly the right moment, neither too soon nor too
late. He doesn’t do it on the first move be-
cause keeping the Black queen on the board
also keeps the Black knight where it is. He
doesn’t wait until the third move because then
Black has time to turn the tables. He does it
on the second move, after the Black queen’s
presence has fulfilled the useful (to White)
purpose of freezing the e5 knight long enough
for White to play Nc6+. A final way to state
the key point: notice that the safety of each
queen from the other is the paramount consid-
eration at every turn. If either party is able to
capture the guard of the enemy queen and do
it with check, he will win the queen and the
game. In the end neither side loses a queen
(they merely are traded), but the pressures
created for each by the need to avoid so losing
a queen dictates much of the other tactical
operations. It is the reason why Black’s first
reply is not RxNc6, and it is the reason why
White’s second move must not be Ne7.
 Attacking the Guard.
5.3.01.
Introduction.
Sometimes it isn't feasible to capture or over-
work an enemy piece that impedes your plans.
There remain other ways to get rid of such a
piece, one of which is to threaten it and thus
force it to move. When we speak of “attack-
ing” the guard, this is what we mean: not cap-
turing it, but aiming a piece at it with the
threat of a capture. This technique tends to
work best when the guardian is a king or
queen, since their high value typically gives
them no choice but to flee an attack and thus
abandon their defensive duties; just beefing
up their protection is not an option. But lesser
pieces also may find it necessary to flee a
threat if they're loose or worth less than the
piece that threatens them. Or in other cases
the attacked piece may not flee; instead it may
capture your attacker, and this may be much
to your liking—indeed, it may be your inten-
tion—if it means something else has been left
loose in the meantime.
Getting rid of a guard by attacking it can be
complicated, and the hard positions in this
section are among the most demanding in the
book. The reason is that when you attack a
piece other than the king you are not forcing
your opponent’s reply in the same way you do
by making a capture or check. You have taken
nothing from him, so he may have plenty of
reply options to consider: a counterthreat, a
check, or a move of the attacked piece that
takes it out of danger and still enables it to
perform guard duty. These possibilities all
have to be considered when you make a
threat, but sometimes they can be cut down by
using threats that have other good things
going for them as well—for example, threats
that also give check or fork another piece.
We will start with attacks on the king when it
guards one of its pieces, since these are the
easiest to understand and use. Then we will
look at the more difficult problem of chasing
away a queen that guards a piece or mating
square. Later we will consider attacks on less-
er pieces.
5.3.02.
Checks to Drive the King Away from Guard
Duty.
A piece protected by its king is a vulnerabili-
ty: the king can only provide protection so
long as it is right next to the piece it guards;
and in response to an attack the king often has
to move since adding defenders to it is no
help. So when you a see a piece so protected,
it's especially useful to look for any checks
you can give; whatever else they do, the
checks may leave loose whatever the king
meant to guard.
Dg849: Black to move
Dg849: Turn to the position on the top.
Q: What does Black attack?
A: White’s rook; nothing more.
Q: What guards White’s rook, preventing
RxR?
A: White’s king.
Q: Can White’s king be checked and thus
driven away from the rook, leaving it loose?
A: Yes, with Bd3+. The king moves to g1,
and now Black wins the rook with RxR+.
On second thought, however, don’t jump to
the conclusion that a check will force the king
to move; consider whether your opponent has
other options. Here White also would have
the option of Re2, blocking the check with his
rook. But now the rook would be attacked
twice and still defended just once, so White
again wins it with RxR. Black's initial Bd3+
thus works fine, but we'll want to stay in the
habit of looking at all of an enemy's possible
replies to threats like this.
Dg850: Black to move
Dg850: Black's king threatens White’s rook.
What guards the rook? White’s king. Can
Black check White’s king and thus drive it
away? Yes, with Rh4+. White has to move his
king back to the third rank, leaving his rook
loose and thus permitting Black to play KxR.
But wait: what if White instead replies to
Rh4+ by interposing with Rg4? Then the rook
is attacked twice and protected once, and is
lost—but only because of the bishop on e6,
which thus is essential to make this sequence
work.
Dg851: White to move
Dg851: White's rook attacks Black’s bishop.
What guards the bishop? Black’s king. Does
White have any checks that will force the
king to move? Yes, if you remember to con-
sider the work your pawns can do as well as
your pieces—and if you bear in mind the
pawn's ability to change files by capturing.
White plays g4xf5+, and now Black must
move his king: he can take White’s pawn with
it or he can move the king elsewhere, but in
no event can he prevent White from winning
the bishop with RxB next move.
Dg852: White to move
Dg852: White attacks nothing as yet, but he
does see that the knight on f6 is protected
only by its king. This alone is suggestive, so
he experiments with any checks he can give.
There is just one: Qe7+. It attacks the knight
and checks the king, forcing it away to the
eighth rank. Now White wins the knight with
QxN. The key: remember that any piece
drawing protection from its king is a potential
target, whether or not it currently is under
attack; simple checks may leave it loose.
Dg853: White to move
Dg853: A variation on the same theme. Again
White attacks nothing and again he looks for
any checks he can give, perhaps noticing this
time that the knight on f6 is loose. His possi-
ble checks are two: Qe8, which loses the
queen right away to Black’s knight or rook;
and Qe6, which is far more interesting be-
cause it is safe and forces the king to move.
Naturally Black will want to move the king in
a way that allows it protect his knight, which
White is poised to capture; so Black tries
Kg7. But now we are back in the familiar po-
sition where an enemy piece is guarded by its
king. What to do? Give another check. White
plays Qe7+, and now the king is forced to the
back rank or to h6. Either way, White takes
the knight next move.
There are two points to take away here. One
is that the same piece may be able to both
give check and take a piece that the king pro-
tects once the king moves. The other is that
sometimes more than one check is necessary
to create the needed arrangement.
Dg854: White to move
Dg854: You have a queen and rook nicely
coordinated on f8, but Black guards the
square twice, too. Still, imagine playing these
things through to see what results. Your first
thought might be 1. Rf8+, QxR (if Black in-
stead moves his king, he loses his queen); 2.
QxQ+, KxQ—losing a rook. But now pause
after the first pair of moves. The queens
would then be faced off against each other,
and the only guard of Black’s queen would be
his king. If you could give a check you might
be able to pry the king away and leave the
queen exposed to capture. You have a tool for
the purpose in your light-squared bishop: 2.
Bd5+. If Black moves his king to Kh8, 3.
QxQ nets a queen for a rook.
You might think Black could do better by
instead blocking the bishop check with Qf7;
then play goes 3. BxQ, KxB, and Black seems
to have taken another White piece in compen-
sation for his queen. But be resolute in consi-
dering how the board would look at the end of
any such sequence—and especially in looking
for any fork that might then be executed as a
kicker. In this case Black’s king would be left
on f7, so White looks for checks against the
king on its new square or any loose Black
pieces to attack and finds Qf4+, winning the
rook that is stranded on e3. White ends up
with a queen against Black’s bishop and an
easily won game.
These possibilities will repay some review. A
lesson of them is to take care against rushing
through an imagined sequence and automati-
cally assuming that after 1. Rf8+, QxR must
come the natural recapture 2. QxQ, KxQ.
Throwing an “in between” move, or zwi-
schenzug, into the sequence (2. Bd5+) turns it
from a loser into a winner.
Dg855: White to move
Dg855: You’re making progress if you realize
that in this position you have to consider 1.
Qe7+. Sure, it looks suicidal; after 1. …QxQ;
2. RxQ, KxR you would have given away a
rook. But a less hurried view of the sequence
is needed—and an application of the principle
shown in the previous frame. After the first
step, 1. Qe7+, QxQ, don’t mechanically im-
agine yourself recapturing Black’s queen.
Pause and consider the board after just those
steps, and see that Black’s queen would then
be attacked once by your rook and protected
just once—by Black’s king. A king is a poor
guard for an enemy piece because an attack so
easily drives it away. What checks would
White have here? 2. BxB+. Black’s only legal
move is to interpose his queen at e6; then
White has 3. RxQ and has won a piece.
Another way to see this would be to observe
from the start that White has the option of
BxB+ and that only Black’s queen on d7 pre-
vents it. Then look at your checks and see
Qe7+, forking Black’s king and queen and
requiring him to play QxQ. You realize that
Black’s queen is overworked, and that after
the sequence just described his bishop would
be left loose. Giving up your queen to win the
bishop wouldn't make sense, but then you see
that BxB is a check that wins back your queen
after all and leaves you a piece to the good.
Dg856: White to move
Dg856: Black’s position looks secure. His
rooks guard each other, and his queen is
guarded by its king. Yet in that last observa-
tion lies a vulnerability, especially since
Black’s queen is under attack—indeed, it is
pinned. If its guard were driven away it might
be taken. White looks for checks he can give
and takes full advantage of the pin on Black’s
queen by putting a rook en prise to it: Re7+.
Must the king move? No, Black can play
RxR. But the joy of doubled rooks, as White
has here, is that one can replace the other:
now White replies RxR+, and this time mov-
ing the king is Black's only recourse. Whe-
rever it goes, White has QxQ.
Dg857: Again White has his rooks arranged
in a battery along a file while Black’s are
connected on the back rank. But this time the
use White makes of the pattern is different,
for it is Black’s rook on e8 that is under attack
but protected by his king. True, it also is pro-
tected by the a8 rook; but then again, White
attacks it twice. White thus begins with RxR+
(his only check, for those who keep track of
these things). Black’s reply is forced: RxR.
And now White has replaced a Black rook
protected by two pieces with a rook protected
only by its king—and which he still attacks.
Dg857: White to move
All that remains is to drive the king away with
a check. Since White has vacated his rook
from e5, the way is clear for him to play
Bd6+. The king moves to g8, leaving the rook
on e8 loose. White takes it with RxR+.
Lesson: when an enemy target is guarded by
its king and another piece, try to get rid of the
other guard so that only the king is left—for
then a check may be usable to drive it away.
Getting rid of the other guard may be a matter
of attacking it directly, or as in this case it
may be a matter of taking the target and al-
lowing a recapture by a piece that ends up
with only the king as a defender.
Incidentally, if you were looking for a way to
blunder here, a natural method would be to
focus too much on the idea of liquidating the
rooks; as White you might imagine 1. RxR,
RxR; 2. RxR, KxR and then you seem to be
out of options. Our familiar point repeats:
when you imagine even a short sequence,
don’t forget the possibility of usefully insert-
ing checks into the middle of it.
Dg858: You see that Black’s bishop attacks
your rook. Before moving anything, though,
think about offense—e.g., captures you can
make. Your rook attacks Black’s rook, which
is guarded only by its king. Mission: drive
Black’s king away so the rook on d8 is left
loose. What tools do you have for this pur-
pose? For openers you have a knight that can
give check. Think about Nf6+. If Black
moves his king he loses his rook, so naturally
he instead would prefer to play e7xN.
Dg858: White to move
This appears to ruin your idea, but not so fast:
that check and capture would have had signif-
icant consequences, removing the Black
king’s pawn cover on the e-file. Remember
the mission, and consider checks you then
would have (that wouldn't require moving the
d5 rook from its file). There is one left: Rh1-
e1+. This time Black has no choice but to
move his king and forfeit his rook. White
wins the exchange; since he operated solely
with checks, Black never was able to play
BxR.
Again we see that it may take multiple checks
—whether with the same piece or successive
pieces—to force the king away from its pro-
tectorate. Don't give up on such a possibility
too easily.
For an additional little illustration of the same
principle, imagine this same position with the
g2 pawn off the board. Then after 1. Nf6+,
e7xN; 2. Re1+, Kf8, White has 3. RxR+,
Kg7—and then Re1-g1+, forcing the Black
king away from the h8 rook and allowing it,
too, to be taken.
Dg859: What does White attack? Black’s
rook, which he could take with his king if it
weren't protected by the pawn on f7. So turn
your attention to the pawn: what can you do
to it? Capture it: Bxf7. Of course Black recap-
tures KxB, but White successfully has made
the rook much more vulnerable by converting
its guard from a sturdy pawn into an easily
frightened king.
Dg859: White to move
Now it’s a matter of driving off the king with
checks by White's queen—and remember that
it may take more than one check to accom-
plish the purpose. White starts with Qd7+.
Black resists the invitation to abandon the
rook, and so plays Kf6. Now White adds
another check: Qd6+. Black has to move his
king to g7. But notice that while Black’s king
still protects the rook, White’s queen now
attacks the rook a second time. White plays
QxR+ and Black is unable to recapture be-
cause White’s queen has protection from its
king.
The position is a fitting conclusion to this
subsection because it involves several of the
ideas we have considered here. First an ex-
change is performed so that a piece White
attacks ends up protected only by its king.
Then two checks are used to manipulate the
king’s position. Finally, the same piece that
administers the checks also is used to take the
target.
5.3.03.
Flush Checks (the Decoy).
Sometimes the purpose of a check is not to
drive the enemy king away from its protecto-
rate, but rather to draw it away by forcing it to
capture the piece you have used to attack it.
This procedure is known as a decoy. It neces-
sarily involves a sacrifice, often of a rook, and
so is most often used to enable the capture of
an enemy queen, but we will see other uses of
the principle as well. The logic of the move
and the means of searching for it really are no
different than before. You still are looking for
checks that will move the enemy king away
from a piece that it guards. It’s just that this
time the check is given by a piece that you
plant flush against the king, with or without a
capture. In prior parts of this series we have
considered these checks interchangeably with
others. We are examining them separately
here because our focus now is solely on ways
of removing the guard, and decoys—checks
that invite the king to capture—are a common
and important technique for this purpose wor-
thy of a few moments of undivided attention.
Dg860: Black to move
Dg860: The position to the top is a simple
example. What does Black threaten? His
queen attacks White’s queen, which in turn is
protected by its king. A piece protected by its
king invites consideration of a check to drive
the king away; and when the protected piece
is a queen, the prospect of capturing justifies a
flush check that allows the king to capture the
threatening piece. Here Black has the most
common resource for such a purpose: a rook,
which he plays to h1. White’s forced reply is
KxR—leaving his queen loose, and losing it
to QxQ next move.
Dg861: White to move
Dg861: What does White threaten? His queen
attacks Black’s queen, which in turn is pro-
tected by its king. The prospect of winning
the queen justifies not only a check but a
check sacrifice by White: he plays Re7+,
sticking his rook flush against Black’s king.
Black plays KxR; but in capturing White’s
rook, Black leaves his queen loose and loses it
to QxQ+. (The position is essentially symme-
trical; if it were Black’s turn to move, he
would win using the same method.) Inciden-
tally, you might think that if Black’s king
declines to capture the White rook and instead
moves out of its way (say, to d6), Black’s
queen is then lost to RxQ—a skewer. But the
result is worse than that: Black plays QxQ+
and mates a move later (Black’s king is
forced to c6; then Rc7 mates). The result is
similar if Black moves his king to f6: 2.
QxQ+, Kg6 (forced); 3. Rg7+, Kh5; 4.
Qxg5#. Consider this a reminder not to forget
that chances to mate may arise unexpectedly
and mustn't be overlooked.
These first two positions have notable points
in common. Both involve an enemy king and
queen adjacent to one another with the former
protecting the latter; both involve an attack by
your queen on the enemy queen; both involve
the sacrifice of a rook by sticking it next to
the enemy king, forcing the king to capture
and thus drawing it away from the queen—a
decoy. These features constitute a common
pattern that we will see in various forms sev-
eral more times.
Dg862: White to move
Dg862: All the ingredients just mentioned are
in place again here. Find them and the solu-
tion is simple. White gives the flush check
Rg7+, forcing Black to play KxR (otherwise
his queen gets skewered). Then White plays
QxQ+. The point: when you see the enemy
king guarding one of its pieces, think about a
check to drive it away; and be sure to include
a look for check sacrifices that will draw the
king out of position by making it capture
away from the queen.
Dg863: Black to move
Dg863: Black’s queen is loose and under at-
tack by White. He could move his queen or
protect it easily enough, but instead he ob-
serves that White’s queen is guarded only its
king. If Black can give a check that forces
White to put some distance between his king
and queen, Black will be the one to play QxQ.
Thus Black plays Rg1+, requiring White to
play KxR—a decoy of the king onto a square
from which it can't reach the queen. Black
takes the queen next move.
Dg864: Black to move
Dg864: Now a defensive study involving the
same principles. Black finds himself in check.
He has two choices: move his king or inter-
pose his queen on f7. Which is preferable?
Picture the interposition and ask what White’s
next move would be. One way to answer the
question is to ask what checks White could
give, and with what consequences; another is
to look for any patterns in the position Black
would have created with his move. Either way
you reach the same conclusion: Black’s queen
will be under attack and protected only by its
king. A standard flush check by White—
Rxh7—will force Black to play KxR, then
allowing QxQ+ by White and winning him a
queen for a rook. So Qf7 isn't the answer for
Black. The result illustrates a general danger
in interpositions that block a check but cause
the interposing piece—especially the queen—
to be guarded only by its king.
For the sake of completeness let’s briefly con-
sider what Black should play if he instead is
to move his king. Kh8 causes Black to be
mated on the spot, of course, with Qxh7. Kg8
results in Qxh7+, losing a pawn. Kf8 is bet-
ter—but why? Because now if White plays
Rxh7 or Qxh7, he doesn't give check; and this
gives Black time to take White’s pawn on f2.
Indeed, if White is really careless he can take
the h7 pawn with his queen and then get
mated; moving his queen into such poor de-
fensive position leaves his king in jeopardy: 1
…Kf8, 2. Qxh7, Qxf2+—and now Black has
seized initiative and never lets go: 3. Kh3,
Qf5+, 4. g3-g4 (interposing), Ra3+; 5. Kh4,
Qf6+; 6. g4-g5, Qf4#. Or 5. Kg2, Qc2+; 6.
Kg1, Ra1#. So in reply to Black’s Kf8 White
has no immediate way to win anything. (Of
course Black must be careful to keep his king
where it can’t be the subject of a fork that
costs him the loose rook on a2.)
Dg865: Black to move
Dg865: Back to first principles: what does
Black attack? His rook attacks White’s rook
on f2—which is guarded only by its king.
Black can't drive the king away with a check,
but he looks for any check he can give and
does find one in Rxd3+. It loses the rook but
draws the king away from the f2 rook, which
Black takes a move later. Black wins a pawn.
The point: a check sacrifice with a rook is
most profitable when it enables you to take an
enemy queen that had been protected by its
king; but it still may enable you to turn a
smaller profit when the king protects one of
its rooks. Dg867: White to move

Dg867: White almost seems able to mate with

Dg866: White to move
Dg866: Black’s king and queen are adjacent;
and sometimes when this is so, a check or two
can arrange the pieces for an easy removal of
the guard. So White experiments with checks
and finds Qxb4+. The challenge for Black
now is to move his king without then losing
his queen to a skewer. His first thought might
be Ke3, permitting the king to keep guarding
the queen; if so, White uses our now-standard
technique for removing a king as a defender:
he throws another check at it with Rc3+. The
king can't move up; it can only move down to
e2, leaving the Black queen loose and
doomed. The same basic result follows if
Black instead replies to Qxb4+ by moving his
king up to e5: White adds another check
(Rc5+) and drives off the king, permitting
QxQ next move. Finally, suppose Black re-
sponds to White’s Qxb4+ with Kf5. Now
White sees a classic opening for a flush check
with Rf6+, drawing the king away from the
queen by calling for KxR and thus permitting
White to play QxQ+ on his next move (and
QxN a move later).
Qe8, but not quite; the king can escape. So he
experiments with other checks, and after see-
ing that the knight on d7 is pinned he plays
Qb6+. Now notice that since Black has no
safe place to move his king, he must interpose
something, and his only option is Qc7. Sud-
denly we have the familiar pattern now under
examination: White’s queen attacks Black’s,
which in turn is guarded only by its king. As
soon as the pattern comes into view, look for
an additional check to try to loosen Black’s
queen. This naturally leads to 2. Re8+, KxR;
3. QxQ—and then White takes Black’s bishop
or knight next move.
5.3.04.
Decoys on the Diagonal: Bishop Check Sa-
crifices.
The decoys, or “flush” checks, considered in
the previous set of positions were adminis-
tered by rooks. But bishops can do it, too.
Dg866: Black to move
Dg868: In the position to the top, some ele-
ments familiar from our last batch of studies
are visible: White’s king protects its queen,
and the queen is under attack by its opposite
number. This makes you want to check the
king to pull it away and leave White’s queen
loose. You have no rook available for the
purpose—but consider all of your options and
you find that you do have a bishop. Black
plays Bc2+, and the consequence of the check
is the same as if it were administered by a
rook: the king must capture or else allow the
queen to be skewered. White plays KxB, at
least picking up the bishop before leaving his Dg870: White to move
queen loose and permitting Black to play
QxQ+ next move. The next thought is to check the king and
force it to move despite its apparent insula-
tion. Surveying his pieces, White does find
one check usable for the purpose: his bishop
can take Black’s f7 pawn. Indeed, Bxf7+ is a
classic sacrifice to force the king to move; f7
often is a weak square before a king castles—
“weak” because only the king protects it. In
reply Black’s only legal move is KxB. Now
White plays QxQ, winning a queen and pawn
for his bishop.

Dg869: White to move

Dg869: ou have a possible capture in RxR; to

make it profitable you would need to elimi-
nate the Black rook’s guard—the king. This
you do with a check. Bb3+ doesn’t work, of
course, because Black can interpose a pawn
on c4. But Bh7+ requires Black to move his
king, and when he plays KxB it drags his king
away from the rook on f8. Now White has
RxR, winning the exchange. (If it’s Black’s
turn to move, he does the same thing.) Notice
that since only the bishop is being sacrificed
for the sake of the decoy, the range of targets
that makes the sacrifice worthwhile is a little
larger than it was when a rook had to be
thrown away.
Dg870: The pattern here is structurally the
same as the others just seen in this chapter but
looks a little different. The initial cue is that
the two queens are faced off against each oth-
er. If one becomes loose, the other takes it.
Although Black’s queen seems surrounded by
pieces, in fact it is guarded only by its king
and thus is highly vulnerable.
Dg871: Black to move
Dg871: Now let's move the same idea back a
step. White has just played NxNc6; now
Black must decide how to recapture. Which
pawn should he use for the purpose—b7 or
d7? If he uses the one on d7, his queen is ex-
posed; the two queens would be aimed at each
other. True, Black’s queen would be pro-
tected. But the protection is from Black’s
king, and the position here would then resem-
ble the previous one. White plays Bxf7+;
Black would have to play KxB (or at least
move his king to f8); QxQ follows for White.
So in the initial position Black should recap-
ture with his b7 pawn instead.
Lesson: exposing a piece because it seems
safely protected by its king can be risky busi-
ness. Can be—though of course it all depends
on the details. If Black’s e7 pawn were in-
stead on e6, for example, leaving his queen
exposed wouldn’t be so risky after all:
White’s bishop wouldn’t be able to capture on
f7. Morals like the one just drawn refer to
risks to consider, not rules to obey.
Dg872: White to move
Dg872: Some of the familiar elements from
this chapter are in place this time—and some
aren’t. The queens aren't aimed at each other,
nor does Black’s king protect his queen. On
the other hand, White has a rook aimed at d8
and a battery of bishop and queen trained on
f7. Those latter elements do not necessarily
suggest the precise idea we have been consi-
dering, but they do suggest the importance of
looking at checks—and especially the Bxf7+
sacrifice. Once White plays that move, notice
how few choices Black has in reply. He can't
move the king because all of its flight squares
are attacked. He's required to play QxB. Ex-
amine the aftermath of this simple exchange
and see how it has changed matters: now the
two queens attack each other, and Black’s
queen is protected by his king—so naturally
we resort next to a check to prise the king
away from the queen. This time White returns
to his rook for the purpose, playing the flush
check Rd8+ and requiring Black’s king to
take his rook: a decoy. Now the queen is
loose, and White plays QxQ.
Again we see how any sequence that brings
the enemy king and queen into a dependent
relationship—by forcing the enemy queen to
interpose, by forcing either piece to make a
capture and move next to the other, etc.—
creates a potential vulnerability.
5.3.05.
Driving Off the Queen with a Threat.
The idea of the flush attack that we've been
examining—moves where you stick an at-
tacker right next to the enemy king to make it
move—can be used against other pieces as
well, such as the queen. This section looks at
some examples.
Dg873: White to move
Dg873: In the frame to the top, White’s bi-
shop and queen attack Black’s knight on f6,
but the knight is defended three times by
Black—by his bishop, his queen, and his oth-
er knight. White would need to remove two of
those guards to win the contested knight. One
of them already is under attack: White's rook
can take the knight on d7. But notice that
RxN, a sacrifice of the exchange, not only
captures one of the guards but is a flush attack
against another—the queen. It may seem
counterintuitive to plant the rook against a
queen because it so obviously gets taken, but
when Black does play QxR he now finds his
knight on f6 overmatched: attacked twice and
guarded once. White plays BxN next move,
and has won two knights for a rook. The
queen was decoyed away to d7.
This position also could have been placed
with studies in the previous chapter where
capturing one guard has the effect of remov-
ing two of them; the recapture you invite by
your opponent draws one of his pieces out of
position. Those cases likewise could have
been described in part as decoys. The jargon
doesn’t matter. The important point is to see
that there are different ways to get rid of piec-
es that guard a target you want to take. One is
to capture them; another is to attack them and
hope to provoke a capture, even with an ob-
vious sacrifice. Sometimes, as here, both
techniques can be used at once.
Dg874: White to move
Dg874: You see that White’s bishop attacks
Black’s knight, and also that White’s queen
attacks the Black rook on d5. Hopefully you
also see that QxR would put White’s queen at
the top of a triangle that would include
Black’s other rook at one point and Black’s
king and queen at the other—a provocative
pattern. Now identify the obstacle to QxR: the
Black queen, which protects his rook. With
the impediment clearly seen, you can be sys-
tematic in getting rid of it. How can White
force Black's queen away from its defensive
duties? With the decoy Re7, another flush
attack. Black’s queen has no place to go that
is safe and that allows it to keep guarding the
rook on d5. So Black plays QxR, and then
comes the significance of the triangular pat-
tern mentioned earlier. White plays QxR+,
which in itself only wins back the rook just
sacrificed—but which also forks Black’s oth-
er rook and king, and wins the second rook
after the king moves.
Dg875: Black at present does not attack any-
thing, but he sees the alignment of White’s
bishop and queen and sees as well that the
queen is the bishop’s only guard. Exploration
of a skewer is indicated with 1. …Bd5, where
Black’s bishop takes protection from its rook.
The problem is that White can just move his
queen over to g4, out of harm’s way and yet
still able to guard the bishop on f3.
Dg875: Black to move
But now rethink the challenge as it then
would appear: we still have White’s bishop
under attack, so we no longer are looking at a
skewer so much as we are looking for a way
to remove the bishop’s guard—the queen—so
that BxB will become profitable for Black. Be
persistent in looking for resources you can use
to attack the queen again; remember your
pawns; play 2. …h7-h5. The queen must
move, and this time it will have to venture to
g5, out of reach of the bishop. Black takes it
next move.
Instead of h7-h5, Black could have chased off
the queen with f7-f5. Why not that move in-
stead? Because you must be wary of pawn
moves that open lines to your king; moves of
the f-pawns off the seventh rank are frequent
examples. When you consider so moving a
pawn, imagine ways your opponent could put
a bishop or queen on that diagonal and give
check. Here White would be able to reply
BxB+; after Black spends a move on RxB
(the priority of check—that’s the point),
White would move his queen to safety, and
the two sides would have done nothing but
exchange bishops.
Consider another variation. Suppose White
replies to the pawn push h7-h5 by moving his
queen to f4. Black plays 3. …QxQ; 4. e3xQ,
BxB and wins a piece. But now imagine
White’s rook starting on c3 instead of c1.
Would it change your analysis? It should; for
then after 4. e3xQ, the bishop on f3 no longer
is loose: a line has been cleared, causing the
bishop to become guarded by White’s rook.
This variation would have saved the day for
White and prevented the sequence from suc-
ceeding for Black. It's worth playing this vari-
ation through in your mind’s eye until it be-
comes clear, as the key point—the movement
of the e3 pawn, and its unexpected conse-
quences—is a bit subtle.
All right; if both sides see the original dia-
grammed position correctly, what really hap-
pens? Black starts with 1. …Bd5, and White
replies right away with 2. QxB, RxQ; 3. BxR.
In this way White gets back a rook and bishop
for his queen, a better deal than losing a piece.
But don’t stop there; ask what happens next.
White’s bishop would be left loose on d5, so
Black looks right away for forks with his
queen. 3. …Qe5 attacks the bishop and the
loose pawn on b2 at the same time; after
White defends with Rd1, Black picks up the
pawn to make the outing more worthwhile.
This final result illustrates the role that tactics
play in good chess: the really nifty sequence
you see often doesn’t get played out, because
once it begins your opponent sees the rest of it
coming and makes a lesser sacrifice to avoid
worse trouble. Thus the most beautiful com-
binations may never get executed—but seeing
them still is the key to winning, because the
threats they create force sacrifices that still
result in decisive gains.
Dg876: White to move
Dg876: What does White attack? His knight
is ready to take Black’s bishop, except that
the bishop is protected by Black’s queen
(though not by the pawn on g7, which of
course is pinned). White can’t take the queen,
but perhaps an attack would drive it off and
loosen the bishop. White can threaten it with
Be4. This may look scary because the bishop
has none of the protection that we usually
think necessary before a piece attacks a
queen, but White has other advantages to
compensate. His knight's threatened capture,
NxB+, is a check, so it has the potential to
fork any enemy piece that finds its way onto
the middle of the board—e4 or d5. In this
case, if Black replies to Be4 with QxB his
queen gets forked and taken by NxB+. So the
bishop’s attack at least is safe.
And Be4 has another virtue: it aims White's
bishop at the Black bishop on b7, which also
is guarded only by Black’s queen (again, a
pattern familiar from our work on skewers). If
White moves his queen over to d6 so as to
keep protecting the bishop on f6, the bishop
on b7 is lost. Likewise, if Black moves the
queen to c7 so as to keep protecting the bi-
shop on b7, the bishop on f6 is lost to NxB.
You can see here that the attacked queen has
an impressive ability to move and still defend
its protectorate—but not quite impressive
enough to allow it move and still defend two
protectorates. The queen, in short, is over-
worked. But for our purposes here, the point
is just that an attack against a queen to drive it
away from guard duty becomes a good deal
more likely to work when the queen has more
than one piece to protect, for then it will be
hard for your opponent to find the queen
another square where it is safe and still pro-
tects both of the vulnerable pieces.
Dg877: White to move
Dg877: Consider any threats White makes—
always a sound inquiry at the start of a posi-
tion. His queen attacks Black’s rook. The
rook is defended by Black’s queen. A mission
appears: drive off the Black queen. White has
a bishop he can use for the purpose; he plays
it to h3. In this case the queen has no place it
can go that both is safe and allows it to keep
protecting the rook on d8. It might seem that
White therefore will win the rook easily, since
after his 1. Bh3 the queen must move or be
lost. But Black does have one other option: he
can play f7-f6, interposing a pawn to block
the path of White’s queen to his rook, and
also threatening to take White’s queen with
the pawn if White plays BxQ. When con-
fronted with one of these threats—“if you
take mine, I’ll take yours”—look at what each
of you would be able to do on the board as it
would appear after those captures have been
made. What would you be able to attack once
the pieces involved are on their new squares?
In this case White imagines playing BxQ and
Black replying f6xQ. He pictures his bishop
on d7 and asks what he would play, and the
answer is clear: BxN, picking up not the
guarded knight on e8 but rather the now-loose
knight on a4. (When a bishop, or any piece,
makes a capture, ask if it has any forking
prospects in its new position.) This is yet
another case where a queen protected two
other pieces, creating eventual trouble for its
owner.
Dg878: Black to move
Dg878: First find the idea for Black. You see
that his rook attacks White’s rook. More im-
portantly, your search for loose pieces and
checks turns up the potential queen fork
Qxe4+, which would win a rook if the forking
square were not protected by White’s queen.
Black could try to decoy the guard away with
RxR, but then White has a knight he can use
to recapture without moving his queen. Don’t
let go of the goal of budging the queen, how-
ever; with a little more looking you can find
another way to decoy it: Bb5. White would
prefer not to play QxB, as it leaves e4 unat-
tended and so allows Black to win a rook with
the aforementioned queen fork. Yet what else
is there? He would like to find a safe square
to which he could move the queen while still
enabling it to guard e4. Such a square exists—
he could play Qb4—but then Black plays
BxN (followed by more losses for White
since now his queen is the only remaining
guard of the rook on c5 and the forking square
e4).
Now you can see the power of Bb5: it not
only is an attack on the queen but also skew-
ers the knight behind it, which becomes loose
if the queen moves. (That little two-piece di-
agonal cluster of Black’s queen and loose
knight should provoke thoughts of a skewer
from the outset.) Put differently, this is anoth-
er case where the queen is potentially over-
loaded, as it is the sole guardian of the knight
on d3 and the forking square (and pawn on)
e4. Black doesn’t have both points under at-
tack at the beginning; but once White’s queen
is attacked, it has no square where it can con-
tinue to guard both points.
We aren’t quite finished. After Black plays 1.
…Bb5, White doesn’t have to move his queen
at all; there also is the option of unleashing a
counterthreat against Black’s queen. 2. Nf2
has this effect: now both queens are under
attack. The problem is that when White
moved his knight to f2, he left his rook on c5
guarded only by his queen. So Black destroys
the guard (by forcing an exchange of queens)
with 2. …BxQ; 3. NxQ, RxR, 4. b3xB, Rxc4
(taking a loose pawn), and Black has won the
exchange plus a pawn. Okay, but maybe
White can avoid this problem by first liquidat-
ing the rooks—another variety of counterat-
tack. After Black’s Bb5, in other words,
White immediately plays 2. RxR+, RxR—and
then 3. Nf2, threatening Black’s queen and
doing it without any worries that his rook will
end up being taken. This can lead to some
hairy complications, as often is the case when
a threat in one place is not met head on but is
countered with a fresh threat elsewhere; so for
convenience the resulting position is dia-
grammed in the next frame.
Dg879: It might appear that White has suc-
ceeded in avoiding the major threats that had
troubled him; for now if queens are traded
with 3. …BxQ; 4. NxQ, Black has nothing
too bad left to unleash. But this mistakenly
assumes that Black will take White’s queen
with his bishop.
Dg879: Black to move
He can do better by playing 3. …RxQ; for
now if White replies 4. NxQ, Black has a rook
fork: Rxe4+, taking White’s knight on the
next move and winning a piece.
That last bit is the most important thing to see
here. It is the reason why this whole counte-
roffensive of White’s, starting with 2. RxR+,
doesn’t work. But for the sake of complete-
ness it should be said that in this last diagram
Black actually can do still better than RxQ.
He can play his queen to d7. The resulting
position looks innocuous, but in fact White is
in serious trouble. (This is the hairy part.) The
only safe square for White’s queen is b4. But
4. Qb4 clears the way for Black to play 4.
…Rc1+. White’s options suddenly are li-
mited. If he moves his king to d2, he gets
mated immediately with Bg7-h6(!). White has
no other flight squares for his king, so he has
to interpose with 5. Nd1. Now that White has
moved his knight, it is safe for Black to move
his queen back to g4. This leaves the bishop
on b5 loose, so White can take it with his
queen (6. QxB); but then Black has QxN+,
forcing 7. Kf2, Qe1+ and various further
troubles;—e.g., 8. Kf3, Rc3+; 9. Kg2 (not
Kg4, to which Black replies Rxg3+ and mates
soon), Qxe4+ (check after check); 10. Kh3,
QxR and then eventually QxN as well.
You are excused from tracing out all these
latter complications, but the rest of the posi-
tion is worth close study. It has a bit of every-
thing.
5.3.06.
Using the Priority of Check.
As we have seen, one obstacle to driving off a
queen with a threat is that a queen usually can
capture anything that attacks it. In one com-
mon scenario your opponent’s queen is guard-
ing one of his pieces, so you attack his queen
with yours. Assuming that both queens have
protection, how does he react? Not by moving
his queen and leaving its protectorate loose,
but rather by taking yours with QxQ. After
you recapture his queen, the target the queen
had been guarding—the piece you had been
hoping to take after driving off the queen—
simply moves, and your sequence is ruined.
The underlying problem when this happens
involves move order. When you threaten the
enemy queen and it replies by capturing your
attacker, you've lost the initiative; now you
are responding to his moves. But sometimes
this trouble can be avoided by use of the
priority of check: the requirement that a pend-
ing check must be addressed before doing
anything else. We've seen the principle from
time to time in earlier sections. Here we con-
sider one application in detail: cases where
when the capture you want to make in the end
(after you drive off the enemy queen) also
will give check. For then when the enemy
queen takes the piece you used to attack it
(e.g., your queen), you don’t recapture; in-
stead you take the target you originally hoped
to capture. Since this gives check, your oppo-
nent has to pause to save his king, and then
after this you still can go back and take his
queen. All this will be clearer after some illu-
strations.

Dg880: White to move
Dg880: Begin by taking the position on the
left methodically. What does White attack?
His bishop can take Black’s knight on h6, but
it's guarded by Black’s queen. White can at-
tack the queen with his bishop or rook, but
however he tries to do this the attacking piece
gets taken: Rd1 leads to QxR+, for example
(and anyway Black could just move his queen
to another square where it still protects his
knight). The key point to see is that if White
ever does play BxN, the result is a check of
Black’s king. Of course Black can just move
his king out of it, but this will cost him a
move. In a sense this means that after playing
BxN White will get a free move—two cap-
tures in a row. How to take advantage of this?
By starting with the attack Qc7. Notice that
this threatens Black’s loose bishop as well as
his queen; Black thus cannot afford to just
move his queen to a square like d6, as this
loses a piece. So suppose he plays QxQ.
Black might be expecting White to recapture
RxQ, an exchange of queens that still gives
Black time to save his knight. But now the
priority of check takes its bite. Instead of
RxQ, White plays the capture BxN+. Black
has to move his king. Then White plays RxQ,
recovering the queen and gaining a piece with
the sequence.
Observe the elements of the pattern: a target
guarded by its queen; a potential capture of
the target that also will give check; a way for
your queen to attack the defending queen with
protection; and another threat your queen can
make along the way (this time to Black’s
loose bishop) that requires your opponent to
play QxQ rather than move his queen to some
other square from which it can protect the
piece you are trying to take. Not all of these
elements must be present in every case, but
each of them does important work here.
With those basics out of the way, let’s also
consider a couple of loose ends. After 1. Qc7,
QxQ, White doesn’t have to play 2. BxN in
order to win a piece; if he plays RxQ right
away, he now has attacks pending against two
loose Black pieces—the knight on h6 and the
bishop on b7. Black only has time to move
one of them, so White will be able to take the
other. The danger of this approach is that
Black can try to save himself by making
trouble with either of his threatened men;
since he isn’t in check, he has much more
freedom in replying to his predicament. Here
he can play Nxg4, picking up a pawn to help
compensate for his forthcoming loss of a
piece. The main line sequence described ear-
lier doesn’t allow Black this luxury. It also
wins White an extra pawn at the end: 1. Qc7,
QxQ; 2. BxN+, Ke8; 3. RxQ, Be4 (saving the
loose bishop); 4. Rxa7.
Dg881: Black to move
Dg881: Our current pattern seen from Black’s
side. The elements differ only a little in their
details. The first point: Black has a capture he
wants to make in RxR. The second point:
RxR also would check White’s king. The
third point: White’s rook is protected by his
queen. The fourth point: Black can attack
White’s queen with protection, and while also
attacking a loose White piece, with Qc6.
White could just move his queen to e2 and
still protect his rook on d1; but then he loses
the rook on b5, which Black has forked. (It
goes 1. …Qc6; 2. Qe2, RxR+; 3. QxRd1,
QxRb5.)
So in reply to 1. …Qc6, suppose White plays will be able to take the rook (with check) and
2. QxQ. Now Black does not recapture Black’s queen on successive moves.
White’s queen. He knows that if he first plays
other moves with check, White’s queen still
will be there to take afterwards. Thus Black
plays 2. …RxR+—and after White moves his
king, Black has 3. …b7xQ, netting a rook.

What if Black instead bites after 2. QxQ by

playing 2. …b7xQ? Notice that now White is
in a minor fix because both of his rooks are
under attack (the pawn capture of Black’s
queen just happened to create a threat against
the rook on b5). This doesn’t mean White has
to lose anything; he simply plays 3. RxR, Dg882: White to move
permitting Black to play c6xR and now both
sides have traded queens and rooks. The key So he looks for a square from which he can
point, however, is that if Black does plays 2. attack Black’s queen with protection, and
…b7xQ, giving White a move to use to save finds Qg4+. The move is a check, which mat-
his rook on d1, White mustn't squander it by ters: White has forked Black’s king and
playing 3. Rf1. That's a superficially appeal- queen. Black must address the threat to his
ing move because now his rook has some king, but if he merely moves it out of the way
protection, but in fact it's ruinous because he loses his queen next move. He therefore
White has forfeited the initiative, enabling plays QxQ. Now White takes his two moves:
Black to play 3. …RxR+, 4. KxR, c6xR—and RxR+; and then, when the king moves to g7,
again Black has won a rook. The lesson, of f3xQ. White nets a rook.
course, is that if two of your pieces are threat-
ened at once, try to do some damage with one
of them. That is what White does in this var-
iation by playing 3. RxR instead of the co-
wardly 3. Rf1.

Assuming White sees all this, what will he

do? He will reply to 1. ...Qc6 with RxR, per-
mitting Black to play QxQ; this way White
gives up a queen for a rook, which isn’t quite
as bad as giving up a rook outright (though
the game pretty well is over either way).
Dg882: Now vary the elements a bit more, yet
see how they are functionally unchanged. It
starts with the simple point that White has a
capture in RxR but that Black’s queen pro-
tects the rook. But RxR also would be a check
of Black’s king. This means White would
have the priority of check on his side and so
can take some risks that might otherwise lead
to losses; he may be able to make two cap-
tures in a row. He therefore can afford to
threaten Black’s queen with his own, and al-
low his queen to be captured, because then he
Dg883: Black to move
Dg883: What does Black attack? White’s
rook, which is protected by its queen. The
queen can't be captured, but maybe it can be
attacked and thus driven or drawn away from
its defense of the rook. The only piece Black
has available for the purpose is his own
queen, so he lays his plans carefully. First he
sees that Qb6 would also check White’s king.
Again, that’s important; it means White will
be forced to play QxQ, rather than just mov-
ing his queen to a square like d5 where it is
safe and still protects his rook. Second, Black
sees that on b6 his queen would have protec-
tion from his bishop—protection necessary
when attacking an enemy queen. The fact that
the guard is a bishop also is significant, be-
cause it means that if White plays QxQ, Black
can recapture BxQ with check—and thus may
again be able to take advantage of the priority
of check. The sequence becomes clear: 1.
…Qb6+; 2. QxQ, BxQ+; 3. K moves, RxR,
and Black has won a rook.
The distinctive feature of this case, of course,
is that the check was given not as a side effect
of the capture RxR, but rather as a side effect
of taking White’s queen. The principle still is
the same. In this position as in the previous
ones, after your opponent plays QxQ you
suddenly are confronted with two captures
you would like to make: a recapture of his
queen, and the original capture you were hop-
ing to make after his queen moved. The prior-
ity of check teaches that when you have two
possible captures and wish you could make
both of them, you start with whichever one
also gives check (if either does). This creates
time for you to then play the other one.
Dg884: White to move
Dg884: We are considering this position
slightly out of its natural order, as it does not
involve an attack on a queen that is guarding
another piece. It nevertheless fits well here as
a study in the priority of check and its uses.
Start with what White threatens. His queen
attacks Black’s queen, and his rook attacks
Black’s knight—which defends Black’s
queen. The natural thought would be RxN,
removing the queen’s defender preparatory to
playing QxQ a move later. The problem, of
course, is that in reply to RxN Black will be
the one to play QxQ. Then if White recaptures
with NxQ, Black takes White’s rook with
BxR and White has lost the exchange.
The secret to turning around this result lies in
the move order and in a clever use of the
priority of check. Yes, White starts with RxN,
and Black then plays QxQ; but now pause and
observe White’s position. He has two captures
he can make: NxQ and RxRe8+. He can have
it both ways so long as he leaves Black’s
queen alone for a moment and instead starts
with RxRe8+. This forces Black to spend a
move playing KxR, and now White plays
NxQ. Black’s RxR didn’t win any material
per se; it just traded rooks. But it enabled
White to win a piece, because now his rook
had taken out two enemy pieces before being
captured rather than just one. And crucially,
the rook took its second piece with check. If
that were not so, Black would reply to RxR
by retreating his queen. Lesson: there always
is time for another capture if it's made with
check.
Go over this position until it sinks in. There
are a couple of ways to misread it so that each
of White’s options appears to produce a wash.
For example, you might look at it and see 1.
QxQ, NxQ; 2. RxR, KxR and conclude that
this achieves nothing; then you imagine 1.
RxN, QxQ; 2. NxQ, RxR and see that this
loses the exchange as described above. The
breakthrough comes with persistence in play-
ing with the move order—and in looking for
captures with check before reflexively grab-
bing at the most valuable enemy piece.
5.3.07.
Attacks on the Queen to Loosen a Mating
Square.
The queen makes an outstanding defender of
its king’s position; it can guard several
squares at once, and can move in any direc-
tion if its services are required at the scene of
an attack. It therefore is common enough to
have the makings of what otherwise would be
a good mating attack, only to find it frustrated
by the enemy queen’s presence nearby. In
these circumstances a simple attack on the
queen may be enough to either drive it off or
force your opponent to make a sacrifice to
avoid disaster. This time we will separate
conventional attacks on the queen from
“flush” attacks, just for the sake of reinforcing
each visual pattern independently.
We begin with positions where you threaten
the queen and really don’t care if it takes your
attacker; in fact, you hope it does.
Dg885: White to move
Dg885: Our inspection of this first position
turns up not only a pin of the rook on g7 but
more generally an attack by White’s rook and
queen on the g7 square next to Black’s king:
a mate threat. What prevents it from succeed-
ing is Black’s queen on h7. The first urgent
thing is not to let the presence of Black's
queen prevent you from wondering about
what would be possible if it were gone. The
next thought, then, is to consider throwing an
attacker at the queen. In his rook on d3 White
has a piece he can use for the purpose without
disturbing his mate threat. He plays 1. Rd3-
h3. Now Black is in trouble. His queen is un-
der attack and the rook aimed at it is loose, so
the natural impulse is to play QxR—but then
White mates with QxR. Yet the situation as it
stands is untenable for Black, because now
his queen is pinned and thus cannot defend g7
anyway (this would have been another way to
see the solution, of course: trace the lines out
from Black’s king and see a pinning opportu-
nity on the h-file). So Black has to play 1.
…Kg8, freeing his queen. This avoids the
mate, but now Black still loses his queen to 2.
RxQ. (Black is able to win back a rook by
replying 2. …RxRg1+, 3. NxR, KxRh7, still
leaving White with a winning material advan-
tage.) In this case the attack on the guard of
the mating square ends up winning it—one of
several possible outcomes of such maneuvers,
as we shall see.
Now also notice another way to reach roughly
the same result. You see that you have a cap-
ture to make in 1. RxR that leads to QxR. You
look for your next check, find 2. Rh3, and see
that it forces Black to play Kg8. Now you see
Black’s king and queen again aligned on the
same file—and this time White safely can run
a pin through them with 3. Rg3, where the
rook takes protection from the pawn on h2.
After Black plays QxR (avoiding mate),
White’s 4. h2xQ wins him a queen for a rook.
Dg886: Black to move
Dg886: First examine what Black attacks and
how his pieces bear on White’s king. Either
way you are led to the same point: his queen
and knight both attack the bishop on f2. The
next point to see is that this almost creates a
mating attack with QxB; all that prevents it is
the protection furnished by White’s queen on
e2. When an otherwise good threat is fru-
strated by an enemy piece, focus on that piece
and on how you might exploit the enemy’s
dependence on it. When the piece is a queen,
one way to exploit the situation is by attack-
ing it: the queen’s value is so great that a sim-
ple threat against it may be enough to take the
game. How can Black attack the queen? With
his bishop, via Ba6. In addition to attacking
Black’s queen this move pins it, preventing it
from moving to another square on the second
rank from which it still could defend the mat-
ing square f2.
The pin ends the game by immobilizing the
queen. If White plays QxB, Black mates with
QxB; if White plays anything other than QxB,
Black mates on f2 anyway a couple of moves
later. If White moves his bishop from f2 to,
say, d4, hoping to use it to defend f2, now
Black moves his rook up the f-file with
RxBf3+; White is forced to bring his bishop
back to f2 to offer a futile interposition, and
mate follows with Qxf2 a move later. It's a
study in the pin, of course, as well as in the art
of attacking the guard.
Dg887: White to move
Dg887: This time the key to the mate threat is
to examine Black’s king and its range of mo-
tion or lack thereof. It cannot move at all. A
king so trapped is terribly vulnerable, so you
should look for a check you can give that
might snuff it out. White has two with his e5
knight. Ng6+ loses the knight to Black’s f7
pawn. The other, Nxf7+, is more interesting
because all that prevents it from being mate is
the protection provided to f7 by Black’s
queen. We know that when a queen stops you
from mating, its own freedom of action is
limited and it becomes a potential target itself.
How might you attack it? Ask about the
availability of each of your pieces for the pur-
pose; see that you can do it with your dark-
squared bishop: Bd6. The bishop is loose
there, but it doesn’t matter. If Black takes it,
White mates. The only question is whether
Black can move his queen to a safe square
from which it still can protect f7. He cannot.
It would have to be another square on the se-
venth rank, and none are both safe and availa-
ble. What Black can play is Qe7; after White
plays BxQ, this at least allows the recapture
RxB—and now the rook is on the seventh
rank, able to keep protecting f7. But the loss
for Black still is disastrous.
Dg888: White to move
Dg888: It's generally best not to do anything
until you have satisfied yourself that you un-
derstand the enemy king’s position. Here as
before, Black’s king is cramped—stuck on the
back rank, almost ready to be mated by White
with RxR. (Seeing this is just a matter of ex-
amining whatever checks you have.) In reply
to that move, Black wouldn't be able to move
his king or interpose anything; the only de-
fense that would remain is a capture of the
threatening piece, here with QxR. For this sort
of case we have a mantra: When the only ob-
stacle to mate is an enemy piece that would
take your attacker, focus on the enemy piece.
If it’s a minor piece, it may be as good as
pinned and unable to perform other defensive
service. If the crucial enemy piece is the
queen, as it is here, consider attacking it.
In this case White has a few ways he might go
after Black’s queen. Remember that Black’s
goal in reply to any attack will be to move the
queen to a square where it is safe and still
protects f8. Thus in reply to 1. Rc1, Black can
just play Qd6—or, better still, QxRc1+, win-
ning the rook since the priority of check pre-
vents White from taking advantage of the
Black queen’s absence from c5. Much strong-
er for White, however, is 1. Qe5. Notice that
this not only attacks Black’s queen but also
attacks d6 and e7, two other squares the Black
queen might like to use. True, Black still
could play Qb4 and protect f8 from there; but
then notice another property of Qe5: it creates
an additional mating threat for White, aiming
it at a square adjacent to Black’s king and
already under attack by White’s rook. So if
Black plays Qb4 in reply to Qe5, White plays
Qxg7#; if Black instead plays QxQ, White
has RxR#. Black does have a way to avoid
mate: RxR. But this forfeits his queen, and so
illustrates one of our general principles in this
section: an attack on an enemy queen that
defends against mate sometimes wins the
piece, because your opponent has to spend
time taking other measures to prevent the
immediate loss of the game.
The difficulty in attacking the guard of a
piece or square, as distinct from capturing it,
is that an attack is not a forcing move in the
same sense as a capture or check. A capture
normally requires a recapture, which simpli-
fies analysis. In reply to a mere threat against
one of his pieces, though, your opponent gen-
erally has more options. He can add to the
protection of the attacked piece (an often un-
satisfactory course, however, when the at-
tacked piece is a queen and/or when it plays a
defensive role that its replacement will not be
able to fill). More to our point here, he can
simply move the attacked piece, and there
may be many squares to which it can flee.
The beauty of attacking a queen that guards a
mating square is that its options for flight are
limited: it can only move if it stays within
range of the square it is required to protect,
and sometimes you can cut off some or all of
those alternative squares with the same piece
that launches the attack.
Dg889: Black to move
Dg889: Ask what Black attacks and how his
pieces bear on White’s king. His queen at-
tacks White’s rook, which is protected by
White’s queen. Does Black have a mate
threat? He does, as is obvious if you remem-
ber not to overlook your pawns: Black’s h4
pawn attacks g3, and so does his queen; so
Black almost can mate with Qg3. The only
obstacle is the defense of g3 provided by
White’s queen from c7. Since the queen pre-
vents mate, attack it. The tool Black has
available for the purpose is his rook. It can
attack the queen two ways: Rc6 or Rf7. Rc6
loses the rook to RxR without budging the
queen, but Rf7 requires the queen to move.
As we know, when the queen is attacked in
these circumstances it usually tries to just
move to another square where it will be safe
and still able to defend the mating square.
Here that would mean a move for White like
Qd6 or Qb8. But this time the queen has
something else to worry about: it also is
guarding the rook on c3. So when White plays
Qd6, as he must to prevent mate, he loses his
rook to QxR.
All this is well and good, but there is one
more thing for Black to consider: as often is
the case, White has the option of responding
to Black’s threat with a counterthreat; thus
when Black plays 1 …Rf7, White can try 2.
Rc1, meeting the attack against his own queen
with an attack against Black’s queen. The
mistake for Black then is to assume play
would go 2. …RxQ, 3. RxQ. Instead, Black
should imagine the board after 2. Rc1 and ask
what checks he would have. There would be a
new possibility in 2. …Rxf3+. Since it’s a
check, White would have no time to play
RxQ. He would have to move his king to h2
or g2. Either way Black replies 3. …Qf2+,
and the net grows tight; indeed, the rest is
forced: 4. Kh1, Rh3+; 5. Qh2 (a formality),
RxQ#. So the White counterattack 2. Rc1 is
not something Black has to worry about.
So now back to a lesson of the main line of
analysis: here is another way in which attack-
ing a queen may be fruitful; if it protects piec-
es or other points as well as a mating square,
then if it moves it may leave its protectorate
exposed. In a word, the queen in this case is
overworked, and this time Black takes advan-
tage not by taking one of the queen’s protec-
torates but by attacking the queen directly. As
we see here and elsewhere, a threat of this
sort against an overworked piece has an un-
usually high likelihood of creating real
trouble for your opponent. The piece may be
able to move and still protect one of the points
it is supposed to defend, but probably not both
of them.
Dg890: White to move
Dg890: The dominant feature of the position
is White’s battery of queen and rook on the d-
file. He almost can mate with Qd8, but
Black’s rook guards the square. And he al-
most can play Qd7#—except that Black’s
queen guards d7. Focus on one point at a
time. Since White is prevented from playing
Qd7 by Black’s queen, try attacking Black’s
queen and see what would happen. How can
White do that? With Rxa6 (don’t overlook
squares just because there are pawns on
them). Now we are in a familiar situation
where if the queen captures its attacker
(QxR), White mates immediately. And Black
has nowhere to move his queen where it
would be safe (i.e., not on the sixth rank or d-
file) yet still would protect the mating square
d7. So Black might instead consider RxR. But
now he has moved the sole guard of the other
mating square, allowing White to play Qd8#.
Thus after White plays Rxa6, Black’s only
way to avoid mate is by interposing his bi-
shop in front of White’s battery with Bd6—
thus forfeiting his queen to RxQ.
The position might seem a little complicated
because of White’s double threat on d7 and
d8. It can be seen in simple and familiar
terms: when Black’s queen is attacked, it can-
not afford to save itself because mate then
results on d7; Black therefore has to let go of
the queen and add some new substitute pro-
tection against mate. The wrinkle is just that
Black has another way to get rid of the attack-
er, by using his rook—but this doesn’t work,
either, because Black’s rook also defends a
mating square. This isn’t difficult if you are
clear on the multiple ways White almost can
mate and the roles that Black’s pieces play in
preventing it.
Dg891: Black to move
Dg891: White’s knight has forked your queen
and f8 rook. What to do? Don’t be quick to
think defensively; calmly consider your own
offensive options. Start by observing the ac-
tion on White’s back rank: his king is stuck
there, almost enabling Black to mate with
RxR—but White’s queen guards his rook on
f1. This makes the queen vulnerable; its abili-
ty to fend off an attack against itself is li-
mited. So Black looks for a way to attack it.
Better still, he looks for a way to attack it and
attack something else at the same time. Notic-
ing that White’s knight on e6 is loose, Black
plays Qd7, a fork of White’s queen and
knight. Ordinarily a queen makes a poor tar-
get for a queen fork, but this is one of those
cases where if the attacked queen strikes
back, mate results. (We saw a bunch of these
positions in our studies of double attacks by
the queen.)
White’s preference would be to move the
queen to a square where it is safe and can
guard the knight and the mating square f1, so
he plays Qc4. It's important to ask whether
such a substitute square exists, and to see this
one—but then important also to notice that by
guarding those two points the queen is left
overworked. Black therefore goes ahead with
RxR+, requiring the reply QxR; and now
Black has QxN, winning a piece.
As you might expect when you start with an
attack of this sort, there are other ways the
position can play out, too, and you want to see
them. After Black’s initial Qd7, White can
play RxR; and then, after Black plays QxQ,
White has NxRf8 (winning the exchange after
Black recaptures with BxNf8). This way
Black ends up winning a queen and a knight
for two rooks.
Dg892: White to move
Dg892: With Black’s king stuck firmly in the
corner you might naturally think here about
mating on the back rank. Qf8 almost would
do it for White, but Black’s queen guards the
needed square. Don’t stop there; notice also
that since the Black king has no flight
squares, merely planting a piece on the di-
agonal leading toward it, as with Qf6, also
would be checkmate—except that Black
guards f6 with his queen and knight. In view
of these threats the Black queen helps pre-
vent, turn your attention to ways you can go
after it or take something it protects. Either
way you are led to Rxb7.
Observe the difficulty of Black’s resulting
position:
(a) His queen is under attack but doesn’t dare
defend itself, as QxR results in Qf8# for
White.
(b) Another way for Black to try to rescue his
queen is by interposing his knight from e8 to
c7; but then White renews the threat with
RxN. Notice the significance of the Black
knight’s move to c7: it stops White’s threat of
mate with Qf8, because now the way is clear
for Black’s rook to prevent the square regard-
less of what happens to his queen. On the
other hand, one of the defenders of f6—the
knight—now has moved away, leaving
Black’s queen with sole responsibility for
preventing Qf6#. So RxN is just as worrisome
for Black as White’s original Rxb7: if Black
now recaptures QxR, the f6 square is left
loose and White mates soon from there.
(c) Trying to rescue his queen thus is futile,
and Black is better off spending his time ad-
dressing the mate threat directly by replying
to Rxb7 with Ng7. Like the other move of
that knight just considered, this clears the
back rank for defense of f8 by Black’s rook—
plus it blocks the dark-squared diagonal. Then
after White plays RxQ, Black has Nc6xR. Not
great, but it avoids mate for now.
Again we see the importance of not being
satisfied when you identify one near mate.
Find all of them; for it may be that at least
some ways of fending off the first will expose
your opponent to the second (or third, etc.).
Dg893: White’s queen and knight both attack
f7; White could mate there with his queen if
Black’s queen weren’t guarding the square.
But go farther, too, and examine Black’s king.
See that it is trapped where it sits, having no
flight squares. When you see a king frozen
like this, either because it is surrounded by
fellow pieces or because the squares around it
all are under attack, additional mating possi-
bilities should suggest themselves. Sometimes
you can mate such a king just by throwing a
check at it.
Dg893: White to move
The question is whether there is an open line
you can reach that leads to its position. In this
case there is an open diagonal leading to
Black’s king; if White could get his queen
onto that diagonal—say, onto d5—with his
own rook out of the way, that would be
another way to mate. Put these ideas together
and you come up with Re7: the move eva-
cuates the rook from the light-squared di-
agonal running toward the king, and also at-
tacks the Black queen that prevents White
from mating on f7.
Consider Black’s replies and their conse-
quences:
(a) He can simply take the rook with his
queen. In that case White puts his queen on
d5 with check; since Black can’t move his
king and can’t capture White’s queen, his
only recourse is to interpose his own queen at
e6 or f7. In either case White just takes it and
mates immediately.
(b) So suppose Black doesn’t play QxR, but
instead moves his queen or plays BxR. Then
White has the other mate: Qf7#. The Black
bishop’s capture would block the line of
Black’s queen to f7—a theme (“interference”)
we will consider in more detail later.
(c) Best for Black therefore is Ne5, which
defends f7, attacks White’s queen, and allows
Black’s queen to keep defending d5. Now
White still wins a piece with RxN; the imme-
diate threat of mate has been stopped, but he
has an easy enough win from here.
To repeat a lesson of this position and the
previous ones: assess all the mating threats
you can make against the enemy king; don’t
rest your thought process when you find one.
Sometimes multiple mating threats will freeze
your opponent’s pieces, and open up tactical
possibilities against them, that would not be
visible as a result of the first mating idea
alone.
5.3.08.
Flush Attacks Against the Queen.
That last position involved a flush attack on
the queen: White planted a rook right next to
it. Let us continue to look at this theme more
closely. The logic of it is no different than in
the previous set of positions; we study these
cases separately just because the act of mov-
ing a piece up next to the enemy queen with-
out any protection can seem counterintuitive.
It is useful to see a bunch of positions where
this is done deliberately and productively so
that you will feel at home with it.
Dg894: White to move
Dg894: We start on the left with a simple
case. Identifying White’s double threat
against a square adjacent to Black’s king
should be no trouble: he almost can mate with
Qg7. What prevents this is Black’s queen on
f8. The natural thought is to do something to
pressure or dislodge the guard. White has one
way to attack Black’s queen without disturb-
ing his mate threat: he plays Re8, sticking a
rook flush against the queen and thus putting
the queen into an untenable position. Now
analyze Black’s possible responses and their
consequences; in response to each of them
consider what checks you could give—or
whether you can mate. If Black plays QxR,
White mates with Qg7; indeed, since Black’s
queen now is pinned, the only way he can
avoid being mated on g7 next move is by
playing Kf7—in which event he instead is
mated with QxQ. To repeat: in a sense this is
just another case like the most recent batch; a
queen guarding against mate is attacked. Our
particular goal here is just to get used to the
practice and the sight of planting a loose piece
right next to an enemy queen. It looks strange
at first but is a useful device.

Dg895: White to move
Dg895: Notice that Black’s bishop on g7 is
pinned, and that White has both his bishop
and queen aimed at g7, even if the bishop’s
path isn’t clear yet; in this sense Black’s
knight on f6 is pinned as well. How to exploit
the situation? Play through what you would
like to be able to do. White would like to be
able to play BxNf6, taking advantage of the
pin on the g7 bishop and following up with
QxB#. He can’t, because Black’s queen
guards f6. So he turns his attention to the
queen. He can attack it with Rxd7, which in-
cidentally forks Black’s loose bishop on b7 as
well. Black is confronted with a familiar
choice. He has nowhere to put the queen
where it will be safe and still protect f6; if he
tries to save his queen by playing QxR, he
gets mated. He is better off letting go of the
queen and looking for another way to fend off
the mate threat, such as e6-e5. Now White
plays RxQ.
Dg896: Black to move
Dg896: This position is more advanced than
the others we have seen in this chapter be-
cause it requires you to keep track of some
variations. At a glance you should see that
Black’s knight is about to get taken; you also
should see the concentration of Black’s forces
against the White king. Black’s bishop seals
off b1 and c2, and his knight and rook form
the kernel of a discovery—Nb3+ or Ne2+,
almost mating by giving check with the
knight and sealing off the king’s remaining
flight squares with the rook. The mate is
thwarted by White’s queen on a4, which
guards b3, and by the bishop on f3, which
protects e2. Focus on the impediment to
Nb3+: threaten the White queen, and see if
the threat leads either to its capture or to the
abandonment of its defensive duties. Black
has one way to so attack it without fouling up
his mate threat. He plays the flush attack Qa5.
Of course this leaves White's queen en prise;
he hopes Black will take it, since Nb3# then
follows. But in reply to a mere attack there
typically is more than one possible move, so
think carefully about what else White might
do with his queen. Look for another square
where it could keep doing the same thing:
someplace safe where it would continue to
guard b3. Answer: d1. So imagine White’s
queen there and ask what comes next. Think
in checks. Black can go ahead with Nb3+, and
allow White to play QxN; then Black brings
in his queen from its new position with Qd2#,
putting it next to White’s king with protection
from the rook on d8—a classic queen-plus
mate.
White has another option in reply to Qa5: he
can play Bd1. Notice that this protects his
queen and also adds another defender to b3.
Keep thinking in checks. How many would
Black have after White’s Bd1? Two, either of
which win the game. Nb3+ forces White to
capture on b3 with his queen or bishop; either
way, Black has Qd2#. Or Black can reply to
Bd1 with Ne2+, which requires White to cap-
ture with BxN. As before, Black then has
Qd2#. So White’s best reply to Qa5 turns out
to be abandonment of the queen in favor of a
different attempt to forestall mate—the simple
e3xN, removing Black’s knight. In addition to
winning White’s queen Black still has an
eventual mate, but now it takes considerably
longer as he has to chase White’s king
around—perhaps all the way over to the h-
file—with his queen, bishop, and rook.
This position illustrates one of our recurring
themes in this section: when you attack the
defender of a mating square, the dividends
can be very great; but analysis also can be a
good deal more complicated than it would be
if you were working just with checks and cap-
tures, because your opponent has a wider
choice of replies. You have to think hard
about where the attacked piece might be
moved and how you might follow up, and
about what captures or attacks of his own he
might be able to spring.
Dg897: White to move
Dg897: Now back to another family of mating
patterns we frequently consider: the tightly
constrained king. White’s e4 bishop is threat-
ened by the pawn on f5, but of course you
decline to retreat until you have studied your
attacking options. Examine the Black king’s
position and you see that it has no flight
squares; it is frozen on g8, with an open di-
agonal leading toward it. Consider this an
invitation to put an attacker on that diagonal,
since the king won't be able to run away from
it. Does White have a piece usable for the
purpose? He could try Bd5+, but Black has
the square protected with his rook as well as
his queen. So White tries his other resource
for attacking on a diagonal: his queen, which
he might play to c4. This fails because, again,
Black guards c4 with his queen. So the next
thought is to put pressure on Black’s queen,
and one way to do this is by putting one of
your pieces flush against it—as with Ra1.
Black’s goal now is familiar. Can he move his
queen someplace where it (a) is safe and (b)
still protects the mating square c4? No. The a-
file is off limits, and the queen has no safe
squares on the light-squared diagonal it is
trying to protect.
So perhaps it appears that Ra1 ends the game.
Not quite, however; there is another line of
response for Black: he can attack White’s
queen with Nd4. It’s a familiar defensive
idea: if you can’t stop your opponent's attack
on one of your pieces, make a similar attack
on one of his pieces. White isn’t fazed by this,
though, as he has a couple of fine options in
reply.
(a) He can go ahead and trade queens with 2.
RxQ, NxQ. A few positions ago we saw a
similar situation and emphasized the impor-
tance of not assuming that you should liqui-
date in this way. That was true: you shouldn’t
assume it. It depends on what the board looks
like before and after such a liquidation occurs.
Here, after 1. Ra1, Nd4; 2. RxQ, NxQ, White
now has attacks against two loose pieces:
Black’s knight, which sits loose next to
White’s king, and Black’s bishop, which is
loose on b7. So White wins a piece with 3.
BxB. (And then a pawn, too, after 3. …Nd4,
4. Rxa7.)
(b) Or White could reply to 1. …Nd4 with 2.
BxN. Now he has a piece; and if Black plays
2. …QxR, trying to win the exchange, White
has 3. Qc4+—and mates soon thereafter. The
resulting position is shown in the next frame.
Dg898: Black to move
Dg898: Play from this point goes 3. …Bd5
(useless interposition); 4. BxB+ (not QxB+—
d5 is guarded by Black’s rook), e7-e6 (useless
interposition); 5. Bxe6+, Rf7 (useless interpo-
sition—though it gives the king a flight
square); 6. BxR+, Kf8 (forced); 7. Nh7+
(don’t forget the knight), Ke7 (forced); 8.
Qe6#. (If Black instead plays 4. …RxB,
which might have occurred to you, this mere-
ly gives White a safe chance to play 5. QxR+
and mate even more quickly: 5. …e7-e6 (use-
less interposition); 6. Qxe6+, Rf7 (forced use-
less interposition); 7. QxR#.
It is worth spending the time needed to visual-
ize these mating sequences from the original
diagrammed position just for the sake of get-
ting some exercise. But if Black is alert he of
course will avoid all this, replying to BxN
with Ba6 and thus counterattacking against
White’s queen. This way he loses “only” a
piece.
Conclusion: after 1. Ra1, Nd4 (Black’s best
reply), White should play the (a) line above,
not the (b), because (a) wins him a pawn as
well as a piece.
Dg899: White to move
Dg899: Loose piece alert: Black has one on
g4. Study whether you can attack it while also
attacking Black’s king or threatening mate at
the same time. These investigations lead you
to Qxe6+, a rough draft of a queen fork. But
of course you first would need to chase away
the guard of the forking square, Black’s
queen. You have one way to attack it: Rc7.
Flush attacks like this should come easily to
you now; the problem with this one, though,
is that White loses the rook to QxR and
doesn’t quite make up for it with the fork.
Think, “if only the rook had protection when
it jumped to c7. It almost does; if the pawn on
b5 were one square closer…” So now you
have a new goal: get your b-pawn forward
one square. You can’t play it to b6 now be-
cause Black just takes it with his own pawn
on a7. But if the a7 pawn were replaced with
a Black piece you could push your b-pawn
forward with a threat. At last the winning idea
comes into view: 1. Bxa7, RxB; 2. b5-b6.
Black moves his rook, probably to a6. Now
you are ready to safely play 3. Rc7, Qe8; 4.
Qxe6+, Qf7 (interposing); 5. QxN (at last),
Rxb6 (Black takes the annoying pawn—this
was why he played his rook to a6 on his
second move).
For all this trouble, what has White won? A
pawn. And the pawn is won even more simply
if Black sees all this coming and simply de-
clines to recapture after 1. Bxa7. Well, some-
times that’s chess: it can take a lot of work to
win a pawn.
5.3.09.
Threats Against Rooks and Minor Pieces.
Our focus has been on attacks against the
enemy king and queen when they guard piec-
es or mating squares. Attacks against minor
pieces can be effective, too, though they are
more complicated because in these cases it is
less costly for your opponent to leave the
guard where it is, exposed to capture, while
launching a threat of his own elsewhere. A
threat against a minor piece thus works best
when accompanied by a larger threat—
especially check.
Dg900: Black to move
Dg900: After the relatively demanding posi-
tions we have been considering, the one to the
left should seem easy. Back to first principles:
you want to be aware of every point in
White’s camp that Black has under attack.
Here Black’s queen attacks White’s knight on
e2. So you look at how the knight is protected
and see the rook behind it. You can’t capture
the rook; can you drive it away?

Rooks flee knights and bishops, and Black

has a dark-squared bishop that he can play to
f2. If White leaves the rook where it is, he
loses the exchange; if he moves it, he loses
the knight—for there is no place for the rook
to go where it will be safe and still protect e2.
The root of the problem for White is that his
rook is cramped against the edge of the board.
If White’s knight-and-rook pair were the in
the middle of the board, the rook could retreat
and still provide defense.
Dg901: What does White attack? If you don’t
see it, you’re overlooking the king, which
attacks Black’s knight. Next question: what
prevents KxN? The bishop on e6.
Dg901: White to move
White has no way to capture it—but he can
attack it with Bc8. A foolish move since it
invites Black to play BxB, taking a piece
while still protecting the knight? No, because
in playing BxB Black would be depositing his
bishop onto the back rank, where his king sits.
White then would have a check and capture
with RxB+; and then after Black moves his
king comes KxN, winning a piece for White.
The priority of check again. So once White
plays Bc8 Black is destined to lose his piece,
and Black’s best move thus is Nxf2, allowing
his knight to be captured but at least taking a
pawn with it as it goes down.
Dg902: White to move
Dg902: White has three pieces trained on the
Black king’s general position, and the king
has little mobility and is short on defenders.
These indicators suggest the possibility of a
mating attack, but how? The obvious check-
ing idea, Qxf6, almost mates, but the pawn
has protection from the rook on f8. The rook
cannot be taken, so consider pressuring it.
White plays Re8, attacking the rook; this may
look counterintuitive because now White’s
rook can be taken, but of course if that hap-
pens White mates on his next move. In this
sense Black’s rook is pinned. The power of
Re8 is that it starts a sequence in which White
dictates Black’s replies one by one. Here
Black has to play Kg7, as it is the only move
that avoids immediate mate and provides pro-
tection for the rook. White plays RxR; Black
plays KxR. Now comes Qxf6+, and Black’s
king does not have enough room. White
mates a few moves later with his queen and
bishop. (After 1. Re8, Kg7; 2. RxR, KxR, the
sequence, entirely forced, goes 3. Qxf6+,
Ke8; 4. Bf7+, Kd7; 5. Qe6+, Kd8; 6. Qe8#.)
Dg903: White to move
Dg903: As you look for offensive possibilities
your eye should be drawn to Black’s king. It
can’t move to d8, and f7 is off limits as well;
indeed, it has no flight squares—and there is
an open diagonal leading toward it. We know
a way to take advantage of this: try to get an
attacker onto the diagonal, exploiting the
king’s cramped position. White looks to his
queen and light-squared bishop, and finds the
move Bf7—almost mate, with protection
from the knight on e5, but f7 is guarded by
Black’s rook on h7. When an otherwise effec-
tive mate threat is impeded by an enemy
piece, we know how to think about this; we
make the troublesome piece a focus of opera-
tions in its own right. Capturing the rook is
not possible, but White can get an attacker
onto the h-file with Qxh5+. Notice that in
addition to attacking Black’s rook, this move
gives check; this has the usual importance
because it makes Black’s choice of replies
much more limited than it was in the cases
where we tried plainer attacks against enemy
pieces. Black has no way to protect his king
except RxQ; and then comes Bf7# for White.
Lesson: if a troublesome enemy piece can be
attacked with check, this generally is an at-
tractive way to go; the threat to the enemy
king simplifies your analysis of the conse-
quences.
Dg904: White to move
Dg904: Do you see that this position is struc-
turally similar to the previous one? Again
Black’s king has no flight squares; again there
is an open diagonal leading toward it (though
from below, making it a little harder to see);
and again all that prevents White from mating
by planting a bishop on that diagonal (Bg7) is
Black’s rook. So White sticks his queen flush
against the rook with Qf8+, choosing the at-
tacking square that also enables his queen to
give check and thus force the issue. Black’s
only reply is RxQ, permitting White to play
Bg7# next move. The point about giving
check can be made more strongly by looking
at Black’s own threats at the other end of the
board. Black has a queen, two rooks, and a
bishop all trained on the White king’s posi-
tion. If White plays a different attack on
Black’s rook—say, Qd8 rather than Qf8+—
Black is not forced to take any defensive
measures. Instead Black gives a check of his
own with Qxg2+, and his checks don’t stop
until White is mated three moves later. By
giving check himself with Qf8+, White holds
the initiative and never gives Black a chance
to start his own mating sequence.
Dg905: White to move
Dg905: Examine Black’s king and be struck
by its limited range of motion (none, thanks to
the attack on g8 by White’s bishop). In these
circumstances any check becomes a mating
threat; White’s RxN would be mate except
that Black’s rook on c8 guards the mating
square. Can White somehow be rid of the
Black rook? He can’t capture it, and if he at-
tacks it Black might just leave the rook where
it is, comfortable in the knowledge that it is
protected by its queen—and that if it is re-
placed by its queen, the back rank still is de-
fended. But the calculus changes if White can
attack Black’s rook while also creating anoth-
er threat. So then notice another significance
in the fact that White’s bishop on b3 is aimed
at g8, next to Black’s king. It gives White a
classic queen fork of a Black piece and mat-
ing square with Qc4. Ordinarily the move
wouldn’t look like much because Black can
just play RxQ. But here that capture is exactly
what White wants Black to play (and what
Black does not want to play) because it results
in a mate for White with RxN. It does not
matter what Black does, of course, since if he
plays anything other than RxQ (e.g., Qe6) he
soon ends up mated by Qg8#.
5.3.10.
Forking the Guard and Another Piece.
As we have seen, an attack on a defender of
an enemy piece or sensitive square works best
when it has something else going for it as
well—for example, if the move also gives
check or threatens mate, or if the piece being
attacked is in an unusually cramped position.
Moves that give check and also attack the
defender you are trying to remove can also be
understood as forks; and lesser but still effec-
tive forks are possible in which you attack the
defender and some enemy piece other than his
king. In cases such as those, where your at-
tack on the guard is part of a double attack,
simply moving the defender to a safe place no
longer gets your opponent out of trouble; the
other piece in the fork remains vulnerable.
These sorts of forks also allow you a broader
range of targets than usual. Ordinarily a
knight forking a rook and a protected bishop
is no great threat, since once the rook moves
you are faced just with an exchange of minor
pieces. But if moving the rook would leave
something else loose, the fork becomes inter-
esting after all.
Dg906: White to move
Dg906: In the position to the top, White sizes
up his attacking options and sees that he at-
tacks Black’s knight twice. It also is defended
twice. He has no way to capture either de-
fender, but he can attack both of them with
the knight fork Nb6. Black is threatened with
the loss of his rook, so he must move it to
safety; and he can do this while still protect-
ing the a8 bishop by playing Rb8. But now
the knight has lost one of its defenders, so
White can play BxN. Or White can play NxB,
and if Black recaptures RxN then both de-
fenders of Black’s knight are gone, enabling it
to be taken for free next move. White wins a
piece in any event. Observe how the fork gave
Black a narrower set of choices than we saw
in cases where a guard was attacked without
more. The trouble created by a fork cannot be
evaded by just moving the attacked piece,
because there are two of them. And notice
that while a knight fork of a rook and a pro-
tected bishop usually would be of little inter-
est, it is another matter when capturing the
bishop would leave an additional target loose
for the taking.
Dg907: Black to move
Dg907: The current idea from Black’s side.
The opportunity to see is the attack on
White’s knight by Black’s rook. The knight is
guarded by a fellow piece—the bishop on
b2—making it vulnerable. The bishop cannot
be captured, and if attacked it presumably
would just retreat to a1—unless the attack
were a fork that made a simple retreat unsatis-
factory. Black looks for ways to attack the
bishop (or for knight forks) and finds Nc4.
White is threatened with the loss of the ex-
change, but he can create no better outcome.
If he moves the d2 rook to c2 or e2, he saves
it and protects his bishop; but after White
plays NxB and Black replies RxN, Black’s
knight on c3 has been left loose and is lost to
RxN next move. White is better off moving
his knight from c3 to e2, allowing Black to
take the exchange rather than letting him win
a whole piece.
Incidentally, suppose White instead replies to
the fork Nc4 by retreating his bishop to a1.
Here as before, Black wins the exchange by
taking White's rook. But this time the trouble
continues for White, because after he recap-
tures RxN, his bishop on a1 has been left
loose. This creates the kernel of a relative pin
on the long diagonal, and Black exploits it
with Be5. Suddenly the knight on c3 is para-
lyzed. Black can win it in return for a couple
of pawns. (After Black plays Be5, play might
go 1. RxR, NxR; 2. Bb7, Rc7; 3. Bxa6, BxN;
4. BxB, RxB; 5. Bxb5.) The point is just to
see again how hazardous it can be to leave a
piece loose in the middle of a sequence, per-
haps in the course of retreating it innocently.
For once it is loose, other pieces can be
forked along with it or (as in this case) pinned
to it.
Dg908: White to move
Dg908: White sees that the queens are faced
off against each other and that Black’s queen
(like his own) is protected only by a piece—
the knight on c6. White has no way to capture
the knight, and the knight has protection; so if
White merely attacks it with a move like Bb5,
Black is free to preempt White’s plans with
more a forcing move of his own: QxQ+.
White needs a way to attack the knight while
controlling the initiative. He examines other
ways of going after it, and he examines any
checks he can give; either way he is drawn to
Ne7+, forking Black’s knight and king. Black
must save his king either by moving it or by
taking White’s knight. If he takes the knight
with NxN, he leaves his queen loose and al-
lows White to play QxQ. If he moves his king
to b8 or d8, now what? Keep looking for the
next check; especially when your knight is
creating havoc and forcing the enemy king to
move around, successive knight moves often
can create successive checks and forks. White
thus plays NxN+, this time forking Black’s
king and queen. Again Black must either
move his king or (better) take White’s knight.
Either way his queen is loose and ends up lost
next move.
Dg909: Black to move
Dg909: White’s pawn on h3 is about to take
Black’s knight. The easy thought is to retreat
the knight, but of course that would be rash.
You see that the knight and Black’s queen
both are aimed at h2, and indeed that Qh2
would be mate if White’s knight on f3 were
not defending the mating square. Black has no
way to capture the bothersome knight, but
perhaps he fruitfully can threaten it. Now of
course attacking a knight with another piece
generally will not frighten your opponent,
particularly in a case like this where the
knight is defended. But it’s different when the
attack is a fork, such as Black’s Nc6-d4—
attacking the White knight and queen. A
knight fork against a fellow knight usually is
no good, but here it is as good as forking the
king: White absolutely cannot afford to play
NxN, as it permits mate on the move for
Black. Yet if White tries to save his queen, as
with Qd1, Black plays NxN and mates a move
later. We thus arrive at a familiar outcome:
White’s only recourse is to let go of the at-
tacked pieces and take other measures to de-
fend against mate—here, by playing h3xN.
Now Black wins the queen with NxQ.
Dg910: White’s queen is loose and under at-
tack; then again, Black’s queen also is loose.
So you might naturally be inclined to play 1.
QxQ. What’s wrong with this? Consider your
opponent’s threats—especially any checks he
can give—and you see his reply 1. …Nf4+, a
discovered check that lets Black win back the
queen next move: 2. Ke1, NxQ. White still
does well: 3. RxR+, RxR; 4. NxR, KxR; 5.
Ke2 and 6. Kxe3 and White has won the ex-
change and a pawn.
Dg910: White to move
But the really important question is whether
you can resist being mesmerized by these
possibilities and instead step back and ob-
serve the constrained position of Black’s king.
It cannot move, and there is an open diagonal
running toward it; this raises the thought of
Qd5+, a move that would mate but for the
Black rook on d8 that protects the mating
square. But don’t stop there, either; see that
White already has two pieces trained on f8,
and also would be prepared to mate there with
RxR—again, but for Black’s rook on d8. So
the d8 rook becomes the focus of White’s
energies. He would like to threaten it in a fa-
shion that forces it to leave the defense of one
of the two mating squares, f8 or d5. Attacking
it with a check would force Black’s reply
helpfully, and the way to achieve this is sug-
gested by those dual threats just described.
We said that White’s 1. Qd5 was a threat of
almost-mate, but at the same time it also is a
queen fork of Black’s king and rook. Black is
forced to reply RxQ, and now he has left the
way clear for White to play 2. RxR#. (Black
also has the option of playing the useless in-
terpositions Qe6 and Rf7; White’s queen just
eats them up.) Thus 1. Qd5 leads to a quick
mate for White.
This is another example of a point we empha-
sized earlier: the importance of looking
beyond the first mating idea you see and in-
specting for more. If you saw one of the pos-
sibilities here but not the other, you would
miss out on a chance to end the game.
5.3.11.
Using Pawns to Threaten the Guard.
Dg911: White to move
Dg911: Part of your assessment of every posi-
tion is a look at what you attack and why the
attacks can’t be turned into captures. In the
current frame the only piece White attacks is
Black’s bishop on d5. How is the bishop pro-
tected? By Black’s queen. The natural thought
is to seek a safe and effective way to drive the
queen from its perch. There is one move for
White that satisfies those criteria: h3-h4. Of
course Black would like to just move his
queen to another square where it would be
safe and still protect the d5 bishop. There is
no such square, however; so once Black
moves his queen to safety, White plays BxB.
Lesson: don’t overlook pawns as tools for
attacking the guards of pieces you want to
take.
Dg912: Untie the knot in the center by asking
what attacks what and what defends what.
Going piece by piece, the answer turns out not
to be complicated. White attacks Black’s e4
knight twice (never overlook a fianchettoed
bishop); the knight also is defended twice, by
Black’s queen and bishop. If one of the Black
guards could be removed, the knight would be
takeable. White has no way to capture Black’s
bishop or queen. Can he threaten them?
Dg912: White to move
Consider pawn threats. White has 1. g3-g4.
The obvious response is to move the bishop to
another square from which it still can protect
the knight, so Black plays Bg6. Except now
White can capture the guard, with 2. NxB.
After Black recaptures 2. ...RxN, his knight
on e4 is attacked twice and defended just
once. White takes it next move.
Well, but how does White take the e4
knight—with his bishop or his queen? If he
uses his queen, it goes 3. QxN, QxQ; 4. BxQ,
Rxg4+, 5. Bg2 and White has won a piece for
a pawn. But if White first uses his bishop in-
stead of his queen, things play out a little dif-
ferently: 3. BxN, Rxg4+. (Notice the point:
when he started by moving his bishop off of
the g-file, White turned Black’s capture Rxg4
into a check that seizes the initiative before
White has finished his sequence.) White plays
4. Kf1 (not Bg2, resulting in QxB#), and now
Black attacks the White bishop twice against
one defender. He plays 4. …RxB; 5. Qxa5.
Each side has won two minor pieces and a
pawn—a wash. So White should play 3. QxB,
not 3. BxB.
Finally, what about the possibility that Black
might reply to White’s initial threat with a
counterattack? After 1. g3-g4, Black could
reply b7-b5—and now each side has a pawn
threat against a minor piece. Not a problem
for White: he goes ahead with the exchanges,
2. f4xB, b5xN, and now his mission is ac-
complished: the knight on e4 has only one
guard, so White takes it with QxN.
Dg911: Survey your attacks. Black’s rook and
bishop attack White’s knight on d5 (which is
protected twice, by a pawn and another
knight). Black’s queen attacks White’s knight
on e3, which is protected by a pawn and by
White’s queen. Black’s knight attacks
White’s bishop on e2, which is protected by
its queen. Can any of the defenders mentioned
in those observations be captured or attacked?
Dg913: Black to move
Dg913: Survey your attacks. Black’s rook and
bishop attack White’s knight on d5 (which is
protected twice, by a pawn and another
knight). Black’s queen attacks White’s knight
on e3, which is protected by a pawn and by
White’s queen. Black’s knight attacks
White’s bishop on e2, which is protected by
its queen. Can any of the defenders mentioned
in those observations be captured or attacked?
We saw that White’s knight on d5 is attacked
twice and defended twice. If one of its de-
fenders were removed, it could be taken. One
of those defenders is the pawn on e4. Black
can capture it with f5xe4, which also is a
pawn attack on White’s queen. Now what?
White might consider Qxe4, replacing his lost
pawn with a piece that still protects the d5
knight. But remember that White’s queen had
defensive work of its own to do on d3: it was
protecting the bishop on e2. Once it leaves for
e4, Black has NxB+, winning a piece. Black’s
initial pawn move can be considered a capture
or an attack on White’s queen; the important
point is just to see the train of thought that
resulted one way or another in the removal of
a valuable White quard.
Dg914: Black to move
Dg914: What does Black attack? His rook
attacks White’s bishop, which is protected by
two knights. His bishop on g7 attacks a
knight. Put these together and you almost
have something: Black could exchange away
one of White’s knights with 1. …BxN; 2.
b2xB; and then the bishop on e2 would be
attacked once and protected once. That
doesn’t achieve anything in itself, but it
should cause you to turn your attention to the
bishop’s other guard—the knight on f4—to
see if it might likewise be vulnerable. Black
has no way to capture it, but pieces at the out-
er edges of the center often can be chased
with pawns. Black plays 2. …g6-g5, and the
knight must flee; and there is no way for a
knight to move and still protect the square it
formerly did. Now Black has 3. …RxB and
wins a piece.
Dg915: White to move
Dg915: Lest chasing pieces with pawns seem
too easy, consider a limitation on the idea.
Look for potential captures White can make
and you find QxR. The good news is that the
rook is protected only by a fellow piece, the
knight on b5. The knight can’t be taken, but
White has a pawn to throw at it: a3-a4. It
might seem that the knight must now flee, and
that here as in the previous position Black is
left with a hanging piece for White to take.
Not so. We encounter again a fundamental
limitation on the use of attacks (like a3-a4) to
force results: in itself the move doesn’t cost
Black anything; it merely threatens him with
a cost. That means he still has time to threaten
countercosts of his own. In this case Black
looks for a threat that he will be able to ex-
ecute if White goes through with a3xN. He
finds Nd7. White’s queen must retreat, which
gives Black time to likewise retreat his b5
knight—and without worrying that this leaves
his rook unsafe, since the rook’s attacker has
fled.
Dg916: White to move
Dg916: White has the power to play QxR, but
to make it work he first has to loosen the
rook. Its guard is the queen on d6. The (hope-
fully) obvious idea is c4-c5, attacking the
queen with a pawn. The harder part is figuring
out what happens next. Your first fantasy
might be that Black’s queen will flee or play
Qxc5; since it has no safe squares from which
it can keep guarding the rook on f4, you will
be able to play QxR safely next move. None
of this is likely, though. You have to consider
counterthreats Black might launch—moves he
might make that will then allow him to reta-
liate rather than just recapture. Here Black has
Rg4. Now the rook has protection from a new
source, the pawn on h5. True, after the rook’s
move the Black queen still is exposed to at-
tack by the pawn now on c5. But now White’s
queen is under attack, too, by the rook: the
threatened retaliation. White’s simplest
recourse now is to liquidate the queens with 2.
QxQ, c7xQ, then play 3. BxR, h5xB, winning
the exchange. A little stronger, however, is 2.
QxR, h5xQ; 3. c5xQ, g4xB; 4. d6xc7+, Kxc7;
5. Nxh3—and now White has won a pawn as
well as the exchange.
The position is most valuable as another re-
minder that when you try to chase off a guard
by threatening it, you have to remember that
your opponent may have a wide choice of
replies. He can make a different threat of his
own; if you carry through on yours, he carries
through on his. To be effective, his counterth-
reat has to target something at least as valua-
ble as your threat does. Thus a suitable coun-
terthreat for Black when faced with 1. c4-c5
here was to attack White’s queen. The posi-
tion then becomes a matter of comparing what
happens if each side’s threats are carried
out—not just what each side gains and loses
from the execution, but what their next moves
look like afterwards.
 Blocking the Guard
(Interference).
5.4.01.
Interference to Loosen a Piece.
Suppose you see an enemy piece or square
that you want, but it has protection. Your op-
tions, as we have seen, include capturing the
guard, threatening it, or going after something
else it protects. They also include this final
idea: blocking the line between the guard and
the piece or square it is trying to protect. You
may be able to do this by planting one of your
pieces between them, or by making a threat
that causes your opponent to put one of his
pieces between them. This motif is useful to
understand, but since several conditions are
needed to make it work it does not arise as
often as the others. We will not spend as
much time on it as we have on the other me-
thods of removing the guard.
Like much of chess, interference is all about
lines.
Dg917: Black to move
Dg917: The first order of business in the
study to the left is to note your possible cap-
tures, and in this case Black has just one: his
queen attacks White’s rook. The rook is
guarded by its queen; can the protection be
removed? There is no way to capture White’s
queen or drive it off with a threat or take any-
thing it protects. But look at the diagonal be-
tween the queen and rook. Might Black ob-
struct it? Yes, he has a piece that can get
there—and with check. He plays Ne4+.
White’s natural response to such an obstruc-
tion would be to take it with his queen, but the
knight has protection from the pawn on d5. So
White has to respond to the check by moving
his king, and Black takes the rook with his
queen next move. Note the importance of the
check Black’s knight when it moved. Without
that threat Black’s move doesn't force White’s
reply, and thus leaves him a move to just re-
locate his rook someplace safer.
Dg918: White to move
Dg918: Survey White’s possible captures and
you find QxN and RxR. Of course both tar-
gets are protected, so turn your attention to
their guardians. See the vulnerability in the
Black queen’s protection of the rook on h4:
White’s pawn on f5 can step between them,
and with protection. The move attacks
Black’s queen, so he has to do something
about it. If he plays Qxf6, White has QxQ+;
Black then takes White’s queen with his g4
knight, and White follows by at last playing
RxR+ on the h-file—the point all along. He
has traded queens and won a rook for a pawn.
If Black instead replies to f5-f6 by playing
Nxf6, he blocks his rook's line of protection
and so again lets it go in trade for the pawn.
Part of what makes interceptions of this sort
dicey is that, like the threats against the guard
examined in the previous chapter, they often
give your opponent wide latitude in choosing
a reply. Here White’s pawn push f5-f6 threat-
ens Black’s queen, but in addition to the
moves just considered Black also can reply by
taking the offensive with check: RxR+, with
the idea of removing his queen from danger
after White takes his king out of check. It is
important to see this idea—and not to be dis-
suaded by it. For after RxR+, White has the
decisive reply QxR+ (never back down from
considering every check); and now White will
mate a move later, as his pawn on f6 seals off
g7 as a flight square for Black's king.
The defensive idea illustrated by this last var-
iation still is worth pondering: if an "interfer-
ing" move cuts off protection to a target and
makes another threat, one line of response is
to pick up the target and make trouble with it.
Perhaps the trouble easily can be evaded, but
its creation still buys time to then extinguish
the second threat, too.
Dg919: Black to move
Dg919: Size up your capturing possibilities
using the Black pieces. Your queen (and the
bishop behind it) attacks the knight on c3;
your queen alone attacks the knight on g5.
The g5 knight is protected by the bishop at
d2; the c3 knight is guarded by its queen and,
again, by the bishop on d2. What to make of
this? Neither of your captures looks produc-
tive, but that would change if the effective-
ness of White’s bishop on d2 somehow were
compromised. You can achieve that result by
looking at the line between the bishop and the
g5 knight and asking if you might disrupt it.
A simple pawn push suggests itself: e4-e3,
attacking the bishop and obstructing its path
to g5. Black now wins a piece:
(a) If White takes the pawn with his bishop,
his knight on c3 is left attacked twice and
protected only once. Black wins it with
QxN+.
(b) If White retreats his bishop, his knight on
g5 is left loose. Black wins it with QxN.
As noted a moment ago, when the e-pawn
blocks the diagonal it also inflicts a threat
against White’s bishop, and notice that the
threat is crucial; if White had not been kept
busy by it, he would have had time to move
his g5 knight to safety. (This is one reason
why f5-f4 would not have been comparably
effective for Black, despite blocking the same
diagonal. Another reason is that White then
plays g3xf4, and now his pawn guards the
knight.)
Dg920: Black to move
Dg920: Black has one possible capture: BxN.
The knight is guarded by White’s rook at b1.
Black has no way to do anything to the rook;
and the natural method of interference, Rd1,
leaves his own rook unprotected and just re-
sults in RxR. But Black is methodical in ex-
amining any checks he can give and their
consequences, and finds that there is one,
Rd2. White’s only legal reply is Kc1—and
now his knight is left loose because his own
king blocks the path of its guard along the
first rank.
The position shows a pattern worth watching
for: sometimes a sequence you plan may have
the surprising side effect of causing one piece
to block the line of protection leading to
another. The idea is worth special mention
because it often catches its victim by surprise,
too.
Dg921: White to move
Dg921: The two queens are faced off against
each other. Each has protection from a rook.
If any vulnerability exists in the enemy
queen’s guard, it must be found. Again White
has no way to go after the black rook on f8,
but once more the practice of inspecting his
checks pays off: he finds Rg3+. Black can't
move his king to h8 because the square is
attacked; and if he moves his king to f7, his
queen becomes loose because its line to the
rook has been severed. Black is better off with
QxR, thus allowing h2xQ and the trade of his
queen for a rook. When a target is protected
by another piece and the guardian is next to
its king, consider this a possible vulnerability.
A check may force the king to interrupt the
target's protection and leave it loose.
Dg922: White to move
Dg922: The note at the end of that last posi-
tion is a hint to the solution of this one, which
is a little harder because White has nothing
under attack at the outset. Still, notice the pre-
carious position of Black’s rook: it’s way out
on the board, not loose but protected by a
queen from far away. Perhaps the protection
can be disrupted. That would be a visual ap-
proach to the position; a different route would
be the trusty one of examining any checks
you can give and their consequences. White
has two with his rook and two with his queen;
the most interesting would be any check that
also threatens the rook, which brings you to
Qd8+. Since the e-file is off limits to Black’s
king, he has to play Kc2 or Kc3. The most
significant property of those moves is that
either of them blocks the path from Black’s
queen to the rook and so leaves the rook
loose. White takes it next move.
Dg923: Black to move
Dg923: Survey what you attack (as Black)
and see, among other things, the possibility of
QxN—but White’s queen on d1 guards the
target. So turn your attention to the queen.
You have no safe way to attack it, and it pro-
tects no other piece you can take; but there
remains the possibility of interrupting its line
of defense to the knight on h5. This you can
do with Re2; the question is what follows
from it. The important point of the move is
that the rook is guarded by your queen from
e5, so if White replies 2. QxR he loses his
queen for a rook after 2. …QxQ.
But now what if White doesn’t reply QxR?
Then he is faced with QxN. His best move
thus is to launch an attack of his own with the
threatened piece: 2. NxB. He is hoping you
will recapture his knight, taking him off the
hook, but you can do better. Look at the board
as it then would appear; look for any checks
you then would have; find Re1+, a rook fork
of White’s king and queen. White is forced to
reply 3. QxR, QxQ+, 4. Kh2 (forced—and
now the priority of check has still kept alive
Black’s ability to play…) KxN. Soon Black
will be able to play Qxf2 as well. He ends up
with a queen, and knight, and a pawn for a
rook and a bishop.
Dg924: White to move
Dg924: White looks for captures to consider
and sees QxR. All that keeps him from play-
ing it is the queen on h5; if its protection
somehow could be eliminated, White would
have the game. He has no effective way to
threaten the queen. The best he can do is the
knight fork Nf6+, but then Black simply plays
g7xN. On the other hand, look at the line be-
tween Black’s queen and rook. There is one
space between them, on g4. White has a rook
on the fourth rank. If it could slide onto g4, it
would have protection there and Black’s rook
would suddenly be loose. Of course Black
could just move his queen to f5—but not if he
has no time. Perhaps the solution is becoming
clear now: put together the ideas just dis-
cussed, starting with 1. Nf6+ and the forced
reply g7xN. It not only would leave the fourth
rank clear for Rg4; it also would clear the g-
file of the pawn now there. After that ex-
change White therefore can play Rg4 with
check. If Black plays QxR, White has h3xQ
and has won a queen for a minor piece and a
rook. If Black instead interposes with Bg7,
White has QxR and has won the exchange.
5.4.02.
Interference to Loosen a Mating Square.
Blokh’s The Art of Combination, unfortunate-
ly out of print at this writing, is a fine book on
chess tactics. At the beginning of each chapter
it presents a few elementary examples of the
pattern that is the subject of the problems that
follow. The examples are abstracted; all that
is shown is one corner of the chessboard
where all the relevant pieces reside. The tech-
nique is a useful one for presenting the basic
idea behind the use of interference to loosen a
mating square (or to win material by threaten-
ing mate), so we will begin here with a few of
these odd-looking examples that Blokh sug-
gests.
Dg925: White to move
Dg925: In this first example you see that
White has a queen and rook aimed at f8 and
would mate there were it not for the protec-
tion provided by Black’s queen. The Black
queen can't be taken or driven off with a
threat, but White looks at the line running
from the queen toward the mating square and
sees that he can land a piece between them
with Nf6+. When you interpose a piece like
this, by assumption it can be taken by the
piece you are trying to block; it therefore
needs protection, which the knight here rece-
ives from the pawn on g5. If Black plays
QxN, he loses his queen and is mated soon;
but if he plays anything else he is mated even
sooner.
Dg926: Again you see White’s queen and
another piece (his bishop) ready to pounce on
a square next to Black’s king, this time de-
terred only by the protection Black’s queen
supplies to g7. On this abbreviated board
there is no way to get at the Black queen di-
rectly.

Dg926: White to move
But a glance at its route to the mating square
reveals a way to obstruct it: 1. Rf6. Again the
rook has protection against the simple QxR,
which otherwise would renew the Black
queen’s protection of the square; and Black’s
queen has no safe place it can go to protect it.
The best Black can do is 1. …Qe6; 2. Qc5+,
Re7 (interposing). (If Black plays 2. …Qe7,
interposing his queen, White has 3. Rxf7+ and
4. RxQ.) Assuming Black sticks with Re7,
play might go 3. RxQ, g7-g6, 4. Qc8+, Kg7;
5. Ra6, Rxe5; 6. Ra8, g6xB; 7. Qh8+, Kg6; 8.
QxR, where White wins a queen and a rook
for a bishop and a pawn. Anything less pre-
cise by Black is liable to get him mated. But
the important thing to see here is the basic
idea of 1. Rf6.
Dg927: White to move
Dg927: This time we have a White queen and
rook directed at g7—but with a White bishop
in front of them creating the kernel of a dis-
covery. What to do with the bishop? Use it to
block the path of the Black queen that defends
the mating square. Hence White plays Bf7+.
If Black replies BxB, White mates with
Qxg7#. Black is better off sacrificing his
queen with QxB, leading to RxQ for White.
This avoids immediate mate, though it leaves
White with a decisive material advantage and
an eventual forced mate anyway with careful
play.
Dg928: lack to move
Dg928: Back to normal positions. Black’s
queen and f4 knight both attack g2; Black is
prevented from mating there by White’s
queen on g4. Black has no good way to drive
off White’s queen, but he does have a way to
obstruct its protection of the mating square:
Ng3+. Notice the pressure the move creates.
It’s a check, so it has to be addressed directly,
and if White moves his king it gets mated
right away with Qxg2. White thus takes the
knight with his queen. But then comes h4xQ,
and White runs out of ways to stave off mate
on g2. He can interpose his rook at e2, but
Black’s queen just takes it.
Dg929: White to move
Dg929: Seeing the mating idea for White is a
little harder here, but it should give you no
trouble if you look at how White’s pieces bear
on Black’s king and especially at any checks
you can give. The knight at f5 can give a
check from e7, forcing Black’s king back to
h8; and now with no defenders along his back
rank Black gets mated with RxN—almost.
The impediments are (a) Black’s bishop at b4,
which guards e7 and f8, and (b) the knight on
f6, which can be interposed on g8. Begin with
the bishop. When you see a long line like this
between guardian and mating square, consider
obstructing it. White can insert his dark-
squared bishop onto the diagonal with Bc5;
the queen behind the bishop, on f2, provides
the protection needed to stop Black from eras-
ing the blocker with BxB. White imagines the
sequence thusly: 1. Bc5, BxB; 2. QxB, b6xQ;
then the mating finale 3. Ne7+, Kh8; 4.
RxN+, Nf6-g8; 5. RxN#.
That is the ideal sequence. Of course Black is
unlikely to cooperate in such docile fashion;
the point is to realize that if he makes all of
his natural captures and recaptures he will end
up mated. This means that if he is alert he will
have to forgo one of those captures, and that
the sequence instead will only win material.
What is Black’s actual reply to Bc5 likely to
be? Probably Nf6-d7—forfeiting his bishop to
BxB and instead bringing in a fresh guard for
f8.
A loose end: when you plan an offensive se-
quence you have to be mindful of any checks
your opponent can throw into mix, possibly
seizing the initiative and spoiling your plans.
Here Black can try 1. ...Qa1+, but it’s met
with Bf1 and so doesn’t change anything.
Another loose end: after 1. Bc5, BxB; 2. QxB,
Black can skip the capture of White’s queen
and instead play Nd7, again beefing up the
protection for f8. But now it’s too late to
avoid mate, as becomes clear if you are reso-
lute in examining your checks: 3. QxNf8+,
NxQ; and now, of course, 4. Ne7+, Kh8; 5.
RxN#.
Dg930: First you need to see White’s mating
threat, so start by studying Black’s king.
When a king has a protected enemy pawn in
front of it like this, of course, its flight squares
to either side are sealed off. Since the other
nearby squares are occupied, the king’s only
range of motion lies along the light-squared
diagonal leading to e8; this means that an at-
tack against the king along that diagonal has
lethal potential.
Dg930: White to move
White can launch such an attack with Qxh5;
indeed, that move would be mate were it not
for the protection provided to h5 by Black’s
queen. Can you block the Black queen’s path
to the mating square? Yes, with Rf5 or Nf5.
Either works, but let’s focus on Rf5; consider
Black’s reply options and their consequences:
(a) If Black plays e6xR, White’s mission is
accomplished: h5 has been left loose, and
now he mates there with his queen.
(b) If Black plays QxR, White has NxQ (and
an eventual forced mate).
(c) Or Black can forget about his queen and
take out the mate threat directly with Nxf6,
attacking the h5 square where White wants to
put his queen. So White doesn't bother with
that; instead he is content to play RxQ.
As often is the case, seeing a sequence that
can lead to mate thus pays off not with mate
but with sacrifices by your opponent to pre-
vent it—an entirely satisfactory result.
Dg931: White’s queen can make a protected
attack on g7, but the square is guarded by
Black’s knight. With his queen placed so ag-
gressively White looks for other ideas and
reflects that if he could get a rook behind it,
the queen would be able to penetrate to h7
and be secure against capture by the Black
king—the only guardian of the square. Ob-
serve the weakness of Black’s formation; see
what potential for trouble arises when the
king has no freedom of movement and is the
only guard of a square next to it.
Dg931: White to move
Indeed, if White could play Rh3 now—in
other words, if there were no bishop on c8
protecting the square—Black would have no
way to avoid Qxh7# a move later despite hav-
ing a free move to use to address the threat.
(He could try Nxf6, but it's met with g5xN.)
So Black’s bishop far away on c8 is all that
prevents White from finishing the game. The
bishop is buried too far within Black’s posi-
tion to enable White to capture it or drive it
off, and it protects nothing else that White can
menace. Again, though, when you see a long
line between a mating square and its guard,
consider whether you can obstruct it. White
looks for ways to get a piece or pawn onto the
light-squared diagonal and finds Nf5—
blocking the line with protection from a
pawn. Consider the possible consequences:
(a) If Black plays g6xN, the diagonal now is
stopped up with a Black pawn; White plays
Rh3 and mates momentarily on h7.
(b) If Black plays BxN, he avoids the mate
but suffers other losses. White replies with
e4xB. Now Black has to find a new way to
prevent White’s rook from moving to h3, as it
remains a game-ending threat and no longer is
prevented by anything. Since White’s e-pawn
has moved, Black can play QxR. But of
course then White has BxQ, winning a queen
for a rook. That is the true payoff of the se-
quence for White: not mate, but a gain of ma-
terial as a byproduct of a threat of mate.
Dg932: White to move
Dg932: Now let's combine some guard-
removal themes. The crucial thing here is to
see all of White’s possible mating ideas: Re8
almost does it; Qf8 almost does it; so does
Qg8, or QxBf6—probably the easiest of the
ideas to overlook. The problem is that in
every case the needed square has protection;
indeed, in every case the protection is pro-
vided by Black’s queen. When the queen
gives you so much trouble, your instinct
should be to experiment with moves like
Re8+—a flush attack.
Black has no choice but to take out the rook
and two ways he can do it. The first is QxR,
in which case the queen has been drawn away
from the protection of f6; White mates there
with his queen. (On this view of the position
Black’s problem was that his queen was
overworked, trying to guard too many mating
squares.) Black’s second possibility for a re-
ply to Re8+ is BxR. This creates a different
problem for him: he has put his bishop be-
tween his queen and mating squares it was
supposed to protect. Now White mates with
Qf8 or Qg8. It becomes a case of interference.
Black had no way to avoid mate by the time
White reached this position, but there still is a
defensive lesson to be learned: anytime your
king is stuck on the back rank and you are
forced to make a capture there, be mindful of
how it will affect the king’s defenses: the
movement of your pieces might affect your
ability to fend off a mating attack by blocking
the protection you are able to provide along
the rank.

Dg933: White to move
Dg933: This position also combines our cur-
rent theme with an earlier one. Black’s king is
confined to the back rank by the knight on f5.
White has two heavy pieces he can put on the
rank—his queen and rook—but Black defends
the squares they are able to reach with his
rook, bishop, and queen. Meanwhile White’s
queen attacks Black’s bishop and queen; and
the queen’s only guard is the rook on b8.
That pattern should ring a bell—a piece you
can take that is guarded only by a rook on its
back rank. In such cases we have seen that
dropping a rook of your own onto the back
rank (with check) may drag the enemy rook
out of position to fulfill its defensive obliga-
tions; here the idea for White would be 1.
Rd8+, RxR; 2. QxQ.
Ah, but there is a catch: Black can reply to
Rd8+ with BxR, leaving his queen still
guarded. Yet look at the board that then re-
sults and see what the bishop does on its new
square, d8. It blocks the rook’s path along the
back rank and enables White to mate on the
spot with Qe8. So Black has to reply to Rd8+
with RxR after all, forfeiting his queen to
avoid mate.
There is another lesson to take away from this
position involving the execution of back rank
mates . When your queen is one of the offen-
sive pieces involved, don’t forget multiple
routes it may have to the enemy’s back
rank—here not only Qc8 but Qe8. Once you
see that both of those are potential mating
squares, the power of planting a piece be-
tween e8 and the square's defender becomes
more apparent.
5.4.03.
Interference on the Penultimate Rank.
Dg934: Black to move
Dg934: Presumably you see right away that
Black’s queen and knight are trained on h3,
ready to deliver mate—except that White’s
queen protects of the mating square from c3.
With no way to take the queen and nothing
else it protects that you might threaten, what
to do? Clutter the line from the queen to h3
with 1. …Rd3. If White plays 2. BxR, notice
the result: his queen’s path to h3 is obstructed
by his own piece, and Black mates with 2.
…Qxh3+; 3. Kg1, Qg2#. That leaves White
with the unappetizing alternative reply 2.
QxR—unappetizing not only because it loses
the queen to 2. …NxQ, but because if White
then plays 3. BxN Black has the queen fork
Qd6+, winning back a piece.
Black’s original move Rd3 attacks the queen,
but the idea also would work well enough
with a Black piece that had no such attacking
potential. Imagine no Black rook on d8 but a
Black knight on c5; moving the knight to d3
then has the same effect as Rd3 in the position
as illustrated. The move likewise would block
the queen’s route to the mating square; the
knight would have protection, so it could not
simply be taken by the queen; and the queen
again would have no way to jump to a safe
square from which it still can protect h3. In-
deed, it would work even better because it
would entail sacrificing only a knight rather
than a rook. Of course the nice feature of Rd3
is that it gains a tempo as White has to fret
about saving his queen; moving a hypotheti-
cal knight from c5 to d3 would leave White
with more options. It’s just that in this posi-
tion he doesn’t have any good ones.
This is a common setting for the interference
motif: you threaten to mate by dropping a
queen with protection onto the rank in front of
your opponent’s king (usually the second
rank, but here the third); but your opponent he
has a queen on his second rank guarding the
square you need. Your job is to obstruct the
line running between his queen and the mat-
ing square. Let’s look at a few more examples
and variations.
Dg935: Black to move
Dg935: Again you see Black poised to mate,
this time with his queen and knight aimed at
g2. But there also is another mate threat to
notice for Black: RxN, prevented by White’s
rook. The immediate thought of the interfe-
rence move Re2 is inadequate here for a
couple of reasons. The first, of course, is that
g2 is guarded not only by White’s queen but
by his knight on e1. But even if the White
knight were out of the picture, Re2 wouldn’t
work because of the terrible threat White has
at the other end of the board. When an enemy
knight is deep in your territory, fear of getting
forked should be ever present in your mind;
here the knight at c6 is one move from fork-
ing Black’s king and queen. Black's rook cur-
rently prevents this by guarding e7, but if that
rook were to be captured, the fork would be
effective. So if Black plays 1. …Re2, play
proceeds 2. QxR, BxQ; 3. Ne7+, Kf7; 4.
NxQ, KxN (or NxN). White has extinguished
the mate threat, won back his queen, and won
the exchange to boot.
Not that you should give up. When you see a
key point in the enemy camp (like g2)
guarded along a long, open line (like the
second rank), think hard about ways to inter-
rupt the protection. Black has another piece
besides the rook with which he can experi-
ment: his bishop. Consider Bc2. It again
creates an immediate threat of mate on g2, so
White has to do something about it:
(a) If White plays RxB, Black mates on the
spot with Rxe1. Now we see the importance
of noticing both of Black’s mate threats.
(b) NxB won’t help, as it leaves the White
queen’s path to g2 blocked; Black mates im-
mediately with Qxg2.
(c) White’s best reply is QxB; then if Black
plays QxQ, White has NxQ and the mate
threat is over. But in reply to White’s QxB
Black still has a different reply that is deci-
sive: RxN+. (Consider every check you can
give in these circumstances.) White is forced
to play RxR to stop the threat on his back
rank. This leaves White's queen loose (his
rook was overworked, protecting both the
queen and e1), so Black is free to play QxQ.
Now Black still threatens mate with Qxg2, so
White’s only move is Rg1, protecting the g2
square but smothering his king. Black has
more than an advantage; he has a forced mate.
(After White’s Rg1, it goes 1. …f4-f3; 2.
g2xf3, Nxf3; and now White has nothing to
do but throw useless checks at Black’s king
while waiting for Black to finally play
Qxh2#.)
Dg936: Your knight is threatened by the pawn
on e5, but don’t retreat without inspecting
your offensive options. First point to see:
White’s queen and rook aimed at h6, and pre-
vented from mating there only by the Black
queen on b6. Second thing: White can put an
interfering piece on the sixth rank with pro-
tection by playing Ne6.

Dg936: White to move
If Black plays BxN or f7xN, then of course
the rank remains blocked and White mates
right away on h6. If Black plays QxN, he los-
es his queen to f5xQ—and then has to spend
yet another move replacing the protection of
h6 that the queen had provided; so he plays
Rg6, and now loses his d7 bishop to the same
pawn that just took his queen. It’s an ugly
result, but the best Black can do.
Dg937: Black to move
Dg937: Start with the convergence of Black’s
queen and bishop on f2—the makings of
mate, except that White’s queen on c2 guards
the square. Black has no good way to get rid
of White’s queen, but on inspection of the line
connecting it to f2 he hits on another idea:
drop a piece onto the second rank and ob-
struct the White queen’s path. Black can do
this with his rook or bishop, either of which
can go to e2 with protection from the other.
Re2 is no good because is allows White to
extinguish the mate threat with QxQ and then
to win material rather than lose it. Be2+ is
crucially different because it gives check and
so keeps tight control over the initiative;
White has a few ways to reply, none of them
appealing:
(a) He can take Black's bishop with his knight
or bishop; this still leaves the second rank
blocked, enabling Black to mate with Qxf2
next move.
(b) White can play 1. Kg2. Then it goes 1.
…Qxf2+, 2. Kh3, Qf1+; 3. Kh2, QxN+; 4.
Kh3, Qh1#. Black’s queen and bishops are
too much for White’s king to outrun.
(c) White can take the bishop with his queen,
reestablishing its protection of f2. Now Black
plays RxQ and White dares not recapture, as
the guardian of f2 is off the board (so BxR
leads to Qxf2#). White is better off replying
to RxQ with Rf4, which blocks Black’s mat-
ing attack for the moment.
5.4.04.
Interference as Part of a Double Threat.
Dg938: White to move
Dg938: Things look desperate for White: his
rook is pinned, and if he plays RxQ, Black
mates with Rxe1. Then of course there is
White’s battery of queen and rook on the f-
file, nearly ready to mate with QxR—but pre-
vented by Black’s queen at the other end of
the board. A line of protection so attenuated
calls for interference; can White get a piece
between Black’s queen and rook? He can,
with Ne2 or Ne4. Either move threatens mate
with QxR, since the rook on e8 suddenly is
loose; RxQ also is threatened, since Black’s
reciprocal line of protection running in the
other direction—toward e1—is cut off as
well. Assume White plays Ne4 and consider
Black’s reply options:
(a) If he plays RxN, then of course White
mates immediately with Qf8.
(b) If Black plays QxN, White’s rook is un-
pinned; he mates with 1. Qf8+, RxQ; 2.
RxR#.
(c) Best for Black is QxR+, leading to QxQ
and the loss of his queen for a rook. It is re-
markable what White achieves with a simple
move of his knight to the middle of the board.
But what about Ne2 for White instead of
Ne4? It seems to accomplish many of the
same results: scenarios (a) and (b) above play
out the same way. But not scenario (c); for
after 1. Ne2, QxRf1+; 2. QxQ, Black has
NxN and his knight is protected against recap-
ture by his rook. White ends up trading a rook
and a knight for a queen—perhaps a good
deal, but of course a failure in view of the
decisive gains White can achieve with Ne4.
The point is that Ne2, unlike Ne4, puts
White’s knight where it can be taken by
Black’s.
Dg939: Black to move
Dg939: Your attention might be caught by
either of two things, both of which must be
seen one way or another. (a) The first is simp-
ly that Black’s queen attacks White’s rook on
d6, which is guarded only by its fellow rook
on d2. (b) The second is that Black has a bat-
tery of queen and rook bearing down on e1,
almost ready to perform a back rank mate.
When you imagine a move like Re1+, a first
thought should be to look for anything your
opponent can interpose on the back rank be-
tween your attacker and his king—and then
whether it would have protection to prevent
your attacker from just taking it and renewing
the threat. In this case Black’s Re1+ is rebut-
ted with Bf1; and Black can’t then just play
RxB+ because White’s bishop is guarded by
its queen.
So Black has two threats against White—a
threatened capture and a mate threat—that are
prevented by White pieces guarding the rele-
vant squares. Looking for ways to incapaci-
tate either defender and you are led to Bd3—
which at least for the moment blocks the
paths of both of them. White can’t afford to
let his bishop be cut off from f1, since then
Black plays Re1+ and White has no way to
stop him from mating (White’s Qf1 is met
with RxQ#). But if White does play BxB, his
own bishop cuts off the protection of his rook
on d6. Black takes it next move, winning the
exchange.
The order in which the two initial ideas are
seen is not so critical. Your investigation of
either threat by itself should lead to Bd3.
When you imagine White’s possible recap-
tures (BxB or RxB) you see that the result in
either case is to sever a line, and you look to
see what the blockage would make possible.
Dg940: White to move
Dg940: Again you want to see all of White’s
threats and not stop with the first you see; for
the ideas taken together are more powerful
than any of them individually. First the
queens are faced off against each other; and
Black’s queen is pinned but protected by its
rook, whereas White’s queen has no protec-
tion at all. Second, there is the hint of a back
rank mate: Black’s king is stuck there; since
White’s rook seals off f7, Qb8 almost
mates—but not quite. Black has two pieces—
his queen and rook—coordinated on c8; so
White’s Qb8 is met with the interposition
Rc8. Finally, with White’s rook aimed at f8
and his dark-squared bishop still on the board,
White has the beginnings of a classic bishop
and rook mate; if his bishop were aimed at f8,
Rf8 would mate.
What to do with all this? Size up the impedi-
ments to each of these ideas and see if they
somehow overlap. Your goal is not to make
all of them work, of course; it is to put enough
threats into motion to require Black to make
sacrifices to stop them. For White to play
QxQ, he would need to get rid of the protec-
tion Black rook’s supplies to its queen. For
White to mate on the back rank, he would
need to stop either the rook or queen from
guarding c8. For White to play the bishop and
rook mate, he would need to get his bishop
onto the a3-f8 diagonal. Any of these ideas—
and certainly any two of them seen together—
should cause you to toy with 1. Bd6. See the
conundrum it creates for Black:
(a) If he replies with QxQ, White mates with
Rf8.
(b) If he plays 1. …RxB, he no longer has two
pieces coordinated on the same back rank
square, so his interpositions there become
useless and White mates with 2. Qb8+, Qc8;
3. QxQ+, Rd8; QxR#. (If Black were able to
reply to Bd6 with QxB it would work better
for him, since then his queen would guard b8
directly; but Black can’t play this because his
queen is pinned.)
(c) Black could reply to 1. Bd6 with 1.
...NxB; but this interrupts the protection that
Black's queen had been receiving from his
knight, so now White has QxQ+ and mates
promptly.
(d) Black's best bet is to let go of his queen
and play 1. …h7-h5, creating a flight
square—“luft”—for his king. When White
plays 2. QxQ+, Black thus has 2. …Kh7.
Now White has won Black’s queen—and still
has a forced mate. One way it can go is this:
3. QxN+ (think in checks when you are clos-
ing in for the kill; this forks Black’s king and
rook), Kh6; 4. QxR, Kh7 (Black has no pieces
left); 5. Qe4+, Kh6; 6. Bf8 (pinning the g7
pawn), d4-d3 (nothing Black can do with his
king makes it any safer); 5. Rf6+, Kg5; 6.
Qf4#.
5.4.05.
Removing the Guard: Strategic Implications.
With our study of removing the guard now
completed, we can step back and consider a
few larger points by way of summary and
strategic instruction.
We have seen that part of the tactical recon-
naissance in any position includes a look at
any enemy pieces you have the power to cap-
ture. If they're guarded by pieces, pick one of
the guards and ask whether it can be captured,
or whether it is overworked, or whether it
fruitfully can be threatened, or whether you
might interpose something between it and its
protectorate. And of course the same goes for
guards of squares you want to occupy—e.g.,
mating squares or forking squares.
These techniques produce strategic lessons as
well: ideas about how to play on moves when
you have no tactical strikes to make and just
want to improve your position. How can you
make it more likely that you will be able to
win material on later moves? Think of the
construction of your position on the board as
a matter of architecture. Pawns are sturdy
building blocks good at supporting more val-
uable pieces. Part of what you mean to do
when you move your pawns around, and es-
pecially when you establish a pawn in the
center, is create safe homes for your pieces on
the squares those pawns protect—and deny
such resting places to your opponent by keep-
ing the attractive central squares under attack.
A piece guarded by a pawn tends to be secure;
if your opponent take the pawn, this usually
means a sacrifice on his part. He can’t threat-
en the pawn because pawns generally are
fearless, and he can’t interpose anything be-
tween a pawn and the piece it guards. It's
possible for a pawn to be overworked (we
have seen it), but it doesn’t happen all that
often. A pawn only can protect two squares at
a time anyway.
Protecting your pieces with other pieces is a
different and more dangerous matter. A bi-
shop that guards a fellow piece, for example,
is vulnerable to all sorts of trouble: it may get
captured by an enemy knight or bishop—an
even trade that has the side effect of leaving
loose whatever your bishop was supposed to
protect. Or it may find itself needed to protect
another piece or a sensitive square as well,
and thus become overworked. Or something
may get interposed between the bishop and its
charge. Or the bishop may be forced to flee
by a threat from a pawn.
These points mean that if your opponent
guards one of his pieces with another piece,
you should think about ways to take advan-
tage. They also mean you should think before
you rely on one of your own pieces to protect
another. This can come up when one of your
pieces is threatened and you have to decide
whether to move it or protect it; before you
guard it with a piece, ask whether your oppo-
nent will have a way to remove the guard. It
also comes up when you are tempted to move
a piece into enemy territory, perhaps to grab a
pawn or make some other offer of aggression.
If you are emboldened to make such a move
because the piece on its new square will have
protection from another piece closer to home,
think again: are you sure the protection won't
be vulnerable to some method of removal?
Sometimes, of course, you have no choice but
to protect one piece with another. The point is
just to understand the vulnerability it creates.
There is another strategic lesson to bear in
mind as well: the value of playing with
threats. Any move should at least improve
your position on the board; still preferable,
however, is a move that improves your posi-
tion with a threat. Threats allow you to keep
the initiative. Your opponent responds to what
you are doing rather than the other way
around. They also create opportunities. When
you have a lot of threats in place, synergies
can develop between them: you end up with
an attack against one enemy piece that is sup-
posed to guard another you also attack. Or
you end up with attacks against two pieces
guarded by the same third piece, which is
overworked. Naturally it's possible to get car-
ried away; you don't want to make pointless
threats for their own sake. And a threat can be
counterproductive, especially when it is a
check that accomplishes nothing except to
push the king into a less confined position.
(Always consider any checks you can deliver,
but do not give checks without purpose.) The
strategic point, rather, is to work with threats
as you carry out your plans; all else equal, in
other words, a move that develops one of your
pieces with a threat usually is better than a
move that develops a piece without one.
Chapter 6.
Mating Patterns
 The Back Rank Mate.

6.1.01. e-file like White does here, the immediate

Introduction. Simple Cases. thought is a back rank mate.

Checkmate can be delivered in countless

ways, but if your opponent has castled the
most common mating patterns fall into two
broad categories. The first pattern, which we
cover in this chapter, is the back rank mate.
The general idea is to put a queen or rook
onto your opponent's back rank and thus
checkmate his king because its movement off
the rank is blocked (usually by his own
pawns). The “back ranker” is a common way
for chess games to end, and we have seen it in
passing many times in other chapters. (In the Dg941: White to move
next chapter we will look at other mating pat-
terns that involve attacking from above or Against White’s three heavy pieces trained on
along an angle.) e8 Black has two; he is outnumbered, so
White wins with no trouble. 1. Qe8+, RxQ; 2.
Back rank patterns generally are contests be- RxR+, RxR; 3. RxR#.
tween two sources of power: your ability to
drop heavy pieces (i.e., a queen or rook) onto
your opponent’s back rank from above, and
his ability to fend them off—most often with
heavy pieces of his own sitting on the back
rank, but perhaps also with a bishop or knight
or queen that may protect the sensitive
squares from farther up the board. This means
that you often need more than one piece
aimed at the back rank to make the pattern
work: a first piece to sacrifice there that will
force your opponent to use up his defenses,
Dg942: White to move
then a second or third piece to follow up with
mate. The most common instrument for deli-
vering such a mate thus is a battery of two Dg942: More simple stuff. A battery can
heavy pieces on the same open file, with the work in a similar way when the mating square
has protection from above rather than from
forward piece either protected by the one in
the side. Here White again has two pieces
the rear or sacrificed to clear the way for it by
trained on e8, and Black’s king is stuck be-
removing a guard. Another typical pattern has
a rook and queen coordinated against the hind its pawns. The e8 square is protected
same back rank square from different direc- once, by the knight on f6; a piece that sits on
tions. But there are innumerable variations, as the mating square, like Black’s rook here, is
we shall see. not contributing at all to its defense. So it’s
two against one, and again White wins. 1.
QxR+, NxQ; 2. RxN#.
Dg941: Begin with the simple study on the
left. When the king is trapped behind its
pawns and you have a mighty battery on the

Dg943: White to move
Dg943: You can rain the offensive pressure
down from different angles. This time White
has a battery of two rooks but also a queen
aimed at the key square from b4. The pressure
against f8 is three against two (again the rook
on f8 is irrelevant), so White just pounds
away at the square until there is nothing left.
He can start with his queen or one of his
rooks; it doesn’t matter. The sequence might
run 1. RxR+, RxR; 2. RxR+, QxR; 3. QxQ#.
Dg944: Black to move
Dg944: Now combine the ideas we have been
examining in this chapter, and this time from
Black's side: work with coordinated attacks
from two angles, and use them against protec-
tion supplied to the mating square from
above. Black has two pieces aimed at f1, and
White has one piece guarding the square—but
the guard is on f3 and thus is in the way of
White’s rook. It’s not a problem so long as
Black starts with QxR+. This forces White to
reply RxQ and then permits Black to finish
with RxR#. But of course if Black starts with
RxR the idea fails, because after the reply
RxR the f1 square is attacked once and still
defended once. Move order matters.
As an aside, ask yourself this: if Black blund-
ers by starting with RxR, does it matter
whether White replies with RxR or QxR? It
might seem unimportant since the piece used
is not in immediate jeopardy and either way
White still has a guard trained on f1. But in
fact it matters very much. The key to seeing
why, as often is true with tactics, is to consid-
er any checks in the picture—here, any
checks that will be available to your oppo-
nent. After 1. …RxR; 2. RxR, Black has 2.
…Rb1+. 3. Rf1 is no defense for White; he
gets mated right away with RxR. Instead
White blocks the check with 3. Be1, where
his queen guards the bishop. But now Black
has 3. …Qe2, adding pressure to the e1 bi-
shop that is saving White’s game and also
threatening Qf1#. White cannot avoid a ma-
terial calamity.
Even without following out these complica-
tions, the preference for 2. QxR rather than
RxR can be explained on general principle.
RxR weakens White’s back rank, removing
the only defender from it and thus creating a
nasty vulnerability so long as White’s king is
blocked in by his pawns. Put that together
with the check Black is waiting to give on the
b-file and you have plenty of reason to worry
about 2. RxR. (Now you can see what a
"weak" back rank means: it generally refers to
situations where a king is stuck behind its
pawns and has no rook or queen on the rank
able to defend against pieces that land there.)
Dg945: White to move
Dg945: The trapped Black king and the White
battery on the e-file suggest a back rank mate,
but e8 is guarded twice; so White uses a piece
from outside the battery to take out one of the
guards: 1. RxR+, RxR; 2. Qe8+, RxQ; 3.
RxR#. It’s a simple combination of the back
rank mating pattern with a removal of the
guard.
Dg946: White to move
Dg946: Here the initial idea is easy enough to
see but its consequences are a bit more com-
plicated. Black’s king is trapped behind its
pawns and White has a battery of rooks di-
rected at d8, clues that should get you looking
for a back rank mate. Black guards d8 twice,
with both of his rooks, so pounding away at
that square doesn’t work by itself. But White
has another resource he can use to remove
one of Black’s guards: 1. QxR. Now White
threatens to mate with 2. QxRe8. If Black
replies to QxRa8 by recapturing RxQ, then of
course White has 2. Re8+, RxR; 3. RxR#.
Black can avoid this fate, but only at great
cost:
(a) If Black replies to QxR by advancing his
h-pawn to give his king breathing room,
White has QxR and now has taken both Black
rooks. A brutal attack then follows as White
closes in on Black's king with his queen and
both of his rooks. White has an eventual
forced mate.
(b) Black can instead reply to White’s initial
QxR by playing Kf8, permitting his king to
protect his rook. But White already has won
the other rook, and now he can press a power-
ful attack by playing Rd8, creating another
mate threat (RxR#). Black plays f7-f5, open-
ing a line of protection from his queen to his
rook; but now White can perform the ex-
change RxR+, QxR—and then White brings
his other rook to d8, pinning Black’s queen
and winning it (Black plays QxR; White plays
RxQ+).
6.1.02.
Dealing with Interpositions.
One obstacle to a back rank mate, as we have
seen, is that your opponent may have pieces
of his own guarding the square you want to
use. Here is a different problem to consider:
he may be able to interpose a piece on the
back rank, sticking it between your attacker
and his king. Sometimes such interpositions
will derail your plans; sometimes they won’t.
You have to play through them in your
mind’s eye to see whether they can be over-
come.
Dg947: White to move
Dg947: In this first diagram, White can't
mate. Since Black’s king stuck in the corner
White naturally considers 1. Rd8+. The d8
square is unguarded, but there is another
problem: Black can throw a rook onto e8 and
block the White rook’s path. Since the one
Black rook would have protection from the
other, White would not be able to get past it;
2. RxR+, RxR and White merely has traded
rooks when he already was losing.
Dg948: Here is another study in failure. The
elements of a back rank mate seem to be in
place: Black’s king is trapped behind its pawn
cover, Black has no defenders on the back
rank, and White has a battery of queen and
rook on the e-file. Yet the attack comes up
short because after White plays Qe8+ Black
can interpose his queen at c8. Since Black’s
queen is then protected by his king, White has
no way to penetrate the position.
 Dg948: White to move
The sequence still is fine for White; it suc-
cessfully eliminates the pressure on his king
(specifically the threat of Qa4#). It just
doesn’t produce mate.
Dg949: White to move
Dg949: Black’s king is trapped and his back
rank is weak (no defenders reside on it), so
White can go for mate with a single heavy
piece: Rc8+. All Black can do is throw pieces
into the path of White’s rook, but this time the
rook just eats them up. It goes 1. Rc8+, Bd8;
2. RxB+, Re8; 3. RxR#. Black had only use-
less interpositions.
Dg950: This time Black has moved one of the
pawns in front of his king, but White compen-
sates with an attack by his bishop on h7.
Black’s king thus remains trapped on its back
rank, and again there are no heavy pieces on
the rank to defend it. An empty back rank
invites thoughts of mate even without a bat-
tery, as we just saw; a single rook may do the
job. White can’t play Rd8+ because the
square is protected by Black’s queen, but
what about playing the other rook to a8? Now
Black’s only defenses are interpositions, so
walk through them.
Dg950: White to move
He can play his queen to d8, but White takes
it with either of his rooks; then Black can put
his bishop on e8, but again White takes it and
mates. So Black’s interpositions are useless
and the sequence works.
Dg951: White to move
Dg951: White has a simple back rank mate
with Qe8. Just for the sake of analysis,
though, would Ra8 work as well? The a8
square is unguarded, but consider Black’s
interpositions. If he drops his knight onto d8,
the rook’s path to Black’s king is blocked—
and if White plays RxN, Black has QxR. In-
stead of RxN White could then try Qe8, but
this loses his queen: when Black moved his
knight he unmasked a line from his bishop to
e8, so the square no longer is available. Thus
Ra8 doesn’t work. Notice that the order of
operations can be crucial. If Black replies to
Ra8+ by interposing his queen rather than a
knight on e8, he loses; White drops his queen
to e8, Black replies QxQ, and then White has
RxQ#.
Dg952: White sees that QxR+ doesn’t mate
because Black’s knight protects his rook. But
since this capture would remove Black’s rook the seventh rank. This brings us to the current
from the back rank and also distract Black’s batch of studies.
knight away from the defense of e8, White
wonders if the sequence might enable him to
then mate with Re8. Actually it doesn't; for
after White plays 2. Re8+, Black can inter-
pose his bishop on f8: again the knight’s
move unmasked a route for his bishop to use
to support the back rank’s defense. Since the
bishop would be guarded by its king, there is
nothing White would be able to do to get past
it. This position illustrates the importance of
considering how all of your opponent’s pieces
(and all of your own) bear on a sector before
you start an attacking sequence there. Dg953: White to move

Dg953: A common way to fend off the threat

of a back rank mate is to advance the h-pawn
one square as Black has in this first frame,
giving the king a flight square. Here Black’s
advance also serves to threaten the knight on
g5. But it's too late for such threats to be ef-
fective; the White knight seals off h7 just as a
Black pawn would, so White can disregard
the danger to his knight and work with checks
that keep Black busy elsewhere. He has two
resources usable against the back rank—his
Dg952: White to move rook and queen—and can start with either of
them. It might go 1. Qb8+, QxQ; 2. RxQ+,
Surprisingly enough, by the way, QxR+ nev- Re8 (a useless interposition); 3. RxR#.
ertheless is White’s best move. Notice that his
queen and rook are both under attack. After 1.
QxR+, NxQ; 2. Re8+, Bf8; 3. RxN, White has
a rook against Black’s minor pieces and re-
tains a fighting chance. Any alternative move
by White here leaves him worse off than that.
(For example if White plays 1. Qd1, allowing
BxR and recapturing QxB, he is left with a
queen against two knights and a rook: grim
prospects.)

6.1.03.
Sealing Off the King's Flight Squares. Dg954: White to move

The typical clue to the back rank mate is that
your opponent has castled and has not moved
the pawns in front of his king. But that is not
the only way a king can get trapped on the
back rank, as we have seen; you want to be
alert as well to other ways its flight squares
may be sealed off, especially by attacks your
pieces may launch against empty squares on
Dg954: Black has opened up h7, but once
more White closes it down with his d3 bishop.
Again White looks for ways to take advantage
of the king’s trapped position and sees that he
has a rook and queen at the ready. Black’s
bishop guards c8 against occupation by
White’s queen and also blocks the path of
White’s rook to e8, but when you see these
two functions the bishop serves you realize it
is stretched too thin. White thus distracts the
bishop away by beginning with the queen: 1.
QxR+, BxQ; 2. Re8#. It's an example of how
a guard of the back rank can be overworked, a
theme we will study in more detail later. It
also is an example of the usefulness of direct-
ing a bishop against h7 when the square is
open in the way we see here. Among other
things such an attack may lay groundwork for
a back rank mate.
Dg955: White to move
Dg955: White has a number of offensive
ideas here that become fatal only when com-
bined. The first involves his knight’s attack
on g7, which traps the Black king on the
eighth rank; as a result White almost can mate
with Rd8, but Black’s rook on f8 stands in the
way. The second idea involves White’s
queen. It can’t reach the back rank, but White
can do better by playing QxN+ (examine
every check), forcing RxQ to prevent Qg7#.
Now White can play Rd8+, and Black’s inter-
positions with his queen and rook both are
useless. The threats posed by White's queen
and rook here are pretty obvious, but the
knight on f5 is equally indispensable. When
one of your pieces seals off a flight square for
the enemy king as White’s knight does here, it
is important to take notice and experiment
with back rank mating ideas.
Dg956: First see the elements of the mating
idea: Black’s queen cuts off the empty g2
square, so White’s king is stuck on the back
rank; but Black’s rook can’t get there because
his own bishop is in the way on d1. Yet the
bishop has the power to play the same role
that the queen currently does, and that sug-
gests a way to vacate it to make room for the
rook: the bishop could be moved to f3. Play-
ing that move straightaway wouldn’t work
because it wouldn’t force anything; usually
for a sequence like this to be effective every
move has to be a check that holds the initia-
tive.
Dg956: Black to move
But that can be arranged by first drawing
White’s king onto h1. Thus Black begins 1.
…Qh1+, forcing KxQ; now 2. …Bf3+ gets
the bishop into the right position with another
check that forces the king back to g1. This
leaves d1 vacant for Black’s rook, which ar-
rives there and mates. It’s all very useful for
Black, not only because it delivers checkmate
but because it saves him from being mated
himself via Qxg7.
Dg957: Black to move
Dg957: This position doesn't contain the clues
we usually associate with a back rank mate.
You only would be likely to see the idea for
Black by examining any checks he can give.
His checks with his queen all lose the piece,
but then there is f4-f3+: the pawn can't be
taken, so it forces White to move his king. If
he moves it forward, his rook is left un-
guarded and Black has QxR; indeed, one way
to see the idea here is to start by observing the
possible capture QxR, to notice that the king
prevents it from working, and so to think right
away about checks to drive the king away. In
fact Kg3 turns out to be White's best option,
for if he instead moves the king back to g1 he
ends up mated. Do you see why? Once
Black’s pawn is on f3 it seals off both g2 and
e2; the king is trapped on the back rank. So
Black plays QxR+, suffers the recapture KxQ,
and now mates with Rd1. The general lesson
is to see how an advanced pawn can cut off a
king’s escape just as its own pawns would.
Dg958: White to move
Dg958: Again Black’s king seems to have
breathing room, so a back rank mate doesn’t
come to mind right away; but that freedom of
movement can disappear in a hurry. Notice
that if White plays Qc6 his queen cuts off the
king's flight squares to the left and right (b7
and d7) just as the pawn did in the previous
study. This should cause you to look for
heavy pieces that would be able to descend to
the eighth rank, and thus find the threat of
Ra8#. To avoid that outcome Black has to
play QxQ—but now White recaptures using
his d5 pawn, which ends up on c6 and again
seals off b7 and d7. This time Black’s only
way of avoiding Ra8# is to move his king to
b8 where it can defend a8 itself. But then
White plays his other rook from f1 to a1, giv-
ing the rook on a7 some backup. He will mate
next move no matter what Black does.
Again, the lesson is to notice how advanced
pieces and pawns can abruptly trap the king
on the back rank and allow it to be mated
there. A piece on the sixth rank that seals off
squares on the seventh can be mighty power-
ful.
6.1.04.
Drawing Defenders Forward.
When the enemy king’s position is well-
fortified a sacrifice may be needed to loosen it
up. Perhaps the most common sort of fortifi-
cation is a rook next to the king with cover in
front of it, typically as a result of castling. A
classic way to remove such a rook is by sacri-
ficing a heavy piece on the square in front of
it, pulling the rook up off the back rank. There
are various ways to then finish the sequence.
The first, which we consider now, involves
then throwing two coordinated rooks at the
enemy king’s position.
Dg959: White to move
Dg959: In this first example Black’s king
seems well-protected; his rook on d8 protects
the back rank. But White has a battery di-
rected down the d-file, suggesting that the d8
rook might be drawn forward and out of posi-
tion. First comes a sacrifice on the square in
front of it: 1. QxB+, RxQ (to prevent White
from playing QxR#). Now 2. Re8+ forces
Black's rook back to d8—and now it is pinned
to its king with rooks aimed at it from two
directions. White mates by playing RxR with
either of his rooks.
Dg960: See how the current idea works here.
White’s king looks secure; it is protected by
its rook. If Black drops a rook or queen onto
the first rank, White can either capture it with
his rook or leave his rook where it is and per-
haps create a flight square by moving his h-
pawn forward. But Black can change all this
with a sacrifice on the square in front of
White’s rook: Qxf2+. This threatens QxR#
with cover from the rook on f8, so White has
to play Rxf2. Now White’s back rank is bereft
of defenders. True, White can return his rook
there, and he indeed must do so in reply to
Black’s next move: Ra1+; but once White
replies Rf1, he is in the same position Black
suffered in the previous frame.
Dg960:
Here Black has two rooks with clean lines to
the square next to White’s king, with one able
to provide protection for the other; so Black
plays RxR with either rook and mates.
Dg961: Black to move
Dg961: Notice that while White’s position is
slightly different here—his king is tucked into
the corner—Black’s resources are arranged
the same way as in the last position: he has a
queen and rook trained on the square in front
of White’s rook, and another rook (this time
on the b-file) ready to drop to the back rank
once the file is cleared. So play proceeds the
same way: Black starts with Qxg2+; White is
required to play RxQ; Black plays Rb1+,
forcing White’s rook to interpose back on g1;
and then Black mates with RxR.
Dg962: White to move
Dg962: You see the concentration of three
heavy White pieces aimed at f7; the question
is how to take advantage of it. Not with Rxf7:
Black then has QxRf1+, which loses his
queen to QxQ but then allows him RxR at the
other end of the board—and he has won two
rooks for his queen. The general idea was
right: try to bait Black's castled rook forward.
But the beauty of a queen sacrifice for the
purpose is that it gives check, keeping the
position under tight control. Thus 1. Qxf7+,
RxQ; and now 2. Rc8+. White mates with one
rook or the other (after Black tries useless
interpositions with his c6 bishop and then
with Rf1).
Dg963: White to move
Dg963: Now a variation on the current logic.
Exchanging on d7 in front of Black’s back
rank rook doesn’t work, but White looks for
any checks he can give and finds one: QxN. If
Black recaptures with his d7 rook, the result-
ing pattern should look familiar from the last
few studies. White then plays RxRd8+, forc-
ing Black’s other rook to interpose at c8; and
now White mates by playing RxR with either
of his rooks. Notice that Black does no better
by replying to the original 1. QxN+ by mov-
ing his king to a8, because then White mates
with 2. QxRd8+, RxQ; 3. RxR#.
6.1.05.
The Role of the Bi- Pinning Defenders.
shop I
Our studies so far in this chapter mostly have
neglected the bishop, making the back rank
mate seem mostly a pattern executed with
heavy pieces. But the bishop can fill several
large supporting roles. The first is a variation
on the pattern just considered: once an enemy
rook is drawn forward from the back rank
with a sacrifice, it may become pinned on its
new square by one of your bishops and thus
make a back rank mate possible.
The pattern can arise naturally after the ene-
my castles because his rook then will be right
next to his king; this means that if the rook
steps forward one square to recapture it will
be aligned diagonally with the king and prey
to a pin. It’s best of all if the bishop that will
impose the pin already is in place, since then
you can follow up with a back rank attack
without any loss of time.
Dg964: White to move
Dg964: In the example White has a bishop on
the diagonal running toward the Black king’s
position on g8; the bishop already pins the
pawn on f7. White’s standard sacrifice on the
square in front of Black’s rook—Qxf7+—
forces the rook to step forward with RxQ and
so to pin itself to its king (if Black instead
moves his king, then of course White mates
with QxR). Now the rook is immobilized and
Black’s back rank is defenseless against
White’s Re8#.
Dg965: Black to move
Dg965: The classic execution of the current
idea starts with a queen and bishop both
aimed at the pawn on f7 or (against White)
f2—the edge of the castled king’s pawn cov-
er. Black has the formation here just as White
did in the previous position; the difference is
just that Black's queen comes in from the side
instead of attacking down the f-file. The result
is the same: Black starts with Qxf2+, forcing
the reply RxQ to prevent immediate mate—
but now White’s rook is pinned and his back
rank is open for Black's Rd1#.
Dg966: White to move
Dg966: We have seen that the queen can
make its sacrifice on f7 or a comparable
square by swooping in horizontally or verti-
cally. Here it follows a diagonal path. White’s
battery of queen and bishop alone here would
not be enough to mate; the important thing to
see is the combination of those pieces with
the rook on the open a-file. Qxf7+ forces
RxQ, and now again the rook is pinned. Ra8+
mates after Black makes useless interpositions
(that nevertheless are good to notice) with his
queen and bishop.

Dg967: White to move
Dg967: White has the familiar powerful coor-
dination of his pieces—a queen and bishop
trained on the key square at the corner of the
king’s pawn cover: c7. Here as before, this
isn't enough to mate by itself. But there is
more: a rook on the f-file. So the queen and
bishop can be used to extract and then pin the
queen that guards Black’s back rank: 1.
Qxc7+, QxQ and now 2. Rf8# follows.
Dg968: White to move
Dg968: This position looks like the usual se-
tup for a back rank mate, starting with a sacri-
fice to draw the Black defender of the rank
forward. White has a queen and bishop both
aimed at g7, and a rook available to follow
up; so the natural idea is 1. Qxg7+, QxQ, and
now the rook mates with Rf8. What’s wrong
with this idea? Never forget to consider poss-
ible interpositions, even when the attacking
pieces are as snugly arranged against the king
as we find here. Black can reply to Rf8+ with
Bg8, and now White will be losing a piece for
a pawn.
6.1.06.
The Role of the Bi- Preventing
shop II a Recapture.
As long as we're considering contributions the
bishop can make to a back rank mate, let’s
look at another role it can play: it can defend
a piece delivering mate against capture by the
enemy king.
Dg969: White to move
Dg969: If you just counted up White’s heavy
pieces in the diagram and imagined them try-
ing to mate, you would come up short. He has
an impressive-looking battery of two rooks
and a queen on the f-file, but Black has two
defenders of his own on the back rank; and
Black’s king is standing next to the mating
square (f8) and so appears able to defend it-
self by taking the last White attacker to land
there. But not really, because the White bi-
shop on c5, while not a threat to do anything
on the back rank itself, can protect the last
White piece to land on f8 and so provide the
finishing touch to a mate. It goes 1. Qf8+,
RxQ; 2. RxR+, QxR; 3. RxQ#—because the
king can’t recapture. Looking back at the
original position, you can see that White had a
decisive four-to-three advantage against
Black in their contest over f8.
Dg970: When you consider an attacking se-
quence, you want to see all the pieces that you
and your opponent have bearing on it, includ-
ing pieces aimed in the right direction with or
without obstructions in their way. Here that
means seeing not only the obvious back rank
mating idea for White but also the Black bi-
shop on c5 and the White bishop on a3. The
Black bishop tells you that while the battery
of rooks on the e-file looks formidable, it isn’t
quite enough to mate by itself: while Black
only protects the e8 square once, he has an
interposition with Bf8. Yet White’s bishop on
a3 makes the idea work after all, since it per-
mits his rook to capture on f8 with impunity.
Dg970: White to move
Thus 1. Re8+, NxR; 2. RxN+, Bf8; 3. RxB#:
the White bishop serves to prevent a recapture
by Black’s king. As you look at the original
position here, notice the way White’s bishop
attacks f8 through the Black bishop that
stands in its way. This is known as an “x-ray.”
Dg971: White to move
Dg971: White is considering Rxh5. Would
Black be able to recapture with his queen, or
would he be scared off by the thought that
White then has QxQ? The point to notice
about QxQ for White is that it removes his
queen from his first rank, where his king is
stuck; and meanwhile Black has a rook on an
open file that can drop to the back rank with
Rc1. Look for White’s reply to that move and
you see Rf1, interposing his rook; but then
notice as well Black’s bishop on a6, which
then permits Black to play RxR#. So the ini-
tial idea Rxh5 is made unsafe for White by
the bishop all the way over on a6—a study in
how pieces that seem disconnected may have
tightly interrelated interests.
The possibility of a back rank mate easily can
create connecting possibilities of these sorts,
because its workings can be dramatically af-
fected by the comings and goings of pieces
from different points along the rank and in
different directions. A more specific lesson of
the case is that a bishop aimed next to the
enemy king should not be underestimated. It
may not be able to attack anything there by
itself, but it can provide cover for a heavy
piece on the square that may arrive in any of
several ways.
Dg972: Black to move
Dg972: Both queens are under attack; RxQ
doesn’t work for Black, as it is met with NxQ
(and then the knight guards e1). But mean-
while the convergence of Black’s queen and
bishop on g2 obviously suggests an attack on
that square with Qg2+, but then White has
QxQ. Don’t give up with that observation,
however; notice what pattern it leaves behind
and think from there. Suddenly (a) White’s
king is stuck on the back rank and (b) Black’s
rook at e8 has an unobstructed path to e1.
Play it through: Re1+ has to be met with Qf1;
and now Black mates with RxQ, with his bi-
shop on h3 providing cover for the rook that
delivers the mate. From the outset of this po-
sition the bishop’s ability to support an attack
on g2 is obvious; less obvious, but important,
is its ability to support mate with a heavy
piece on f1.
 6.1.07. same idea a moment ago); or you might just
The Role of the Bi- Driving Back the consider any checks you would be able to
shop III King. give with the king on its new square.

We have seen two useful roles a bishop can

play in creating a back rank mate: it can pin a
defender of the back rank after it has been
pulled forward with a sacrifice, and it can
provide cover for a heavy piece that lands
next to the enemy king so that the king can't
capture it. Now consider still another use. A
bishop can attack an enemy king and thus
drive the king further back behind its pawn
cover where it it can’t reach a heavy piece
that lands on the back rank.
Dg974: White to move

Either way you find Bc5+, which drives the

king back to its original square g8—but now
with White’s queen and Black’s rook both off
the board. White mates with Re8.

Dg973: Black to move

Dg973: The position to the left may not look

like the stuff back rank mates are made of, but
watch how that changes if Black moves his
bishop to d4. The move forces White’s king
back to h1, leaving the f1 square unguarded;
the movement of the bishop also leaves the
Black rook with an open line to f1—so Rf1 is
checkmate. And of course you also could
have seen this by noting the kernel of a dis-
covery for Black on the f-file and asking what
the pieces involved can do to White’s king.
Dg974: In this variation White has power on
the e-file but a challenge in trying to get at
Black’s king. Examining every check, even
those that involve large sacrifices, brings
Qxf7+ and QxR+ into view. Qxf7+ leaves
White without a decisive follow-up move that
holds the initiative. But ask how the board
would look after 1. QxR+, KxQ. You might
notice the classic pattern of a king at the edge
of its pawn cover and the kernel of a bishop-
and-rook discovery for White (we saw the
Dg975: White to move
Dg975: You see the battery on the d-file al-
most ready to mate with Qd8 then Rd8, but
not quite because Black’s king guards d8
along with his rook. When you see this pat-
tern—the enemy king at the edge of its pawn
cover, and so able to defend the mating square
you need—consider whether the king can be
driven back behind its pawn cover with a
check along the diagonal. A first thought for
White might be to use the queen with a move
like Qd7; this would work if d7 weren’t
guarded by Black’s queen, but it is. Still, con-
sider all the resources you can use to achieve
your goals. Or consider every check. Either
way you find 1. Bh3+, requiring Black to play
Kb8. Now comes 2. Qd8+, RxQ; 3. RxR#.

Dg976: Black to move
Dg976: Now the current idea from Black's
side. White’s king is at the edge of its pawn
cover with Black’s power aimed down the f-
file. If the king could be pushed back into the
corner Black would have two attackers aimed
at f1 against just one defender (the rook on
e1). The classic way to give the king such a
push is with diagonal pressure, and Black has
two pieces available for that purpose: a queen
and a bishop. He needs them both, because
White has a bishop on b2 poised for counte-
rattack—and indeed ready to take Black’s
queen immediately. Thus Black starts with
Qd4+. White must either move his king to h1
or play BxQ, so he goes the latter route; but
now Black has BxB+, and Kh1 is White’s
only remaining option. The rest is routine.
Black plays Rf1+, forcing RxR; then RxR
mates.
Dg977: White to move
Dg977: White plays with his checks and sees
that 1. Re8+ calls for Black to interpose with
Rf8, with his king then guarding against RxR.
When you see an enemy king doing defensive
work like this on its back rank, you know that
a check may force it to abandon its defensive
role and move back toward the corner. The
check can occur midway during a sequence
rather than at the start. Thus White follows 1.
Re8+, Rf8 with Bd5+, which requires Black
to play Kh8: notice that when Black inter-
posed his rook he also walked it into a pin of
its own so that it can’t interpose. Now White
has RxR#.
Dg978: White to move
Dg978: Now the same idea in a setting with
some more complexity. In the previous frame
the open board and the alignment of White’s
pieces on the e-file plainly suggested a com-
bination against Black’s king; here the mak-
ings of mate are a little less obvious but the
mechanics are similar. White sees that
Black’s back rank is a bit weak. There is a
rook on f8, but again no other Black piece is
in a position to defend d8—and White has a
rook aimed there. White thus starts by elimi-
nating Black’s rook and smoking out Black’s
king with 1. QxR+, requiring KxQ. Now
White pushes the king back under its pawn
cover with 2. Bc5+. Notice that this time the
other bishop—on b5—does crucial work that
was performed in the previous position by the
rook on e1: it prevents Black’s king from es-
caping onto e8. If Black plays Kg8, White
mates with 3. Rd8.
Why “if” Black plays Kg8? Because this time
Black has another option: in reply to Bc5+ he
can interpose his queen at d6. You might
think White could respond by simply renew-
ing the check with BxQ+, and he can. Notice
the power of the move: it wins back the
queen, leaving White up a rook; more to the
point, it’s a pretty bishop fork of Black’s oth-
er rook and his king on its new square. So
White sees that he is going to win two rooks
and is ready to go forward. For all that,
though, BxQ+ isn't White’s best move, for
once his bishop has captured on d6 it blocks
the rook’s path to d8. Now after the Black
king retreats to g8 (this time it’s forced),
White has no mate. He can move his bishop
back to c5 to clear the d-file, but since that
isn’t a check it gives Black time to play Nd7,
again blocking the rook’s path and doing it
with protection. Nor can White then take the
knight with his light-squared bishop. The bi-
shop became pinned when Black moved his
knight.
So the even more decisive reply to Black’s
Qd6 is 3. RxQ, pictured in the next frame....
Dg979: Black to move
Dg979: Play has gone 1. QxR, KxQ; 2. Bc5+,
Qd6; and then 3. RxQ. This last move isn't a
check, but with careful play it still gives
White a forced mate: 3. …Ke7 (the king tries
to escape from the threatened Rd8#); 4. Rh1-
d1 (bringing in reinforcements and threaten-
ing mate next move with the discovered check
Rf6), Nd5 (interposing to block the rook now
on d1, and thus preserve e7 as a flight
square); 5. Rd7+—and now Black is about to
get mated, though in ways that may be visual-
ly unexpected. If he moves his king to e6, for
example, White mates with c4xN: a pawn
administers the fatal blow. If Black instead
moves his king to e8, White plays Rb7, dis-
covering check by the bishop on b5; then if
Black interposes with Bd7, White mates with
RxRb8. Or Black can move his king to d8, in
which case White mates most efficiently with
Be7. Yes, it gets intricate. But in the initial
position you might well go forward simply
upon observing the two rooks won by 3. BxQ.
6.1.08.
Applying Pressure Up Close.
The same technique we have been studying
can work well up close: your bishop or queen
makes a capture on f7 or an equivalent square
in front of the king. Since your capturing
piece has protection the king must retreat,
leaving it unable to defend itself and resulting
in mate.
Dg980: White to move
Dg980: In this first example the queens are
faced off against each other. White is at risk
of QxQ, but in the meantime he pins Black’s
queen and safely can take advantage of the
situation by playing the check Bxf7. This has
the same effect as the bishop moves examined
a moment ago: it forces the king back to h8.
The difference is just that instead of moving
to the king’s diagonal the bishop already
starts there, and uses its move to take out the
pawn that had obstructed its path. For this to
work the bishop needs protection against
KxB; here the protection is of course supplied
by White’s queen. After Black moves his
king, his queen and the mating square on
which it sits are loose. White plays QxQ#.
Dg981: The current principle can be used by
the queen without a bishop. Here White sees
the coordination of his queen and rook against
f7, and so experiments with attacks by his
queen: the check 1. Qxf7 forces Kh8, since
the queen has protection; and now that
Black’s king has been forced into the corner it
no longer will be able to defend itself.
 Dg981: White to move
The resulting position has two heavy White
pieces trained on the mating square f8 and
just one Black piece—his rook—available for
defense. Thus 2. Qf8+, RxQ; 3. RxR#.
Dg982: Black to move
Dg982: Now combine the principles we have
been studying with one from earlier: the use
of a pawn to seal off the king’s flight squares
and trap it on the back rank. Here Black’s
pawn on g3 attacks f2 and h2, so White’s king
is stuck just as it would be if its pawn cover
still were in place. Black has a battery of
heavy pieces on the e-file, making e1 a poten-
tial mating square. White currently defends
the square twice, but one of the defenders is
his king. We know that when a king defends
itself against a back rank mate it sometimes
can be pushed away and made defenseless. A
queen can do this especially well from up
close, because it has the power to first apply
bishop-like diagonal pressure and then add a
rook-like vertical attack. Black thus begins
with Qe2+, forcing White to move his king to
g1. Now e1 has just one defender, so Black
exhausts it in standard fashion: first comes
Qxe1+, to which White replies RxQ; and now
Black mates with RxR.
Dg983: Black to move
Dg983: Let's stretch out the current logic a
bit. You should see Black’s rook ready to
move to e1, and consideration of the check
Qd4 also should be automatic: it’s safe, and it
forces White to move his king to h1; any
check with those properties cries out for care-
ful study. (If White instead interposes with
Rf2, he walks his rook into a pin; now Black
mates with Re1.) With White’s king pushed
into the corner, the remaining question is how
to take advantage of his weakened back rank.
Re1 doesn’t work because White’s rook still
is on f1. And Black also has no safe way to
move his queen to the first rank. The solution
is Qf2, where Black plants his queen on the
penultimate rank and puts White to a bad
choice: if he plays RxQ, Black mates with
Re1 followed by RxR (after White moves his
rook back down to f1). Yet otherwise Black
threatens QxR#.
Since Black's Qf2 isn't a check, White does
have a way to avoid mate by generating coun-
terplay at the other end of the board: Qxf7+.
Now if Black plays KxQ, White has RxQ+,
with the check gaining him the safety of a
tempo. So Black doesn't play KxQ. He plays
QxQ, and now White dares not recapture RxQ
because then he once again gets mated by
Black’s Re1. White instead has to let go of his
queen and play Rg1, which saves the game
for the very immediate future but at cata-
strophic cost. Playing this one through in your
mind’s eye a few times is a useful exercise.
Dg984: As we have seen, it should be second
nature to look at a check like 1. Qc4+ (or
Qb3+), as it loses nothing and forces the king
to move—and to retreat into the corner, which
has the predictable consequence of making a
back rank mate more plausible. Black still has
his two rooks against one of White’s, but here
as in the last position moving the queen to the
penultimate rank changes the picture dramati-
cally.
Dg984: White to move
White plays 2. Qf7 and now notice that he
threatens mate a couple of different ways. If
Black plays RxQ, then White has 3. RxRe8+
and mates with RxR after Black drops his
rook back to f8 (the mirror image of the pre-
vious problem). It might seem safer for Black
simply to sit tight, but then White mates on
the seventh rank with Qxg7. So Black might
try the final recourse Rg8. The technique
doesn’t work this time, however, as White
plays 3. RxRe8 and now threatens QxRg8#. If
Black plays RxRe8, White has QxR#.
Dg985: White to move
Dg985: White has two resources: a battery on
the f-file and a battery on the seventh rank.
The mating square for the vertical formation
would be f8, which Black guards with his
rook, knight, and king; the mating square for
the horizontal formation would be g7, at least
for starters, which Black guards with his
knight and king. Experimenting with his
checks leads White to 1. Rxg7+. Black would
have to respond by moving his king to h8 or
by capturing White’s rook with his knight.
So...
(a) If Black plays Kh8, White has a mating
pattern of a sort that is standard with two
heavy pieces on the seventh rank: 2. Rxh7+,
Kg8; 3. Qf7#. Notice how the queen and rook
protect each other while providing overpo-
wering pressure against the king.
(b) If Black instead replies to 1. Rxg7+ with
NxR, now what? White then would have 2.
Qf7+, where the queen draws protection from
the rook on f1 and therefore pushes the king
into the corner in the same way we saw in the
previous position. After Black’s Kh8, White
has two attackers trained on f8 against one
defender (Black’s rook). Now 3. Qf8+, RxQ;
RxR#.
The important point to see from the outset of
the position is that if White can get his queen
onto f7 it can force the king to h8 and then
drop to the back rank to participate in a mat-
ing attack there—a useful idea to have in
mind anytime you have a rook and queen both
aimed at f7 or a comparable square.
Dg986: White to move
Dg986: You see that White has two heavy
pieces aimed at d8 but that the square is de-
fended twice as well. Since one of the defend-
ers is the king, think about forcing it back
under its pawn cover where it can’t defend d8.
The natural way to do this would be with a
diagonal attack like 1. Bh3+. But here that
move fails because Black can interpose pawns
on the g and f files. Yet you still should notice
that White has two pieces—that same bishop
and also a knight—trained on a square adja-
cent to Black’s king: b7. So the check 1.
Bxb7+ has to be considered, as any check
would be, and you see that it forces Black to
play Kb8. That move changes things, of
course, as d8 now is guarded just once. White
mates with the usual two-against-one sacri-
fice: 2. Qd8+, RxQ; RxR#. The lesson is to
see that there is more than one way to drive a
king back from a mating square it is trying to
protect. A check of any sort may do it.
Dg987: White to move
Dg987: Here is another illustration of a by-
now familiar point. Black’s king looks secure
if you focus only on White’s queen and rook;
if White plays 1. QxQ+, Black replies KxQ
and then his king defends e8. But if you are
attentive to all of your resources you see the
knight powerfully placed on g4 and able to
give check on h6 or f6. The f6 square is
guarded by Black’s knight, but h6 is more
vulnerable. 1. Nh6+ would require Black to
either move his king to h8 or to play g7xN.
Consider both:
(a) If Black plays Kh8, his king has been dri-
ven back from f8 and the queen that sits on
that square; so now White mates with QxQ.
(b) If Black instead plays g7xN, this opens his
pawn cover and invites consideration of a
check on the newly available file: Rg3+. This
forces Kh8, as Black’s queen is pinned. Now
again White mates with QxQ.
It’s another study in the variety of ways a
king can be driven into a corner so that it can't
participate in its own defense.
Dg988: White to move
Dg988: The question this time is whether
White can mate. He has the telltale combina-
tion of a rook and queen aimed at f7, suggest-
ing a mating sequence that would start with
Qxf7+. If Black plays his king to h8, White
mates immediately with Qxg7 (a queen and
rook on the seventh rank are fearsome). So
Black is unlikely to do that, and will instead
play RxQ. Carefully assess what comes next.
White has two rooks on the d-file, so Rd8+
suggests itself. Black can reply either with the
capture RxR or with the interposition Rf8:
(a) If Black plays RxR, White follows up im-
mediately with RxR+, getting mileage out of
his doubled rooks. Now Black would be
forced to interpose with Rf8. This might look
secure, but when you see that the f8 rook
would be defended just by its king you should
think about ways to drive the king back, as
with Bc4+. This forces Kh8, and now RxR is
checkmate.
(b) If Black instead replies to Rd8+ by inter-
posing with Rf8 right away, however, the
analysis is crucially different. Black still has
two rooks on the back rank and White has no
effective way to use his two rooks against
them. He still can use his bishop to push
Black’s king to h8, but then RxRf8 is met by
Black with RxRf8. So the mate fails, and the
initial move Qxf7+ should not be played.
The important moral is to be careful in think-
ing through each of your opponent’s possible
replies. If any of them work you mustn’t go
forward in hopes that he will make a mistake.
Assume he will play his best move. Keeping
all the possible replies straight can be tricky,
of course, but when your moves are checks it
is less difficult. Just be thorough then in ask-
ing whether he has a capture, or an interposi-
tion, or must move his king—for those are his
only three options in reply.
6.1.09.
Combining Back with Forks.
Rank Themes
In our earlier studies of various tactical
themes we often saw them combined with
back rank mates: queen forks or discovered
attacks, for example, in which a loose piece
and a mating square on the back rank were the
two targets threatened at once. But it still will
help round out our consideration of back rank
mates to reconsider those ways that the con-
cepts studied here can be put together with the
concepts we have examined elsewhere.
Some general points: think of back rank pat-
terns not just as ways to mate but as ways to
threaten mate that can be combined with oth-
er threats to create double attacks. The clues
to look for are a king stuck behind its pawns
or otherwise trapped, an absence or shortage
of defenders on the back rank, and a piece
you can aim there—perhaps as part of a bat-
tery with a piece already so aimed. When
these indications are present, there are a few
ways they can contribute to forks even if the
mating idea itself fails:
a. A piece tied down to guard duty on the
back rank may be unable to guard other
squares within its reach—squares from which
you can launch forks.
b. If there is an enemy piece preventing the
back rank mate from succeeding, it might
itself make a good target for one end of a
fork, just as a loose or pinned piece would.
c. If the mating idea fails because your pieces
get taken when they reach the back rank, it
sometimes may be possible to inflict a fork at
the end of the sequence against pieces that
have been left loose there.
d. Sometimes you will have no threat against
the back rank but you can make one, perhaps
by moving your queen to an open file that
leads there. Of course this gives your oppo-
nent a move he can spend defusing the threat.
But the time he spends doing this gives you a
move to use capturing something else. In oth-
er words, a back rank mate can be just another
mating threat at one end of a fork—usually a
queen fork.
Dg989: White to move
Dg989: In the example White has an aggres-
sively placed knight, and a look at its moves
turns up a fork of Black’s king and queen
with 1. Nf7. The fork seems to fail because f7
is protected by Black’s rook, but then you
play through Black’s capture RxN and see
that it removes the rook from the back rank,
leaving Black’s king bereft of defenders there.
So analyze the follow-up—and be careful.
The move of White’s knight will have opened
the e-file for the natural Re8+. It would be
easy to imagine that Black now plays Rf8, a
useless interposition that gives White RxR#
(or that Black plays Bf8 with the same result).
Not quite, however, for f8 will be guarded
both by Black’s bishop and by the rook then
on f7.
All this need not dissuade you; it only should
cause you to build backwards and start by
taking out Black’s bishop with 1. QxB, c7xQ.
Now comes the knight fork Nf7+, where
Black must forfeit his queen or play RxN and
be mated a move later. Assuming he lets go of
the queen, White nets a piece with the se-
quence (the bishop he took at the outset)—
and of course this is better than just winning
the exchange with 1. Nf7+, RxN; 2. BxR.
At bottom this is an example of motif (a) de-
scribed above. The rook on f8 turns out to be
overworked; its responsibilities on the back
rank prevent it from guarding f7, which
serves as a forking square for White.
Dg990: Black to move
Dg990: Look at how Black’s rook attacks f1
and would mate there except for the protec-
tion provided to the square by White’s queen.
When a queen single-handedly guards against
mate it can become a vulnerable target in its
own right. Targets in turn call for investiga-
tion of forks and other tactical strikes to try to
win them. In this case Black can pressure both
the queen and the rook on g5 with Qd2. From
there he threatens QxQ#, and if White plays
QxQ his defender of the first rank is gone and
Black mates with Rf1. White can avoid the
mate by playing Qg1—but then he loses the
rook to QxR. The position amounts to a sim-
ple queen fork of a loose piece and a key de-
fender of the back rank, but to see it you have
to be aware of both ideas.
This is an example of the second pattern—
(b)—mentioned in the previous frame.
White's queen is committed to the first rank to
prevent mate there; the piece therefore is im-
mobile and becomes a good target for a fork.
Black just needs to find a loose piece to go
with it, which leads him to the rook on g5.
Dg991: White has a battery on the d-file and
Black’s back rank is pretty weak; he has no
defenders there, though his queen protects
several of its squares. White thus contem-
plates 1. Qd8+; and if Black replies QxQ,
then RxQ#. But one must consider all of an
opponent’s possible responses, and here
Black has a better one with the interposition
1. ...Qf8. Does this spoil White’s plan? No,
because he remains mindful not just of mate
but of other tactical goals, such as the creation
of forks. Thus White can go ahead with 2.
QxQ+, KxQ and then play 3. Rd8+—a fork of
Black’s king and loose bishop that leaves
White with a piece to show for the sequence.
Dg991: White to move
Consider this an example of motif (c) de-
scribed at the start of this section: the back
rank mate fails, but it forces Black to arrange
his pieces for a rook fork on the back rank
that wins material for White.
Dg992: White to move
Dg992: Now the same position just consi-
dered—but a couple of moves earlier so you
can see how it developed. There are two clues
here, neither of them obvious but both visible
with careful tracking. The first is the ex-
change of minor pieces White can initiate
with 1. NxB, RxN. Anytime you can perform
an exchange like this you want to consider its
consequences; in this case it would leave a
loose rook where the Black bishop now
stands. A loose piece is an important target,
so naturally you look for ways to attack it and
create trouble elsewhere at the same time—as
with 2. Qd2, which both goes after the rook
and creates a battery on the d-file and so
threatens 3. Qd8+, QxQ; 4. RxQ#. It's a clas-
sic case of the last pattern—(d)—in the
scheme set out a few frames ago: White com-
bines a threat against a loose piece with a
threat against Black's back rank.
your bishop moves you have two heavy piec-
es aimed at c8 and the square is guarded just
once, by the Black bishop on b7. Since this is
a mate threat your bishop will have a free
move, and you therefore look for a Black
piece on a dark square that the bishop can
attack. The knight on h4 is loose and thus
makes a perfect target.

After seeing this much it might be tempting to

conclude that the idea works, but that's still
premature; for ask whether Black has any way
to address both threats in the fork. This is
especially important when his queen is avail-
able for defense, as it has the versatility to
defuse widely separated threats at the same Dg993: White to move
time. In this case Black can play his queen to
e7, where it guards the rook on b4 and also White plays 1. Bg3; if Black doesn’t move the
defends against the back rank threat by pre- knight, White takes it next move. If Black
paring to interpose at f7. And now we arrive does move his knight, White mates with 2.
at the position in the previous frame. White Qc8+, BxQ; 3. Rc8#.
turns from motif (d) to motif (c), finishing
with a rook fork. The threat of a back rank
mate drives everything in the sequence,
though the mate never actually occurs.

Taken together, these last two positions are a

good example of the style of thought you
want to cultivate: looking constantly for
double threats and for exchanges that loosen
pieces to make the double threats work; and
then looking beyond the first double threat to
the next one, including other loose pieces,
mating ideas, and so forth. These longer posi- Dg994: Black to move
tions are worth going over until the logic of
them flows quickly. Dg994: Spotting the idea for Black here
should be easy. You just have to recognize
6.1.10. that the knight on d6 is not so much “in the
Combining Back with Discoveries. way” of the d8 rook as masking it and creat-
Rank Themes ing the kernel of a discovery. White’s back
rank is weak, as d1 has no defenders; the
queen on f2 looks ready to help, but then you
Dg993: We turn to intersections between the
see that it’s pinned. So if the d6 knight moves,
back rank mating theme and the discovered
Black threatens RxR#. This means that Black
attack. In this first case your eye should be
has something close to a discovered check
drawn to the battery of queen and rook on the
and that his knight has a more or less free
open c-file; then you see a bishop on c7 and
move. He plays Ne4 and then takes the queen
realize you have the kernel of a discovery. If
after White fends off the mate threat. Notice
that this “fending off” has to be done careful-
ly:
(a) QxQ is not one of White’s options; RxR
then mates for Black, since his knight now
seals off f2 as a flight square for White’s
king.
(b) If White moves his h2 pawn to h3 to
create a flight square, Black has QxQ+ fol-
lowed by Qg3+ and then RxR#, with the
queen sealing the White king onto the back
rank.
(c) If White plays RxR, Black has QxQ+, then
Qe1# after White’s king moves to h1.
(d) What White can do in reply to Ne4 is
move his queen to d4. Black does not then
capture it; since it is pinned he attacks it with
a pawn, e6-e5. Then White can play f3xN,
and Black answers e5xQ—winning a queen
for a knight.
Dg995: Black to move
Dg995: You can start by spotting the battery
for Black, this time on the c-file; and once
more you see a knight on the same file—an
opportunity, not an impediment. True, White
has a queen on c2 that would block the path
of your heavy pieces to the back rank. But
you play with the discovery anyway and see
that the knight can give check with Nd3. This
invites Black to play QxN—but then the
queen no longer blocks the file, and Black
mates on c1 because he has two heavy pieces
aimed the square against one Black defender
of it (the rook on a1). If White instead moves
his king to d1 he gets mated even more quick-
ly with QxQ+. Yet White must address the
check somehow, and since it is given with a
knight there is no way to interpose; all that’s
left is e2xN, forfeiting the queen to QxQ.
This position can be understood as calling for
a straightforward discovered attack against a
loose queen; but of course you have to see the
back rank mating possibility to grasp why
White can’t put out the fire easily with QxN.
Dg996: White to move
Dg996: There are several tactical clues on the
board for White: the battery of rooks on the e-
file; the kernel of a discovery created by the
queen on c4 and the knight in front of it on
d5; and the knight fork White can execute
with Nc7. The key is to see how these ideas
relate to one another. Imagine the forking
move Nc7 and you notice that it also unleash-
es the discovered threat Qxf7#. Black can
avoid this by playing QxQ, and that would
quash White’s idea if all he then had was
NxR, carrying out the fork. But still linking
the various patterns on the board together,
notice that Nc7 also forks the e8 square
against which White exerts pressure with his
rooks. Thus if Black replies to 1. Nc7 with
QxQ, White then has 2. Re8+, RxR; 3. RxR#
as the knight guards the rook.
This position combines three themes: the back
rank mate, the knight fork, and the discovered
attack. The crucial point to see is that White
has two rooks lined up against a mating
square, e8, and that Black guards the square
twice. By adding another attacker against the
square (his knight), White creates a mating
threat on e8—while unmasking still another
mate threat in Qxf7#. The latter possibility is
what prevents Black from saving the day with
NxN.
A theme to take away from these positions: a
weak back rank can make a fine target for
either of the pieces in a discovered attack. The
attackers can land on the back rank directly;
they also can create useful, distracting threats
by adding pressure against a contested square
on the back rank, thus threatening mate.
6.1.11.
Combining Back with Pins.
Rank Themes
Dg997: Black to move
Dg997: And now some intersections between
our back rank patterns and the pin. Here
Black can play RxQ, but White’s reply NxR+
is a nasty fork that wins the exchange when
the smoke clears. So back off and assess the
board. Your thinking about a position always
should include attention to the enemy king’s
position and any vulnerabilities in it. Here
that means seeing that White’s king is trapped
on h1 and ready to be mated if you can drop a
heavy piece onto the back rank. You can't do
that yet because your queen and rook are on
the d-file, which White blocks with a pro-
tected pawn on d3. But don’t stop there; no-
tice that this means the d3 pawn is pinned,
since if it moves off of the d-file Black has
Qd1+ and then White only can offer the use-
less interposition Qf1 (resulting in QxQ# for
Black). The natural way to exploit a pinned
pawn is by taking something it protects, so
Black plays QxN.
Or does he? Before plunging forward with a
move like QxN, one must take due care to
ensure that the position it leaves behind is
safe. The good news after QxN is that Black
threatens mate with Qe1, so White has no
time to take the rook that has been left loose
on e6; rather, he has to evacuate his queen, as
it is now hanging. But notice that since White
is not himself in check, he has the liberty to
give checks of his own—and with a loose
rook lying around you have to make sure
White’s checks won’t amount to anything.
Let’s see: 1. …Qxe4; 2. Qh8+, Kd7; 3. Qg7+,
Kc8; 4. Qf8+, Kb7; 5. Qe7+, Kb6—and now
Black’s king is safe. White has at last made it
possible for himself to play QxR, but it’s no
help because it’s not a check and thus gives
Black time to mate on the spot with Qe1. So
QxN works here for Black. Realize, though,
that all this is a little delicate. If Black plays
4. …Kc7 instead of Kb7, he blunders away
the game: now White’s 5. QxR+ is a check
that leaves Black no time for Qe1. Black does
have the consolation of recapturing with KxQ,
but since his rook is off the board White now
is free to play d3xQ. All the pieces are gone.
Dg998: White to move
Dg998: An inspection of your checks and
their aftermath turns up 1. RxN+, KxR. The
important point to see about the king’s new
position is that it is trapped on the back rank
by the White pawn on b6. And Black’s back
rank is bereft of defenders. This means White
probably mates if he can get a heavy piece
onto the back rank—which in turn means that
Black’s f6 pawn is pinned, since if it moves
off the f-file White has Rf8+ and then mates
after Black tries useless interpositions with
his queen and rook. The natural way to take
advantage of a pinned pawn is by capturing
something it protects, which White does with
QxR+—and now Black cannot avoid some
version of the mate just described. The net of
this is that White wins a piece, since if Black
sees all this coming he will reply to the initial
RxN+ by moving his king rather than recap-
turing with it.
The key idea in this position is that if Black’s
king moves to b8, his pawn on f6 suddenly is
pinned to his back rank. This is hard to see at
first because it seems strange to think of a
pawn being pinned to an empty square. These
positions thus present an important general
idea to contemplate: if you can manage to get
the enemy king trapped on the back rank, no-
tice that this may turn your heavy pieces into
monsters—and pin whatever enemy pawns or
pieces block their path.
Dg999: Black to move
Dg999: Black’s situation looks rather despe-
rate: his queen is about to be taken, and if it
moves White is posed to mate with Rxg7 and
a couple of simple follow-up moves. Black
has no checks to give, but it always is worth
looking at any mating threats that might be
available. You should be especially conscious
here of the weakness of White’s back rank:
his king is trapped in the usual way and has
no defenders at all. Black thus wonders
whether he can get one of his two heavy piec-
es there or at least threaten to do so in a way
that will win something else. For now the
implication is that the d4 pawn is pinned. The
other point to notice is the relative pin that
Black imposes on White’s rook: if the rook
moves, White loses his queen. The way to
exploit these ideas is by putting a piece en
prise to the pinned rook and also to the d4
pawn—and in a position to mate on the back
rank. All this Black does with Rc5, threaten-
ing Rc1#. Think about White’s reply options:
(a) He can’t interpose anything, so focus on
captures or ways he might make his king sa-
fer.
(b) He can't capture the rook with with d4xR;
this permits Qd1#; since as we know the d-
pawn also is pinned to the back rank.
(c) He can capture the rook with RxR. This
forfeits the queen to QxQ, but still is his best
bet.
(d) White’s last option in reply to Rc5 is to
move his g-pawn to g3 to give his king a
flight square. This loses a whole rook, as
Black then plays RxR; if White replies QxR,
Black has QxQ and his queen is the only
piece left on the board (setting aside the
kings, of course).
6.1.12.
Combining Back with Removal
Rank Themes of the Guard.
Dg1000: White to move
Dg1000: Finally, some positions illustrating
interactions between back rank patterns and
the removal of the guard. In this first example
you see your two rooks on open files and im-
agine each of them penetrating to Black’s
back rank. Rd8 would mate with support from
the bishop on a5, except that Black guards the
mating square with his own bishop on f6. Rh8
also would mate—again, except for the f6
bishop. That train of thought naturally leads
to the conclusion that Black’s bishop is over-
worked, and that playing both rook moves
might succeed where neither would alone.
Starting with Rd8+ fails because then Black’s
bishop ends up on d8 and blocks the check
from your rook on the h-file. But 1. Rh8+
forces BxR, and then leaves behind a loose
square where Rd8# can be played.
Dg1001: White to move
Dg1001: Your eye should start at Black’s
back rank since you are close to mating with
RxR; only the queen far away on a3 prevents
this. So turn to the queen and you ask how
you can take advantage of its limited mobili-
ty—whether you can attack it, and whether it
protects anything else you might attack. You
see the rook on b2 that the queen ostensibly
protects and so think about ways of going
after it. 1. Qc1 isn’t the answer because Black
has too many good replies. He can defend the
rook with his c-pawn, or better still can simp-
ly play RxR on his back rank.
But notice that 1. Qc3 is an entirely different
matter. Now White’s queen attacks Black’s
queen as well as his rook; if Black plays RxR
on his back rank, White has QxQ. Yet if
Black instead plays QxQ he is mated right
away with RxR. Black does have the option
of Qc5, where the queen moves to safety and
still protects f8—but now White wins a rook
with 2. RxR+, QxR; 3. QxR. (Presumably you
see why starting with 2. QxR is no good.) The
back rank mate never does come to fruition,
but the pressure created on Black by the threat
of it causes material losses elsewhere. We see
again how even a mate threat that doesn’t
quite work can pay dividends.
Dg1002: The pawn on h6 seals off g7 and
thus traps Black’s king on the back rank. But
a casual look at this position suggests that
Black has himself covered: if White plays
RxR, Black has QxR; if White plays QxQ,
Black has RxQ—and either way the remain-
ing Black piece prevents mate.
Dg1002: White to move
The clue to White's solution is that Black’s
queen and rook depend on each other. That
means both pieces have a limited range of
motion, and that White can experiment with
putting pieces on squares that either of them
are supposed to protect. So he looks for other
mating ideas and thinks again of the pawn on
h6. If White could put his queen on g7 he
would mate there, so he starts in that direction
with 1. Qf6. Black can only avoid Qg7# by
playing QxQ, but then White mates anyway
with RxR.
Dg1003: Black to move
Dg1003: Black attacks the f1 square twice,
but the square is protected twice as well by
White’s queen and rook. The solution? A
simple threat against one of the guards with
b7-b5. If the queen captures the b-pawn, it
gets taken by the c-pawn; if the queen moves
anywhere else along the diagonal leading to
off of that diagonal, Black mates on f1. Nor
can White's rook be of assistance, since Black
mates if the rook moves off the back rank or
moves to f1. White's best reply to the pawn
thrust probably is h2-h3, forfeiting the queen
but at least creating a flight square for his
king and staving off mate for now. The point:
pieces that prevent mate, including a back
rank mate, are vulnerable. Try forking them;
try attacking what they protect; try making
threats from squares they guard; try threaten-
ing them directly.
Dg1004: Black to move
Dg1004: With White’s king stuck and the d-
file open, Black naturally would like to mate
with RxR. The move is prevented by White’s
f1, it likewise gets taken; if the queen moves
queen on g4, so make that queen your focus:
look for anything else it protects or any way
you can harass it, recognizing that its range of
motion is limited by its defensive duties. You
also want to be aware of any loose pieces on
the board, such as White’s rook on c2 here;
such pieces make good targets for double at-
tacks, and a largely immobilized queen makes
for another. Black therefore plays 1. Qe4,
forking queen and rook. If White plays QxQ,
Black mates with RxR (White just has a use-
less interposition).
Are we done? Not quite, because you have to
ask whether White has an answer: a place he
can move his queen where it has protection
and can protect both the mating square d1 and
the forked rook on c2. As it happens, such a
square exists in e2. But if White plays Qe2
Black has 2. ...QxQ, and after White’s recap-
ture RxQ Black plays 3. RxR+ and mates next
move (again White has a useless interposi-
tion). So White’s best reply to Qe4 is to move
his queen to f3 where it continues to guard
against mate, and thus to forfeit the rook on
c2 to QxR. (If Black instead forces an ex-
change of queens, White recaptures with his
g-pawn and now his king has a flight square.)
 Other Classic Mating Ideas.
6.2.01.
Introduction.
You know it’s good practice to castle: it
brings your rook out from the corner and it
puts your king safely behind a wall of pawns.
Unfortunately your opponent knows this too;
and if he does castle, how are you supposed to
get at his king? Every game is different, but
there are two general answers to that ques-
tion. One, which we just examined, is to at-
tack along the back rank, using the pawns in
front of the enemy king to your advantage as
they prevent it from escaping your rook or
queen. The other general answer is to attack
from the top and from an angle at the same
time.
There is a large family of mating patterns that
involve this latter principle: establishing two
lines of pressure, one diagonal and one vertic-
al, from which the castled king cannot escape.
One of the lines of pressure typically is ex-
erted by a bishop aimed into the king’s cor-
ner; the second, vertical line of pressure is
exerted by a rook or queen along the h-file or
g-file. The rook or queen may end up on a
square next to the enemy king or may do their
work from a distance. As we shall see, some-
times a knight or a second bishop or even a
pawn can do the work that normally would be
done by one of those other pieces just men-
tioned; but the easiest way to get started is
just to think in terms of combining diagonal
(bishop) and vertical (queen/rook) pressure in
various ways.
The usual challenge in these mates is to estab-
lish those two lines of pressure by tearing
open the enemy king’s pawn cover with a
sacrifice. The castled king usually starts with
a nice row of three pawns in front of it. If one
of those pawns steps forward even one
square, it creates a vulnerability: an open di-
agonal leading into the king’s position. This is
especially true of the g-pawn and f-pawn, as
in their starting positions they block the di-
agonals leading to h8 and g8 respectively. So
when a pawn in front of the castled king
moves, consider it an invitation to place a
bishop so that it runs through the square the
pawn used to occupy.
Then to create the complementary vertical
pressure you need to open a file leading to the
enemy king. This means the enemy pawn oc-
cupying the file must be removed so that your
rook or queen will have a straight shot toward
the same square or sector that your bishop
attacks. There are various ways to do this.
The important point for now is the overall
goal: disrupting the pawn cover in front of the
king to allow coordinated attacks against its
position.
Many of these mating patterns are beautiful
and have storied pedigrees, being named after
inventors or popularizers who lived long ago.
The explanation of each will start with a ske-
letal example showing how it looks with the
non-essential pieces cleared off the board.
The key ideas and squares are identified,
usually from White’s side; thus we might
speak of the importance of the f7 square, with
the understanding that if you are playing the
Black pieces you use the square comparable
to f7 from your side (i.e., f2). Sometimes we
will avoid this confusion by referring to the
“king’s bishop”—the bishop that starts the
game to the right of your king. If you are
playing White, this is your light-squared bi-
shop; if you are playing Black, it is your dark-
squared bishop.
One more bit of jargon: we often will speak of
“heavy pieces,” which (in case you have for-
gotten) means either a rook or queen. It is
convenient to have a way to refer to those
pieces without distinguishing between them;
there are many mating functions that can be
filled equally by either a queen or rook, and
which you use will depend on which is avail-
able to you.
 6.2.02.
Anderssen's Mate and Kindred Spirits:
Mating on h8.
The first idea we explore involves putting a
heavy piece (a queen or rook) on h8, where it
mates with diagonal protection from the
king’s bishop or perhaps from a pawn on g7.
The diagram to the left shows in skeletal form
the position you are trying to reach. The rook
on h8 could as easily be a queen, but when it
is a rook the division of labor between the
attacking pieces is particularly elegant: the
rook covers the light squares the bishop can’t
reach; the bishop covers the dark squares and
protects the rook. Black is mated.
Dg1005:
Dg1005: There are three general elements
needed to create this pattern:
a) An enemy king more or less stuck in the
corner because f7 and perhaps f8 are blocked
off as flight squares, usually by the king’s
own pawn and rook as in the diagram. This is
a common state of affairs soon after a player
has castled.
b) An open line to h8 for your bishop because
Black’s g-pawn has moved forward.
c) An open h-file so that one of your heavy
pieces can be dropped to h8. In practice you
often need to make sacrifices to create these
open lines; as a result this pattern and those
that follow frequently require that you start
with two of your pieces available to attack on
the h-file—maybe two of them lined up on
the file from the start of the attack, or one
piece on the h-file and another that can get
there in one move. The first piece is sacrificed
to clear the way for the second, which is
ready to go or arrives shortly, preferably with
check.
“Anderssen’s mate” generally refers to one
particular type of sacrifice used to open up the
h-file for this purpose; it is named after a
famous game of Anderssen's we will see in a
moment. But you also might as well associate
Anderssen with this general point to make it
easier to remember: if you have a diagonal
attack against h8, you should ask whether you
might mate there with a heavy piece—even if
it takes heavy sacrifices to get it done.
Okay, so the particular idea of Anders-
sen’s mate is to achieve the result just de-
scribed by:
a) first sacrificing the other bishop—the
king’s bishop—to open the h-file,
b) moving your queen onto the h-file,
where it gives check,
c) and then dropping your queen down to
h8, where it mates.
Here is an example:
Dg1006: White to move
Dg1006: White sees that his queen is one
move from the h-file and that he can oblite-
rate the pawn on h7 with his bishop; so he
plays 1. Bxh7+, KxB; 2. Qh5+, Kg8; 3. Qh8#.
Black’s moves were entirely forced. Notice
that with Qh5 White seals off g6 as a flight
square.
Examine this diagram until you are clear on
the role each White piece is playing: the f6
bishop holds the long diagonal and supports
the mate on h8; the queen is ready to land on
h8 in two steps; the bishop on e4 goes on a
kamikaze mission to take out the pawn block-
ing the h-file. The two bishops both trained on
the enemy king’s position are a clue that this
pattern may be available.
Dg1007: White to move
Dg1007: The role played by the light-squared
bishop in the previous frame also can be filled
by a rook. The point is the same: taking out
the h7 pawn with a sacrifice that leaves the
way open for an attacker on the h-file. The
diagram illustrates the idea. The important
thing to see is that White’s rook on a1 is
ready to participate in a mating attack; any
rook or queen that can get to the h-file in one
move is poised to help you mate, no matter
how far away they may appear to be. In this
case play goes 1. Rxh7, KxR (otherwise
White plays Rh8#); 2. Rh1+, Kg8; 3. Rh8#.
Notice that in the positions so far Black’s g-
pawn has been moved forward from its origi-
nal square. That is what makes these check-
mates go: once that pawn moves, White’s
dark-squared bishop has an open path to h8;
these patterns then spring to mind. This signa-
ture should help you spot the idea when it is
available; it also should give you pause before
moving your g-pawn.
Dg1008: Once you have diagonal pressure
through g7 to h8, your task is to open the h-
file—in other words, to get rid of the enemy
pawn that obstructs it. We've seen that one
way to eliminate the pawn is to capture it.
Another is to require it to capture, usually by
taking something it protects. Here is an ex-
ample of how the latter approach can be used
to achieve our current mate. In this case the
standard sequence we already saw would
work fine: sacrifice the rook on h7; move the
queen to the h-file; mate on h8.
Dg1008: White to move
But even more efficient is 1. Qxg6+, h7xQ; 2.
Rh8#. This only works when the pawn on f7
is pinned (as it is here) and unable to recap-
ture on g6, or when that pawn is gone and f7
is blocked off to the king by another enemy
piece or by pressure from one of yours. The
broad point of the example, in any event, is
just that there may be more than one way to
open a file.
Dg1009: White to move
Dg1009: In most of the examples so far, every
move in the mating sequence has been a
check. That usually is the best practice be-
cause working with checks limits your oppo-
nent’s options, but it isn't always necessary if
the king’s position is sufficiently constrained.
In this frame White has the characteristic at-
tack against h8 with his bishop, which is pre-
pared to support mate there by a heavy piece
while also sealing off g7 and e7 as flight
squares. So strong is White’s position that he
can force a piece down to h8 even without
checks: 1. Rxh5, g6xR (otherwise White sen’s final position without any sacrifice
mates on h8 next move); 2. Rxh5—and White needed to get there.
again threatens mate next move. Since
Black’s king isn’t in check he has a move he
can use to defend himself, but in this case
Black is powerless to prevent Rh8#; his king
has nowhere to go. In a real position, of
course, he might have interpositions or checks
or other measures of his own he can use to dig
himself out. Or he might not.

Notice, by the way, that the particular se-

quence shown here only works because
White’s bishop is on f6 rather than farther
back on the same diagonal (say, on b2); for if
the bishop were farther back, Black would be
able to move his f7 pawn forward to f6,
blocking the long diagonal and giving his
king a flight square. (Not to mention the pos-
sibility of the king escaping to e7.) As we
shall see, the risk that an f-pawn will move
forward in this way is a frequent nuisance
when you are trying to build a mating attack
on the long diagonal.
Dg1011: White to move
Dg1011: White obviously has great power on
the h-file, but he doesn't quite have the di-
agonal support he needs to mate because
Black’s bishop on d4 blocks the way. If White
plays BxB, Black has QxB. Can Black’s bi-
shop instead be dragged away from its posi-
tion? It can, with a check sacrifice. White
plays Qh8+, requiring the reply BxQ; and
now comes RxBh8#. This is a helpful general
idea: if the path of your bishop to h8 is
blocked only by an enemy bishop on the same
diagonal, it may be possible to eliminate the
bishop with a sacrifice on the mating square.
Even more generally, when you are trying for
a mate that can be executed with a bishop and
rook and you have those pieces available,
your queen may be expendable—and may be
very useful to sacrifice.

Dg1010: White to move

Dg1010: Now some applications and exten-

sions on a full board. Ask what resources you
have available to mate here and see your
queen’s bishop bearing down on the long di-
agonal. This should cause you to think about
ways of coordinating the bishop’s attack with
another along the h-file. The file already is
open, so it’s just a matter of deciding how to
exploit it. White has two pieces he can get Dg1012: Black to move
there in a hurry: his queen and his c3 rook.
You don’t want to use the queen because Dg1012: Right away you (as Black) should
Qh5+ causes Black to capture g6xQ and close notice your two bishops raking White’s king-
the h-file. Instead you play Rh3+, which side position, and your interest especially
forces Kg8; and then comes Rh8# — Anders- should be piqued by the way the light-squared
bishop penetrates all the way to h1. You also
have a rook on h8. The question is how to use
these resources. (a) You need to open the h-
file so that you can get pressure going verti-
cally as well as diagonally. (b) Bxg3 is one
natural idea, hoping to draw White’s h-pawn
over to the g-file as it recaptures and thus al-
low you to play Rh1#. But White can recap-
ture with his f-pawn instead, ruining every-
thing (for then his queen protects h2). (c) So
try taking out the h-pawn directly with your
rook: Rxh2. If White plays KxR, Black has an
open file and diagonal and is ready to mate.
He needs to get a fresh piece onto the h-file
and has two ways to do it, both of which are
fine: Qh6+ or Rh8+. White’s king is forced to
g1, and now Black mates with a heavy piece
on h1.
It always is important to ask what happens if
your opponent declines to accept your sacri-
fices. Here you start with Rxh2, to which
White doesn’t have to reply KxR. True, he is
threatened with Rh1#, but he has another way
to address this. He can block the diagonal by
interposing a pawn: f2-f3. The pawn is pro-
tected twice, so this does frustrate Black’s
mate threat; but by opening the second rank it
allows Black to play RxQ for nothing. (Black
also ends up with an eventual forced mate; he
has too much unanswered firepower directed
at the White king’s position. But it is enough
for now to see the big material gain.) A les-
son: when you size up a risk that your oppo-
nent will interpose a pawn, carefully examine
the side consequences and especially any
lines that the pawn move will open.
Dg1013: White to move
Dg1013: White can’t quite mate with his
queen on g7 because although his knight at-
tacks the square, Black’s knight defends it.
Any other ideas? The open state of the long
dark diagonal should catch your attention,
even though the path of White’s bishop to h8
is blocked by his own rook—for perhaps the
rook can be evacuated. Meanwhile White
would need to pair the bishop with an attack
down the h-file. He has his queen there al-
ready, but since the file is closed he really
needs two heavy pieces: one to sacrifice on h7
and another to follow up and drop to h8. Con-
ceivably the rook on e5 could do the job, es-
pecially since White needs to move it anyway
to clear the bishop’s path. So then the next
obstacle is the knight on f5, which obstructs
the rook’s path to h5. But we know how to
remove our pieces when they get in our own
way: with a threat, and preferably with check.
White thus can start Ne7+. This forces Kh8 or
QxN; either way, White has gotten his knight
out of the way. Next comes the sacrifice
Qxh7+ to open the file, and Black has to reply
KxQ. Now White finishes Black off with
Rh5+, giving check and uncovering his bi-
shop’s attack down the long diagonal—and
doing it safely because the Black pawn on g6
now is pinned. Black moves his king to g8
and White mates with his rook on h8.
Study the train of thought in this position with
some care. It nicely shows how to work
backwards to build a mating sequence. You
start with an idea, then consider methodically
about how to remove the obstacles to it. Here
the germ of the idea was provided by the
movement of Black’s g-pawn and the open
dark diagonal that resulted. From there you
look for ways to attack with two pieces on the
h-file, and the rest is engineering. The pin of
the g6 pawn at the end is easy to overlook if
you haven't seen it before, but now you know
to ask whether the king's movements in this
sort of case might cause a pawn nearby to
become unexpectedly paralyzed.
Dg1014: Now let’s have a look at some fam-
ous positions where spectacular moves were
made to reach the general pattern we are ex-
amining here. We begin with consecutive
positions from the game Blackburne-
Schwartz (1881). Here White plays 1. Bf6,
preparing the possibility of mate in two dif-
ferent ways. With his bishop now on the long
diagonal he threatens to play Qh6 and then
mate with the queen a move later on g7 or h8.
He also has the more remote threat of pushing
his rooks down the h-file in the manner de-
scribed a little earlier: 2. Rxh5, g6xR; then 3.
Rxh5 again with 4. Rh8# coming next. The
rooks can’t quite carry this off by themselves,
because after White’s second rook captures
on h5 Black can interpose his knight on g7
and so block the White bishop’s path to h8.
But then White has another resource: again he
can bring in his queen at h6 and mate a move
later.
Dg1014: White to move
All these are just ideas. The point is that with
Bf6 White gives himself a powerful bishop on
the long diagonal with three pieces that might
be able to pitch in on the h-file if Black
doesn't respond adequately. You should not
assume that even so strong a player as Black-
burne, one of the greats of the 19th century,
thought he knew for sure how his opponent
would reply. More likely he saw that he had a
threat that improved his position without
creating any problems, so he played it.
Black’s best reply to 1. Bf6 probably is to
retreat his own dark-squared bishop to f8.
This way it attacks h6 and so prevents
White’s queen from landing there; and if
White tries to blast his way to h8 by repeated-
ly capturing with on h5 with his rooks, Black
has the simple Bg7, blocking the path of
White's bishop to h8 and thus stopping the
mate. Be7 is another plausible move for Black
here, directly attacking White’s troublesome
bishop on f6.
Black replied to Bf6 with a different move
that also seems strong: Nf4+. This forks
White's king and the loose bishop on d3, and
with plenty of protection from the bishop on
d6 and the queen behind it. The move also
adds a reinforcement to the h5 pawn, giving
Black another way to capture on that square if
White tries to force his way down the file
with his two rooks. Finally the knight also
blocks the White queen’s path to h6 (and with
protection from the bishop on d6). So what
would you play next as White? Read on.
Dg1015: White to move
Dg1015: We have arrived at this position.
Since Black’s knight has given check and has
protection it naturally is tempting for White to
reach for the king in search of a safe place to
move it. But before playing defense, consider
afresh White’s mating resources. He still has
his two rooks on the h-file; only the knight
prevents 1. Rxh5, g6xR; 2. Rxh5 and then a
clear path to mate on h8—for notice that with
the knight moved to f4, Black no longer has
anything that can be interposed on g7. Since
the Black knight is making trouble in a few
different ways, White plays the astonishing 2.
QxN. The move is famous because it gave
away the queen for the sake of a forced mate
that is not obvious but nevertheless is indis-
putable. Black recaptures 2. ...BxQ, and now
there is no stopping White: 3. Rxh5, g6xR; 4.
Rxh5, Bh6 (a useless interposition of the bi-
shop from f4); 5. RxB, Qh2+ (more useless-
ness); 6. KxQ and now Black has nothing left
to throw at the h-file to prevent Rh8# next
move.
No other moves Black might make after
White’s QxN fare any better. If he declines
the sacrifice of White’s queen and instead
tries Bf8, he is too late; White brings his
rooks down the h-file in the familiar way.
Blackburne’s sacrifice of his queen was a
shocker and made this game a matter of le-
gend. In addition to its beauty as an illustra-
tion of offensive technique, there are defen-
sive lessons you might take from the position
as well. In retrospect you can see why Nf4 for
Black was not a good move after all, even if
you found the exact consequences of it hard
to discern. If your opponent is mounting a
possible mating attack (e.g., driving a bishop
through to h8 and arranging heavy pieces on
the h-file), prudence suggests keeping some
pieces where they can protect the squares next
to your king. Here Black’s knight already was
contributing to the defensive effort while on
e6; if more defensive help was needed—and it
was—Black would have done better by add-
ing another piece to the protection of those
squares, as with one of the bishop moves de-
scribed with the previous diagram. The re-
moteness of Black’s queen from his king’s
position is especially regrettable, as the queen
makes a superb defender. There was nothing
Black could do about this once the trouble
started, but there is a general point to observe:
these mates tend to be hard to carry off
against an opponent whose queen is near his
king.
Dg1016: White to move
Dg1016: Now a well-known moment from
Anderssen-Zukertort (1869). The most impor-
tant feature of White’s position is his pawn on
g7. It can function there a little like a bishop,
ready to support mate on h8 and sealing off
the Black king’s flight squares there and on
f8. It has protection from the rook on g3; in-
deed, if it were a bishop White would mate
quickly by withdrawing it and discovering
check. Anyway, the question here, as in the
previous studies, is whether White can get a
heavy piece onto h8. As resources for the
purpose he has his queen on h6 and two rooks
on the g-file. Do you see anything else he can
use? There also is the bishop on d3, which is
aimed at h7 and can attack the square if the
pawn on f5 steps forward to unmask it.
So White experiments with ideas. He starts 1.
Qxh7+, KxQ—a massive sacrifice, but when
you are trying for mate you don’t care. Now
he imagines 2. Rh3+, and then 2. …Kg8, 3.
Rh8#. That sequence would work fine were it
not for Black’s queen on d6, which can inter-
pose on h6 after White plays Rh3+. White
still can force an eventual mate from the re-
sulting position, but it gets messy, so Anders-
sen did it differently. With his second move
he played the marvelous discovered check f5-
f6+—using the bishop to force the king back
to g8, and blocking the Black queen’s path to
the h-file with his pawn. Let’s look at the re-
sulting position....
Dg1017: White to move
Dg1017: White’s goal remains getting a
heavy piece—now it will have to be a rook—
onto h8. Rh3 doesn’t work; before White can
follow up with Rh8, Black has a chance to
play Rxf6 and create a flight square for his
king on f7. The problem is that White is be-
hind a tempo. In the positions like this we saw
earlier in skeletal form, the king generally
starts on the h-file; then when White plays a
move like Rh3 he checks Black’s king, the
king moves to g8, and Rh8# follows. Here
Black’s king is ahead of the game, already on
g8 where it can't be checked. What to do? The
solution is to make a sacrifice to drag the king
back to the h-file. Anderssen thus played
Bh7+ and Black was forced to reply KxB.
Now we have the needed pattern: White can
play his rook to h3 with check, Black moves
his king to g8 with no time to create a flight
square by moving his rook, and White finish-
es with Rh8#.
This is another of the most celebrated combi-
nations ever played. It illustrates again the
scale of the imagination and sacrifice that
may be required to achieve mate. It more par-
ticularly is another study in the dogged crea-
tion of the mate on h8 that we associate with
Anderssen. Notice again how in the final po-
sition Black’s queen was taken out of the ac-
tion, leaving Black with no pieces defending
the sensitive squares near the king. (A knight
in the vicinity would have come in handy.)
White’s bishop check toward the end also is a
frequently useful idea: the sacrifice of a piece
to decoy the king out onto a file where it can
then be checked by another piece until it fi-
nally is mated.
Adolf Anderssen, the player of the White
pieces, was a German chessplayer of the 19th
century, and was considered for a number of
years to be the best in the world. He also was
the winner of two other games that are among
the most famous ever played—his “Immortal
Game” against Kieseritzky (1851) and the
“Evergreen Game” against Dufresne (1852).
Both contain sparkling combinations and
mates; if you enjoy playing over old games,
you can find those two in any number of an-
thologies.
gram to the left, where Black is mated, the
king can be on g8 or h8 and the mate works
either way; but notice that if the king is on h8
White does have a problem to worry about:
Black can interpose a pawn on f6, interrupting
the White bishop’s path and doing it with
protection from the rook on f8. We will look
further at this complication later. For conven-
ience let us oversimplify and refer to this pat-
tern as Morphy’s mate, though that term tech-
nically refers to one particular way of reach-
ing this position that we will examine in a
moment.
Dg1018
Dg1018: Notice the relationship between this
pattern and the previous one. The idea there
was to use a bishop to attack a square (h8)
and then also plant a heavy piece on it. Here
the idea is to let the heavy piece do its work
from a distance. From so far away it still can
take care of g8 as a flight square, as shown
here. The rook can't attack h7 as it could if it
were sitting on h8; but in this case Black's
own pawn seals off the square.

6.2.03.
Morphy's Mate.

If you have a bishop bearing down on the

long diagonal leading into the king’s corner,
you may not need to get your queen or rook
onto h8; if the g-file is open (as distinct from
the g-pawn merely being advanced), you can
Dg1019: White to move
use a heavy piece to seal off the file from a
distance, with mate then resulting because the
Dg1019: To use Morphy’s mating pattern a
king is attacked and cannot move. In the dia-
sacrifice often is needed to get the g-file all
the way open—as is the case here. White has
no way to capture the g7 pawn, but we know
more than one way to clear a bothersome
pawn out of the way: take something it pro-
tects. Then a rook check on the g-file will
drive the king into the corner and the bishop
can add the finishing touch. To be more pre-
cise: 1. QxN, requiring g7xQ (otherwise
White mates with Qxg7); then 2. Rg1+, Kh8;
3. Bxf6#. The end position is the same as in
the previous diagram, but with White’s bishop
advanced to f6—and since the bishop is right
in front of the f7 pawn, there is no danger of
Black interposing anything. The sacrifice on
f6 to open the g-file illustrated here, with
mate then delivered roughly as shown, is the
specific idea known as Morphy’s mate.
Dg1020: White to move
Dg1020: There is another common technique
used to open the g-file and reach the same
mating pattern: in the diagram to the right,
White plays 1. Rxg7+. The rook draws pro-
tection from the bishop on the long diagonal,
so the king can’t capture it and is forced into
the corner. Now what? It might seem that
White could mate just by withdrawing his
rook, as this discovers check and seals off the
g-file. But then Black has the reply mentioned
a moment ago: f7-f6. How to prevent this
interposition? There are two ways, both im-
portant to grasp.
(a) White can sacrifice the rook to bring the
king back to g8: he plays 2. Rg8++, KxR; 3.
Ra1-g1#. This sequence is known as
Pillsbury’s mate for a game played by Harry
Pillsbury that we will look at soon. Since the
conclusive check is being delivered along the
file rather than along the diagonal, interposing
a pawn is no help to Black. This raises a gen-
eral point to think about as you study our cur-
rent mating idea. One of the two pieces you
are using will be giving check while the other
seals off the king’s only flight squares. If the
piece that seals off the flight squares can be
captured or if your opponent can interfere
with its path, that isn’t a problem; he has no
time to do those things because his king is in
check by another piece. But if he can do those
things to the piece trying to deliver the fatal
check, it is a problem. If you are careful with
your checks and sacrifices you may be able to
avoid the difficulty by dictating the enemy
king’s position and therefore controlling
which of your pieces is playing which role, as
seen here.
(b) There is another way to finish off Black
after 1. Rxg7+, Kh8. White can take out the
pawn on f7 with the discovered check Rxf7+;
this forces Black to move his king back to g8.
Now White returns his rook to g7, checking
the king again and forcing it again to h8. This
little sequence is a windmill, a theme dis-
cussed in the chapter on rook discoveries. It
has enabled White to reset the position but
without the pawn on f6. Now when White
plays the discovered check Rg6+, Black still
can interpose with Rf6; but this time the in-
terposing piece has no protection, so White
plays Bxf6 and mates. This sequence some-
times is known as Morphy’s concealed mate.
If the names are getting confusing, don’t wor-
ry about them. Worry about the ideas.
These two ways of coping with a threatened
interposition are worth close examination.
The danger that your opponent will use a
pawn to block the path of your bishop is a
common complication in executing one of
these mates using the long diagonal. The two
methods just described come in handy; which
is more helpful will depend on details of your
position.
Dg1021: You see that Black’s king is ex-
posed; there is a conspicuous open line—a
diagonal—leading to its position. White al-
ready has vertical pressure down the g-file. If
he could add diagonal pressure by playing his
queen to f6, he would be able to mate. The
hitch is that Black’s queen guards the mating
square, so fix your attention on ways of mak-
ing that piece uncomfortable. A standard ma-
neuver for the purpose is to stick a rook next
to it, as with Re8. Black’s queen could move
to d6 and still guard f6 from there, but once
White’s rook is on e8 it creates other prob-
lems for Black as well: it pins the rook on g8,
and thus positions White to mate with Qg7 or
RxRg8. Black therefore can’t afford to just
move his queen; he has to take White’s rook.
Yet he gets mated no matter how he does it. If
1. …QxR, White has Qf6+ and mates next
move after Black interposes his rook uselessly
on g7. If 1. …RxR, White mates right away
with Qg7.
Dg1021: White to move
As this position shows, a queen naturally can
do the same work usually performed by a bi-
shop in this mate. The beauty of using the
queen here is that it also can add other mating
threats of its own (i.e., Qg7).
Dg1022: White to move
Dg1022: You have a rook and bishop nicely
coordinated against g7. The g7 pawn has got
to go; if you capture it Black will not be able
to recapture because your capturing piece will
have protection. Indeed, you see that this po-
sition has Morphy’s mate written all over it.
But do you take the pawn with your rook or
with your bishop? With the rook, of course,
because that’s a check; Bxg7 in this position
lets Black play f7-f6 and your threat is over.
(If Black’s king were on h8, you would take
the pawn with your bishop because that
would be the check; it would go 1. Bxg7+,
Kg8; 2. Bf6+, Qg5; RxQ#.)
So you play 1. Rxg7+, which forces 1.
…Kh8. Now you have another issue to con-
sider—the one just studied: Black can inter-
pose his f-pawn (with protection) at f6, so if
you merely discover check by withdrawing
your rook you will be foiled. You could try
sacrificing your rook at g8 to drag Black’s
king back there, but it won't work here be-
cause then you have nothing left to put on the
g-file. No, this case calls for the other way of
dealing with an annoying f-pawn: take it with
2. Rxf7+, going into a brief windmill pattern.
Play continues 2. …Kg8; 3. Rg7+, Kh8; and
now you withdraw the rook up the g-file, dis-
covering check and mating. (Black can throw
his queen or rook into the bishop’s path, but
White just takes them and nothing has
changed.)
Dg1023: White to move
Dg1023: White’s b2 bishop is loose and is
attacked by Black’s knight, and meanwhile
Black is ahead on material. As White, what
do you have as the basis for a counteroffen-
sive? That dark-squared bishop is on the long
diagonal, and your rook is on the half-open g-
file (i.e., there are no White pawns in its way).
The g7 pawn thus becomes the focus of your
attention. Importantly, you also have another
rook on a1 that can get over to the g-file in
one stroke. This makes a sacrifice to clear the
g7 pawn out of the way plausible, because
afterwards you will have a heavy piece ready
to finish the job. White therefore begins by
imagining Rxg7+ and sees the beginnings of
Morphy’s mate: Black will have to move his
king to h8, and then if White draws his rook
back up the g-file he will discover check.
But wait: that’s not quite going to get it done
here for two reasons. The first is that the piece
doing the checking—the b2 bishop—will get
captured right away by Black’s knight. Se-
condly, Black could interpose on the diagon-
al. The problem isn't f7-f6; if that were the
only issue, White could deal with it by play-
ing 2. Rxf7 as we recently saw. The problem,
rather, is that Black can interpose with d5-d4
(the pawn is protected) or for that matter Ne5.
So White thinks about methods for dealing
with these sorts of difficulties and finds that
after Black’s Kh8 he can play Rg8++—
checking the king twice and allowing Black
no alternative but KxR. Now White rolls his
other rook to g1 and it’s checkmate. (Black
can interpose his queen at g5, but White just
takes it with RxQ#.) Since the crucial check is
being given down the g-file, those interposi-
tions on the long diagonal don’t help Black.
Dg1024: White to move
Dg1024: At first this position might seem a
curious candidate for one of our mates; where
are White’s bishops? Both are off the board.
But White does have a queen ready to join a
mating attack, and he has a rook ready to blast
open g7 plus another rook ready to take the
first rook’s place on the g-file. These are plen-
ty of clues to suggest a line of experimenta-
tion: 1. Rxg7+, Kxg7; Black can't turn down
the offer of White's rook by moving his king
to h8, because then White has Qh6 and mate a
move later, the guard of h6 having just been
obliterated. All right; so the king his been
moved to g7, and its pawn cover has been
breached. Now remember that you need to
arrange diagonal pressure as well as vertical
pressure against the king’s position—and the
only piece you have for the first purpose is
your queen. Work with checks to arrange it. 2.
Qg5+, Kh8; 3. Qf6+ works nicely; White’s
queen is doing the same work normally ac-
complished by the king’s bishop in Morphy’s
mate. Black moves his king back to g8, and
now White mates with 1. Ra1-g1+, Qg3;
RxQ#.
A first lesson of this position is the impor-
tance of being flexible in working with these
mating patterns. If you have some but not all
of the ingredients you ordinarily would re-
quire, try improvising with substitute pieces
and substitute sources of pressure. If you have
a way to tear open the pawn cover in front of
the enemy king, think about all resources you
have available to follow up. Whether the re-
sult counts as an instance of Morphy’s mate is
neither here nor there. What matters is wheth-
er it works. A most valuable payoff of know-
ing mating patterns is that they make familiar
various arrangements of pressure against the
enemy king that can be created in any number
of ways.
A second lesson is the special importance of
all this flexibility when your queen is availa-
ble. Bishops and rooks can exert diagonal and
vertical pressure respectively; a queen can do
both, and this position, like another we saw a
few moments ago, shows off its versatility.
First it functions like a rook, putting pressure
down the g-file to drive the king into the cor-
ner; then it turns into a bishop, cornering the
king on h8.
A final point of the position is the value of
connected rooks. The most intuitive way
rooks can be connected is by putting them in a
battery on the same file. But even when they
are set up on the back rank they can be con-
nected in the way they are here: there is noth-
ing between them, so one can plunge forward
and the other one can then take its place. It’s
easy to overlook a rook positioned like the
one on a1 here. Don’t do it.
Dg1025: White to move
Dg1025: The challenge is to think clearhea-
dedly about the mating elements you have in
place and the elements you need to create.
You have diagonal pressure against h8, and
it’s the good kind; your bishop is on f6, so
Black won’t be able to interpose a pawn in its
way. And the g-file already is open, an invita-
tion to some form of Morphy’s mate. Lastly
you have two heavy pieces out on the board,
so look for a way to get one of them onto the
g-file. The constraints are Black’s rook on e4
and his queen on c7, both of which guard
squares you want. If you start with RxR you
solve nothing; Black’s rooks are doubled, so
he replies RxR and now your resources for
taking control of the g-file have been reduced
by a piece with no relevant change in Black’s
position. So experiment with the queen. If it
moves to g3, Black has QxQ and your threat
is over. If it moves to g4, Black’s forced reply
is RxQ—but then you have RxR+, and now
your rook drives down the g-file with nothing
attacking it. The next diagram continues the
sequence.
Dg1026: Now the makings of mate are in
place for White—but you aren't done. Follow
it through to make sure it works. Black can't
move his king, but he does have an interposi-
tion: Bg7. You reply RxB+ without hesita-
tion. Black’s king moves not to h8 but to f8,
which now has been left open. Life just got a
little more complicated because you no longer
can mate by just drawing your rook back up
the g-file. The king still is under lock and key,
for your bishop seals off e7; but since you
can’t safely play Rg8, your next move will
not be a check—and meanwhile Black still
has a queen and rook on the board that he will
use to derail the mate if he can.
Dg1026: Black to move
All right, so after Black’s Kf8 you play care-
fully. Since you want to get your rook onto
h8, start with Rxh7. Now Black has his big
chance to play a move of his choosing; what
will it be? Well, there isn't much. He can get
his queen to the g-file with Qg3, but then it
just gets taken (and you must take it before
completing the mate; otherwise it interposes
at g8 and Black escapes the mate by trading
his queen for a rook). After you remove
Black’s queen he is out of options, and you
mate with Rh8 next move. It just works. Real-
ize, though, that if Black’s queen were better
positioned for defense he might have spoiled
the sequence. That sort of risk is common
when a sequence includes a non-forcing move
like Rxh7.
Dg1027: White to move
Dg1027: This is a sequence from Pillsbury-
Lee (1899). Black has just used his queen to
take White’s g2 pawn and threaten his rook.
What should White do? The g-file is open (no
pawns), and Black’s king sits at the end of it:
an important opportunity. True, White’s bi-
shop isn't on the long diagonal, but this can be
arranged (as we shall see). First White creates
an open file for his rook by playing 1. Qf3.
This is a fork of Black’s queen and rook; if
Black retreats his queen to g6, White takes the
rook on b7 and wins easily enough from
there. But of course White is inviting 1.
…QxQ, a sacrifice of his queen—and for
what? For 2. Rg1+, which forces Black’s king
to h8. Now for a nifty sequence that moves
White’s bishop onto the long diagonal: 3.
Bg7+, Kg8; 4. Bxf6—discovering mate.
(Black can interpose his queen on the g-file,
but White takes it with his rook.)
This position, like an earlier illustrative posi-
tion we considered, was made legendary by
the dramatic sacrifice of the queen to obtain
mate. Less startling but very instructive is the
finale, which shows how a bishop can be
moved from h6 to f6 while giving the enemy
no time to regroup. This maneuver sometimes
is referred to as Pillsbury’s mate for Harry
Pillsbury, the winner of the game. Alas,
“Pillsbury’s mate” also is sometimes used to
refer to the idea shown earlier of sacrificing
material on g8 to get the king onto that
square—another case of slippery mating jar-
gon.
Dg1028: Black to move
Dg1028: Now a position from Paulsen-
Morphy (1857). The mating idea for Black is
not obvious; White’s king seems secure, does
it not? That is what makes Morphy’s play of it
astounding: he begins with 1. ….QxB—a
quite expensive sacrifice to force open the
White king’s pawn cover. The arrival of the
queen on f3 creates a variety of eventual mate
threats, so of course White takes it with 2.
g2xQ. Black’s immediately follow-up is ob-
vious enough: seize the now-open g-file with
his rook by playing 2. …Rg6+, forcing 3.
Kh1. At this point you might be a little puz-
zled; where is Black’s light-squared bishop?
It isn’t posted on the long diagonal, and mov-
ing the c6 pawn forward to make room for it
will lose too much time. Morphy’s solution to
this problem was 3. …Bh3. That brings us to
the next frame.
Dg1029: White to move
Dg1029: Now Black is threatening to play the
same move we saw Pillsbury use to transfer
his bishop from the h-file to the f-file: Bg2+,
then after White plays Kg1 he is hit with the
discovered mate Bxf3. In return for his queen
sacrifice Black has established this very
strong threat, but since his last move was not
a check White has a chance to put up a de-
fense. Things get a little complicated here; the
details of White’s various possible responses
(e.g., Qd3, Rd1, or Rg1) and Black’s best
replies to them are more than we want to cov-
er and are discussed in detail in many other
sources (Weeramantry’s book has a fine ex-
planation). The point of presenting this much
of the game is to show you the sacrifice that
caused this pattern to be named after Morphy,
and to let you see how the basic position for
the mate can be reached even from the un-
promising beginnings as we saw in the pre-
vious diagram. But in case you want to play it
out, the entire sequence went 1. …QxB; 2.
g2xQ, Rg6+; 3. Kh1, Bh3 (pictured here); 4.
Rd1, Bg2+; 5. Kg1, Bxf3+; 6. Kf1, Bg2+; 7.
Kg1, Bh3+; 8. Kh1, Bxf2; 9. Qf1, BxQ; 10.
RxBf1, Re2; 11. Ra1, Rh6; 12. d2-d4, Be3;
13. Resigns to avoid Bxe3, Rhxh2+; 14. Kg1,
Reg2#. (At the sixth move Morphy could
have ended the game more quickly with
Rg2++; 7. Qd3, Rxf2+; 8. Kg1, Rg2+; 9. Kf1,
Rg1#.)
6.2.04.
Greco's Mate.
Greco’s mate makes use of ideas similar to
those just seen, but executes them on a differ-
ent diagonal-and-file pair. You use the king’s
bishop (i.e., the light-squared bishop if you
are playing the White pieces) to put pressure
on g8 rather than h8; then you use a queen or
rook to seal off the h-file and leave the castled
king nowhere to go—resulting in the check-
mate we observe in skeletal form.
Dg1030
Notice the similarity in structure to Morphy’s
mate. There the g-file was sealed off by a
rook or queen; here it’s the h-file. There the
long diagonal leading to h8 was dominated by
a bishop; here it’s the diagonal leading to g8.
The general idea of trapping the king with
coordinated diagonal and vertical pressure is
the same, though in this case the sacrifices
typically needed to open the needed file look
a little different.
Dg1031: The challenge in using Greco’s
mate, as with the others, is to get the needed
lines open. Here White has a bishop trained
on g8 and realizes he could mate by adding
pressure down the h-file. How to get the file
open? By requiring Black's h7 pawn to cap-
ture. It doesn’t protect anything that White
can take, but it does guard a square from
which White can give check:
Dg1031: White to move
he plays Ng6+ and the reply h7xN is forced;
now Rh1 mates by adding the familiar pres-
sure down the h-file. Knight sacrifices to open
the h-file are a common feature of Greco’s
mate.
Dg1032: White to move
Dg1032: Again White’s bishop already has a
clear path to g8, so White seeks a way to open
the h-file, this time for the benefit of his
queen. If he takes the h-pawn with his knight,
Black is not in immediate danger and can play
RxB. The desired effect is gained differently:
White starts with 1. Qh5, threatening mate
with Qxh7. Black’s only way to fend it off is
by pushing his h7 pawn to h6. Now White
plays 2. Qg6, occupying the hole left by the
advance of Black’s pawn—and still threaten-
ing to mate on h7. Black has nothing but
h6xN, which leaves the h-file entirely open.
White’s queen has lost the cover that the
knight threatened to supply, but no longer
needs it: Qh5# is mate.
Again a knight helps open the needed file.
The little back-and-forth movement of
White’s queen is a useful tool, worth examin-
ing until it's familiar. Notice that now we have
two techniques for prying open the king's
pawn cover. One was to put a threatening
piece on a square where one of the pawns was
obliged to make a capture; the other, here,
was to make a mate threat (most classically
with a queen) against a square where one of
the pawns sits. Often a pawn so targeted will
step forward to gain some protection from its
fellows, creating a hole where your queen can
go. The general theme is one we have seen
many times before: mate threats are a com-
mon way to force the pawns in front of the
king to move, thus opening lines you can use
for other purposes.
Dg1033: White to move
Dg1033: The pleasing solution to the position
pictured here was published by Gioachimo
Greco in 1619. Black’s king looks reasonably
secure, but White has a queen and rook
trained on h8 and a queen and bishop trained
on f7 (with the bishop aimed through to f8),
and Black has nothing but his king to protect
either square. Your goal is to create an open
diagonal and file with pressure down each.
Your possible tools for the purpose: captures
of pawns; threats and captures on squares they
protect; and mating threats against the squares
they occupy. In this case captures work best.
You start by removing the f7 pawn with
Qxf7+, forcing Black to move his king to h8.
Now what? White has created diagonal pres-
sure against g8 (indeed, he has redundant
pressure on the point, which is important; it
means he can afford to move his queen). Now
he wants to add pressure down the h-file, so
he needs to open it. He plays the sacrifice
Rxh7+. Black’s forced reply is KxR—and
now White mates with Qh5. It's another case
where the queen is able to zig-zag helpfully
between aiding with diagonal pressure in the
beginning and with vertical pressure at the
end. The h5 square is a common place for
such queen maneuvers to begin or end. It's an
especially useful square because the queen
then can also seal off g6 as a flight square, as
it does here.
And now you know why it's called Greco’s
mate.
Dg1034: White to move
Dg1034: The open diagonal running toward
Black’s king cries out for consideration of a
bishop check: 1. Bc4+. What are Black’s op-
tions in reply?
(a) He can capture the bishop with his queen,
which is then lost to RxQ. An ugly outcome
for Black, but it turns out to be the best he can
do.
(b) Black can move his king to h8. Now you
should see that you have half of Greco’s mate
in place; if the h-file were opened, White
could mate there with his queen. White's only
resource for opening the line is his knight,
which can't give check—but it can threaten
mate, suggesting an idea we saw in skeletal
form a moment ago. 2. Ng5 threatens Qh7#,
and so forces h7-h6; now White plays 3. Qg6,
moving his queen into the hole created by the
advance of the h-pawn. He still is threatening
Qh7#. Black extinguishes that idea with
h6xN; but then White moves his queen over
and back to h5 and mates there. It's a nice
little study in the art of opening a file.
(c) Black might instead reply to Bc4 by inter-
posing his rook at f7. In that case White plays
QxR+, establishing a battery of queen and
bishop and mating on g8 next move. Since
White's capture gives check, Black has no
time to strengthen his back rank (say, by mov-
ing his knight out of the way of the rook on
a8).
1035: White to move
1035: Black’s castled position is intact, but
observe that White has three pieces trained on
f7, an underdefended square next to Black’s
king. It ought to be possible for White to
translate this coordinated firepower into at
least some material gain; but how? The natu-
ral way to start is by opening a line, so White
starts by removing the f-pawn with check: 1.
Bxf7+. If nothing else, this begins to set up
Greco’s mate by attacking g8. Black has two
choices: take White’s bishop or move his king
to h8.
(a) If he plays RxB, White takes advantage of
the multiple pieces he has focused on the
square by playing 2. Qxf7+; Black’s king is
forced to h8, and now White has a simple
back rank mate with Qe8 (Black’s can inter-
pose his bishop at f8, but it’s futile).
(b) If Black replies to Bxf7 by playing his
king to h8, half of Greco’s mate is in place.
And White has a knight he can use to force
open the h-file with the standard 2. Ng6+, but
then how will he take advantage? With his
queen, of course: after Black plays h7xN,
White has 3. Qh3#. It's important to remem-
ber that despite being way over on b3, the
queen is ready to participate in an attack
down the h-file on a moment’s notice.
Notice that both variations are further exam-
ples of a queen alternating between diagonal
and vertical roles, a useful possibility to mas-
ter. This position also illustrates another point
you want to learn by studying combinations
and mating patterns: how to sense when your
accumulation of coordinated force against a
point has become lopsided enough that it is
likely to yield material, even if you have not
yet worked out the details. At the outset
White has three pieces directed against the
Black king's position, and Black doesn't have
comparable defensive resources. This should
cause you to search avidly for a sacrifice and
combination.
Dg1036: Black to move
Dg1036: This time White’s king is the one
that seems quite secure; his castled position is
undisturbed. But look at the strength of
Black’s resources: he has two kernels of dis-
covered attacks arranged against h2. Think
about good ways to clear the knight and bi-
shop from the paths of the heavy pieces—
ways that allow the unmasking pieces to con-
tribute to a mating attack. It's natural to start
with a check, so Black begins with Ne2+; this
forces White’s king to h1. Now the way is
clear for Black to open the h-file with a sacri-
fice: Qxh2+, requiring KxQ. All that remains
is for Black to move his bishop out of the way
of his rook, which it needs to do anyway to
complete the pattern for Greco’s mate: Bxf2#.
But notice that Bg3 also is mate, since the
knight on e2 still seals off g1 as a flight
square and protects the bishop on g3. (A
knight on e2 can be very powerful in mating
patterns; we will study some that make more
use of it soon.)
Dg1037: White to move
Dg1037: Black has just used his knight to
capture your bishop on g3. This was a mis-
take. By leaving his knight on g3 Black pro-
vides you with a capture you can use to move
your own pawn off the h-file and leave your
rook with a clear path to h7. (Be alert to
moves that allow pawns to capture and thus
open the lines on which they used to be
stuck.) The important thing is to resist imme-
diately recapturing and to consider instead
whether you can make something larger out
of this opportunity. You see that Black’s f-
pawn has advanced, so thoughts of Greco’s
mate come to mind; if you move your knight,
your bishop will bear down on g8. But pick
the knight's move carefully, for it is not mere-
ly an obstruction. The h-file needs to be
opened on Black’s end, and your rook on h1
can’t do that by itself. It needs another piece
to help, and the other piece is the knight. So
the first move is 1. Ne7++, a double check
that requires Black to move his king to h8.
Now you can pry the Black pawn from h7
with the familiar 2. Ng6+. Since Black’s king
has no flight squares he is forced to play
h7xN—and then White discovers Greco’s
mate by at last playing h2xN.
6.2.05.
Lolli's Mates Damiano's Mate.
The three types of mates considered so far all
have had some features in common: a combi-
nation of diagonal pressure against the king’s
position, usually supplied by a bishop, with
vertical pressure provided by a rook or queen.
These next mates use a similar logic but with
the diagonal work done by pawns rather than
bishops. In our earlier look at the Anderssen-
Zukertort game we saw that a heavy piece on
h8 can mate with support from a pawn on g7
as well as from a bishop farther back on the
long diagonal. Lolli’s mates and Damiano’s
mate are other ways of using advanced pawns
to fill similar supportive roles.
Dg1038: White to move
Dg1038: The idea behind Lolli’s mate is to
get a pawn onto f6; from there it controls g7,
creating a number of nice possibilities. Since
g7 is off limits to Black’s king, it may be
stuck on the back rank despite the movement
forward of its g-pawn; so a back rank mate
may be possible. The idea of interest to us
here, however, is that the pawn on f6 can do a
bit of the same things we have seen done by a
bishop on the long diagonal: if you can get a
queen onto h6 and then onto g7, for example,
you may be able to mate. Qg7# will do it for
White in the adjacent diagram.
Dg1039: White to move
Dg1039: The next point to grasp is that the
pattern just shown can be forced once you
reach the position shown here. White moves
his pawn to f6, and this threatens Qxg7#;
Black has no choice but to advance his g-
pawn to g6. Now White plays Qh6 and mates
with Qg7 next move. As we have seen, this is
a common way to force a pawn in front of the
enemy king to step forward: if you threaten to
mate by capturing it, you may force it to ad-
vance so it will be protected by its fellows and
not just by its king. This has the side effect of
opening a diagonal line to the king’s position
that can be exploited in many different ways.
Here we see another.
h7—and once that pawn is pinned, h5 be-
comes open for occupation. Here White
makes use of this principle by connecting it
with Lolli’s mate. He sees his pawn on f6 and
so looks for the other elements of the pattern.
He can get his queen to h6, which will start
the pattern we saw in the previous frame. One
more asset is needed: a heavy piece on the h-
file to deliver mate at the end.

Dg1041: White to move

White’s rook is ready; it can move to h5.

Black guards the square with a pawn, but
Dg1040: White to move here's where the pinning idea comes in handy.
Thus 1. Qh6, Rg8; 2. Qxh7+, KxQ (all famili-
Dg1040: A complication can arise if Black ar); and now Rh5# is made safe by the pin. It's
has moved his king into the corner, making checkmate because Black's king can't escape
room for his rook on g8. Thus in the position to g8 (his own rook now is there) or g7
shown here White still would mate if his (White seals it off with his pawn).
queen now were at g7—but it will take him
two moves to get it there, and in the meantime The point of the position is just to see the log-
Black can protect the mating square with Rg8. ic of the pattern. You might as well observe
Yet if White has another heavy piece availa- that mate can be delivered here by a different
ble he still can finish off the king. Here White pattern as well: 1. Qh6, Rg8; 2. Rd8, any-
plays 1. Qh6, inviting—requiring, really— thing; 3. Qg7#.
Black to go ahead with Rg8. But then White
sacrifices his queen with 2. Qxh7+, KxQ—
and now 3. Rh1 is checkmate. Black’s own
rook prevents his king from retreating to g8,
and White’s pawn on f6 seals off g7 in the
way a bishop might. This maneuver, one of a
few patterns known as “Lolli’s mates,” was
published by Giambattista Lolli in the 1700s.

Dg1041: White has a bishop aimed through

the pawns on g6 and h7. On casual inspection
the pawns seem to frustrate the bishop's hopes
of accomplishing anything, but the appear- Dg1042: White to move
ance is deceiving. The bishop will pin the
pawn on g6 if Black’s king can be brought to
Dg1042: White has his queen and f-pawn by a queen and in cutting off the enemy
arranged for Lolli’s mate. But since Black’s king’s flight squares.
rook is on g8, White would have to use the
sequence where he sacrifices his queen on
h7—and he has no rook in position to then
follow up on the h-file. What to do? There are
two helpful thoughts available. One is to pin
the bothersome rook with Rb8 so that Black
can't play RxQg7. Another is to bring the e5
knight into the fray with Nxf7+—almost
mate, since Black’s king has no flight squares.
Both these ideas are frustrated by Black’s
queen on a7, which guards b8 (where White’s
rook wants to go) and f7 (where White’s
knight wants to go). But these problems will Dg1043: White to move
suggest their own solution if you have studied
the chapter on the overworked piece: the Here White can mate with Qh7; see how the
queen can't defend against both threats, so g6 pawn both protects the queen against cap-
play one and then the other. White starts with ture and seals off f7. Indeed, the pawn’s pres-
Rb8, and mates with Qg7 next move if Black sure against h7 and f7 leaves the king trapped
doesn’t play QxR. Yet if Black’s queen does on the back rank just as it would be if there
make that capture, it abandons f7 to White’s were Black pawns on those squares.
knight and mate results anyway.

The first lesson of this position is a reminder

to think flexibly about how you might substi-
tute for missing ingredients when you work
with a mating pattern. As we will see in detail
soon, a knight often can do the same work
performed by bishops and rooks in the mates
studied so far. A second lesson is the impor-
tance of combining these basic mating prin-
ciples with all that you have learned else-
where about other tactical tools. If you find a
mating pattern close to completion but im-
peded by an enemy piece, consider pinning
the piece; consider forking it; consider taking
something else it protects; etc. Finally, con-
sider this a study in the value of seeing and
taking seriously ideas that don’t quite work. If
you understand why they don’t work, the rea-
soning may lead you to something that does.
Here neither Rb8 nor Nxf7 quite works; but
once you understand why, you see that to-
gether they are too much for Black.
Dg1043: Damiano, like Lolli, has his name
associated with a couple of related mating
ideas. The most important involves a pawn on
g6. Like Lolli’s pawn on f6, a pawn on g6 can
do valuable work both in supporting an attack
Dg1044: White to move
Dg1044: Damiano’s mate requires a queen,
not just a rook, because in order to inflict
mate the final piece has to stand on h7 and
attack both h8 and g8. In 1512 Damiano pub-
lished this application of the point. White has
a pawn in place on g6, so his challenge is to
get his queen to h7 without losing the initia-
tive. He does it by sacrificing the other pieces
in the queen’s way—the two rooks—and by
doing it in each case with check. Thus 1.
Rh8+, KxR; 2. Rh1+, Kg8; 3. Rh8+, KxR; 4.
Qh1+, Kg8; 5. Qh7#. The position is a me-
morable study in the use of flush checks to
firmly and repeatedly decoy a king onto h8
until it finally can be mated there. It also is
the classic illustration of how heavy pieces on
the first rank can join in a mating attack on
the h-file. The principle has many applica-
tions, so let us refer to it as Damiano’s
queue—a line of pieces on a rank that can be
brought over to the same file in succession.
Dg1045: Black to move
Dg1045: White’s king looks peaceful, but the
possibility of menace against it lurks just be-
low the surface; a clue is the arrangement of
both Black’s rooks and his queen on the
eighth rank—Damiano’s queue. In this case
their potential seems muted because the h-file
is clogged with two pawns, one from each
side. But pawns arranged like this sometimes
can be cleared by forcing an exchange on a
neighboring square—i.e., g3. Or if you didn’t
see that, observe the knight fork Black can
inflict against White’s king and queen with 1.
…Ng3+. This invites White to reply h2xN
and then your recapture 2. …h4xg3. That ex-
change not only leaves the h-file open but
also discovers check and leaves a Black pawn
positioned to support mate with the queen on
h2. Now Damiano’s mate plays out easily: 3.
…Rh1+, 4. KxR (White’s king can't escape to
f2 because the Black pawn now on g3 guards
the square); Rh8+; 5. Kg1, Rh1+; 6. KxR,
Qh8+; 7. Kg1, Qh2+ (at last reaching the de-
sired position); 8. Kf1 (fleeing, but the king is
stuck on the back rank), Qh1#.
If you understand the principle behind Da-
miano’s mate this position is long but easy—
once you see how the h-file can be opened.
The knight move used to clear the two pawns
away is useful and worth a close look. But
understand that if your opponent is wise he
will not play along; he is better off letting
your knight take his queen, which at least
avoids the forced mate even if it ends the
game as a practical matter.
Dg1046: White to move
Dg1046: Lolli also was responsible for this
position from 1763, which is solved using the
idea from Damiano—the queue. Take stock of
White’s mating resources: the bishop on f6;
the queen on d2, which can jump to h2 or h6;
and the two rooks on the first rank, likewise
able to get to the h-file quickly. The natural
way to begin is 1. Qh6, as this creates the
triangulation associated with Lolli and his
mates. Black is required to play Qf8, bringing
in a reinforcement for g7. This is important to
notice; when you imagine a mating attack on
squares around the king, ask whether your
opponent can rush any defenders to positions
where they can protect the weak points. But
since he has heavy pieces ready to use on the
h-file, White simply forgets about using g7 as
a mating square and instead sacrifices his
queen with 2. Qxh7+ to open the file. Black
has to respond KxQ. Now of course comes 3.
Rh1+. If Black retreats his king to g8 he gets
mated next move by Rh8, so he again inter-
poses his queen, this time with 3. …Qh6.
White answers 4. RxQ+, less for the sake of
taking the queen than to thoroughly expose
Black’s king. Again Black is forced to recap-
ture KxR. That leaves White to play his last
rook over to h1, where it mates.
The position shows the great power a bishop
can exert on f6. See how it attacks e7, g7, and
g5, effectively sealing Black’s king onto the
back rank and the h-file. Rh1# for White thus
works almost like a back rank mate turned on
its side.

Dg1047: Black to move
Dg1047: Damiano’s mate typically involves a
pawn on g6 exerting diagonal pressure against
f7 and h7. But a bishop on g6 can do similar
work, too, just as a bishop filled the role of
Lolli’s f6 pawn (and more) in the last study.
The most important point about a bishop’s
strength from g6 is its ability to provide cover
for the queen on two different squares: h7 and
f7. This becomes useful in hunting down a
king that tries to wriggle away along the back
rank. Thus in the diagram to the left the queen
currently has protection from its bishop;
Black can move his king to f7, but then White
has Qxf7#—again with protection from the
bishop.
Dg1048: White to move
Dg1048: In the previous diagram you can
replace the bishop with a pawn on g6 and the
principle still holds. But the bishop’s ability
to rush to g6 from some distance away creates
a neat pattern you need to know. Here
White’s queen and bishop both are trained on
h7; how does he turn this into a win? It would
be easy if f8 were blocked, for then Qh7
would mate. But where f8 is open like this,
the king often can squirm away: 1. Qh7+,
Kf8; 2. Qh8+, Ke7. What White instead plays
is 1. Bh7+. The king’s only legal move is
back to h8, and now White plays 2. Bg6+,
Kg8. At first this looks like an odd use of
time; White has advanced his bishop and then
retreated it, and Black also has moved his
king back and forth. But there was an impor-
tant gain from the exercise: moving White’s
bishop from d3 onto g6, because from there it
attacks f7 as well as h7—providing two
squares where it can support an attack by its
queen. Now White plays Qh7+ and has
created the same position seen in the previous
diagram and mating with Qxf7 a move later.
The key position had to be reached in steps
(starting with Bh7+ rather than Bg6) so that
Black’s king remained in check throughout
the sequence, leaving no time for it to flee or
for Black to play f7xB.
Dg1050: White to move
Dg1050: Here is an extension of the principle.
Black’s king looks vulnerable since it has no
flight squares and the h-file is open. A natural
thought might be 1. Rh8+, KxR; 2. Qh5+ (or
Qh1+), Kg8; 3. Qh7#—mating with cover
from the bishop on d3. But after White’s Qh5
Black can interpose his queen on h6 and stop
the sequence. So White needs a different idea
and turns to the trick described a moment ago:
1. Bh7+, Kh8; 2. Bg6+, Kg8. White simply
has moved his bishop to g6, but he has given
check with every move and so has kept firm
control of the initiative. Why is the bishop
stronger here than it was on d3? Because now
it blocks the path to h6 of the Black queen,
which no longer can be interposed. The rest of
the mate is simple: 3. Rh8+, KxR; and White
has cleared his own rook from the h-file to
make way for his queen while also decoying
the king onto h8 where it can be checked. 4.
Qh5+, Kg8; 5. Qh7#. Black could have to prevent an enemy king from escaping along
played QxB in the midst of this if his king the back rank.
hadn't constantly been in check.

Now a few afterthoughts:

1. Imagine the same original position but with
a Black pawn on h7. Black’s king then looks
enormously secure, as his castled position is
intact and his queen helps defend it. White
nevertheless mates with the same moves de-
scribed above.

2. It is common for a defender to sit on f6, as

Black’s queen does here; often the knight
takes that position early in the game and stays
there a long time. Eliminating that defender
becomes important in building a mating at-
tack. A disadvantage of the queen compared
to the knight is shown here: a queen can be
eliminated by being blocked.
Dg1051: Black to move
But the knight can do it, too, as the diagram
here shows: on g5 a knight performs the same
function that a bishop on g6 would. In this
case White will mate in a moment with Qxf7.

3. In addition to acquainting you with se-

quences that can lead to mate, another pur-
pose of these studies is to show useful things
your pieces and pawns can do if you can land
them on particular squares—especially ad-
vanced squares near the enemy king. To recap
the most recent examples, we have seen here
that a bishop on g6 usefully can seal off f7,
h7, and h5 to the enemy king, can provide
cover on those squares for its own queen—
and, here, can block the path to the h-file of
an enemy defender on the sixth rank. Dg1052: White to move

6.2.06. Dg1052: That is one example; there are

The Knight As a in Morphy's Mating countless others. It is true that the knight can't
operate from a long distance as a bishop or
Substitute Pattern.
rook can, but then it has the advantage of not
requiring open lines since it jumps to the
Dg1051: The knight can fill many of the same
squares it attacks rather than sliding to them.
roles filled by rooks, bishops, and pawns in
In the diagram to the left, where the squares
the mates considered so far. Often the crucial
the knight attacks are marked with white
work done by a bishop or rook, for example,
spots, the knight controls f5 and g6 and thus
really just involves sealing off one or two
does some of the work a bishop would do if it
squares or providing cover on them, and a
were on d3. The knight also attacks g8, and so
knight is perfectly capable of doing that sort
performs some of the work that might be done
of job; depending where it sits it can cover
by a bishop on c4. It attacks g6 and g8, and
squares either in diagonal relationships or in
with help from the pawn on g7 this allows the
horizontal or vertical relationships. We saw a
knight to fill some of the roles that might be
moment ago, for example, how a bishop can
played by a rook on the g-file. With the
support a mating attack by providing cover
squares marked like this, you thus should be
for a queen on both h7 and f7—a useful way
able to imagine ways that adding one or two
other pieces might result in mate—perhaps a
heavy piece on the h-file; or picture the g7
pawn moved to h7 and a White bishop on the
long dark diagonal. These are the sorts of
mating ideas we will be considering here.
Dg1053: Black to move
Dg1053: Think back to Morphy’s mate. It
involved pressure against h8 from a bishop
coupled with pressure down an open g-file
from a heavy piece. The role of the heavy
piece in that sequence also can be filled by a
knight on h6; thus Black is mated in the dia-
gram by White’s knight just as he would be
by a White rook on g3.
Since our goal is not only to see the mating
patterns in final form but also to understand
the moves that lead to them, reflect for a mo-
ment on how the knight could have gotten to
h6. It had to come from on f5 or g4—which is
one reason why those are considered strong
squares for a knight.
Dg1054: White to move
Dg1054: The identical mate can arise when
the knight lands on e7, as pictured here.
Again, the important thing to see is the num-
ber of ways the knight can get there: from f5
(again), from d5, or a little less commonly
from g6 or c6 or even c8—all the squares that
are spotted (and we also have put a spot on
g4, since it allows Nh6# as shown a moment
ago). A knight sitting on any of those spotted
squares has the potential to mate in one move
if the bishop’s side of Morphy’s mate is in
place. Its actual ability to mate naturally will
depend on whether and how well those
squares are protected, etc.
Dg1055: Black to move
Dg1055: There is more. Suppose your knight
instead lands on f6, as pictured here. This is
check, but not mate; Black can move his king
to h8 or g7. But then when White moves his
knight he will unmask a discovered check by
his bishop. If you have read the section on
discovered attacks you understand how potent
a discovered check can be. In effect it gives
the knight a free move because Black has to
spend his time saving his king. Even in this
skeletal position where few targets are visible,
White thus would have Nd7+, attacking
Black’s rook and then taking it, and winning
the exchange, after Black moves his king out
of check. So f6 is another powerful square for
the knight, and it can get there from e4 or h5
or d7—three more squares on which we have
added spots.
You can see where all this leads: if the enemy
king is on g8 (its natural castling square) and
your dark-squared bishop has a clear shot
against h8, your knight can make terrible
trouble by adding a check, and it can do this
from almost any light-colored square on
Black’s half of the board. The f5 square often
is the knight’s most useful jumping-off point,
but again your best actual options will depend
on other features of the position such as how
Black has defended those checking squares—
h6, f6, and e7. The important thing to realize
is how powerful a knight can become once
you have control over the long dark diagonal.
The beauty of the knight is that its power
doesn't depend on whether any of the files
leading to the king are open; thus the ideas
described in these last three positions may be
just as effective if Black has a pawn cluttering
the g-file (which would be enough to frustrate
a rook).
Dg1056: White to move
Dg1056: Before using these ideas the usual
sacrifices may be needed to open the long
diagonal for the bishop or queen, to create a
safe square for the knight, or both. Here you
should see that White has a bishop on the long
diagonal and a knight on f5, with the knight
ready in principle to support mate from e7 or
h6 if the diagonal can be opened. Hone in on
the impediment: the pawn on g7. The best
way to clear a pawn is to take something it
protects or to make a threat from a square it
guards, forcing it to capture and leave its line.
So White plays the mate threat Qh6. Black is
forced to reply g7xQ to avoid Qxg7#; yet this
opens the diagonal and allows White to mate
with Nxh6 (not Ne7, since then Black has
NxN). Qh6 is a classic technique for creating
an open diagonal to permit a mate of this
type.
Dg1057: Of course you should not imagine
that the knight always is the piece that swoops
in to deliver the coup de grace. The knight
can be in place on h6 or e7 from the start of
the sequence, with work then needed only to
open the long diagonal or get a queen or bi-
shop onto it. In this case White has a knight
on e7, a strong position because it seals off g8
to Black’s king. And Black’s g-pawn has ad-
vanced a square, leaving the long diagonal
open; so the only element missing for mate is
a bishop or queen there. Now identify the
impediment to moving the queen to the di-
agonal where you want it: the pawn on g6
blocks its path. White therefore plays Rh5,
putting a piece en prise to the pawn with a
mate threat: Qxh7#. It forces Black to play
g6xR, moving his pawn off the sixth rank.
Now White mates with Qf6.
Dg1057: White to move
While the earlier examples involved the king
on g8, you can see that it may not matter if
the enemy king is on h8 or g8 or g7 so long as
it is confined to those squares and you have
them covered—the dark squares by a diagonal
piece, and the light square by your knight.
(This is a good moment for a reminder that
the colors of the squares get reversed if you
are playing with the Black pieces, but the log-
ic remains the same: the bishop covers the
squares leading to the king’s corner, and the
knight covers the square of the other color.)
Dg1058: The knight also can fill the role
played by a bishop in Morphy’s mate. Here
White has the Black king trapped in the cor-
ner by his rook, which drives down the open
g-file. The rook seals off the king’s only flight
squares; any pressure against the king’s posi-
tion on h8 thus will create checkmate. A bi-
shop on the long diagonal could provide that
pressure, but so can a knight stationed on f7.
This particular pattern is a little less common
because the knight has less flexibility; it has
to be on f7, because that is the only square
from which it can attack h8 without blocking
the g-file.
Dg1058:
But we will see other uses of this general
principle in due course—as when we study
the Arabian mate, which is based on a related
idea.
Dg1059: White to move
Dg1059: The Black king’s position looks
well-fortified, but White’s pieces are arranged
powerfully enough to force mate in three
moves. His knight is on g4, a great square
since it allows Nh6 or Nf6, both of which are
brutal attacking moves. He has two attackers
that can use the long dark diagonal: his queen
and his dark-squared bishop. The g7 pawn is
what holds Black’s position together; it
blocks the dark diagonal and protects f6 and
h6 against occupation by White’s knight. Put
these factors together and they should suggest
a classic bishop-and-knight mate, made poss-
ible by a queen sacrifice to open g7: 1.
Qxg7+, KxQ; 2. Bf6+, Kg8; 3. Nh6#. Notice
these additional virtues of a knight on g4: not
only that it can jump to h6 and f6, but that it
can protect a bishop as it arrives on one of
those squares as well, while sealing off the
other as a flight square.
And notice as well the crucial work done by
the pawn on h5. Without it, Black’s second
move is Kg6 and the immediate threat is over.
The offensive power of a pawn advanced past
the fourth rank should not be underestimated.
Such pawns can provoke your opponent into
captures that create valuable open lines; they
can support attacks by pieces on the squares
they protect; they can deny your opponent
squares where he would like to place defend-
ers; and they can seal off important flight
squares for the enemy king.
Presumably you realize that if Black’s g7
pawn instead were on g6 at the start of this
position, White would mate immediately with
Nh6. But if you instead imagine the h7 pawn
on h6 at the start, the sequence no longer
works. Black’s second move is Kh7 and again
his king escapes. The lesson is to be careful
not to use mating patterns (or any patterns)
mechanically. They are meant to suggest
ideas, but you still have to test the idea as it
will play out in your position. These mates
that involve trapping the king on squares in
the corner are a good example, as they depend
on the king’s limited range of motion. If it has
flight squares, all of them must be accounted
for.
Dg1060: White to move
Dg1060: White’s queen is en prise to the
knight on c6, but of course we avoid reflexive
resort to defensive play. Look for an attack;
study the enemy king and its vulnerabilities.
The long diagonal leading to Black’s king is
open; this is an opportunity that must be in-
spected closely. White has control over the
diagonal with his queen, and his dark squared
bishop is available as well. (This also was true
in the previous problem. It is important to
notice when you have more firepower than
you need for such a purpose, as that means
you can sacrifice some of it.) White would
mate if he were able to move his knight to e7
safely, but the square is defended. So he plays
with another knight check: 1. Nf6+. It forces
the king to h8 or g7. Now when White moves
the knight he will discover check. Black has
no loose pieces that would make good targets
for the knight, but still: keep looking for mate.
Here that means putting the knight where it
can stay involved by attacking Black’s weak
dark squares. White thus plays 2. Ng4+.
Doesn’t this allow Black to extinguish the
check with NxQ? Yes, but now White has 3.
Bf6+ (protected against KxB by the knight
now on g4). The king is forced back to g8,
and then White plays 4. Nh6#.
The knight’s three moves here are worth some
study; they illustrate the comfort with the
piece you want to attain. Indeed, notice that
the whole mate is built with bishop and knight
moves. The queen, which looks like the do-
minant piece at the beginning, never moves
and serves just to deliver a discovered check
before White lets it get taken.
Incidentally, another way the sequence can go
is 1. Nf6+, Kh8; 2. Ng4+, f7-f6; 3. Bxf6+,
RxB; 4. QxR#. The bishop on c4 seals off g8
as a flight square; for by the end of the se-
quence the knight on d5 and the pawn on f7
both are out of the way.
Dg1061: Black has moved his bishop back to
g7, forcing the question of the White queen’s
intentions. Should the queen retreat? The
prospects for mate might seem remote. The
bishop blocks the long diagonal to h8, the
files leading to Black’s king are closed, and
White has no knight able to give check. But
the White bishop aimed down the long di-
agonal from b2 still is provocative, especially
when White has his own knight on the same
diagonal on d4. This formation is the kernel
of a discovery and it allows White to inflict a
double check—if he can get Black’s king onto
g7. That result is easy enough to arrange.
Dg1061: White to move
You just have to be open to the idea of a
queen sacrifice: 1. QxB+, KxQ; 2. Nf5++,
Kg8; 3. Nh6#.
The position works the same way if White’s
queen starts on e5. The point still is to get the
king onto g7 with a sacrifice, and then to
move the d4 knight to h6 in two steps—the
first of which is a double check that gives
Black no option but to move his king. (Notice
that there needs to be a Black pawn on g6 so
that after the double check the king can’t
move there. The knight itself seals off h6.
You needn’t remember these particular de-
tails, but you do need to remember to account
for all flight squares.)
These last two examples both have shown
how a knight can spend multiple moves get-
ting into position to mate with a bishop. The
key in both cases is a clever use of discovered
check, playing with ways the knight can jump
on or off the long diagonal on its way to the
mating square. Both positions also involve
sacrifices of queens to attain the desired pat-
tern. Once you determine that a mate is near-
by using pieces other than the queen, a queen
sacrifice to take out the obstacles to it should
not faze you.
Dg1062: White’s bishop has a clean line to
h8, which is half of a mating idea. Complet-
ing it would require getting a heavy piece
onto h8, using a heavy piece to put pressure
down the g-file, or attacking the king with a
knight. Since all the files leading to Black’s
king are closed and White has no apparent
way to open any of them with sacrifices, think
about the knight. You can move it to e7 in
two steps: Nd5, then Ne7. And then see that
moving the knight off of c3 would also un-
mask the discovered attack QxQ. Or you
might have started by seeing the kernel of a
discovery for White, then looked to see what
the knight could do once it left c3, and rea-
lized it could threaten to execute a classic
knight-and-bishop mate by leaping to e7. The
point either way is the same: after White
plays Nd5, Black has to take some measure to
prevent White from mating next move with
Ne7; after he does so (say, with c6xN), he
loses his queen to QxQ.
Dg1062: White to move
This is yet another case of using a discovered
attack to buy two moves to get a knight into
mating position—though this time the likely
result is a gain of material rather than mate.
This often is how mating threats function: you
may not carry them out, but they force your
opponent to make sacrifices to stop you. The
position also is a reminder that even a knight
far away from the action must not be over-
looked as a resource. This is an extreme case,
but it shows that even from c3 a knight still
may be only a move away from threatening to
mate the castled Black king.
Dg1063: White to move
Dg1063: Two features of this position should
jump out at you: the pin of White’s queen on
the b-file and the kernel of a discovery for
White along the g-file. (Black has a discovery
prepared on the fourth rank, too, but it won't
be our focus.) White has no target for the g1
rook once it is unmasked, but with the king on
an adjacent file the question is not whether
you can win material; it is whether you can
threaten or achieve mate. White considers the
check Nf7 and notices that the rook then seals
off g7 and g8 as flight squares—and that the
bishop on d3 seals off h7. Indeed, Nf7 would
be mate were it not for the protection supplied
to the square by Black’s rook on b7. So White
plays 1. QxR, which removes the guard of f7
and incidentally extinguishes the pin of his
queen. Now if Black plays BxQ, White mates
with 2. Nf7.
You can view this position just as a way to
win a rook, since Black dares not recapture
White’s queen. That is the main thing to see
in this position. But as an exercise it may be
instructive to spend a couple of frames push-
ing this one farther. Find Black’s best alterna-
tive response and see where it leads. White’s
mating threat depends on three players: his
knight, rook, and bishop. Black looks to derail
one of those pieces, and so plays 1. …Nf5,
interposing his knight in front of the bishop
and thus allowing his king a flight square on
h7. Now White—working strictly with
checks—plays 2. QxB+, which forces Black’s
king to g7. We then come to the position in
the next diagram....

Dg1064: White to move
Dg1064: Now what? Notice that White still
has the kernel of a discovery on the g-file; he
can take advantage of it with the double check
Nxe6. The king can move to h6, h7, or f7.
Consider each possibility.
(a) If the king goes to h6, White mates imme-
diately with Qh8: his queen attacks the king
on the h-file and his rook seals off the g-file.
(b) If the king goes to h7 White can bring in
still another piece with check: BxN+. Since
the pawn on e6 is off the board the bishop
can’t be captured; and Black has nothing to
interpose. So Black has to move his king
again—this time to h6. Now Qh8 again mates.
(c) If Black’s reply to Nxe6+ is Kf7, White
then plays Qd7+. Black is forced to interpose
his knight on e7; his king has no flight
squares (each square the king can reach on the
back rank is attacked by a different White
piece!). Now White mates with Rg7, as
shown in the next diagram—the last of this
sequence.
Dg1065
Dg1065: This illustrates the outcome of varia-
tion (c) just described. Black is mated.
These variations we have been considering
are a detour from our study of classic mating
patterns, but they are too valuable to pass up
as studies in the art of hunting down a king in
open territory with checks that finally leave it
nowhere to run. Variation (b) shows the value
of remembering to summon other pieces into
the hunt (White’s bishop) where you can do
so without a loss of time. All three variations,
but especially (b) and (c), also are good exer-
cises in keeping track of the ways that a
king’s flight squares can be eliminated by
different pieces working together.
6.2.07.
The Knight As a in Greco's Pattern.
Substitute
Dg1066:
Dg1066: The previous section showed how
the mating idea we associate with Morphy or
Pillsbury—the use of a bishop on the long
dark diagonal, plus another piece to seal off
g8—can be achieved using a knight as the
second piece rather than a rook or queen. The
same is true of Greco’s mate. You will recall
that Greco’s idea was to direct a bishop
against g8 and then seal off the h-file with a
heavy piece. Again a knight sometimes can
do the work of the heavy pieces, as the dia-
gram here shows, and in at least one sense it
can do the work better. Greco’s mate de-
pended on an obstruction at f8 (or a White
rook on the f-file) to prevent the king from
slipping away along the back rank. But if you
have a knight posted on g6, as White does
here, it eliminates f8 as well as h8 as flight can be useful: he plays Qxh7+, almost mating
squares for the enemy king. (with support from the f8 knight) except that
Black can play NxQ (KxQ is not possible, of
Dg1067: The important thing is to see not just course).
how a mate looks when it is finished but how
it can look when it is a move or two away.
The tipoff here is the absence of Black’s f-
pawn. Anytime a pawn in front of the king is
absent (either because it has advanced,
changed files, or left the board entirely) think
about ways to take advantage. The classic
way to exploit a missing f-pawn is to get a
bishop or queen aimed down the diagonal
toward g8, and then to add pressure against
h8—with a heavy piece or with a knight. Here
White has a knight available for the task. He
sees that Greco’s old fashioned mate can't be Dg1068: White to move
created because he would have to sacrifice his
rook to open the h-file and then would have So White lets him play that, then safely
no heavy piece left to put there. swings his knight into position with Ng6+.
Black’s king is forced to g8, and now Bd5#
concludes the matter.

Step back from the position and see the ideas

in it: spotting the missing f-pawn and the re-
sulting line to g8; moving the knight-and-
bishop pair from their current positions onto
g6 and d5 respectively; and using a queen
sacrifice to loosen both of those squares, and
also to get the queen out of the bishop’s way.

Dg1067: White to move

But his rook does pin the h7 pawn, which

means White can land his knight on g6; and
his bishop has a clear path to the diagonal
with Bc4. So White works with checks: 1.
Ng6+, Kg8; 2. Bc4#.

Dg1068: To repeat: the idea for a mate is

there because Black’s f-pawn is missing.
White therefore plays with ways to put pres-
sure down the diagonal to g8 and then mate
with vertical pressure against h8. Again he
only has one heavy piece and so won’t be able
to execute Greco’s mate in traditional form,
but if White were able to get his knight safely
to g6 he could mate with his bishop from d5.
At present the g6 square is guarded by the
pawn on h7 and d5 is guarded by Black’s
knight, but now White sees a way his queen
Dg1069: White to move
Dg1069: There are some conditions necessary
before our current mating idea can work.
Black can't have any good interpositions on
the diagonal leading to g8, and his king can't
have h7 available as a flight square. In this
position White’s knight is enormously well-
placed on a hole created by Black's advances
of his f-pawn and h-pawn. The advanced f-
pawn also suggests the possibility of mate
using a bishop directed at f8. White can play
Bc4+ easily enough, but now must consider
the issues just mentioned. Can Black inter-
pose his rook from e8? Not effectively: if he
plays Re6, the rook is loose and just gets tak-
en with BxR+, renewing the threat. (If
Black’s rook were on f8 and able to interpose
at f7, White’s mating threat would fail—
though he still could win material.) But now
what about h7? It's open as a flight square for
Black’s king—but notice that White has a
queen aimed at the square. So if Black plays
Kh7 White can discover check by moving his
knight. How to capitalize? Like so: 1. Bc4+,
Re6; 2. BxR+, Kh7; 3. Nf8++, Kh8; Qh7#.
The double check by the knight forces Black's
king to move, and then the knight provides
cover for White's queen on the mating square
(h7). The larger point: the open h7 square
meant that an additional piece was needed to
execute the mate.
Dg1070: White to move
Dg1070: A difficulty in using our current
mating pattern is that if Black has a pawn on
h7, then g6 probably isn’t safe for your
knight; but if Black doesn’t have a pawn on
h7, then his king can move there and perhaps
escape the mate. We have seen three ways to
deal with this: make a sacrifice on h7 that
causes the pawn to be replaced by a piece that
can’t defend g6; pin the pawn with a rook; or,
if the pawn has been moved forward, set up
an attack against h7 with another piece so that
you will have a discovered check if the enemy
king moves there. Here is a final method. You
see that White controls g8 with his bishop, so
your thoughts turn to ways of pressuring h8.
The natural idea is NxN+, which would work
except that Black has a pawn on h7 and so
can reply h7xN. Well, but what if he does?
The capture leaves open Black’s end of the h-
file, so White will mate if he can rush a heavy
piece there; and he can, with Qh3#—Greco’s
mate after all. Thus the pattern of the current
mate is used to pry open the h-file, which
turns out to have other happy consequences.
Dg1071: With Black’s f-pawn out of the way
White looks for methods of getting pressure
against g8. His bishop is aimed that way, and
is blocked only by his own knight. This is
good news, for it means White has the kernel
of a discovery on the needed diagonal. Per-
haps as the knight leaps out of the way it also
can provide pressure against h8 and complete
the mate. The g6 square is loose, so the idea
looks promising. White just needs a way to
get his knight to g6 in two moves that hold
the initiative. The surest way to control the
position is with a double check: Ne7++. In
reply to a double check there is no choice but
to move the king, so Kh8 is forced on Black.
Now Nxg6 mates.
Dg1071: White to move
This position resembles some of those in the
previous section: a bishop on the diagonal
ready to contribute to mate, and masked by a
friendly knight that can complete the pattern
if properly positioned. It's a powerful configu-
ration if you can manage it.
 6.2.08.
Anastasia's Mate.
Dg1072
Dg1072: You might think of Anastasia’s mate
as yet another variation on the principle of
Greco’s mate—except this time your knight
takes the place of the bishop that attacks g8,
not of the heavy piece on the h-file. Thus in
the diagram Black is mated by White’s rook,
since g6 and g8 are sealed off as flight
squares by White’s knight. Notice that the
mate would work just as well if Black still
had a pawn on f7: since the work convention-
ally done by a bishop instead is being done by
a knight, no open line through f7 is necessary.
The spots show not only the squares the
knight attacks, but also the squares from
which the knight can reach the critical e7
square. The f5 and d5 squares are especially
common launching pads for this mate, which
is another reason why they are powerful out-
posts for a knight.
Dg1073
Dg1073: The typical form of Anastasia’s
mate is the pattern just seen where a rook ad-
ministers mate down the h-file. But the motif
also can be turned on its side as shown here,
with the knight closing off f7 and h7 or any
comparable squares in front of the king, trap-
ping it on the back rank. The rook’s attack
from b8 ends up functioning like a familiar
back rank mate.
Dg1074: Black to move
Dg1074: Most mating patterns have a signa-
ture move or idea—a distinctive attacking
position for one of your pieces, the potential
for which can serve as a clue that the pattern
may be available. For Anastasia’s mate the
signature is the knight’s move to e7 (or, if the
knight is Black, to e2) against the castled
king. The move forces the king over to h8,
and seals off both g8 and g6; it means the
king is trapped on the h-file, so that an attack
there by a heavy piece will deliver mate—
perhaps after a sacrifice to open h7 (or h2 for
Black). In the diagrammed position Black
sees that his knight can get to e2, that his
queen then will be able to get to h2 (and be
sacrificed there), and that his rook then will
be able to reach the h-file to close the deal. So
he plays 1. …Ne2+; 2. Kh1 (forced), Qxh2+
(standard); 3. KxQ (forced), Rh4#. The poten-
tial queen and rook moves both were masked
by the knight at the outset, but when a knight
is posted this powerfully you always want to
ask what effect its moves would have on the
lines where it sits.

Dg1075: Black to move
Dg1075: Black’s knight is on the mighty d4
square—mighty in part because from there
the knight can jump to e2, checking White’s
king and forcing it into the corner where it
may be subject to Anastasia’s mate. Black
considers whether he can open the h-file and
put a heavy piece on it to complete the pat-
tern. White’s pawn on h3 is the troublemaker;
it protects the knight at g4, however, so Black
can play QxN to draw the pawn out of the
way. But now he must worry about how to get
a rook to the h-file: after White’s recapture
his pawn left on g4 would guard h5 against
occupation by one rook and block the path to
the h-file of the other one. Yet those two
points taken together suggest a solution for
Black. He goes ahead with Rh5+ (always
working with checks where he can), inviting
g4xR—this time clearing a pawn by launch-
ing a threat from a square it protects. Now the
way is clear for Black’s other rook to go to h4
and mate. To summarize the sequence: 1.
…Ne2+; 2. Kh1, QxN; 3. h3xQ, Rh5+; 4.
g4xR, Rh4#.
This is one of those ideas that is important not
because Black is likely to carry it out but be-
cause the threat of it will force White to
cough up material. For example, as soon as
Black’s knight moves to e2, White can take it
with his queen—but then the queen is lost to
RxQ. Or White can permit Ne2 but then re-
spond to Black's second move—QxN—by
letting go of the knight and keeping the h-file
clogged with a pawn. Thus White could reply
to 2. ...QxN with 3. Qxd6; or White might
play the pawn fork 3. f2-f3. In response to this
last threat, Black would have 3. ...Ng3+
(looking first for his checks, since they hold
the initiative and prevent White from carrying
out the fork), 4. Kg1, NxRf1. However White
recaptures, Black has made gains and threat-
ens NxQ if White tries to make good on the
pawn fork. White can move his queen away,
yet Black has good replies then, too—but now
we're getting into complications beyond the
scope of this little study. The general point is
that Black gains the upper hand one way or
another by putting the mating sequence into
motion, even if he doesn't actually get to ex-
ecute it.
Dg1076: Black to move
Dg1076: Black sizes up his offensive options
and finds two main resources: his knight can
reach e2, and he has connected rooks on the
eighth rank that can be brought to the h-file in
succession (Damiano’s queue, as we have
been naming it)—with a queen nearby as
well. So here, as in the previous case, he starts
with 1. …Ne2+, forcing 2. Kh1. Next comes a
standard sacrifice to open h2 and then the
follow-up with another heavy piece: 2.
…Rxh2+; 3. KxR, Rh8+; and now Black’s
only concern is White’s interpositions. White
can play Qh6 or Bh6, and either way the in-
terposed piece has protection—but either way
it doesn’t matter since Black’s queen attacks
h6 as well. One possibility is 4. Qh6, RxQ+;
5. BxR, QxB#. Another is 4. Bh6, which leads
even more quickly to Qh4#.
The resemblance to Greco’s pattern is that
mate gets administered by a heavy piece on
the h-file because the king can’t move to g8
(or g1). But if you imagine the f2 pawn off
the board and a Black bishop on d4 instead of
a knight, you can see that the knight actually
has some advantages over a bishop here. Af-
ter the third pair of moves listed above
(White’s recapture KxR, which opens the h-
file, followed by a fresh check from Black’s
rook on h8), White’s king is prevented from
escaping to g3 only by the knight on e2,
which seals off the square. And you never
have to worry that anything will be interposed
between your knight and the king.
Dg1077: White to move
Dg1077: There is some sense of urgency here
for White because Black threatens to mate
with Ra1; efforts by White to prevent this
with 1. Ba2 don’t help, since then Black has
1. …Rf8-b8+, 2. Bb3, Ra1# after all. So take
stock of White’s own attacking resources: a
bishop aimed at g8, but with its path blocked
by a pawn on f7; a knight on f4, able to check
the king next move on g6; a rook on the h-
file; and another rook, which must not be
overlooked, queued on the first rank and
ready to move to the h-file once h1 becomes
vacant. Once you are clear on these various
sources of pressure, the germ of an idea sug-
gests itself: a sacrifice to open the pawn cover
in front of Black’s king, and then a mating
attack with the pieces left over.
Experiment with checks. Starting with 1.
Rxh7+ won’t work, because after 1. …KxR,
2. Rh1+, Kg8, White has a heavy piece he can
drop onto h8 but no complementary piece that
can add pressure on g8: his bishop doesn’t
have an open line, and he can’t give check
with his knight because the knight and
Black’s king are then on different colored
squares.
So White turns to his other check as a possi-
ble beginning: 1. Ng6+. The pawn on h7 is
pinned, so Black has two choices of reply:
playing f7xN or moving his king to g8. Ana-
lyze both:
(a) If Black plays f7xN, he opens a line for
White’s bishop to g8. This is the signature
idea of Greco’s mate, so White looks to the h-
file and finds that he can mate there with 2.
Rxh7+, KxR; 3. Rh1#. Remember that after
Black’s original reply f7xN, he leaves a
doubled pawn on g6; this is what prevents the
king from escaping to g6 in reply to White’s
last move.
(b) Now suppose Black replies to Ng6+ by
moving his king to g8. This time a different
signature move is available: 2. Ne7+, the clas-
sic prelude to Anastasia’s mate. This forces
the king back to h8, and now it is just a matter
of creating an attack on the h-file: 2. Rxh7+,
KxR; 3. Rh1#. This time g6 is sealed off as a
flight square by White’s knight, rather than by
Black’s own pawn as in the first variation.
Dg1078: White to move
Dg1078: White has three pieces to work with
in trying for mate: a rook on the open h-file; a
queen aimed at f8; and a knight on f5, which
among other things can be played to e7—
suggesting the possibility of Anastasia’s mate,
especially since he already has the other half
of the pattern (the rook) in place for it. The
problem is that Ne7 isn’t yet effective.
Black’s rook guards e7, and f8 is open to
Black’s king as a flight square. When you are
this close to mating with your knight and
rook, however, realize that your queen may be
expendable and best used to clear obstacles
from your path, even if this means giving the
piece away. Think about queen checks and
their consequences.
White’s 1. Qf8+ can be met in two ways. (a)
Black can play KxQ. Now look for White’s
next possible check and you find only one:
Rh8#. (b) Or Black can reply to Qf8+ with
RxQ. But now both obstacles to Anastasia’s
mate have been removed: it's safe for White
to play Ne7, and the king has no flight
squares—so it’s mate.
Dg1079: White to move
Dg1079: White’s winning sequence here ties
together our present theme with the forks and
discoveries studied earlier. We will spend two
frames on it. White is confronted with serious
trouble: a threat of mate on h2. The best de-
fense is a good offense; he wants to go after
Black’s king. When you undertake such an
attack you want to be conscious of nearby
mating patterns, but also of any other patterns
nearby—such as possible forks that might
become possible if the king moves. Those
thoughts run in the background while you
experiment with a check: Re8+. Black has
two possible replies: Kh7 or the interposition
Bf8. Kh7 puts the king in line with the loose
rook on c2, and so allows White to win the
rook with the fork Qd3+. It's an easy point if
you remember to notice any loose pieces on
the board.
That actually is Black’s best option. To see
why, let’s assume Black instead plays 1.
...Bf8. Now White continues with his checks:
RxB+. Again Black must choose, this time
between moving his king to h7 or g7 or play-
ing KxR:
(a) If he plays Kg7, White can start an attack
that eventually leads to mate with Ne8+; but
since that is hard to see, you might instead
just observe that White can play the fork
Rxf7+, where his rook attacks Black’s king
and queen with protection from the knight on
d6. Black has to play QxR, then lose his
queen to NxQ.
(b) If Black instead replies to RxB+ with Kh7,
White again has the fork Rxf7+ (or, again, a
longer forced mate, but we are focusing for
now on forks).
(c) So assume Black instead replies to RxB+
with KxR, and read on....
Dg1080: White to move
Dg1080: By stepping onto f8, Black’s king
has just completed the three-piece kernel of a
discovered check for White. The question is
what White should do with his knight. The
first choice is to use it as an aid to mate; but is
mate within reach? Indeed, it is close by.
White plays Nf5+, which seems to take the
knight far from Black’s king but seals off e7
and g7—trapping the king on its back rank
and preparing for a form of Anastasia’s mate.
In reply to the check from White’s queen the
king has to move (it is futile for Black to in-
terpose his queen on d6):
If the king goes to e8, White mates imme-
diately with Ng7. See how the rook on d1
plays a key role in sealing off the d-file.
If the king instead goes to g8, White plays
Qf8+. This pretty much requires KxQ, drag-
ging the king back to f8 and away from any
possible flight square on the h-file. White
then clinches the mate on the back rank with
Rd8#.

If you are at a level of play where these mate-

rials are helpful, the sequence illustrated in
these last two diagrams probably will have
been challenging. It is worth playing over
until it is clear. Again, the actual payoff if the
whole thing is seen by your opponent will be
something less than mate; Black will subject
himself to one of those forks rather than the
mate that comes if he avoids them. Dg1082

6.2.09. The knight protects the rook; the knight also

The Arabian Mate. covers a pair of squares the rook can’t guard
(h7 and g8 in this case), while the rook covers
squares of a color the knight can’t reach (f8,
h8, and g7). In this frame the pawn on g5
chips in as well.

Notice again the diagonal relationship be-

tween White’s knight and Black’s king—a
signal to try to get a heavy piece onto a square
the knight protects, as White has done here.

Dg1083: Now for a look at some ways the

Arabian mating pattern can come into exis-
Dg1081 tence. The most common square for White’s
knight in this pattern usually is f6 (or, for
Dg1081: The Arabian mate dates back to at Black, the equivalent square: f3). When the
least the 1400s and probably much earlier; the circumstances are right, the knight’s move to
three pieces involved in it have moved the that square itself can push the king onto h8
same way since well before that time. The and in position to be mated.
mate, pictured here in skeletal fashion, works
equally well if White’s rook is on g8 rather
than h7. Either way the rook takes care of the
squares on the long diagonal while the knight
covers the king’s flight squares of the oppo-
site color. The signature of the pattern is a
diagonal relationship between your knight and
your opponent’s king, with or without an
empty square between them. Then a heavy
piece is added to one of the squares your
knight covers.

Dg1082: The Arabian pattern also can be ex-
ecuted away from the side of the board, or
with the rook underneath the king, or with the
knight flush against it—all shown here. The
point is to take advantage of the complemen-
tary relationship between a knight and rook.
Dg1083: White to move
In this case White thus plays Nf6+; Black is
forced to reply Kh8 since the g-file is off lim-
its to his king. White then mates with RxR#.

Dg1084: White to move
Dg1084: When you have a knight in the
king’s vicinity, make a point of thinking
about whether and how it might participate in
a mating idea. In this case the important clue
to the position again is the knight’s position
on f6, diagonal to the Black king; this is a
signature position for the Arabian mate,
which will be complete if White can get a
heavy piece onto either of the squares the
knight attacks next to the king: h7 or g8.
White has a queen and rook available on ad-
jacent files. How to proceed? Perhaps you can
sacrifice one of your heavy pieces in a way
that allows the other to reach a mating square.
Experiment with both possibilities. 1. RxR,
KxR isn’t optimal; it gives the king too much
room to run. 1. Qxh7+, however, is direct and
effective. It requires Black to play RxQ, and
then the path is clear for White to play Rg8#.
Dg1085: White to move
Dg1085: Here White’s immediate prospects
for mate may look dim at first glance; of
course he can check on the back rank with
Re8, but then the king has unguarded flight
squares on h7 and especially f7 (and then f6,
etc.). But observe that moving the king to
either f7 or h7 will place it in a diagonal rela-
tionship to White’s knight. This signals the
possibility of the Arabian mate if White can
give check with a heavy piece on a square
next to the king that the knight protects—as
he then can with Rf8# or Rh8# (depending
which way Black’s king has fled). Notice the
side features needed to make the idea work
here: protection for the knight, and a pawn on
g7 to constrain the king’s range of motion.
Without those elements the mate fails. The
pawn on h6, on the other hand, is unneces-
sary.
Dg1086: White to move
Dg1086: We know from our work on Anasta-
sia’s mate that the f5 and d5 squares, among
others, can be strong positions for a knight
because from there it can jump to e7. Now
you can see that e4 and g4 also can be strong
positions because from there a knight can
jump to f6—a classic post on which it can
help execute the Arabian mate. Of course the
f6 square has to be safe and other conditions
must be met as well; which squares really are
best for your knight naturally depends on how
the rest of the board is configured. Anyhow,
here you observe that f6 is open for the
knight; that Nf6 will force the king to h8; that
this will create the diagonal knight-and-king
kernel of the Arabian mating pattern; and that
then you have a rook on c7 ready to jump to
h7 and mate—except that h7 is protected by
the bishop on g6. The remedy is simple: a
capture of the guard with 1. QxB+, requiring
the reply h7xQ. Now the mate plays itself. 2.
Nf6+, Kh8; 3. Rxh7#.

Dg1087: Black to move
Dg1087: Examine the White king’s position
and the Black pieces that can be used against
it. You have two rooks and a knight and
therefore are looking for a way to coordinate
two of those pieces in a mating crossfire.
There is no way to mate just with the rooks
(experiment and see for yourself), so look for
a way to involve your knight. From its current
post on h4 the knight can reach f3—and this
signals the possibility of an Arabian mate.
Indeed, if you did not have a rook already on
f3 this position would be structurally the same
as one of the skeletal positions we saw a few
moments ago: Nf3+ would push White’s king
to h1; then you would mate with RxR.
So what should be done with the rook now on
f3? You really just want it gone, but moving it
away without check loses the initiative and
allows White to escape the mate threat. You
therefore get rid of it with checks: 1. …Rf2+,
2. Kh1 (if Black instead interposes with Rg2,
then White mates with Rg8xR+ followed by
Rf1#), Rh2+; 3. KxR. The resulting position
looks the same as the one pictured except that
the f3 rook is off the board. By working sole-
ly with checks you have stayed in control of
the action, and the nifty sacrifice at the end
brings the king back to h2—so that now it can
be checked again with Nf3+. Giving check
with this move is critical, and was part of the
point of what went before: after the first
Black move described a moment ago (Rf2+)
the rook had been cleared from f3, which was
one of your goals; but this wasn’t enough
because your next move, Nf3, would not then
have been a check, and White could have
played RxRg8+. With White’s king forced
back onto h2 the position becomes easy: 3.
…Nf3+, 4. Kh1, RxR#.
Dg1088: White to move
Dg1088: The position of Black’s king looks
knotty, but this shouldn't cause you to over-
look the fact that White (despite facing a mate
threat from Black) has half of an Arabian
mate in place: Black’s king is on the next di-
agonal square from White’s knight, and the
knight is protected; and h6 is sealed off as a
flight square by the pawn on g5. If White
could get a heavy piece onto g8, he would
mate. That doesn’t seem feasible, but perhaps
you can make it so; it’s an idea that can moti-
vate your experiments. White has two heavy
pieces at hand: his queen and his rook. This is
more than he needs to finish the pattern, so
the queen can be sacrificed if necessary. What
happens if he starts with QxR+? KxQ is the
forced response. Since the knight on f6 guards
e8 as well as g8, White can now safely play
Re8+—forcing Black’s king back to g7, its
original square. And now that the rook once
on f8 is off the board, White has Rg8#.
Notice the rough similarities between this
position and the previous one. White sees the
knight-and-king kernel that suggests a possi-
ble Arabian mate. One of his own pieces—
here, his queen—is in his own way, so he
sacrifices it with check. Then he plays another
check to push the king back to its original
square; then at last comes the completed
mate. This idea of pushing and pulling the
king, with checks and perhaps with sacrifices,
is a useful way to get a heavy piece where
you want it while keeping the key elements of
the pattern intact.

Dg1089: White to move
Dg1089: At first this position is unlikely to
stir thoughts of the Arabian mate; White’s
knight isn’t on f6 and the king isn’t diagonal
to it. The key point to see, though, is that it
quickly could become an Arabian mating pat-
tern if Black's king could be forced onto f7 or
h7 by a heavy White piece (a) dropped onto
the back rank to force the king to one of those
squares, and then (b) moved to f8 or h8 to
complete the mate.
Hopefully you would see this much for your-
self by now and finish the mate easily if
Black's queen were off the board. But instead
the queen currently guards the back rank and
meets Re8 with QxR, apparently spoiling the
pattern. Everything depends on how you think
about this obstacle. The temptation is to con-
clude that there's no usable mating idea here
because Black's queen is so well-placed. The
winning train of thought turns that point
around: because Black's queen is separating
you from mate, it is stuck on the back rank
and you can attack it with an unusual sense of
comfort. How? Hit it with a fork: 1. Qb3+. If
Black plays QxQ, his queen has abandoned its
defensive responsibilities and White has 2.
Re8+, Kf7; 3. Rf8# (it seems surprising that
Black’s king has no flight squares, but there it
is). If Black instead replies to Qb3+ by mov-
ing his king, White has QxQ—and if Black
then thinks about Rh2+ in an effort to create
trouble with his rooks, White has QxR.
Really this all is an application of principles
we considered in the section on removing the
guard: if an enemy piece prevents you from
mating, think of it as a target that may be es-
pecially vulnerable. This idea naturally be-
comes more potent as you learn more differ-
ent ways to threaten mate. In this case White
wins material if he recognizes that one of the
checks he can give, Re8+, is a mating threat.
The key to realizing this is a knowledge of the
Arabian mate.
6.2.10.
Blackburne's Mate and Kindred Spirits.
Dg1090
Dg1090: We have seen that a knight and bi-
shop, or knight and rook, can create pressures
similar to what a bishop and rook can create.
Sometimes a pair of bishops can be enough to
do the job, too. Consider the position to the
left, where Black is mated. White has a bi-
shop controlling the long diagonal and bear-
ing down on h8. The king’s only flight square
is g8. We know that it can be sealed off by
putting a heavy piece on the g-file if the file is
open; that is Morphy’s mate. We also know
that a knight on h6 can get it done. Now add
another method to the catalogue: a bishop
aimed at g8 once the f-pawn has stepped for-
ward. In a sense this mating idea combines
Morphy’s mate with Greco’s, since the first
uses a bishop attack against h8 and the second
uses a bishop attack against g8.
Dg1091: As usual, a sacrifice typically will be
needed to create the conditions for the pattern.
The queen often is the ideal tool for the pur-
pose because it can make threats of its own so
great that the offer to sacrifice it cannot be
turned down; or rather it's mate either way. In
this case Black has two pawns cluttering the
long diagonal, which at first glance look de-
moralizing.
 Dg1091: White to move
But White wipes them out with Qxf6; this
creates a battery on the long diagonal and
threatens mate with Qxg7. Black may feel
obliged to play g7xQ, the provocation of
which was White’s purpose—for now he has
Bxf6#.
Dg1092
Dg1092: In the last two diagrams the Black
pawn on h7 played an important role, taking
away a crucial flight square for Black’s king.
If h7 is open, merely hitting h8 and g8 with
bishops won’t work; the king escapes. But
then there is the alternative pictured here
where Black again is mated. As before,
White’s dark-squared bishop has a clean shot
at h8. This time g8 again is sealed off by the
light-squared bishop, but from a different an-
gle; and h7 in turn is sealed off by a knight
from g5, which also protects the bishop. The
absence of pawns in front of the king gives it
more flight squares and so requires three
pieces to mate. (The general point: enemy
flight squares require extra pieces.) This posi-
tion is known as Blackburne’s mate, after the
same player we encountered earlier in the
chapter in the excerpt from the game Black-
burne-Schwartz.
Dg1093: White to move
Dg1093: Here is a typical sacrifice to bring
about Blackburne’s mate. White has control
over the long diagonal and a knight on g5. He
can’t open the g-file for a heavy piece (Mor-
phy’s mate), and he can’t get a heavy piece
down onto h8 (our first theme in this chapter,
associated with Anderssen). But there is
another way to take advantage of the c3 bi-
shop’s powers, and that is to get the light-
squared bishop to h7. The g6 pawn must be
pulled out of the way, so naturally White
takes what it protects: 1. Qxh5, requiring
g6xQ to avoid mate with Qh7 or Qh8—but
now 2. Bh7 mates anyway. The signatures of
the idea are the two bishops raking the king’s
position and the White knight stationed on g5.
The dark-squared bishop and the knight al-
most are enough by themselves to mate; only
g8 is left open by them, which is why the
king’s bishop must be added.
Dg1094: Here is a simple use of the two bi-
shops to mate. Those are White’s only pieces,
so work toward arranging them to mate one
by one. First comes Be6, so that the light-
squared bishop cuts off g8; now the king is
highly vulnerable along the long dark diagon-
al. The move wasn’t a check, but since White
now threatens mate with Bd4 Black’s reply is
forced: he must protect the d4 square by play-
ing Nb5 (his own bishop on c6 is not going to
be any help because it runs on the light
squares). This move does prevent mate via
Bd4, but now White just directs his bishop to
a different square on the same diagonal by
playing Bh2 (preparing for Be5#).

Dg1094: White to move
Black’s knight can’t defend e5 fast enough to
stop the mate. Notice, of course, the crucial
roles played by the pawns on the h-file. With-
out them, Black replies to White’s first move
by evacuating his king to h7 or g7.
Dg1095: White to move
Dg1095: Here White has two bishops trained
on the Black king’s position; he has a queen
nearby, too. Look at captures you can make
and their consequences. One of them is Bxg6.
Black can’t ignore this, for now White is
poised to mate with his queen on h7. So sup-
pose Black recaptures f7xB, and now look for
any checks that have become available. Qe6
— checkmate.
A little lesson: in addition to being used in a
sacrifice the queen also can fill the same role
usually assigned to one of the bishops in these
mates—and one of the bishops can be used to
make the sacrifice more normally offered by
the queen.
After 1. Bxg6 we have been assuming that
Black would play the recapture f7xB. But he
also has another, better reply that must be
noticed: 1. …Nf6. If White now tries to renew
his threat with BxN, it no longer works. Black
plays f7xB and White no longer mates; when
White plays his queen to e6, Black’s king can
escape to h7 where his knight used to sit.
(And if White tries Qh8, Black's king escapes
to f7.) White’s best procedure in this variation
is 1. Bxg6, Nf6; 2. Bh7+, Kg7; 3. Qg4+. This
produces the position diagrammed in the next
frame with Black about to move....
Dg1096: Black to move
Dg1096: To repeat: we arrived at this position
by 1. Bxg6, Nf6; 2. Bh7+, Kg7; 3. Qg4+. It's
Black's turn to move. He will lose his queen
soon; can you see why? It’s because White’s
queen will be able to check her way to f6 and
threaten mate there, requiring Black to sacri-
fice his queen to get rid of the bishop on e5.
But we're getting a little ahead of ourselves.
From the diagrammed position Black has to
play either KxB or Kh6 (if he plays Kh8,
White mates with Qg8; notice that the f6
knight would be pinned). Black’s most favor-
able line is 3. …Kh6; 4. Qf4+ (working with
checks to control the situation), KxB (if Black
starts with KxB he ends up here a move soon-
er); 5. Qf5+, Kg8; 6. QxN, threatening mate,
and now 6. …QxB to prevent it; 7. QxQ fol-
lows, and White has a won game.
Dg1097: The sight of the two bishops both
aimed at the king’s position should be food
for thought even if one of them is blocked.
Here you see that the c4 bishop is obstructed
by its own knight, which suggests the familiar
possibility of a discovered attack—perhaps a
discovered check or even a double check.
What tools does White have at hand to push
the position along?

Dg1097: White to move
The crucial piece is the rook on g1, which is
poised to be forfeited to the cause. Thus 1.
Rxg6+: a classic rook sacrifice on the g-file
intended to pry open one of the adjacent files
when Black recaptures. If Black plays h7xR,
White mates in classic fashion with Qh8. If
Black instead recaptures with f7xR, he has
opened the diagonal leading to g8, so now
that double check with the knight works: in-
deed, Ne7 is mate.
So long as the king is stuck on those two
squares on the back rank, bishops running at
those squares can finish it. The special power
of the double check at the end of this se-
quence is that it prevents Black from thwart-
ing the mate with a capture or interposition.
The double check requires the king to move,
and it can’t.
Dg1098: The first thing to see is the b2 bi-
shop’s clear line of attack against h8. Then
see the other bishop on b1 also aimed at the
king’s position.
Dg1098: White to move
All the obstructions on the b1-h7 diagonal
look discouraging, but don’t be deterred by
them lightly; they might be removable, and
with a knight on g5 the possibility is impor-
tant to explore: If the bishop on b1 were on
h7, the game would be over. So White goes to
work with sacrifices to clear paths: first, 1.
Qxh5, gxh5 (to prevent Qxh7#). The g6 pawn
is out of the way; that leaves the knight on f5.
Again White clears it by making a threat—a
check—from a square the knight protects: 2.
Ng4-h6+, Nf5xN (again forced). Now only
the pawn on h7 is left, so White takes it out
with his mating move: 3. Bxh7#. It's just
another study in the methodical removal of
obstacles to a mating pattern
Granted, all this merely is the sequence that
results from natural recaptures by Black; after
White’s original Qxh5 Black also can play
BxN, allowing QxB and thus sacrificing a
piece to disrupt the mating threat.
Dg1099: Black to move
Dg1099: The mating idea for Black is con-
cealed here; the clue that enables you to unra-
vel the position is the rook on g8—not be-
cause it necessarily will help administer mate,
but because it gives you a natural way to open
the White king’s pawn cover. If you have a
way to take out the g2 pawn, as Black does
here, it calls for experimentation to see what
patterns might result. The thinking starts 1.
…Rxg2+. Since the rook then has protection
from the bishop on b7, it wouldn’t even be a
sacrifice; White would be forced to reply
Kh1. Now Black has the kernel of a discov-
ered check on the long diagonal. He could use
it to go after White’s queen with his rook, but
focus on mate. Withdrawing the rook to g6
almost creates Morphy’s mate, but not quite:
White interposes his bishop on e4 and Black’s
threat is extinguished.
So the better route now is for Black to consid-
er his other resources and how he might in-
volve them. He has two bishops aimed into
the White king’s corner and a knight available
as well—signals that Blackburne’s mate or
some other bishop-driven pattern may be
possible. If Black could get his knight to g4
then both bishops would have open lines; and
if the White king could be brought to h2, then
Black could move his knight to g4 not only
with a discovered check but with double
check. So Black plays the ingenious 2.
…Rh2+. If White moves his king to g1, Black
mates immediately with Rh1: a heavy piece in
the corner supported by a bishop. So White is
forced to play KxR. We arrive at the position
in the next frame.
Dg1100: Black to move
Dg1100: Black’s two rook moves have
created this situation. Now comes the payoff,
starting with 3. …Ng4++. Since it is double
check White cannot capture and must instead
move his king to g1—its only square. Every-
thing is in place for the denouement: Bh2#.
The most valuable thing to study in this posi-
tion is the arrangement of bishops and knight
in Black’s position. Neither the dark-squared
bishop nor the knight are in the pattern for
Blackburne’s mate, but they are in a position
to reach that pattern; they can be scrambled
into place in two moves if the White king is
forced to cooperate (which is where Black's
rook comes in). Go over the movements of
the Black knight and bishop in this diagram
(and the prior one) until the pattern flows vi-
sually in your mind’s eye.
Dg1101: Black to move
Dg1101: Let’s have another extended look at
how Blackburne’s mate can arise, this time
from the game that gave the pattern its name.
Blackburne, playing the Black pieces, moved
his knight to g4. This threatens mate via Qxh2
and therefore forces White to push his h-pawn
to h3. Black doesn’t move his knight, though:
he keeps the initiative with Bxf2+. This seems
to invite White to play RxB, but not really;
for notice that with the knight on g4 the f2
square still is attacked twice. This means that
if White plays RxBf2, Black can reply
QxRf2+ and force White’s king to h1—and
then mate with Qf1. So instead White replies
to Bxf2 with Kh1. Now we reach the position
in the next frame...
Dg1102: A mating pattern comes into view.
The bishop on f2 seals off g1, and Black’s
knight seals off h2; thus the dark squares
around White’s king all are accounted for, so
an attack on the long diagonal would have
lethal potential. The g2 pawn can be pulled
off that diagonal with a simple queen sacrifice
on h3. If Black’s light-squared bishop were
available, the idea would be complete. Unfor-
tunately it’s way back on c8. But then you see
that the bishop might be moved without a loss
of time because it will unmask a discovered
attack against White’s queen. Thus Black
plays Bf5.

Dg1102: Black to move
This move puts White into deep trouble. His
natural move—indeed, his only move that
does not lose his queen—is QxR. But then
Black mates in two strokes: Qxh3+, requiring
White to reply g2xQ; and then Bxe4#. This
was how Blackburne in fact ended the game.
White's better reply to Bf5 would be d2-d3 or
Qxh7+. These moves lose White’s queen but
forestall mate.
6.2.11.
Boden's Mate.
Dg1103:
Dg1103: We continue with mating patterns
that employ the two bishops. As shown in the
diagram on the left (where Black is mated),
Boden's mate is similar to Blackburne’s mate
but moved and reversed a bit: either way one
bishop cuts off the king’s flight squares while
the other then stabs at it along a diagonal.
And notice that in both mates the king must
be prevented from retreating away from the
scene of the crossfire. In Blackburne’s mate
this function is served by the side of the board
because the king is on h8. In Boden’s mate
the function is served either by Black’s own
pieces or by pieces of yours like White’s rook
on e1, which stops the king here from escap-
ing onto the e-file.
Dg1104:
Dg1104: We started in the prior frame with an
example on the kingside because that makes it
easier to understand the relationship between
Boden’s mate and the others we have seen.
But Boden’s mate is more common when a
player castles on the queenside as shown here.
The reason is that after queenside castling the
king is left three squares from the side of the
board with a rook blocking d8, putting part of
the pattern for Boden’s mate already in place.
Kingside castling leaves the king two squares
from the edge, so it must be moved over for
the pattern to work, and then the e-file has to
blocked off. It takes more time and effort—
whereas in the pictured position White's bi-
shops are able to achieve checkmate with no
help from any other White pieces.
Dg1105: Boden’s mate most characteristically
arises with a queen sacrifice on c6 to pull the
b7 pawn out of the way and open the diagonal
needed to mate. Thus Black’s king appears to
have a snug position here but is finished in
two moves: 1. Qxc6+, and now the reply
b7xQ is forced; then 2. Ba6#. As often is the
case, the best clue to seeing this mating idea
is a pawn in front of the king that has stepped
forward, opening a diagonal into the king’s
sanctuary. Once you have a bishop aimed
through the hole created by the c-pawn’s ad-
vance, notice how constrained the king be-
comes:

Dg1105: White to move
its only available move is a diagonal step to
b7; and that means an attack along that di-
agonal—as with a bishop on a6—can mate.
So your task becomes the removal of the b7
pawn, etc.
Dg1106: Black to move
Dg1106: Start by examining White’s king and
you see that it is hemmed in by the bishop on
f5 (and by the White pieces on d1 and d2). It
has no flight squares, so an attack against it
from a3 would mate. The possibility of such
an attack may seem remote, but notice that
Black has his queen aimed at the pawn on c3;
if that pawn gets taken, the b2 pawn will have
to recapture and the diagonal leading toward
the king from a3 will be open. The other
problem is that Black’s dark-squared bishop
is back on its original position—f8—with a
pawn on d6 blocking its path to the White
king’s territory. But this naturally suggests
moving the pawn forward with 1. …d6-d5,
attacking White’s bishop. White plays 2.
Bxd5, apparently taking a pawn for nothing—
and now Black lowers the boom with 2.
…Qxc3+; 3. b2xQ, Ba3#. This was the cli-
max of MacDonnell-Boden (1869), the game
that gave Boden’s mate its name.
If it wasn’t clear at first, in retrospect you can
see that two of the elements of the mate were
in place from the outset, and that the Black
pawn’s advance to d5 amounts to a discov-
ered mate threat: Black suddenly is a short
forced sequence away from winning if White
does nothing to address the threat. White’s
best option would have been Rd1-e1, creating
a flight square for his king. This saves the
game but of course enables Black to win a
piece with d5xB.
Dg1107: White to move
Dg1107: We have seen the standard queen
sacrifice to create Boden’s mate. Here the
route to the result is a little trickier. Again we
see White’s dark-squared bishop with a clear
path to b8, and a king that is trapped with no
flight squares in the other direction; but to
take advantage of this in Boden’s fashion
White would need to move the b7 pawn and
then follow up with his other bishop on a6.
Notice the impediments to that pattern here:
Black’s knight guards a6, and his pawn on b7
isn’t guarding anything White can take. But
remember that a threat on a square guarded by
a pawn can be as effective as a capture there.
Thus White begins 1. Rc6+. Like a capture of
a pawn on c6, this requires Black to play
b7xR. The other problem still remains: the
knight on b4 guards a6. So White makes use
of a similar principle again, playing 2.
Qxc6+—and this time requiring NxQ. Now
Ba6 mates.
Black instead can make the first capture with
his knight and the second with his b7 pawn; it
doesn’t matter. The important point is to see
how the two guards of a6 are drawn out of the
way by successive threats—and sacrifices—
on another square they both protect: c6.
Dg1108: White to move
Dg1108: White has some of the elements of
Boden’s mate in place. There is the bishop’s
attack on the dark square in front of Black’s
king, which otherwise is trapped by his own
pieces; and White has a queen ready to play
QxQ, drawing the b7 pawn forward to open
the other diagonal. The problem this time is
that White’s own knight blocks his bishop’s
path to a6. The natural idea is to vacate
White's knight from b5 in a violent manner
that holds the initiative—preferably a check.
1. Nd6+ is a blunder, as after 1. …BxN the
White bishop’s path to b8 no longer is clear.
Correct is 1. Nxa7+, which requires the reply
BxN. The finale is the normal 2. QxQ+,
b7xQ; Ba6#.
Notice the importance of the order of opera-
tions: if White starts with QxQ expecting to
play Nxa7 next, it will be too late; for the first
exchange gives Black's king a flight square
when White gives check with his knight. This
mate, like many others, depends on keeping
the king’s range of motion under tight control,
with important assistance often furnished by
his own pieces as they help block the king
into its position. Be careful about moves to set
up mate that inadvertently give the king
breathing room.
Dg1109: As we saw at the outset of this sec-
tion, Boden’s mate need not occur on the
queenside; it also can arise against a king cas-
tled on the kingside or—as here—not castled
at all.
Dg1109: White to move
The point is just that the bishops need elbow
room to be able to attack the king from two
angles. Here the first clue to spot is the telltale
attack by White’s a3 bishop against the di-
agonal running past Black’s king. The king
has nowhere it can go; so if an attack along
the h5-e8 diagonal could be added, White
might mate. There's a pawn in the way on f7,
but it can be cleared in the usual fashion by
taking the pawn it protects with a threat and
sacrifice: 1. Qxe6+, and now f7xQ is forced;
then White mates with Bg6.
This position illustrates the value of castling.
As we have seen countless times, a mating
attack on the castled king generally requires
one of the pawns in front of the king to have
stepped forward (unless it is a back rank mate,
but that's another story). But when your king
is uncastled the pawn in front of it and the
pawn on the next file—the d-pawn and the e-
pawn—routinely will have stepped forward
because that is the most natural way for your
bishops to enter the game. So a failure to cas-
tle means your opponent is likely to have
open diagonals leading toward your king, at
least until it moves. There are other reasons to
castle, too—principally that it brings your
rook into the game; and occasionally the
board will present such irresistible opportuni-
ties early that castling is best postponed or
skipped. But in the most games, castling dur-
ing your first eight moves or so is the best
policy. (In this case Black’s lack of a dark-
squared bishop hurts, too.)

Dg1110: White to move
Dg1110: Now for an application on the king-
side. White’s bishop on b3 seals off f7 and g8,
and White has a battery of queen and rook
aimed at e8. Yet he can’t quite mate with
these forces because Black protects e8 three
times. The solution is to involve White's least
conspicuous piece: the bishop on d2, which
can reach h6 in one step. White just needs to
clear the diagonal from h6 to the Black king’s
square, and this he can do with his queen by
playing the familiar QxN+. Black is forced to
reply g7xQ (the king still has no flight
squares). Now Bh6 mates. Normally in Bo-
den’s mate the two bishops are able to apply
unbearable pressure against the king because
the king is prevented from retreating by a wall
of its own pieces. Here the “wall” is created
by the rook on e1, which keeps the king east
of the e-file.
Dg1111: Black to move
Dg1111: You want to notice pressure of the
sort that Black's b6 bishop applies every time
it occurs: it cuts off the dark squares in front
of White’s king, which is walled in on the
other side by its own pieces. Pressure added
on the diagonal from h3 would mate; and to
open the diagonal for that purpose we can
make a threat or capture on f3 that forces the
g2 pawn to capture. To apply the logic here:
White guards the pawn on f3 not just with his
pawn on g2 but also with his bishop on d5;
yet Black also has two attackers trained on the
square, and so can force open g2 thusly: 1.
…Rxf3+, 2. BxR, RxB+; 3. g2xR, Bh3#.
Dg1112: White to move
Dg1112: The prospects for mate here aren't
obvious. But when you have two bishops
ready to attack, as White does, be mindful of
patterns that take advantage of them. The first
two checks to try should come naturally: 1.
Rh3+, using the open file and forcing the king
to g8; then 2. Be6+, aiming one of the bishops
into the king’s position from a safe square and
forcing it to f8. Okay, but now what? Think
about the position the king then would have:
its back would be against the wall on the e-
file, and the e6 bishop would cut off the light
squares around it. It’s a setup for Boden’s
mate, coming at the king along the dark di-
agonal leading from h6. The idea is obscured
by the pawn on g7, but by now you know
what to do about it: 3. Qxf6+, g7xQ; and then
4. Bh6#.
6.2.12.
The Greek Gift (generally)
White's sacrifice of a bishop on h7, some-
times known as the "Greek gift," can begin a
common, important, and complex set of mat-
ing concepts. The elements of the mate gener-
ally involve three core pieces: a bishop, a
knight, and a queen. The basic idea, starting
from the diagram, goes 1. Bxh7+, KxB; 2.
Ng5+, Kg8; 3. Qh5 and then 4. Qh7#, where
the queen mates with support from the same
knight that drove back the king on the second
move. This is the ideal form; in practice the
pattern can be complicated in several ways.
On his second move Black can play his king
to g6 or h6 instead of g8. Or Black may be
able to capture the knight on g5. Or after
White’s third move (Qh5) Black’s king may
be able to scurry off along the back rank. Or
Black may be able to decline the sacrifice in
the first place, responding to Bxh7 with Kh8.
Dg1113: White to move
Dg1113: Then there also are some chances for
variety on White’s side: instead of Ng5 he can
follow up on the bishop sacrifice with Qh5
right away or some other action on the h-file.
The result of all this may be mate, or it may
be a gain of material the enemy sacrifices to
avoid mate. Or it may just be the pawn on h7
when your opponent declines the sacrifice.
As this description suggests, the mating ideas
we will consider here differ from those we
have seen before; they tend to involve more
different issues to worry about, and can be-
come quite involved. To catalogue all these
variations, and the variations within them,
would take too much space for our modest
purposes, so in this section (and two more that
follow) we will just look at the basic ideas
behind them. The pattern arises often, so fa-
miliarity with its key ideas is useful.
Dg1114: It often will happen that Black has a
piece defending g5 and ready to take your
knight if it lands there. In that case you still
may be able to use the Bxh7+ sacrifice to a
force a sacrifice by your opponent on g5 to
stop your mate threat. Here White has the key
elements of the pattern in place: a bishop
aimed at h7; a knight on f3, able to attack the
seventh rank in one move; and a queen able to
get to the h-file in one move. (These are
common positions for those three pieces,
which is why this mating idea arises a lot.)
But the g5 square is guarded by Black’s
queen; that means the mating idea won’t
work—but that Black will have to pay to
avoid it:
Dg1114: White to move
1. Bxh7+, KxB; 2. Ng5+, Kg8; 3. Qh5, QxN;
4. QxQ. (White’s second and third moves can
be reversed without consequence.) White
wins a queen and a pawn for a bishop and a
knight.
Notice that if Black starts with a bishop be-
hind his queen on d8 (or with the queen be-
hind the bishop—it doesn’t matter for these
purposes), the sequence no longer works for
White: g5 then is attacked twice but guarded
by White only once. But then if White had his
h-pawn advanced to h4 it would work again
after all, because White’s knight then would
have an inexpensive second layer of protec-
tion against Black’s two more valuable at-
tackers.
Dg1115: Now let's introduce a little com-
plexity. Sometimes, as here, f8 will be open
or Black will have time to open it by moving
his rook after White plays his queen to the h-
file. This gives the king room to flee first to f8
and then to e7. Where this is possible you
must satisfy yourself that you can hunt the
king down before making the initial sacrifice.
The diagram presents a simple example—a
skeleton of the position that can arise after the
first three moves for each side.

Dg1115: White to move
If White now plays Qh7+, he blunders away
his attack; Black’s king moves to f8 and then
escapes to e7. The correct sequence for White
here is Qxf7+, Kh8; then QxR#. This idea—
starting with Qxf7 rather than Qh7—turns out
to be pretty common, so it's important to un-
derstand.
Dg1116: White to move
Dg1116: Usually the precise pattern we have
been studying isn’t available because Black
has resources on the back rank (here his
queen) that prevent White from finishing with
the simple Qe8. But White still mates in this
position, and again the secret is to start at f7
rather than h7, taking advantage of the g5
knight’s ability to support attacks on both
squares. 1. Qxf7+, Kh8; 2. Qh5+, Kg8—and
now the position has been reset but with the
f7 pawn off the board. That’s important, for it
allows 3. Qh7+, Kf8; 4. Qh8+, Ke7; 5.
Qxg7#. The mate of the king on e7 looks sur-
prising, but White’s pawn and knight seal off
all of the king’s flight squares on the sixth
rank.
This mate, like any that depends on confining
the king, is sensitive to changes that give the
king more room. Thus if Black’s queen were
on c8 rather than d8 the mating sequence no
longer would work, because then after Qxg7+
Black has Kd8. The details of these condi-
tions may seem numerous and perplexing, but
in practice you simply visualize your queen’s
pursuit of the king’s path to see whether you
can nail it in something like the manner de-
scribed above. A pawn on e5 tends to be very
important, both to prevent the king from es-
caping to d6 and to prevent Black from mov-
ing a knight to f6 so that it can protect h7.
Dg1117: White to move
Dg1117: Start by observing that White has the
makings of the Greek gift sacrifice and fol-
low-up. Assume play goes 1. Bxh7+, KxB; 2.
Ng5+, Kg8; 3. Qh5 (later we will consider
other possibilities). All right; now what? You
might be looking here to win Black’s queen
(plus a pawn) for your knight and bishop after
he plays QxNg5, but before you can expect
that sacrifice from your opponent you have to
know that without it you have mate. Black’s
best move other than QxN would be 3.
…Re8, making room for his king to flee after
White plays Qh7+. So study the position and
see whether you will be able to pin down the
king or whether it will escape from there. The
answer is that you will be able to mate using
the sequence described in skeletal form in the
previous frame. Again, you start by taking the
queen to f7, not h7: 4. Qxf7+, Kh8; 5. Qh5+,
Kg8; 6. Qh7+, Kf8; 7. Qh8+, Ke7; 8. Qxg7#.
The point: White does threaten mate here, so
Black will need to sacrifice his queen with
QxN to stop him.
With a little practice you should be able to
picture all this from the starting position
shown here; and when you do, you can con-
gratulate yourself for being able to see eight
moves ahead. It isn’t so difficult when you are
working with a familiar pattern. Notice again
the key roles played by the pawn on e5 and
the queen on d8. Without those pieces in
place you still might be able to eventually
hunt down the king or collect material, but the
immediate quest for mate fails.
6.2.13.
The Greek Gift The King Goes to g6.
Dg1118: White to move
Dg1118: Before we continue, patient reader,
let me ask you to ignore the king on g8; one
Black king (the one on g6) is quite enough.
The diagram will be fixed eventually.
Moving along, then, there are three main is-
sues to worry about if the Bxh7 sacrifice
looks promising. The first and simplest is
whether the squares you need—particularly
g5, and then h7—are available for your piec-
es. The second is whether the king will be
able to flee along the back rank. We have
seen both of those complications; a third, to
which we now turn, is the possibility that after
taking your bishop (and being threatened by
Ng5+) the enemy king will step forward to g6
rather than back to g8. This is the most com-
plex variation on our current pattern, and it is
hard to generalize about its consequences.
Sometimes you still can achieve mate quickly
if you have other pieces available to help;
sometimes you can use the king’s highly ex-
posed position to create other tactical shots;
and sometimes Black just gets away with it.
You have to assess the facts on the board.
Your goal in these next studies is get a sense
of the resources you have available against a
king that ventures out to g6—the types of
attacking ideas that become possible. The
general ideas are these: (a) bringing your
queen closer to the exposed king; (b) forcing
the king into a discovered check unmasked by
your knight on g5—and then possibly using
your knight as a forking threat; and (c) ad-
vancing your h-pawn, g-pawn, or f-pawn to
close off the king’s flight squares and support
more mating threats.
The position diagrammed to the left started
the same as another seen a few moments ago,
then took a different turn. Assume play went
1. Bxh7+, KxB; 2. Ng5+, Kg6, bringing us to
the current frame. White wants to get his
queen into the picture; the combination of a
queen and a protected knight will give him
various ways to threaten mate in the sector
where Black’s king has wandered. It’s best to
introduce the queen with check to keep con-
trol over the position, so White plays Qd3+.
Black now gets mated, but the tools White
uses may seem a little surprising at first:
(a) If Black replies to Qd3+ with Kh6, White
plays 2. Qh7#.
(b) If Black replies to Qd3+ with Kh5, White
plays 2. g2-g4+—and will mate next move.
For now (i) if Black moves his king to h6,
White has Nxf7#—discovered mate. (ii) If
Black plays Kxg4, White mates with Qh3.
(iii) If Black plays Kh4, White has Qg3#.
Notice the crucial work done by the bishop on
c1. (After Black plays Kh5, White also can
mate by playing his queen to h3 with check;
then, after Black's Kg6, White has Qh7#.)
(c) Black’s best reply to Qd3+ is f7-f5, inter-
posing a pawn in front of White’s queen. But
since the f-pawn just jumped two squares
alongside White’s pawn on e6, White can
take Black’s pawn en passant: e5-f6+, disco-
vering check. If Black then plays Kxf6, White
mates with Rxe6. If Black moves his king to
h5, White plays g2-g4 and mates as described
a moment ago.
As you can see, the mating ideas here are a bit
tricky. There are a half-dozen different ways
White might finish the game depending on the
choices Black makes, and they involve nets
that all have different shapes. If White makes
a false move, Black can escape—and a false
move is a real danger, because the ideas just
sketched aren't especially intuitive. Some in-
volve using the queen on a square the knight
protects; some involve combining those piec-
es with a pawn; one of them involves attack-
ing with the rook on e1. Dg1119: White to move

The general point is that once the king climbs
to g6, it's in danger in lots of different ways.
Sometimes its owner may be able to escape
without being mated or suffering material
losses, but careful play on the attacker's part
generally will yield one of those outcomes—
with emphasis on “generally.” Every position
has to be considered on its merits. Study the
attacking ideas presented here not because
you necessarily will find them replicated in
your games, but because they are the kinds of
options that arise in this position. If you spend
enough time with them now to make them
familiar, you will have an easier time spotting
related possibilities on the board.
This raises a final question: how much confi-
dence must you have to play this pattern?
Normally you don't want to sacrifice a piece
unless you are certain where it will lead. But
as you get better you sometimes may make
sacrifices without being sure of the result be-
cause you know they produce in strong posi-
tions where you feel sure you can make gains.
These positions are examples: you may be
able to see that you can flush the king to g6,
and so play Bxh7 without being sure how the
game will play out. After studying the posi-
tion you might just know that with good play
your chances of either mating or making ma-
terial gains are strong; you might see a couple
of ways that can happen, and no clear way for
your opponent to extinguish the danger. But
you nevertheless will be taking a risk, because
you can't see every possibility and you know
the sacrifice isn't a sure thing. It makes for an
exciting game, anyway.
Dg1119: The sequence here starts in standard
fashion: 1. Bxh7+, Kxh7 (Black is better off
declining the sacrifice, but assume he accepts
it); 2. Ng5+—and now suppose Black plays
Kg6. White has to add pressure fast, but how?
The king’s move to g6 not only takes it out of
danger of being mated on the back rank; it
also guards h5 and so prevents White from
moving his queen there. The best bet usually
is to bring your queen in at g4 or d3 (and then
from d3 to g3); the idea is to get your queen
behind your knight and thus prepare a discov-
ered check when your knight moves. Another
possibility is to use the h-pawn, as White does
here with h4-h5+, creating the position that
follows in the next frame....
Dg1120: Black to move
Dg1120: Black’s king can't capture the knight
or pawn because both are protected. He has to
move his king, and its only available squares
are f5 and h6. (a) Kf5 results in the surprising
mate g2-g4#. (b) Kh6 creates the kernel of a
discovered check, with White’s knight on g5
now masking the c1 bishop’s path to the king.
White takes advantage with Nxf7++, winning
Black’s queen next move. As you know if you
have read the chapter on discovered attacks,
you want to pay careful attention whenever a
king moves; chances for discoveries some-
times arise unexpectedly.
Dg1121: Black to move
Dg1121: Now let’s look at a couple of other
things that might have happened in the posi-
tion just considered. After White plays 2.
Ng5+ (pictured), Black is not advised to re-
treat with Kg8; things are clogged on his back
rank, so White then would have 3. Qh5 and a
forced mate: 3. …BxN; 4. h5xB, f7-f5 (trying
to create an escape route); 5. g5-g6 (sealing
off f7), Qh4 (desperation—Black is out of
ideas); 6. QxQ, anything; 7. Qh8# (with sup-
port from the rook on h1).
Another alternative for Black in the dia-
grammed position is BxN. This, too, results in
mate: 3. h4xB+ (discovered check), Kg8; 4.
Qh5, f7-f5 (this now looks like the sequence
in the previous paragraph: Black can’t stop
the threat on the h-file); 5. g5-g6 (again, see
above), Qh4; 6. QxQ, anything; 7. Qh8#. No-
tice the crucial role played by the pawn that
starts on h4. It provides protection for the
knight; and when the knight gets taken the
pawn turns into a monster, moving off the h-
file to open it for the rook on h1 and then ad-
vancing up the g-file to seal in Black’s king.
If that pawn isn’t there—if it’s on, say, h2 at
the start of the position—then BxN is a suffi-
cient response for Black here and ends the
threat. Also crucial is White’s rook on h1. If it
isn’t there (perhaps because White has cas-
tled), then h4xB no longer is a discovered
check and Black has a chance to dig out of
trouble.
Dg1122: White to move
Dg1122: And another thing: after 1. Bxh7,
KxB; 2. Ng5, BxN, 3. h4xB+ (discovered
check)—the main sequence considered in the
previous paragraph—Black doesn’t have to
play 3. …Kg8; he can instead reply by bring-
ing his king out to g6, resulting in the position
to the left. White mates in three moves, start-
ing with 4. Qh5+, Kf5 (forced). Then 5.
Qh3+, and now if Black plays his king to e4
White has Qf3#; if Black plays his king to g6
White has Qh7#.
These sequences are worth a good look. They
aren’t obvious, and tracing them through will
give you a further feel for the types of possi-
bilities that can arise in this attacking pattern.
Once the king is out in front of its pawns it
very quickly can find itself in deep waters:
White’s pawns may greatly limit its mobility,
and if White’s queen can move around with
protection (as it gets here from the rook on
h1), look out.
Dg1123: White to move
Dg1123: Here are some similar ideas. White
executed the usual bishop sacrifice on h7 and
then moved his knight to g5 with check;
Black replied by moving his king to g6.
White’s h-pawn is not yet advanced, but his been to give you a flavor of the various ideas
strongest move is to play it to h4. The point is that typically can come into play when the
not to protect the knight, which is in no im- pattern is triggered. There is a good deal more
mediate danger. The point is to play h4-h5+ to this mating idea than has been shown in
next turn. Notice that once Black’s king is on this introduction—more sub-patterns and de-
g6 its mobility becomes limited, so you may tails. If you are interested in pursuing it fur-
be able to get away with moves like this pawn ther, Vukovich’s The Art of Attack has the
push, which builds a threat without giving leading discussion.
check. At the same time, since you are not
giving check your opponent has more choices 6.2.14.
of reply, and those choices will affect how The Smothered Mate.
you can follow-up—which is why it is hard to
be precise about how to play these situations.
If Black is imprecise he can get mated here; if
he replies to h4-h5 with Kf5, for example, the
game ends with g2-g4# as seen a few mo-
ments ago.

If Black instead plays his king to h6, there are

several ways things can go; as usual, the best
we can do is suggest possibilities. White can
bring in his queen at g4, which usually is a
good practice before unleashing a discovered
check (with your bishop) by moving the Dg1124: White to move
knight from g5. Once that knight moves,
Black can retreat his king to h7 and then g8; Dg1124: Here is the idea behind the smo-
you want to keep the king stuck out in the thered mate in simplest form. Black’s king is
open for a move or two so you can rally more paralyzed on its square; White’s knight,
firepower to the scene. Having the queen which can exert its pressure through the wall
close by gives White lots of ways to threaten of pieces surrounding the king, delivers the
mate by combining it with the knight or bi- fatal blow Nf7#. In these patterns the king
shop or with a pawn. Once White then dis- typically is constrained in roughly this fashion
covers check by moving his knight, the knight by some combination of its fellow pieces and
becomes a possible forking threat; plus the h- the edge of the board.
pawn can be advanced to create mating
threats with the queen; etc.

To take a concrete variation, suppose that in

the pictured position White plays 1. h4 and
Black replies Qe8, removing his queen from
the danger of being forked by White’s knight
after Black has to move his king to h6. Sure
enough, 2. h4-h5+, Kh6 follows. Now 3. Qd3
(threatening Qh7#), Nf5 (interposing); 4. g2-
g4 (threatening Black's knight), f7-f6 (threat-
ening your knight); 5. Nxe6+ (discovering
check and attacking Black's rook), NxB (ex- Dg1125: White to move
tinguishing the check but losing the exchange
next move). Dg1125: Examination of your checks turns up
Nf7, which would be a smothered mate if f7
This position concludes our brief treatment of weren't guarded by the bishop on g6. So you
the h7 sacrifice. Again, its purpose has just turn your attention to the bishop and to
whether it might be captured or distracted.
Notice that it also guards h7, where you have
a second mating threat; in other words, the
bishop is overworked. Your course is clear:
play one of the threats it guards against, then
the other: 1. Qxh7+, BxQ; and now 2. Nf7#.
Dg1126: Black to move
Dg1126: The natural move for Black is 1.
…Ng4—natural because it creates a mate
threat on h2 (when your queen attacks a
square next to the enemy king, adding another
attacker against that square is always some-
thing to consider). How will White respond?
His options are limited; he has to add protec-
tion to h2, and his only way of doing so is 2.
Qf4. This seems to successfully parry the
threat against h2, so now what? Well, notice
that the White king is sealed onto h1; this
should provoke thoughts of a smothered mate.
White’s queen guards the mating square (f2),
but it also guards the mating square h2. So
again it’s overworked, inviting you to play
one threat followed by the other: first comes
2. …Qxh2; 3. QxQ; then the smothered mate
3. …Nxf2.
Dg1127: Black to move
Dg1127: A classic route to the smothered
mate arises when you make a sacrifice on a
square next to the enemy king; the sacrifice
requires your opponent to recapture there with
a different piece and seal his king onto its
square. Thus in the diagrammed position
Black plays Qg1+. Since the queen has pro-
tection from its bishop on a7, White can’t
capture with his king; he is forced to play
RxQ. But now his king is trapped and is easy
prey: Nf2#.
Dg1128: Black to move
Dg1128: Greco published this idea in the ear-
ly 1600s; it is more or less the same as the
previous position but one move earlier.
Black’s most natural move to consider is the
check 1. …Qxf2+, planting the queen safely
next to White’s king and driving it toward the
corner. The problem is that after White replies
2. Kh1, Black can’t safely play his queen to
the back rank because White guards it heavi-
ly. So instead Black plays it there unsafely
with a charming sacrifice: 2. ...Qg1+, requir-
ing White to play RxQ or NxQ. Now White’s
king again is confined and ready to be mated
with Nf2#.
Dg1129: Here is a particularly famous and
useful idea for achieving a smothered mate,
first offered in 1497 by Juan Ramirez Lucena
of Spain. White begins with 1. Qe6+, forcing
Black’s king back to h8. Now White’s knight
does a little dance: 2. Nf7+, Kg8; 3. Nh6++,
which discovers check by the queen and thus
keeps the knight safe on its new square. Black
is forced to play 3. …Kh8 (if he tries Kf8 he
gets mated right away with Qf7). Now: 4.
Qg8+, forcing 4. …RxQ—and Black’s king is
entombed in the corner. 5. Nf7 mates.
 it would not have given check (and so would
have allowed White time for Qf8#). Instead
Black starts with 1. …Qc1+, the only function
of which is to force White’s rook down onto
the back rank so that 2. …Qe3 will give check
and control the action.

Dg1129: White to move

Notice two motifs worth mastering here: the

sacrifice of the queen on g8, forcing Black to
capture there and trap his own king; and the
use of the knight first to push the king into the
corner and then to give cover to the queen on
g8 (and thus prevent Black’s king from cap- Dg1131: Black to move
turing there itself).
Dg1131: The classic smothered mate involves
a king against the edge of the board sur-
rounded by its own pieces. But the same pat-
tern can arise when the empty squares around
the king are under attack and thus off-limits
as flight squares. Here is a simple study in the
principle. If Black starts with the implausible-
looking Qg1+, White has to reply RxQ (the
king can’t capture because the queen has pro-
tection from the rook on g6). But see that now
White’s king is invisibly smothered: its only
flight square, g2, is made off-limits by that
Dg1130: Black to move same Black rook. So now Black mates with
Nf2.
Dg1130: Now a nifty application of our cur-
rent concept. Black toys with 1. …Qc1+ and
sees that it's met with 2. Rf1. But then 2.
…Qe3 gives check, requiring White’s king to
move back to h1. (If White plays Rf2 instead
of Kh1, White mates with QxR+ and then
Qf1#.) This forcing of the king into the corner
is a standard idea for producing a smothered
mate; now we have reached the rough posi-
tion explained in the previous frame. Black
can mate by dancing his knight in the familiar
fashion: 3. …Nf2+; 4. Kg1, Nh3++; 5. Kh1,
and then comes the traditional sacrifice of the Dg1132: White to move
queen: 5. …Qg1+, RxQ (White's rook has
been sitting on f1 since White’s first move in Dg1132: On studying Black’s king you see
the sequence); 6. Nf2#. that it's sealed onto h8 by a combination of its
own pieces and the bishop you have on h6.
The interesting thing about the position is that This invites a smothering and you do have a
Black couldn't have started with Qe3 because knight in the vicinity for the purpose; but the
only available square for it is g6, which Black next. Naturally you worry about the recapture
guards. Often, however, there are two squares NxQ; but you don’t worry too much, because
a knight can use for a purpose like this; here then Nxc2 is mate—a mate of the invisible
the other one is f7. Too bad it’s occupied, but smothered variety, as White’s king appears to
then again the occupant is one of your own have plenty of open flight squares but in fact
pieces—so you can evacuate it with a threat: has none that are safe.
1. Qf6+, requiring the reply BxQ. Now 2. Nf7
mates. And of course you might as well have
seen this by just starting with the check 1.
Qf6+, seeing the reply BxQ, and then looking
for your next check and spotting Nf7#. It's
another case where the king is smothered in
part by pressure your pieces put on the
squares around it.

Dg1134: Black to move

White has other options but they, too, all end

in mate. Thus 1. …QxB+; 2. Kf2, Nf5+ (dis-
covering check by the bishop and covering
g3); 3. Be3 (interposing), QxB#. Or 2. Be3
(interposing), Nxc2+; 3. Kf2, Qxe3#. These
possibilities are worth some study, as they
Dg1133: White to move again require the ability to visualize how the
king’s movements are constrained by invisi-
Dg1133: Black’s king largely is boxed in; the ble lines of attack.
question is whether the burial can be made
complete. When White inspects his checks he
sees that Nh6 attacks not only the king but
also g8, while g6 would be attacked by his
queen and bishop. It’s very nearly a smo-
thered mate—except that White’s knight gets
taken by the bishop on g7. White has re-
course, naturally: he takes the bishop. Thus 1.
QxB, requiring 1. …NxQ; and now Nh6 still
mates because although White’s queen is off
the board, his bishop continues to seal off g6.

Dg1134: Here's a still more spectacular and Dg1135: White to move

demanding illustration of our current prin-
ciples. Notice all the firepower Black has
trained on the White king’s position: bishops
aimed at it in criss-cross fashion, though one
of the bishops has its path blocked by the
knight on d4—a knight which, however, is
poised to give check from c2. The hitch is that
c2 is guarded by the bishop on e4. An idea
comes into view: imagine capturing the e4
bishop with 1. …QxB+ and ask what happens
Dg1135: Finally, observe how similar prin-
ciples can be used to win material even where
the mating idea fails. Black’s own bishop on
f8 and pawn on f7 prevent his king from re-
treating to the east, just as would be true if the
king were at the edge of board on h8. You see
that your bishop cuts off the e7 and d8
squares as well. This might seem to call for a
smothered mate, so naturally you imagine
Nf6+ and Nc7+—and you see that neither of
them work. Nc7 fails because Black guards
the square with his queen.
The important question is how your train of
thought runs from here. Don’t give upon ob-
serving that Black can extinguish the mate
threat. Reflect instead on how urgent it is for
Black to keep his queen trained on c7. This
means the queen is vulnerable; it can’t afford
to move much. So the next impulse should be
to menace Black’s queen, and this you can do
ostentatiously with 1. Qb5. Notice what a fix
this creates for Black. If he plays QxQ, he
gets mated by Nc7. Nor can he move his
queen to safety on White’s side of the board.
He has to keep the queen on a square from
which it can protect c7, and there turns out to
be no such square that is safe. His best play is
1. …Qd8; 2. BxQ, RxB, and White has won a
queen for a bishop with another pawn capture
or two still to come..
It all starts by seeing the idea of the smo-
thered mate—and then not being deterred by
the inability to make it work. Mating ideas
that don’t work can be useful and powerful;
the trick is to study the reasons they don’t
work and ask whether you can exploit the
vulnerabilities they create. Sometimes a piece
that foils a mating threat is vulnerable in
something like the way a pinned piece would
be.
6.2.15.
Legall's Mate and Pseudo-Sacrifice.
Dg1136: White to move
Dg1136: Legall’s mate arises in its most fa-
miliar form in this position, where the game
begins 1. e2-e4, e7-e5; 2. Nf3, d7-d6; 3. Bc4,
Bg4 (pinning White’s knight to his queen); 4.
Nc3, g7-g6. Black’s attempt to pin White’s
knight to his queen is not very clever, in part
because White can play h2-h3 to force Black
to either retreat the bishop or capture the
knight and wasting time in either event. Any-
way, with the moves that followed the pin
Black created an additional problem: White
won’t mind playing 5. Nxe5 and losing his
queen, since after 5. …BxQ White has 6.
Bxf7+, Ke7; 7. Nd5#. (After White’s 5. Nxe5,
Black’s best bet was to forget about winning
White’s queen and play d6xN, allowing QxB
and losing a pawn.) The end result is shown
in the next frame.
Dg1137: Black is mated
Dg1137: See how the knights and bishop are
coordinated; consider the work they are doing
one piece at a time. The e5 knight seals off
the squares on either side of the king. The
bishop takes care of the squares behind and in
front of it; and then the knight on d5 attacks
the king’s current square and f6. This quick
mate in the opening moves is unlikely to oc-
cur in your games, but the idea it represents is
common: a knight jumping out of a relative
pin, appearing to sacrifice the queen behind
it—but then creating a mate threat that wins
material (as described at the end of the pre-
vious frame). This is generally known as Le-
gall’s pseudo-sacrifice.
Notice that a dark-squared White bishop on,
say, g5 can perform the same function as the
d5 knight in the pattern shown here, attacking
both the Black king and the f6 square. It
wouldn’t quite work here because Black
could interpose his knight on f6 to block the
check; BxN+ would then be unsafe (we're
assuming White’s d5 knight is off the board).
But in cases where the king’s knight is off the
board or out of position, it sometimes is poss-
ible to achieve the same effect seen here with
two bishops and a knight instead of two
knights and a bishop.
Dg1138: Black to move
Dg1138: White recently played Ne2, a sus-
pect move since it boxes in his f1 bishop; and
now he has added the familiar pin of the en-
emy knight by playing Bg5. So Black plays
the standard Nxe4, leaving his queen exposed
to capture. If White takes the knight with his
d3 pawn, Black has QxB and has won a pawn.
If White instead plays BxQ, Black has Bxf2#:
a startling mate made possible so early by the
self-imposed inaccessibility of e2 to White’s
king.
Dg1139: White to move
Dg1139: Here is another example of how the
ideas in this chapter can be used to win mate-
rial. Again Black has imposed the improvi-
dent pin with Bg4; again White walks out of it
with 1. NxN. If Black plays 1. …d6xN, fine;
White plays QxB, winning a piece. But if
Black tries 1. …BxQ, White has Bb5+, and
now Black can avoid mate only by interpos-
ing his queen on d7. White takes it with his
bishop and gives check with it at the same
time. (He could take it with his knight instead,
but it wouldn't give check and wouldn't work
as well afterwards for reasons we will see in a
moment.) As an exercise, let me invite you to
consider what happens next (after White has
played BxQd7+).
Done? All right: Black can't recapture on d7
with his king because the square is guarded
by White's knight from e5. He has to play
Kd8. Now White has Nxf7+. It leaves his
bishop unguarded, but that's okay; for the
move forks Black's king and rook. Black goes
ahead with the capture KxB; it's the best he
can do. And now does White strike with NxR,
carrying out the other end of the fork? No, not
quite yet. He doesn't need to do it yet, because
the rook is smothered on h7; it isn't going
anywhere. Instead White takes the opportu-
nity to play KxB back at the other end of the
board. Then he still has NxR still waiting to
be played on the next move.
To return to our theme, in a sense the most
important function of White’s initial move
NxN here was simply to eliminate the Black
knight that prevented Bb5 from being effec-
tive. The full pattern for Legall’s mate is not
quite used here, but it is a typical example of
the common sacrificing idea associated with
the mate (the “pinned” knight captures on e5).
Dg1140: Black to move
Dg1140: By now you get the point: when you
see a relative pin like White has here against
the knight on f6, consider the consequences if
the knight breaks out of the pin and starts an
attack against the king at the other end of the
board. Here Black has 1. …NxN, inviting piece: 3. …BxQ+; 4. KxB, KxB. For some
White to play 2. BxQ. If he does, then next more exploration of this general motif, see the
comes 2. …Bb4+. White has to interpose his chapter on the relative pin (and the discussion
queen, and Black has the familiar gain of a of how to break out of one).