Made in IndiaGuide · 2026-11-03 · 7 min read
Forks, pins and skewers explained: the three tactics that win most games
What a fork, a pin and a skewer are, real opening positions where each one wins material, the famous Légal trap where a pin is broken, and how to train your eye for them.
Most games between beginners, and a surprising number between club players, are decided by one simple tactic: a double attack that wins a piece. Three tactics do most of that work. A fork attacks two things at once. A pin attacks a piece that cannot move without exposing something more valuable behind it. A skewer is a pin turned round: the valuable piece is in front, and when it moves, the one behind is lost.
Learn to see these three and you will win material in your own games every week, and stop losing it in the same ways.
The fork: one piece, two targets
A fork is a move that attacks two (or more) enemy pieces at the same time. The opponent can usually save only one. Any piece can fork, even a king or a pawn, but the knight is the champion forker, because its L-jump attacks squares that the attacked pieces cannot attack back.
Here is a knight fork from a very common opening, the Two Knights Defence. After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Nxd5? White plays 6.Nxf7!
The knight on f7 forks the queen and the rook. Black can take it with the king, 6...Kxf7, and that is what usually happens; this is the start of the famous Fried Liver Attack, where White then chases the black king into the open with 7.Qf3+ (see the Italian Game guide). The lesson is the shape: a knight landing on a square from which it touches two big pieces.
The pawn fork
A pawn fork is the cheapest fork of all: a pawn worth 1 attacks two pieces worth 3 or more. The classic example is the "fork trick" in the same opening. After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Black plays 4...Nxe4!, and after 5.Nxe4 the reply 5...d5 forks:
Black gave a knight for a pawn and immediately wins a piece back, because the pawn attacks the bishop and the knight together. Whenever two enemy pieces stand on squares of the same colour, a diagonal step apart, look for a pawn that can step in between.
How to find forks
- Look at the enemy pieces that are not protected, and the enemy king and queen. Those are fork targets.
- For every target pair, ask: is there a square that a knight (or pawn, or queen) of mine can reach that attacks both?
- A check is the best first half of a fork: the king must move, and then you take the other piece.
The pin: a piece that cannot move
A pin happens when a bishop, rook or queen attacks an enemy piece, and behind that piece, on the same line, stands something more valuable. If the pinned piece moves, the piece behind is captured.
There are two kinds. An absolute pin is a pin against the king: the pinned piece is not allowed to move at all, because that would leave the king in check. A relative pin is a pin against anything else, usually the queen: the piece may move, but it costs something.
In this position from the Ruy Lopez, Black’s 3...d6 opened the line from b5 to e8, so the knight on c6 is now in an absolute pin: no knight move is legal. A pinned piece is also a bad defender. Here, if the knight is needed to guard e5, White can attack e5 with d4 and the knight is "defending" from a position where it cannot move.
The Légal trap: a relative pin is not a wall
A relative pin can be broken, and that is the point of one of the oldest traps in chess, named after the 18th-century French master Sire de Légal. Watch: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 d6 4.Nc3 Bg4 5.h3 Bh5. The black bishop pins the knight on f3 to the white queen on d1.
White ignores the pin: 6.Nxe5. If Black greedily takes the queen with 6...Bxd1??, then 7.Bxf7+ Ke7 8.Nd5 is checkmate.
Black should not take the queen. 6...Nxe5 or 6...dxe5 keeps the game going. The lesson for both sides: a relative pin only pins if moving away really costs more than it gains, and before grabbing a queen, ask what your opponent threatens.
The skewer: the big piece in front
A skewer is a pin the other way round. A bishop, rook or queen attacks a valuable piece, usually the king, and when that piece moves out of the way, the piece behind it on the same line is captured. Skewers are especially common in endgames, where long lines are open.
The king on e4 and the queen on h7 stand on the same diagonal. After 1.Bc2+ the king has to leave the diagonal (it cannot stay on f5, which is on the same line), and the bishop takes the queen. A rook does the same along a file or a rank:
To spot skewers, look for two enemy pieces on the same line with nothing between them, the more valuable one in front. Then look for a check or a strong attack along that line.
Tactics checklist before every move
- Checks, captures, threats: what checks, captures and attacks do I have? What does my opponent have after my move?
- Which pieces are unprotected, on both sides? Loose pieces are what forks and skewers eat.
- Are any two enemy pieces a knight’s jump apart from one square? Are two of them on one line?
This is the same habit as our 10-second blunder check, turned into an attacking question.
Practise it
- Puzzles by theme: forks, pins, skewers, then discovered attacks and hanging pieces. Do ten of one theme in a row.
- Piece Sight and the one-minute Vision Sprint train the board vision that makes knight forks jump out at you.
- After each game, look in your Game Report for the move where material was lost; it is very often one of these three.
- Read next: 6 checkmate patterns and the 10 opening principles.
Questions kids ask
Which piece is best at forks?
The knight, because the pieces it attacks cannot attack it back (except another knight). The queen forks very often too, because she moves in eight directions.
Can a pinned piece still give check?
Yes. A piece pinned to its own king cannot move, but it still attacks squares, so it still gives check to the enemy king and still guards squares around him.
What is the difference between a pin and a skewer?
In a pin the less valuable piece is in front and does not want to move. In a skewer the more valuable piece is in front and has to move, leaving the piece behind it to be captured.
Forks, pins और skewers आसान भाषा में: वे तीन tactics जो ज़्यादातर games जिताती हैं
Fork, pin और skewer क्या होते हैं, opening की असली positions जहाँ हर एक से मोहरा जीता जाता है, मशहूर Légal trap जहाँ pin टूटता है, और इन्हें देखने की नज़र कैसे बनाएँ।
Forks, pins आणि skewers सोप्या भाषेत: बहुतेक games जिंकून देणाऱ्या तीन tactics
Fork, pin आणि skewer म्हणजे काय, opening मधल्या खऱ्या positions जिथे प्रत्येकाने मोहरा जिंकला जातो, प्रसिद्ध Légal trap जिथे pin तुटतो, आणि त्या बघण्याची नजर कशी तयार करायची.