A pinned piece is a piece that can’t run. Pin puzzles train you to notice when an enemy piece is glued in place — stuck shielding its king or its queen — so you can pile on attackers and win it. The set below is live and drawn from real games; work through a few and you’ll start seeing pins on every open file and diagonal, both when you can make them and when you’re walking into one.
How to use this page
- Line vision first: follow each rook, bishop, and queen down its full line.
- When you spot a pin, ask “what else can attack the frozen piece?”
- Missed one? Trace why the pinned piece couldn’t legally move.
Your move — solve the position
Real positions from real games. Solve one, and the next appears.
Take that instinct to a live board — 3D chess with character skins & rewards.
What is a pin, exactly?
A pin happens when one of your long-range pieces (rook, bishop, or queen) attacks an enemy piece that has something more valuable directly behind it on the same line. The front piece is stuck: if it moves, it exposes the bigger piece behind. There are two flavors. An absolute pin is against the king — the front piece literally cannot move, because that would leave the king in check (illegal). A relative pin is against a queen or rook — the piece can move, but doing so loses material. Once a piece is pinned, it’s a sitting duck: attack it again and it can’t defend itself. For the deep dive on both types, see our full guide to the pin in chess.
How to spot a pin (the cues that matter)
- Find the straight lines. Pins only exist on ranks, files, and diagonals. Scan every open line for two enemy pieces stacked on it.
- Check the value order. A pin works when the cheaper piece is in front and the valuable one (or the king) is behind. If your bishop, rook, or queen can hit that front piece, you may have a pin.
- Look for the king on an open line. An enemy king with no pawn shield in front of it is begging for an absolute pin.
- Ask “can I attack the pinned piece again?” A pinned piece can’t flee, so the winning move is usually a second attacker — a pawn, a knight, another piece — that overloads it.
- Spot pins you’re in. If your own piece is pinned, that’s a defensive alarm: it may not be able to capture or defend the way you think.
Common mistakes to dodge
- Trusting a pinned piece to defend. A relatively pinned piece often can’t actually recapture without losing the piece behind it. Test the geometry before you count on it.
- Attacking the pinned piece with something too valuable. If you hit it with a piece it can safely trade for, the pin fizzles. Use a cheaper attacker.
- Forgetting the pin can break. The opponent may block the line, defend the back piece, or challenge your pinning piece. Check for those before you commit.
- Missing that the king-pin makes captures illegal. An absolutely pinned piece gives zero defense — you can walk right past its “protection.”
Keep training
- Get the full theory: what a pin is, absolute vs relative.
- Meet the pin’s evil twin: skewer puzzles (same idea, reversed).
- Sharpen the double-attack instinct with fork puzzles.
- See through pieces with x-ray puzzles.
- Back to the full puzzle library.
Pin puzzle FAQ
What’s the difference between an absolute and a relative pin? An absolute pin is against the king, so the pinned piece can’t legally move at all. A relative pin is against a valuable piece like the queen — moving is legal but loses material.
How do I win a pinned piece? Since it can’t run, attack it a second (or third) time. Add a pawn or another piece until it’s attacked more times than it’s defended.
Can a pin be broken? Yes — by blocking the line, over-defending the piece behind, or kicking away your pinning piece. Always double-check the pin holds before you build on it.
Where do these puzzles come from? Real games in the Lichess open puzzle database (CC0), each engine-verified at the source.
Curated and written by the Chess Lab Academy Editorial Team (AI-assisted, human-edited) · Puzzles from the Lichess open database (CC0) · Last verified 2026-07-13 · How we verify content.