Explanation

In the Tactics course, you learned how to pin and win material immediately. This happens if the pinned piece is more valuable than the pinning piece — for example, if a bishop pins a queen against the king, or if the pinned piece is unprotected.

However, if the pinning piece's value is equal to or higher than the pinned piece's, a pin is sometimes not dangerous immediately. Such pins can sometimes not be avoided, and you may sometimes enter them intentionally — for example, a move to block an attack can result in the blocking piece being pinned.

Still, any pin reduces the mobility of the pinned piece, and a pin can become dangerous if the opponent threatens to attack the pinned piece, so it is good to know how to defend! The following diagram illustrates various ways to defend against a pin:

Black has played the opening a bit passively, and two pieces are pinned. The bishop on e7 is pinned by the rook on e1, and the knight on c6 is pinned by the bishop on a4. White is threatening to attack and win the pinned knight with d5. How can Black defend?

• Black can attack the pinning piece with 1...b5?, which also puts something between the pinning and the pinned piece, but here this just loses a pawn to 2.Bxb5. (1...b5 would be a good solution if the black a-pawn were on a6 instead of on a5.)
• Black can guard the square where the pinned piece would be attacked with 1...Be6, but after 2.Bg5!, Black will find it difficult to handle all the pins; for example, 2...0-0 3.Bxf6! (capturing the defender of d5) Bxf6 4.d5 with a pawn fork.
• Black can break the pin with 1...Bd7 or 1...Nd7, but after 2.Qe2!, it would become difficult to castle. For example, 1...Bd7 2.Qe2! 0-0? 3.Bxc6! (capturing the defender of the bishop on e7) Bxc6 4.Qxe7.
• With 1...Nd5?, Black can block the square where the pinned piece can be attacked, but White could win the knight anyway with 2.c4 Nb6 3.d5 Nxa4 4.Qxa4. It would be better to block that square with 1...d5.
• The best defense is to move the king out of both pins with 1...0-0!

In this level, one of your pieces is pinned, and your opponent threatens to attack and win it. Your task is to find the best defense against the pin.

Examples

Black has just moved Kf8-e7, unpinning the black bishop, and is now threatening Bh3 (or Ba6) to win the pinned bishop on f1. White should play 1.Kg2 to unpin the bishop and prevent this.

Black has pinned the white knight with the battery on the d-file and is threatening Bf4 to attack it a third time. White can defend with 1.Be2 to overprotect the rook and break the pin.

The game continued 1...Bf4 2.Ne4 Rxd1 3.Bxd1, and White was slightly better off with the knight and two pawns for the rook.

Black has pinned the bishop on a4 with the rook and is threatening to win it with Nc5.

The only defense is 1.Ra2!, moving the rook to a square where it can be protected.

The game continued 1...Nc5 2.Bb3! (the bishop could be captured by the knight, but the black rook on a6 is also undefended) Rxa2+ 3.Bxa2, and White was up a pawn in the endgame.

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