Skewer Puzzles

A skewer is a pin in reverse: you attack a valuable piece, it must move, and you capture the cheaper piece that was hiding behind it. Where a pin freezes the front piece, a skewer chases it away.

The classic skewer targets the king. A check along a rank, file or diagonal forces the king to step aside — and the rook or queen standing behind it on the same line is lost. King-and-queen skewers along a diagonal are among the most common winning tactics in amateur games, because players park their royalty on the same color complex without noticing.

Skewers rule the endgame too. In rook endings, a rook on the long side skewers king and pawns along ranks; a new queen often survives only because a check skewers the opponent's king against their own queening square.

Like pins, skewers belong to the line pieces — bishops, rooks and queens. Hunt for them by scanning every line where two enemy pieces stand aligned, the bigger one in front.

Try the real-game puzzle on this page, then head into the trainer to practice skewers at the difficulty that fits you.