Pins in chess
Stockfish 16.1 · runs in your browserPlay Re1. The black bishop on e7 is pinned to its king on e8 by the rook.
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Commentary
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Best move
A pinned piece shields something behind it from a line attack. An absolute pin shields the king, so moving the pinned piece off the line would be illegal. Here a rook pins a bishop on the e-file.
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Rules and examples
The board positions are original teaching examples. Rule references and further practice are linked below.
Rules: FIDE Laws of Chess, effective 1 January 2023. https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/E012023
Rule replay: python-chess 1.11.2 (GPL-3.0-or-later). The shared browser engine retains its Stockfish GPL-3.0 notice. No engine score is claimed by these demonstrations.
See the referenceA move on the board
4k3/4b3/8/8/8/8/8/K2R4 w - - 0 1
4k3/4b3/8/8/8/8/8/K3R3 b - - 1 1
- Re1The black bishop on e7 is pinned to its king on e8 by the rook.
The black bishop on e7 is pinned to its king on e8 by the rook.
Original teaching example replayed with python-chess 1.11.2, 2026-10-18.
Analysis runs on Stockfish 16.1 in your browser, compiled to WebAssembly by stockfish.js. Stockfish is free software under the GNU General Public License v3; its source code is on GitHub.