Skewer Puzzles: Attack Through the Big Piece

A skewer is a line attack on two enemy pieces where the more valuable one stands in front. When it moves out of the way, the piece behind it is exposed and you capture it. Think of it as a pin turned inside out: in a pin the front piece is cheaper and stays frozen, in a skewer the front piece is worth more and has to run.

Only long-range pieces can skewer, so bishops, rooks and queens do all the work. Skewers are especially common in endgames, where kings come out into the open and long lines appear across an empty board.

Quick example walkthrough

Imagine a black king on e6 and a black queen on h6, both on the sixth rank, with nothing between them. White has a rook that can reach a6 and nothing on b6, c6 or d6 in the way.

1. The check. Ra6+ attacks the king along the sixth rank.
2. The forced reply. The king cannot stay on the rank, because the rook keeps attacking along it. It has to step off, onto the fifth or seventh rank.
3. The capture. With the king gone, the rook sees all the way to h6 and plays Rxh6. Even if the rook is recaptured later, White has traded a rook for a queen.

The same geometry works on diagonals. A bishop giving check to a king on d5 along the long diagonal, with a black rook in the corner on a8, wins that rook as soon as the king steps aside.

Signs that a skewer is waiting

• Two enemy pieces stand on the same open file, rank or diagonal, with the more valuable one closer to you.
• The enemy king is exposed in an endgame and shares a line with a rook or queen.
• An enemy queen and an undefended rook are lined up, even with no king involved.
• Your opponent just moved a piece onto a long open line without checking what stands behind it.

Kings are the best front pieces because they must move when attacked. But a queen in front of a rook works almost as well, since the queen cannot afford to stay en prise.

When a skewer does not work

Not every lined-up pair is a free win. A skewer fails when:

• The rear piece is defended and the attacker is worth more than it. Skewering a defended rook with your queen just trades your queen for a rook.
• The front piece can block or counterattack. A king that steps forward and protects the rear piece, or a queen that answers with its own check, can spoil the idea.
• The skewering square is covered. If your rook or bishop can simply be captured on arrival, there is no skewer.

Tips for finding skewers faster

1. Look at the king first in endgames. Ask which lines pass through it and what sits further along each line.
2. Use checks to line pieces up. Sometimes a first check drives the king onto the same line as its queen, setting up the skewer on the next move.
3. Defend by stepping off the line. When you are the one at risk, avoid placing your king and an undefended rook or queen on the same open line.

Skewers are short, clean and satisfying, and once your eye starts tracing lines through the king, you will see them everywhere.