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The Great Pawn Hunter
Chess Tutorial

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The Skewer

The skewer happens when two pieces line up on a diagonal, rank, or file. An opponent's piece attack's the more valuable piece causing it to move out of the way. The remaining piece is then captured. In the diagram, the Queen is captured by the rook because the King must move.

The Bishop skewers the Rook's capturing one of them.

You might have seen something similar to the skewer in this diagram from the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer". This was how it went.
Black to move plays:
1) . . . a3
2) h6 a2
3) h7 a1=Q
4) h8=Q+
The King and Queen are skewered on the diagonal and Black loses.
"Trick or Treat". . .Remember.

The Black King has wandered too far away from the h7 square. Rh8! If Black checks the King, the King only has to follow the x's and Black will run out of checks. Sooner or later, the Black Rook must capture the Pawn and then comes Rh7! skewering the King and Rook. The Black King must move and the Rook is captured.

Your opponent's pieces are not going to volunteer to step onto squares that are all ready to be skewered by you. The trick is to lure them to squares that can be skewered with your future moves.

Short - Vaganyan

Barcelona 1989 World Cup

In the diagram, White sees the skewer. He plays Be5! and decoys the King away from the Queen. Black plays Kxe5 and then White plays Qc3! and wins the Queen with a skewer.

Do you see the winning moves?
1) Be6+! Kxe6.
decoying the King out from its cover with a skewer.
2) Qd5+! Kxd5
decoying the King to the center. This is called "Running the Gauntlet."
3) Nc7++