SKEWERS ‘The skewer js another very powerful tactical cool. It always has three participants: two enemy pieces lined up on the same file, rank, or di- agonal, and an attacker that attacks the front piece along the same line. Once the front piece moves away, the piece behind can be cap- tured, Unlike a pin, which attacks a weaker piece shielding a stronger piece behind it, such as the queen or king, a skewer attacks the stronger piece that is shielding a weaker piece behind it on the same line. When the al- tacked piece moves, the weaker piece behind it is vulnerable. Here are three simple examples to demonstrate the idea of the skewer. The first example seers to be a theoretical drawn position, with each side having only a rook and a king Towever, because of the unfor- tunate position of the Black pieces, White can create a skewer in just one move. =eCwess Tactics FoR CHAMPIONS White actually has four different ways to create a discovered check: 1 Ke3+, 1. Ke2+, t. Ke2+, or 1. Ke3+. Each produces a skewer and wins the Black rook on the next move. In the next position, material is balanced But after trading with 1. Nxe5 Kxe5, White can skewer with 2, Bg7+. After 2. ... Ke4, White simply captures the rook in the corner with 3. Brat In some cases, you may need to sacrifice to create a skewer: White sacrifices the queen with 1, Qxd4+! exd4 but wins it right back after 2, Bxd4+ Ke6 3. Bxh8. In this example, White employs a decoy to achieve the same goalSkewers The immediate check with |. Qa&+ does not achieve much, as the Black queen on g2 is protected at the moment by the rook. Therefore, White first sacrifices the bishop with 1. Be4+! to lure the Black queen ww e¢ and away from the protection of the rook. 1. ... Qxed and now 2 Qa8t Kd6 3. Qxe4 wins the queen In the next endgame, Black scems to have the advantage, but By sacrificing the knight, White opens the b-file and creates a suc- cessful skewer with 1, Na4+! bxa4 and 2. Rb8+ winning Black’s queen 105Chess Tactics ran CHAMPIONS Susan's Corner Susan Polgar—De Armas Thessalonica, 1988 This is a game (rom my first Olympiad. After my next move, 43. Re1+, my opponent resigned because of 43. ... Kb4 44, Rb1+ or 43 Kat 44, Rat+ Kbd 45. AbI+. Black cannot avoid the skewer in either case and loses the rook on b8 And here are 25 practice examples. 1. White to mave 106Skewers 2. White to move a oboe de tg 3. Black to move abecaet b 4, White ta move abede tarChess Tactics fon CHAMPIONS 5. Black to move abe ee 1 gn 6. Black te move 108Skewers 8. White ta mave abedet og a ReChess Tactics For CHamelons 11. Black to move abegdetan 12. White to mave abe de ton noSkewers 14. White to maveChess Tactics fon CHAMPIONS 17, White to move =~» wo so oy o Teron 19. White to move mSkewers 20. Black to moveChess Tactics FoR CHAMPIONS 23. White ta move nd