What is a skewer?
A skewer attacks a valuable piece along a line, and when that piece steps aside, a lesser piece behind it is captured. It is the pin inverted — same geometry, opposite order of value. Skewers are most common in endgames, where kings and rooks end up on the same line with nothing left to block, which is why rook endings are full of them.
How to spot it
- Look for an enemy king and another piece on the same rank, file or diagonal, with nothing in between.
- A check is the strongest skewer, because the reply is forced — the king must move and whatever stands behind it is yours.
- In rook endings, consider checking from behind or from the side before pushing a pawn; the skewer often appears first.
The mistake to avoid
Skewering into a square where the freed piece can recapture or give check back. Always look at the position after the piece you win comes off.
Train the ones you actually miss
Solving a motif in isolation is useful, but the tactics that cost you rating are the ones you walked past in your own games. Run a free game review and Chesslume turns your own mistakes into puzzles, so you train the pattern you personally keep missing rather than a random one.
Other tactical motifs
- Fork puzzles — One piece, two targets, and your opponent can only save one.
- Pin puzzles — A pinned piece is on the board but not in the game.
- Discovered attack puzzles — The piece that moves is not the piece that does the damage.
- Hanging piece puzzles — The most common way games are decided is the simplest one.
- Deflection puzzles — The defender is doing a job. Give it a better offer.
- Back-rank mate puzzles — The pawns that shelter the king are also the walls of its cell.
- Mate in 2 puzzles — Two moves, no escape, every defence covered.