Monday, Nov 10, 2025 1:37 PM Updated Monday, Nov. 10, 2025 1:40 PM
Black to move and win
Lions use teamwork to hunt bigger prey like water buffalo and giraffes. In chess, black’s bishop and knight use teamwork to take down bigger prey – namely, white’s queen.
White’s king and queen both sit on the same e1-a5 diagonal. Without any support, black’s bishop slides onto that diagonal at b4, creating a pseudo-pin because white’s queen can simply capture the bishop. This lures the queen onto the b4 square.
Just like one lion thwarting a giraffe’s flight by sacrificing its body in a frontal assault and allowing another lion to l…
Monday, Nov 10, 2025 1:37 PM Updated Monday, Nov. 10, 2025 1:40 PM
Black to move and win
Lions use teamwork to hunt bigger prey like water buffalo and giraffes. In chess, black’s bishop and knight use teamwork to take down bigger prey – namely, white’s queen.
White’s king and queen both sit on the same e1-a5 diagonal. Without any support, black’s bishop slides onto that diagonal at b4, creating a pseudo-pin because white’s queen can simply capture the bishop. This lures the queen onto the b4 square.
Just like one lion thwarting a giraffe’s flight by sacrificing its body in a frontal assault and allowing another lion to leap on its back and bite down on the giraffe’s throat, the knight leaps onto c2, forking the white queen and king with check (see next diagram)
After the king moves, the knight captures the queen, and white is lost.
The lesson this week is that in chess pseudo pins are the real thing.
- Reach Eric Morrow at ericmorrowlaw@gmail.com or (505) 327-7121.*