One of the many satisfying moments you can have while playing chess is when you realize you've got your opponent skewered. Skewering is when you've got two of your opponent's... ok, for simplicity let's give your opponent a name - say... Britney "Spears" - get it? So skewering is when you've got two of Britney's pieces lined up in front of your queen, rook, or bishop. Britney is going to lose one of those pieces and there's nothing she can do about it.

We'll look at a couple examples of skewers and then a couple ways to deal with being skewered.

Here's a game I played recently where I got to give Britney a good skewering(all opponents shall be referred to as Britney Spears in this post).

Britney put her rooks in a bad position. I moved my bishop up there to a6, and regardless of which rook she moves, she'll lose one of them. She can capture my bishop afterward, but the rook is a better piece than the bishop so I come out on top. It's a shame, because Britney had a great pair of rooks.

It's important to take note that in that example Britney had a choice, she could move either rook, or she could move another piece and just let me take the rook. There's also what's called an absolute skewer in which you don't have that choice, and it always involves the king. If I attack Britney's king, she has to either block the attack or move the king, she can't move another piece until she's done that, because rules. So if you skewer the king, Britney will have no option other than to move it, and her other piece will be taken.

In the above position the bishop is attacking Britney's king, and she has to move it out of the way, no other option. When she moves it, her queen will fall faster than a paparazzi's camera finger.

That's pretty much it, you want to keep your eyes open for whenever your opponent has pieces lined up on a rank, file, or diagonal. If you can get your queen, bishop, or rook over there then you got yourself a skewer!

---

If You've been Skewered

First take a deep breath and repeat to yourself that it's just a game. Let's look at your options.

1. Let the least valuable piece be taken.
2. Block the skewer by moving a piece in the way.
3. If your king is skewered and you can't block it, there's nothing you can do.
4. A really cool move you can always consider is a Desperado move

The desperado is a move in which you know you are losing a piece, but instead of just losing it, you take one of your opponents pieces down with you. It's a move that under normal conditions would be reckless, but if you're already skewered it's like screw it and blow shit up. It will surprise your opponent, but more importantly, make you feel like a badass.

Below, white is skewered and no matter what, will lose a rook. Instead of crying like I do watching romantic comedies, White goes rogue like Han Solo and desperados the black pawn on a4. The point is, if you're going to lose a piece anyway, look for how it can do the most damage before it dies.

Hope you enjoyed, happy skewering to all you adorable steemers.

---

For more chalk talk about games, history, expat life in China, adorable kitties, etc. check me out here.