Pin
A tactic in which a piece cannot move without exposing a more valuable piece behind it to capture.
An absolute pin immobilizes a piece against its own king (moving it would be illegal); a relative pin immobilizes a piece against a less valuable but still important piece.
Etymology
"Pin" and its tactical cousin "fork" are both native English terms dating to the 19th century, part of a wave of plain, visually descriptive vocabulary that grew alongside the codification of modern chess theory in Britain. Unlike many chess terms with French, Italian, or Persian roots, pin needed no foreign borrowing: the image is transparent in English itself — a pinned piece is fixed in place exactly as a pin fixes fabric or paper, unable to move without consequence for what lies behind it. The Oxford University Press's history of chess language groups pin together with fork as exemplars of homegrown English tactical vocabulary, in contrast to the imported French procedural terms (en passant, j'adoube) and the German or Italian strategic terms (zugzwang, fianchetto) that entered the game from continental sources.
Translations
| Language | Term | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Arabic | تثبيت (tathbit) | Literally "fixing/immobilizing." |
| Dutch | penning | Literally "pinning." |
| French | clouage | Literally "nailing." |
| German | Fesselung | Literally "binding/shackling." |
| Italian | inchiodatura | Literally "nailing." |
| Polish | związanie | Literally "binding/tying." |
| Portuguese | cravada / pino | Literally "nailed/pinned." |
| Russian | связка (svyazka) | Literally "binding/tying." |
| Spanish | clavada | Literally "nailed/pinned down." |
| Turkish | şiş | Literally "skewer" — note this is the SAME word Turkish uses for the tactic English calls "skewer," a genuine cross-language ambiguity worth flagging on the False Friends page. |