The act of breaking a pin by interposing a second piece between the attacker and the target. This allows the piece that was formerly pinned to move.

In chess, a pin is a situation brought on by an attacking piece in which a defending piece cannot move without exposing a more valuable defending piece on its other side to capture by the attacking piece. Moving the attacking piece to bring on the pin is called pinning; the defending piece so restricted is described as pinned.

Only pieces that can move an indefinite number of squares in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line (i.e. bishops, rooks, and queens) can pin. Kings, knights, and pawns cannot pin. Any piece can be pinned except the king, since the king must be immediately removed from check under all circumstances.

The act of breaking a pin is unpinning. This can be executed in a number of ways: the piece creating the pin can be captured; another unit can be moved onto the line of the pin; or the unit to which a piece is pinned can be moved.

Although a pin is not a tactic in itself, it can be useful in tactical situations. One tactic which takes advantage of a pin can be called working the pin. In this tactic, other pieces from the pinning piece's side attack the opposing pinned piece. Since the pinned piece cannot move out of the line of attack, the pinned piece's player may move other pieces to defend the pinned piece, but the pinning player may yet attack with even more pieces, etc.