A skewer is an attack along a line on a valuable piece with a less valuable piece behind it. The front piece has to move, and the piece behind is left to be taken. Every puzzle on this page involves a skewer, comes from a real game and is matched to your puzzle rating.
A skewer is a pin turned around. In a pin, the piece in front is worth less and would rather stay put. In a skewer, the piece in front is worth more, so it moves, and the piece behind pays. Like pins, skewers need a line, so only bishops, rooks and queens can skewer.
The most forcing skewer is a check. The king must move out of the line, and whatever stood behind it, very often the queen or a rook, is captured next move.
Skewers appear whenever two valuable enemy pieces share an open line with nothing in between. A king and queen on the same diagonal, a king and rook on the same rank, or two rooks on one file are all targets. In the middlegame they often follow a trade that opens a line. In the endgame, with fewer pieces on the board, kings and rooks stand on open lines far more often, and a single check can decide the game.
A classic endgame case is a race where both sides make a new queen. If the new queen and the enemy king end up on one line, a check along that line can skewer the king and win the queen straight away.
Scan each open line that runs through the enemy king or queen and ask what stands behind it. If there is an undefended rook, bishop or knight further along that line, and you have a line piece that can reach it safely, you may have a skewer.
Then check the square your skewering piece lands on. If it can be captured, the skewer fails. If the front piece can step out of the line while blocking or giving check, it can also fail. And if the rear piece is defended, you may only be trading.
The most common is skewering a defended piece: the king steps aside, you take the rook, and the opponent takes back. It is an even trade, not a win. The second is missing that the front piece can move with a threat of its own, often a check, and escape with tempo. The third is ignoring your own pieces on open lines: before playing a move, look for checks that would line up your king and queen.
Solve skewer puzzles until you check lines through the enemy king without thinking. If you are stuck, the first hint shows which piece to move; after you solve, the full line appears beside the board. Train pins alongside skewers, since both come from the same geometry, and compare them with discovered attacks, where the line is opened by moving your own piece.
For mixed tactics at your rating, use Puzzle Training. For speed, try Puzzle Storm, and to repeat a fixed set until it is automatic, the Woodpecker Method. Elo Maxing rates you on every tactical motif and serves the weakest next, and Pattern Drill builds practice from the patterns your own games show you miss. For more on training tactics by motif, read the Elo Maxing guide.
An attack along a line on a valuable piece that has a less valuable piece behind it. When the front piece moves, the one behind can be taken.
Bishops, rooks and queens. A skewer works along a line, so knights, pawns and kings cannot skewer.
When the piece behind is defended, when the skewering piece can be captured, or when the front piece can move away with a threat of its own.
Wherever two valuable pieces share an open line. They are especially common in endgames, where kings and rooks stand on open lines more often.