Of course pinned pieces can check just like any others; I can't imagine players of real chess wanting it different. Still, a variant chess without check-pins might be fun. But then can a pinned piece pin another piece? If A pins B pins C pins D pins A, then I guess any one piece could move, but its ally would then be "really" pinned. I seem to recall a problem where there is a mate in N moves after 2N+2 checks, all by pinned pieces. Or maybe it was 2N+3 checks. Dan