Not exactly. A skewer is a form of X-Ray, but not necessarily vice versa. Kinda like a square is a rectangle, but a rectangle isn't
always a square. =)
Anyway, an X-Ray is merely placing a bishop, rook, or queen to attack or defend a piece which it currently can't attack or defend,
always -through- another piece, hence the name X-Ray. It's more often than not used for defensive purposes (say to defend a
seemingly doomed rook in a corner with a bishop check, 'skewering' the king and your own rook), but it has offensive purposes
as well.
so, if i had a bishop, and a knight on the same rank, and your rook
could take anyone, depending on how i moved...if i were to say, place
a bishop/queen, in order to defend either piece...would that be an x-
ray?? an x-ray defending the skewer?? how would you use this for
offensive purposes??
slan...
imp..
hey so if you sent a rook up towards the king to put it in check and
the only way to stop mate is say moving youre queen in the way, now
if i put a nother player further along in check mate, as the queen is
already defending the king on the other side is this some sort of X-
RAY??????????
CASPER
Somewhat, though without a visual or even squares I couldn't say for certain. One common explaination of an x-ray is when
white has a defended rook on e4, and black has an undefended rook on f4. Since it's black's move, he wants to defend, move,
or exchange his rook, but rather than play the obvious defenses (let's say all of those moves lose), black instead brings
another rook to h4. Now, black is defending his own rook on f4 -through- the e4 rook. Whether white takes on h4 or f4, black
will simply recapture, keeping the game even.
One way to have an offensive form of an x-ray I'll take from one of my own games. My opponent had a black queen on a5, a
rook on e8, and his king on e7, where I had rooks on e6, and e1, and my queen on e2. Everything looked good for me, until
my opponent realized he could win 2 rooks for a queen with Qxe1+! Qxe1 Rxe6. His rook was attacking my queen and my e1
rook -through- my e6 rook. There was more to the position, but I forget how the entire game went. I ended up winning, but it
wasn't my best game. =) This is really more of a tactic known as removing the defender, but it's also considered an x-ray.
Anyway, those are two good examples of x-rays.