A recent post about chains motivated me to do a little investigating myself which leads me to ask a couple of questions in order to clear up some confusion on my part.

On Sheldon Brown's site it says:

"Shimano chains 9-speed and up are only reattachable by inserting a special. new link pin, using a special tool........."

Okay. I just recently bought a bike which has a nine speed chain.

I usually buy SRAM chains from nashbar which have the Powerlink. Will I be able to unattach, and reattach this 9-speed chain with the included Powerlink? [I know it's advisable to have that MLP tool to do it]?

What is this 'special tool' needed to install a 'new link pin' on the 9 speed shimano chain? Is it just a regular old chain breaker????

Thanks in advance.