Fork: knight to f7 (g5)
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 1041 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A fork is one piece attacking two targets at once. Look for a knight, pawn or queen move that lands where it hits the king (or a bigger piece) and a second undefended unit on the same turn — the opponent can save only one.
General method: before you move, list the forcing candidates — every check, every capture, every direct threat — and calculate those first. The solution to a tactic is almost always among them.
Position on the board
White: king h1, queen b3, rook e1, bishop f4, knight g5, pawn a2 b2 g2 h2 g3.
Black: king h8, queen f8, rook d8, bishop d7, knight c6, pawn b6 d6 a7 c7 g7 h7.
10 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 25.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (25 against 26; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on h1, the black king on h8.
It is White to move on move 25, with 46 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: c, d.
The White king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
25. Nf7+ Qxf7 26. Qxf7
Why it works
- Great move! knight to f7 keeps the pressure (+6.9).
- Well found: queen to f7 (+7.1).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Qxf7, then Qxf7 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 25. Nf7+ — knight to f7 with check
- Qxf7 — queen to f7 (capture)
- 26. Qxf7 — queen to f7 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Winning blow
Find the strike that wins material by force.
A winning blow is a forced material gain that does not fit a single textbook motif. The general tactical recipe applies: spot loose pieces, an awkwardly placed king, overloaded lines. Go through the forcing moves in order of violence — checks, captures, threats — because most combinations start with one of them. Do not judge by feel: calculate the concrete line until the outcome is beyond doubt.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 006
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