Fork: bishop to g5
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 877 ShuffleRating — for beginners taking their first steps in Chess960 tactics.
Black 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 c1, queen h6, rook d1 h1, bishop f1, knight g1 c3, pawn b2 c2 e2 f2 g2 h2 a3 d4.
Black: king g8, queen d8, rook a8 f8, bishop e7 c8, knight b8, pawn c4 d5 f5 e6 a7 b7 h7.
15 white and 14 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 11.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (36 against 35; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on c1, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 11, with 28 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 8 pawns, Black 7. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for Black: g.
Black hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The Black king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
11... Bg5+ 12. Qxg5+ Qxg5+
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to g5 keeps the pressure (+4.3).
- Well found: queen to g5 (+4.2).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Qxg5+, then Qxg5+ and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 11… Bg5+ — bishop to g5 with check
- 12. Qxg5+ — queen to g5 (capture) with check
- Qxg5+ — queen to g5 (capture) with check
Types in this puzzle
Clearance
Clear your own piece out of the way — with tempo — for the decisive blow.
Clearance is about your own piece standing in the way of the decisive blow — so you move it aside, or even throw it away. The key is to clear with tempo: jump off with a check, a capture or a threat, giving the opponent no time to regroup. The telltale sign: you see a crushing queen or rook move, but one of your own pieces blocks the line or occupies the square. Do not cling to it — a clearance sacrifice usually costs less than a missed attack.
Check chase
Every move is a check — the king is chased into losing ground.
In a check chase every one of your moves is a check, so the opponent never gets a free second. The king is herded across the board until it loses a piece or walks into a decisive blow. Such lines are the easiest to calculate: each check allows only a handful of replies, so try them all. Make it a habit to start calculating any sharp position with the checks — they are the most forcing moves on the board.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 004
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