Fork: rook to e1 (e8)
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 1367 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
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 g1, queen c4, rook c2 b7, bishop f4, pawn a2 f2 h2 g3.
Black: king g8, queen a4, rook d8 e8, pawn d4 c5 f7 g7 h7.
9 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 28.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 2 points of material (26 against 24; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g1, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 28, with 34 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: a.
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
28... Re1+ 29. Kg2 Qc6+ 30. f3 Qxb7
Why it works
- Great move! rook to e1 keeps the pressure (+4.6).
- Well found: queen to c6 (+4.5).
- Strong! queen to b7 is the sharp choice (+4.6).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Kg2, then Qc6+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 28… Re1+ — rook to e1 with check
- 29. Kg2 — king to g2
- Qc6+ — queen to c6 with check
- 30. f3 — pawn to f3
- Qxb7 — queen to b7 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Royal fork
A fork with check: the king must move, and the second piece is lost.
A royal fork is a fork with check — one of the two targets is the king itself. The check must be answered first, so nobody is left to rescue the second piece. Look for squares where your piece gives check and simultaneously attacks an undefended queen or rook. It is the most reliable fork of all, because your opponent literally has no choice.
Only move
Everything else loses — find the only move that holds.
An only move is a position where everything loses except one single continuation. You cannot play "by hand" here: run through fundamentally different defenses — run away, block, trade, counterattack — and discard the ones that fail. The hallmark of these puzzles is that the obvious moves lose quickly while the solution often looks strange. First understand exactly what the threat is — then the one saving move reveals itself.
Counter-strike
Don't defend — answer the threat with a bigger one.
The counter-strike: instead of defending against the threat, you answer with a bigger threat of your own. While your opponent grabs a pawn, you deliver mate — the arithmetic favors you. Look for a counter when direct defenses fail: do you have a check, an attack on the queen, a mating threat? The beginner's error is meeting every threat with a reflexive defense without checking the counterattacking resources first.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 010
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