Fork: queen to f4 (d4)
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 1696 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
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 d2, queen d4, rook g1 e5, pawn c2 f2 g2 c3 a4.
Black: king f7, queen a2, rook h5 h8, bishop g4, pawn f4 a5 b6 c7.
9 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 39.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (24 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 d2, the black king on f7.
It is White to move on move 39, with 39 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d, e, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: b.
The White king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
39. Qxf4+ Bf5 40. Rxf5+ Rxf5 41. Qxf5+
Why it works
- Great move! queen to f4 keeps the pressure (+6.1).
- Well found: rook to f5 (+6.3).
- Strong! queen to f5 is the sharp choice (+6.4).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Bf5, then Rxf5+ and you win the bishop.
Move by move
- 39. Qxf4+ — queen to f4 (capture) with check
- Bf5 — bishop to f5
- 40. Rxf5+ — rook to f5 (capture) with check
- Rxf5 — rook to f5 (capture)
- 41. Qxf5+ — queen to f5 (capture) with check
Types in this puzzle
Win the pinned piece
The pinned piece cannot run — attack it again and win it.
A pinned piece cannot flee, which means you can win it outright by attacking it one more time. Count attackers against defenders: if you outnumber them, the piece is yours. The best extra attacker is a pawn, since it costs less than anything it might capture. Do not rush the capture — build up the pressure first, then harvest.
Winning exchange
A forced series of captures on one square ends in your favour.
A winning exchange is a forced series of captures on one square that leaves you ahead in material. It is pure arithmetic: count the attackers and defenders of the square and note the value of every piece in the queue. Capture in the right order — cheap pieces first, expensive ones later — or a winning trade turns into a losing one. The classic error is stopping the count halfway and missing the opponent's final recapture.
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 013
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