Fork: knight to b6 (a4)
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 1195 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 b1, queen d6, knight a4, pawn a2 b2 c2 f2 h3.
Black: king a8, rook c8 d8, bishop h1 h6, pawn e5 a6 b7.
8 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 30.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (17 against 19; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on b1, the black king on a8.
It is White to move on move 30, with 34 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: e.
Black hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. 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
30. Nb6+ Ka7 31. Nxc8+ Rxc8 32. Qxh6
Why it works
- Great move! knight to b6 keeps the pressure (+4.5).
- Well found: knight to c8 (+4.6).
- Strong! queen to h6 is the sharp choice (+4.5).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Ka7, then Nxc8+ and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 30. Nb6+ — knight to b6 with check
- Ka7 — king to a7
- 31. Nxc8+ — knight to c8 (capture) with check
- Rxc8 — rook to c8 (capture)
- 32. Qxh6 — queen to h6 (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 007
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