Fork: bishop to g4
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 821 ShuffleRating — for beginners taking their first steps in Chess960 tactics.
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 g1, queen d1, rook a1 f1, bishop e2 e3, pawn a2 c2 f2 c4 d4 e4.
Black: king c8, queen h3, rook d6 h8, knight c6 g8, pawn a7 b7 c7 f7 g7 h7.
12 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 14.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 31 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on g1, the black king on c8.
It is White to move on move 14, with 25 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for White: b, g, h.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The White king has 0 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
14. Bg4+ Qxg4+ 15. Qxg4+
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to g4 keeps the pressure (+5.1).
- Well found: queen to g4 (+5.1).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Qxg4+, then Qxg4+ and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 14. Bg4+ — bishop to g4 with check
- Qxg4+ — queen to g4 (capture) with check
- 15. Qxg4+ — queen to g4 (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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