Fork: knight to h5
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 876 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 f2, queen b5, knight f4, pawn g2 a3 e3 g3 b4 d4 c5.
Black: king g7, queen f6, rook a8, knight f5, pawn a4 e4 g4 d5 f7.
10 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 36.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 3 points of material (19 against 22; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f2, the black king on g7.
It is White to move on move 36, with 25 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: f.
The White king has 4 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
36. Nh5+ Kg6 37. Nxf6
Why it works
- Great move! knight to h5 keeps the pressure (+6.4).
- Well found: knight to f6 (+6.8).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kg6, then Nxf6 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 36. Nh5+ — knight to h5 with check
- Kg6 — king to g6
- 37. Nxf6 — knight to f6 (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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 004
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