Fork: knight to e2 (f4·6)
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 2066 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
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 c1, queen e4, rook d1 h1, bishop g1, knight e2, pawn b2 a3 d4 g4 h5.
Black: king g8, queen d6, rook a6 f8, knight f4, pawn a4 e6 b7 c7 g7 h7.
11 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 26.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 2 points of material (30 against 28; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on c1, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 26, with 41 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: d.
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
26... Nxe2+ 27. Qxe2 Qc6+ 28. Kb1 Qxh1
Why it works
- Great move! knight to e2 keeps the pressure (+4.0).
- Well found: queen to c6 (+3.4).
- Strong! queen to h1 is the sharp choice (+3.7).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Qxe2, then Qc6+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 26… Nxe2+ — knight to e2 (capture) with check
- 27. Qxe2 — queen to e2 (capture)
- Qc6+ — queen to c6 with check
- 28. Kb1 — king to b1
- Qxh1 — queen to h1 (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.
Overload
One defender guards two things — it cannot do both jobs.
Overloading exploits a defender with two jobs at once — guarding a piece and covering a mating square, for instance. It cannot do both: your first strike forces it to handle one duty and abandon the other. Find the overworked piece by asking what happens to each of its charges if it gets distracted. Then hit one target and collect the other — an overloaded defender only pretends to defend.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 015
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