Fork: pawn to g6
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 1544 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 g1, queen h6, rook e1 f1, knight e6, pawn a2 b2 g2 h3 c4 f5.
Black: king g8, queen d6, rook f7 e8, knight d3, pawn e3 d4 c5 a6 g6 h7.
11 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 32.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 28 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 g8.
It is White to move on move 32, with 36 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: d, e.
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
32. fxg6 Qxe6 33. gxf7+ Qxf7 34. Rxf7
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to g6 keeps the pressure (+6.4).
- Well found: pawn to f7 (+7.5).
- Strong! rook to f7 is the sharp choice (+7.6).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Qxe6, then gxf7+ and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 32. fxg6 — pawn to g6 (capture)
- Qxe6 — queen to e6 (capture)
- 33. gxf7+ — pawn to f7 (capture) with check
- Qxf7 — queen to f7 (capture)
- 34. Rxf7 — rook to f7 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Discovered attack
A piece steps aside and opens a second attack from the piece behind it.
A discovered attack works like a curtain: one piece steps off the line and unveils the long-range piece behind it. The beauty is that the moving piece can create a second threat of its own — two attacks in one move. Look for your stacked pairs: a bishop or rook behind a knight or pawn, aimed through them at something valuable. Send the front piece to the most aggressive square — a discovery without a second threat wastes half its power.
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.
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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 011
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