Fork: rook to g3 (h3·3)
li-03ZFLnaming tag (square·N)Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 1924 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
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 g2, queen e2, rook d1 g4, knight d2, pawn f3 a4 c4 b5 f5.
Black: king g8, queen c3, rook h3, bishop b6, knight h5, pawn a5 e5 f6 b7 g7 h7.
10 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 32.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (27 against 26; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g2, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 32, with 35 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): d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: c.
The Black king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
32... Rg3+ 33. Rxg3 Nf4+ 34. Kh2 Nxe2
Why it works
- Great move! rook to g3 keeps the pressure (+4.9).
- Well found: knight to f4 (+5.3).
- Strong! knight to e2 is the sharp choice (+5.3).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Rxg3, then Nf4+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 32… Rg3+ — rook to g3 with check
- 33. Rxg3 — rook to g3 (capture)
- Nf4+ — knight to f4 with check
- 34. Kh2 — king to h2
- Nxe2 — knight to e2 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Sacrifice attack
Give up material to unleash a decisive attack.
A sacrificial attack gives up material on purpose to rip the king's shelter open and launch a decisive assault. The sac is sound when you get concrete assets in return: open lines to the king, tempi, pieces ready to pour in. The signs: a poorly sheltered king, your forces aimed at its home, defenders stranded far away. The iron rule is to calculate, not hope — once the material is gone, there is no way back.
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 014
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