Fork: queen to e4 (f4)
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 1534 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
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 b1, queen c1, rook e1 h1, knight f3 c4, pawn a2 b2 g2 c3 d4 h4.
Black: king g7, queen f4, rook a8 e8, knight e3, pawn f5 b6 g6 a7 c7 h7.
12 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 22.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 3 points of material (31 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 b1, the black king on g7.
It is Black to move on move 22, with 45 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: d.
The Black king has 6 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
22... Qe4+ 23. Ka1 Nc2+ 24. Qxc2 Qxc2
Why it works
- Great move! queen to e4 keeps the pressure (+2.3).
- Well found: knight to c2 (+2.5).
- Strong! queen to c2 is the sharp choice (+2.3).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Ka1, then Nc2+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 22… Qe4+ — queen to e4 with check
- 23. Ka1 — king to a1
- Nc2+ — knight to c2 with check
- 24. Qxc2 — queen to c2 (capture)
- Qxc2 — queen to c2 (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.
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.
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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 011
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