Fork: pawn to d5 (e4)
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 1480 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 e2, rook b1 d1, bishop c2 e3, knight c4, pawn b2 g2 h2 a3 f3 e4.
Black: king g8, queen c7, rook c6 b8, bishop e6 e7, knight c5 d5, pawn e5 d6 a7 f7 g7 h7.
13 white and 14 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 22.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 3 points of material (34 against 37; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g1, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 22, with 42 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): c — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: d.
The White king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
22. exd5 Bxd5 23. Rxd5
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to d5 keeps the pressure (+3.4).
- Well found: rook to d5 (+3.3).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead Bxd5, then Rxd5 and you win the bishop.
Move by move
- 22. exd5 — pawn to d5 (capture)
- Bxd5 — bishop to d5 (capture)
- 23. Rxd5 — rook to d5 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
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.
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 011
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