Fork: queen to f7 (g7)
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 2050 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
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 h5, queen g7, rook h1, bishop g5, knight g1, pawn a2 h2 c3 g4.
Black: king c8, queen a1, rook d3 e8, bishop f2, pawn a7 b7 f7 h7.
9 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 22.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (24 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 h5, the black king on c8.
It is White to move on move 22, with 28 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: b, f.
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
22. Qxf7 Qe1 23. Qc4+ Kb8 24. Qxd3
Why it works
- Great move! queen to f7 keeps the pressure (+2.0).
- Well found: queen to c4 (+2.2).
- Strong! queen to d3 is the sharp choice (+2.7).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Qe1, then Qc4+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 22. Qxf7 — queen to f7 (capture)
- Qe1 — queen to e1
- 23. Qc4+ — queen to c4 with check
- Kb8 — king to b8
- 24. Qxd3 — queen to d3 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Winning blow
Find the strike that wins material by force.
A winning blow is a forced material gain that does not fit a single textbook motif. The general tactical recipe applies: spot loose pieces, an awkwardly placed king, overloaded lines. Go through the forcing moves in order of violence — checks, captures, threats — because most combinations start with one of them. Do not judge by feel: calculate the concrete line until the outcome is beyond doubt.
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).
Pack 014
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