Fork: pawn to d7
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The tactical motive
Discovered attack: one piece steps aside, unleashing another's attack.
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 1934 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A discovered attack fires when one piece steps aside and unmasks the piece behind it. Look for your own units that block a rook, bishop or queen: moving the front piece — ideally with a threat of its own — springs two attacks in one move.
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 h6, rook a1 e1, pawn a2 b2 c2 f2 d3 g3 h5 e6.
Black: king g8, queen f6, rook c8 e8, knight d7, pawn d4 c5 f5 b6 a7 f7.
12 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 25.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (27 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 g2, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 25, with 42 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 8 pawns, Black 6. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in.
The White king has 6 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
25. exd7 Qxh6 26. Rxe8+ Rxe8 27. dxe8=Q+
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to d7 keeps the pressure (+7.1).
- Well found: rook to e8 (+7.4).
- Strong! pawn to e8 is the sharp choice (+7.6).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Qxh6, then Rxe8+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 25. exd7 — pawn to d7 (capture)
- Qxh6 — queen to h6 (capture)
- 26. Rxe8+ — rook to e8 (capture) with check
- Rxe8 — rook to e8 (capture)
- 27. dxe8=Q+ — pawn to e8 (capture) with check
Types in this puzzle
Pawn fork
A humble pawn steps forward and attacks two pieces at once.
A pawn fork is a single pawn step that attacks two pieces at once. Since the pawn is the cheapest unit on the board, the trade is always a bargain — the opponent saves only one of the two targets. The pattern: two enemy pieces on the same rank, one file apart, with a square for your pawn between them. Before parking your pieces near enemy pawns, always ask whether one little push forks them both.
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 014
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