Fork: knight to g6
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 881 ShuffleRating — for beginners taking their first steps in Chess960 tactics.
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 a1 c3, knight f4, pawn f2 b3 g3 d4 c5 e5.
Black: king c8, queen e7, rook f8, bishop b7, knight a3 b8, pawn b5 d5 h5 a6 e6 g6 c7.
11 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 28.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (28 against 30; 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 c8.
It is White to move on move 28, with 43 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 7. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for White: a, h.
The White king has 4 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
28. Nxg6 Qe8 29. Nxf8
Why it works
- Great move! knight to g6 keeps the pressure (+3.2).
- Well found: knight to f8 (+3.3).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Qe8, then Nxf8 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 28. Nxg6 — knight to g6 (capture)
- Qe8 — queen to e8
- 29. Nxf8 — knight to f8 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Knight fork
One knight move attacks two targets at once — the opponent can only save one.
A fork is one move that attacks two targets at once, and no piece forks better than the knight. Look through the knight's eyes: it jumps in an L and never moves along straight lines, which is exactly why its threats get missed. Both victims of a knight fork always stand on squares of one color, while the knight strikes from the opposite color. Hunt for the square from which the knight hits the king and a heavy piece at once.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 004
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