Fork: queen to g6
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The tactical motive
Deflection: force the defender to abandon its post.
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 1123 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
Deflection drags a defender away from its duty. Identify the enemy piece that guards a key square or mate, then force it to move — with a check, a capture or a threat it must answer — and strike where it no longer defends.
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 h2, queen h5, rook g1 g3, pawn g2 b4 d4 h4.
Black: king f6, queen f4, rook h8, bishop d5, knight c4, pawn b5 f5 e6 h6 g7.
8 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 40.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (23 against 25; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on h2, the black king on f6.
It is White to move on move 40, with 19 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, c — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: e, f.
The White king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
40. Qg6+ Ke7 41. Qxg7+ Kd6 42. Qxh8
Why it works
- Great move! queen to g6 keeps the pressure (+2.8).
- Well found: queen to g7 (+4.0).
- Strong! queen to h8 is the sharp choice (+4.0).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Ke7, then Qxg7+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 40. Qg6+ — queen to g6 with check
- Ke7 — king to e7
- 41. Qxg7+ — queen to g7 (capture) with check
- Kd6 — king to d6
- 42. Qxh8 — queen to h8 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Royal fork
A fork with check: the king must move, and the second piece is lost.
A royal fork is a fork with check — one of the two targets is the king itself. The check must be answered first, so nobody is left to rescue the second piece. Look for squares where your piece gives check and simultaneously attacks an undefended queen or rook. It is the most reliable fork of all, because your opponent literally has no choice.
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 007
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