Fork: pawn to f5 (f7)
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 1427 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
Black 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 g4, rook e1 e4, pawn b4.
Black: king g7, queen d5, rook a3, pawn a4 b5 e5 d6 g6 f7.
5 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 51.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 20 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on g1, the black king on g7.
It is Black to move on move 51, with 31 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 1 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
The Black king has 6 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
51... f5 52. Qh4 fxe4
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to f5 keeps the pressure (+5.4).
- Well found: pawn to e4 (+5.6).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Qh4, then fxe4 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 51… f5 — pawn to f5
- 52. Qh4 — queen to h4
- fxe4 — pawn to e4 (capture)
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.
Quiet move
No check, no capture — yet this modest move decides the game.
A quiet move gives no check and takes nothing — yet it decides the game by creating an unstoppable threat or stealing the king's last square. This is the hardest class of moves: the eye hunts for loud blows while a modest shift does the winning. The clue: every forcing try runs into a defense, so seek the move that strengthens the threat or takes squares away. Train yourself to ask: what if I neither capture nor check, but quietly improve?
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 010
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