Fork: rook to e5 (e2)
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 1674 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
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 f1, queen g4, rook e2, bishop g2, pawn a2 b3 c3 f5.
Black: king h8, queen h2, rook e5 d8, pawn c6 a7 b7 g7.
8 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 38.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (21 against 23; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f1, the black king on h8.
It is White to move on move 38, with 35 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, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: g.
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
38. Rxe5 Qxe5 39. Qh4+ Kg8 40. Qxd8+
Why it works
- Great move! rook to e5 keeps the pressure (+4.5).
- Well found: queen to h4 (+4.5).
- Strong! queen to d8 is the sharp choice (+4.7).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Qxe5, then Qh4+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 38. Rxe5 — rook to e5 (capture)
- Qxe5 — queen to e5 (capture)
- 39. Qh4+ — queen to h4 with check
- Kg8 — king to g8
- 40. Qxd8+ — queen to d8 (capture) with check
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 013
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