Fork: queen to c2
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 1817 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
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 a2, rook g6 a8, bishop c4, knight b1, pawn c2 b3 f3 g5 c7.
Black: king h8, queen f5, rook h7, knight e8, pawn b4 a5 e6.
10 white and 7 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 33.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (21 against 20; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on a2, the black king on h8.
It is Black to move on move 33, with 29 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: c, f, g.
The Black king has 0 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
33... Qxc2+ 34. Ka1 Qxg6
Why it works
- Great move! queen to c2 keeps the pressure (+4.5).
- Well found: queen to g6 (+4.8).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Ka1, then Qxg6 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 33… Qxc2+ — queen to c2 (capture) with check
- 34. Ka1 — king to a1
- Qxg6 — queen to g6 (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.
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 013
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