Fork: queen to h5 (d1)
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 2476 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
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 d1, rook a1 f2, bishop c1, knight b1, pawn a2 b2 c2 d2 g2 h2 f5.
Black: king f7, queen c4, rook a8 h8, bishop e7 c8, knight e4 b8, pawn c5 e6 a7 b7 g7 h7.
13 white and 14 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 11.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 5 points of material (32 against 37; 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 f7.
It is White to move on move 11, with 26 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 6. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for White: e.
Black hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The White king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
11. Qh5+ Kf6 12. d3 exf5 13. dxc4
Why it works
- Great move! queen to h5 keeps the pressure (+4.2).
- Well found: pawn to d3 (+4.3).
- Strong! pawn to c4 is the sharp choice (+4.2).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kf6, then d3 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 11. Qh5+ — queen to h5 with check
- Kf6 — king to f6
- 12. d3 — pawn to d3
- exf5 — pawn to f5 (capture)
- 13. dxc4 — pawn to c4 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Winning blow
Find the strike that wins material by force.
A winning blow is a forced material gain that does not fit a single textbook motif. The general tactical recipe applies: spot loose pieces, an awkwardly placed king, overloaded lines. Go through the forcing moves in order of violence — checks, captures, threats — because most combinations start with one of them. Do not judge by feel: calculate the concrete line until the outcome is beyond doubt.
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).
Pack 015
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