Fork: queen 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 1886 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 c1, queen e2, rook d1 h1, bishop f1, knight d2, pawn c2 f2 b3 a4 d4.
Black: king g7, queen g5, rook e8 f8, bishop e6, knight c3, pawn d5 f5 g6 a7 b7 c7.
11 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 20.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (30 against 31; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on c1, the black king on g7.
It is White to move on move 20, with 28 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: g.
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
20. Qe5+ Qf6 21. Qxc7+ Rf7 22. Qxc3
Why it works
- Great move! queen to e5 keeps the pressure (+3.8).
- Well found: queen to c7 (+3.8).
- Strong! queen to c3 is the sharp choice (+3.9).
- You win a piece — the knight.
- If instead Qf6, then Qxc7+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 20. Qe5+ — queen to e5 with check
- Qf6 — queen to f6
- 21. Qxc7+ — queen to c7 (capture) with check
- Rf7 — rook to f7
- 22. Qxc3 — queen to c3 (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 014
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