Fork: bishop to f5 (d3)
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 1943 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 g1, rook d1 f1, bishop d3, knight b5, pawn a2 b2 c2 f2 f3.
Black: king g8, rook h3 a8, bishop f4, knight d7, pawn a7 b7 f7 g7 h7.
10 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 19.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 21 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 g8.
It is White to move on move 19, with 25 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: g, h.
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
19. Bf5 Rh5 20. Bxd7 Rg5+ 21. Kh1
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to f5 keeps the pressure (+3.3).
- Well found: bishop to d7 (+3.3).
- Strong! king to h1 is the sharp choice (+4.0).
- You win a piece — the knight.
- If instead Rh5, then Bxd7 and you win the knight.
Move by move
- 19. Bf5 — bishop to f5
- Rh5 — rook to h5
- 20. Bxd7 — bishop to d7 (capture)
- Rg5+ — rook to g5 with check
- 21. Kh1 — king to h1
Types in this puzzle
Bishop fork
The bishop attacks two pieces on crossing diagonals at once.
A bishop fork happens when the bishop lands where two diagonals cross and attacks a target on each of them. Both victims must stand on the bishop's color — that is the first thing to verify. Scan for loose enemy pieces that share the color of squares with their own king or queen. A common sin is placing your own pieces on squares of one color and handing your opponent exactly this geometry.
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 014
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