Fork: queen to h3
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 1907 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 h1, queen e4, rook a1 f1, bishop c2, knight b1 g6, pawn a2 b2 f2 h3 d4.
Black: king g8, queen e6, rook f6 a8, bishop e7, pawn a6 h6 b7 c7 h7.
12 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 25.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 6 points of material (33 against 27; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on h1, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 25, with 43 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): e, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: d, f.
The Black king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
25... Qxh3+ 26. Kg1 Rxg6+ 27. Qxg6+ hxg6
Why it works
- Great move! queen to h3 keeps the pressure (+5.5).
- Well found: rook to g6 (+6.2).
- Strong! pawn to g6 is the sharp choice (+6.1).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kg1, then Rxg6+ and you win the knight.
Move by move
- 25… Qxh3+ — queen to h3 (capture) with check
- 26. Kg1 — king to g1
- Rxg6+ — rook to g6 (capture) with check
- 27. Qxg6+ — queen to g6 (capture) with check
- hxg6 — pawn to g6 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Winning exchange
A forced series of captures on one square ends in your favour.
A winning exchange is a forced series of captures on one square that leaves you ahead in material. It is pure arithmetic: count the attackers and defenders of the square and note the value of every piece in the queue. Capture in the right order — cheap pieces first, expensive ones later — or a winning trade turns into a losing one. The classic error is stopping the count halfway and missing the opponent's final recapture.
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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