Fork: rook to h6
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 1803 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, queen a6, rook d1 e6, knight g5, pawn a2 b2 f2 g2 h2 e4.
Black: king g8, queen f8, rook h6 c8, bishop g7, knight e5, pawn b4 a5 h5.
11 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 30.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 28 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 30, with 49 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c, d — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
The White king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
30. Rxh6 Bxh6 31. Qe6+ Kg7 32. Qxe5+
Why it works
- Great move! rook to h6 keeps the pressure (+4.6).
- Well found: queen to e6 (+4.6).
- Strong! queen to e5 is the sharp choice (+4.9).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Bxh6, then Qe6+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 30. Rxh6 — rook to h6 (capture)
- Bxh6 — bishop to h6 (capture)
- 31. Qe6+ — queen to e6 with check
- Kg7 — king to g7
- 32. Qxe5+ — queen to e5 (capture) with check
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.
Decoy
A sacrifice lures the king or a piece onto a fatal square.
A decoy is the mirror image of deflection: you sacrifice to drag the king or a piece onto a fatal square. The classic is a queen or rook sac whose capture pulls the king into a knight fork, a discovered check or mate. Find the square where the target will be hit, then find the offer it cannot refuse. Calculate to the very end — a decoy only works when the follow-up is forced.
Overload
One defender guards two things — it cannot do both jobs.
Overloading exploits a defender with two jobs at once — guarding a piece and covering a mating square, for instance. It cannot do both: your first strike forces it to handle one duty and abandon the other. Find the overworked piece by asking what happens to each of its charges if it gets distracted. Then hit one target and collect the other — an overloaded defender only pretends to defend.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 013
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