Fork: queen to h1 (h2)
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 2189 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
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 f1, queen d2, rook e4, bishop c3, knight e3, pawn f2 h3 g4 d5 f5.
Black: king g8, queen h2, bishop h7, knight d3 d7, pawn h4 f7 g7.
10 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 34.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 4 points of material (25 against 21; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f1, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 34, with 32 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, b, c, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: d.
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
34... Qh1+ 35. Ke2 Nc1+ 36. Qxc1 Qxc1
Why it works
- Great move! queen to h1 keeps the pressure (+2.0).
- Well found: knight to c1 (+2.0).
- Strong! queen to c1 is the sharp choice (+2.2).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Ke2, then Nc1+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 34… Qh1+ — queen to h1 with check
- 35. Ke2 — king to e2
- Nc1+ — knight to c1 with check
- 36. Qxc1 — queen to c1 (capture)
- Qxc1 — queen to c1 (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.
Counter-strike
Don't defend — answer the threat with a bigger one.
The counter-strike: instead of defending against the threat, you answer with a bigger threat of your own. While your opponent grabs a pawn, you deliver mate — the arithmetic favors you. Look for a counter when direct defenses fail: do you have a check, an attack on the queen, a mating threat? The beginner's error is meeting every threat with a reflexive defense without checking the counterattacking resources first.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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