Fork: queen to f4 (f5·2)
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 2136 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 c1, queen f3, rook e1, bishop f4, pawn a2 b2 g2 c3 h3 d4.
Black: king g8, queen f5, rook a8, knight c5, pawn a6 b6 g6 c7 f7 h7.
10 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 26.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 23 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on c1, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 26, with 38 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: d.
The Black king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
26... Qxf4+ 27. Qxf4 Nd3+ 28. Kd2 Nxf4
Why it works
- Great move! queen to f4 keeps the pressure (+4.6).
- Well found: knight to d3 (+4.7).
- Strong! knight to f4 is the sharp choice (+4.7).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Qxf4, then Nd3+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 26… Qxf4+ — queen to f4 (capture) with check
- 27. Qxf4 — queen to f4 (capture)
- Nd3+ — knight to d3 with check
- 28. Kd2 — king to d2
- Nxf4 — knight to f4 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Sacrifice attack
Give up material to unleash a decisive attack.
A sacrificial attack gives up material on purpose to rip the king's shelter open and launch a decisive assault. The sac is sound when you get concrete assets in return: open lines to the king, tempi, pieces ready to pour in. The signs: a poorly sheltered king, your forces aimed at its home, defenders stranded far away. The iron rule is to calculate, not hope — once the material is gone, there is no way back.
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.
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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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