Fork: knight to f3 (e5·3)
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 2053 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 g1, queen e1, rook a1 f4, bishop c1 g2, knight d5, pawn a2 b3 e3 c4.
Black: king g8, queen g4, rook a8 f8, bishop f7, knight e5, pawn e4 d6 a7 b7 g7 h7.
11 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 19.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (32 against 31; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g1, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 19, with 43 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: c.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The Black king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
19... Nf3+ 20. Kf2 Qxg2+ 21. Kxg2 Nxe1+
Why it works
- Great move! knight to f3 keeps the pressure (+3.7).
- Well found: queen to g2 (+4.0).
- Strong! knight to e1 is the sharp choice (+4.1).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kf2, then Qxg2+ and you win the bishop.
Move by move
- 19… Nf3+ — knight to f3 with check
- 20. Kf2 — king to f2
- Qxg2+ — queen to g2 (capture) with check
- 21. Kxg2 — king to g2 (capture)
- Nxe1+ — knight to e1 (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.
Absolute pin
A piece is pinned against its king — it cannot legally move.
An absolute pin freezes a piece on the line between its own king and your long-range attacker: moving it is simply illegal. The pattern is three units on one straight line — your bishop, rook or queen, an enemy piece, and the enemy king behind it. A pinned piece neither attacks nor defends anything: treat it as if it were off the board. Pile up on it, ideally with a pawn, because running away is against the rules.
Check chase
Every move is a check — the king is chased into losing ground.
In a check chase every one of your moves is a check, so the opponent never gets a free second. The king is herded across the board until it loses a piece or walks into a decisive blow. Such lines are the easiest to calculate: each check allows only a handful of replies, so try them all. Make it a habit to start calculating any sharp position with the checks — they are the most forcing moves on the board.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 014
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