Fork: queen to h7 (h4)
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 2140 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
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 h4, rook a1 f1, knight g5, pawn c2 g2 h2 a3 b3 e3 f4.
Black: king e7, queen d8, rook c8 g8, bishop c6, knight d7, pawn c5 d5 f5 e6 a7.
12 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 22.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (29 against 30; 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 e7.
It is White to move on move 22, with 36 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 5. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for White: d.
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
22. Qh7+ Kd6 23. Nf7+ Kc7 24. Nxd8
Why it works
- Great move! queen to h7 keeps the pressure (+4.0).
- Well found: knight to f7 (+4.2).
- Strong! knight to d8 is the sharp choice (+4.2).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kd6, then Nf7+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 22. Qh7+ — queen to h7 with check
- Kd6 — king to d6
- 23. Nf7+ — knight to f7 with check
- Kc7 — king to c7
- 24. Nxd8 — knight to d8 (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.
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).
Pack 015
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