Fork: pawn to b5
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 2286 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 a4, rook f1 c4, bishop e2 h6, pawn a2 b2 g2 h5.
Black: king g8, queen e5, rook d4 e8, bishop h7, pawn c6 f6 a7 b7 f7.
10 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 26.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 2 points of material (29 against 27; 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 26, with 50 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: g, h.
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
26... b5 27. Rxd4 bxa4 28. Rg4+ Bg6
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to b5 keeps the pressure (+2.4).
- Well found: pawn to a4 (+2.3).
- Strong! bishop to g6 is the sharp choice (+2.0).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Rxd4, then bxa4 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 26… b5 — pawn to b5
- 27. Rxd4 — rook to d4 (capture)
- bxa4 — pawn to a4 (capture)
- 28. Rg4+ — rook to g4 with check
- Bg6 — bishop to g6
Types in this puzzle
Pawn fork
A humble pawn steps forward and attacks two pieces at once.
A pawn fork is a single pawn step that attacks two pieces at once. Since the pawn is the cheapest unit on the board, the trade is always a bargain — the opponent saves only one of the two targets. The pattern: two enemy pieces on the same rank, one file apart, with a square for your pawn between them. Before parking your pieces near enemy pawns, always ask whether one little push forks them both.
Quiet move
No check, no capture — yet this modest move decides the game.
A quiet move gives no check and takes nothing — yet it decides the game by creating an unstoppable threat or stealing the king's last square. This is the hardest class of moves: the eye hunts for loud blows while a modest shift does the winning. The clue: every forcing try runs into a defense, so seek the move that strengthens the threat or takes squares away. Train yourself to ask: what if I neither capture nor check, but quietly improve?
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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