Fork: knight to e4 (f6·2)
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 1808 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
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 h3, rook a1 f1, bishop c1 d3, knight e4, pawn a2 c2 f2 g2 h2 b3.
Black: king g8, queen c7, rook a8 f8, bishop b7 e7, knight f6, pawn a6 c6 e6 g6 f7 h7.
13 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 15.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 34 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on g1, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 15, with 40 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): d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: b.
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
15... Nxe4 16. Bxe4 Qe5 17. Bh6 Qxe4
Why it works
- Great move! knight to e4 keeps the pressure (+3.2).
- Well found: queen to e5 (+3.2).
- Strong! queen to e4 is the sharp choice (+3.0).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead Bxe4, then Qe5 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 15… Nxe4 — knight to e4 (capture)
- 16. Bxe4 — bishop to e4 (capture)
- Qe5 — queen to e5
- 17. Bh6 — bishop to h6
- Qxe4 — queen to e4 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Queen fork
The queen lands on a square from which it attacks two targets at once.
The queen strikes along files, ranks and diagonals, so she forks more often than any other piece. Look for a square where the queen attacks two undefended targets at once — most often a check combined with a loose piece. Diagonal blows are especially venomous: a slanting check that also eyes a rook in the corner is the classic of the genre. Remember that both targets must be unprotected, or your «fork» is just a shot into the air.
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.
Decoy
A sacrifice lures the king or a piece onto a fatal square.
A decoy is the mirror image of deflection: you sacrifice to drag the king or a piece onto a fatal square. The classic is a queen or rook sac whose capture pulls the king into a knight fork, a discovered check or mate. Find the square where the target will be hit, then find the offer it cannot refuse. Calculate to the very end — a decoy only works when the follow-up is forced.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 013
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