Fork: knight to a4
li-0Mz4JOpens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 1970 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 b2, queen c5, rook h1, bishop c4 f4, knight b5 g5, pawn a2 c2 f2 g2 h2 e5.
Black: king g7, queen a5, rook a8 h8, knight c3 c6, pawn b4 g6 h7.
13 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 27.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 4 points of material (32 against 28; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on b2, the black king on g7.
It is Black to move on move 27, with 41 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: a, c, e, f.
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
27... Na4+ 28. Kc1 Nxc5
Why it works
- Great move! knight to a4 keeps the pressure (+3.5).
- Well found: knight to c5 (+3.7).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kc1, then Nxc5 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 27… Na4+ — knight to a4 with check
- 28. Kc1 — king to c1
- Nxc5 — knight to c5 (capture)
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.
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 014
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