Fork: queen to f4 (g5)
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Pin: a piece can't move without exposing something more valuable behind it.
Difficulty 2038 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.
A pin freezes a piece in front of a more valuable one behind it. Scan the ranks, files and diagonals your bishop, rook or queen controls: if an enemy piece cannot move without exposing its king or queen, it is pinned and can be piled on or bypassed.
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 h1, queen c4, rook f1 f4, bishop f7, pawn g2 b4 d4 h4 c5.
Black: king g7, queen g5, rook e1 f8, pawn g6 a7 b7 c7 h7.
10 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 28.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 3 points of material (27 against 24; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on h1, the black king on g7.
It is Black to move on move 28, with 43 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: d.
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
28... Qxf4 29. Rxe1 Qxh4+ 30. Kg1 Qxe1+
Why it works
- Great move! queen to f4 keeps the pressure (+7.4).
- Well found: queen to h4 (+7.6).
- Strong! queen to e1 is the sharp choice (+7.9).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Rxe1, then Qxh4+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 28… Qxf4 — queen to f4 (capture)
- 29. Rxe1 — rook to e1 (capture)
- Qxh4+ — queen to h4 (capture) with check
- 30. Kg1 — king to g1
- Qxe1+ — queen to e1 (capture) with check
Types in this puzzle
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.
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.
Remove the defender
Capture the guard first — then take what it protected.
Removing the defender is the straightforward plan: capture the guard first, then take what it guarded. Unlike deflection, the defender is not lured away — it is traded off or destroyed on the spot. Stare at the target you crave and ask who defends it, and whether that defender can be profitably eaten. Count the whole capture sequence, not just the first move — the trade must pay off at the end.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 014
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