Fork: rook to e5 (e6)
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Difficulty 1965 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 c1, rook e1 h6, knight e5, pawn a2 c2 f2 g2 d3 c4 g4.
Black: king c8, rook e6 f8, knight f6, pawn g5 a7 b7 c7 e7 f7.
11 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 19.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (20 against 19; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on c1, the black king on c8.
It is Black to move on move 19, with 25 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): h — 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
19... Rxe5 20. Rxe5 Nxg4 21. Rhe6 fxe6
Why it works
- Great move! rook to e5 keeps the pressure (+4.2).
- Well found: knight to g4 (+3.9).
- Strong! pawn to e6 is the sharp choice (+4.1).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Rxe5, then Nxg4 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 19… Rxe5 — rook to e5 (capture)
- 20. Rxe5 — rook to e5 (capture)
- Nxg4 — knight to g4 (capture)
- 21. Rhe6 — rook to e6
- fxe6 — pawn to e6 (capture)
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.
Endgame tactic
Tactics live in the endgame too — strike while material is scarce.
Tactics do not retire when the queens come off: forks, pins and double attacks live on in the endgame. With so little material left, every tactical loss is almost always decisive. The signs are the usual ones — undefended pieces, king and piece on one line, a pawn about to promote. Even in a "technical" ending, scan for a shot before every move, both yours and your opponent's.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 014
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