Chess tactics
The fork: one move, two threats
A fork is a single piece attacking two or more enemy pieces at the same time. Your opponent can only save one — you take the other.
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Knights fork most often, because a knight hits squares no other piece can defend in kind, but every piece forks: a bishop can hit a rook and the king on one diagonal, a pawn can hit two pieces at once, even the king forks in the endgame. The targets are usually the enemy king together with an undefended piece — a check you must answer, and a loss you can’t.
How to spot it
- Look for the enemy king and queen a knight’s-move apart — the royal fork.
- Scan for two undefended enemy pieces that one of your pieces could hit together.
- A forcing check that also attacks a piece is the cleanest fork of all.
From the corpus
Three real forks, each verified by Stockfish at depth 22. Click any one to solve it.
More tactics
Pins
A pin freezes an enemy piece against a more valuable one behind it. It can’t move without giving up the piece in the rear — so you pile up on it and win it.
Skewers
A skewer attacks a valuable piece in front; when it steps aside, the piece behind it on the same line falls.
Discovered attacks
A discovered attack moves one piece out of the way to open fire from the piece behind it. Two threats land at once, and your opponent often can’t meet both.
Deflection
A defender is doing important work — guarding a mating square, holding a piece. Deflection gives it something it can’t refuse, and once it moves, what it guarded falls.
Trapped pieces
A trapped piece has no safe square. It’s still on the board, but it can’t get out — so you win it at your leisure.
Back-rank mates
A rook or queen reaches the back rank and mates a king boxed in by its own unmoved pawns. With no escape square, one heavy piece ends it.