About forks

Forks are the most common tactics that win material. With a fork you make a move with one of your pieces. After the move, this piece is attacking two (or more) of your opponent's pieces at the same time. Very often, your opponent won't be able to defend against both threats with their next move, and you can capture one of the attacked pieces.

Forks are possible with all pieces. You will practice forks with pawns, knights, bishops, rooks, and queens in separate levels. King forks are also possible, but they’re much rarer, because the king usually doesn’t attack until the game is nearing its end.

How to spot a fork

When you start learning forks, you have to look at all possible moves to determine which pieces are going to be attacked by that move. With more and more practice, you will be able to quickly see which attacking moves are possible, and you will spot many forks immediately and without effort.

Some forks can be more difficult to see—for example, if they involve the whole board, use diagonal backward moves or attacks, or are in complicated positions where a lot of moves and attacks are possible.

If there are any unprotected pieces, forks (as well as some other tactics and combinations) are much more likely. Therefore, it is always a good idea to look for unprotected pieces and any way to attack those.

About knight forks

Knights are extremely good at giving forks. It’s like their superpower! In fact, the most common forks are knight forks (and, as mentioned earlier, forks are the most common tactic in chess)

Why are knights so good at giving forks? There are a few reasons for this:

• Because knight moves can’t be blocked, there are limited options to defend against knight attacks.
• Knights can attack up to seven pieces at the same time! In this regard the knight is as powerful as a queen.
• Knights are less valuable than rooks and queens, so any attack by a knight on a rook or queen threatens to win material — no matter if the piece is defended or not.

Many knight forks are also checks. If a knight gives check, the opponent can only defend by escaping with the king or by capturing the knight, because the option to block the check is not available against knight checks. If a knight gives check and attacks another piece at the same time, it is very often not possible to defend against both threats.

A knight fork that gives check and attacks the queen is sometimes called a “royal fork”.

Examples

White can win material with the knight fork 1.Ne5+, giving check and attacking the rook on g4. Black has no other option than to escape with the king. White can then capture the rook and has a winning material advantage.

Black can win material with the knight fork 1...Nc4, attacking the queen on d2 and the unprotected bishop on a3 at the same time. Note that there is no way for White’s queen to run away to a square where it protects the bishop. b2 is also attacked by the knight, the pawn on c3 is in the way of protecting the bishop if the queen escapes to d3 or e3, and c1 is blocked by the rook.

How to spot a knight fork

With some practice, knight forks are easy to visualize and you will be able to spot them very quickly! They are sometimes possible in the opening, especially on squares c7 and f7. In the starting position, c7 is only protected by the queen and f7 only by the king. On c7 a knight would fork rook and king, and on f7 it would fork rook and queen — if the pieces were still on their initial positions.

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