Chess Tactics - Forks

Hello!

Welcome to the second topic in this Blog Series! Today, we will see what is a 'fork' and some games with examples of forks. Hope you enjoy it.

So, lets begin.

Again, what is a 'fork' in chess? Just like a fork we use in meals (which has two or three pointy ends), in chess, a fork is a tactic whereby a single piece makes two or more direct attacks simultaneously. Most commonly two pieces are threatened, which is also sometimes called a double attack. The attacker usually aims to gain material by capturing one of the opponent's pieces, unlike a double attack, where we can also threaten checkmate.

So, here are a few basic examples of forks.

This was a very simple example. Now lets see some more simple examples and then move on the the advanced ones.

A nice example! Forking the two knights with a pawn. One thing to note here is that any piece can fork to other pieces, be it a pawn, a knight, a bishop, a rook, a queen or even a king!

Now, lets go on with some advanced forks.

An amazing move! Black had missed this move, and this led to him losing this game. Now lets see another example.

An awesome move! And all the moves were forced! Great job if you found it.

Using the king to give a fork! Wonderful! The quiet rook move too was nice.

Now lets see a tricky example.

A perfect example of how calculation is required at every stage of the game!

Now lets see the last example of this topic.

An amazing sequence by Magnus! This game does deserve some appreciation.

Here's a puzzle on this topic. Do solve it and send the answer in the comments below.

So, this concludes this blog on the topic 'forks'. Thanks for reading this blog! Please, do comment your views on this blog. For more information on 'forks', you can watch this lesson on chess.com! - Every Chess Tactic Explained: Forks | Chess Lessons - Chess.com

Thank You.