Tactics 101- Intermediate Forks (pt. 2)

Hi guys welcome to part two of forks. We started off with easy forks. Now we will go up the ladder and look at intermediate forks. Lets get started! 

1. Last time we talked about basic forks. This time I will be talking about finding a sequence of forks. You always have to look at pieces that can be taken in order to finish the fork. In this case, it is the knight on f7. The knight on f7 guards an important square. The important square is the d8 square. If you remove the defender of that square, you can fork the king and queen with rook to d8. In this case, you can remove the defender by playing bishop takes f7. If the white rook takes the bishop, the black rook goes to d8 supported by the queen. The king has to be protected and, therefore, black can take the queen. This is a fairly simple tactic but it will help introduce finding a sequence that leads to a fork. 

2. Lets look at this  position. The white rook is attacking the black queen. If the queen moves anywhere, the rook will take the black knight. Because of this, we have to attack the other queen too. You are attacking a piece with the same value. Now white's rook is attacking the black queen and you are simultaneuosly attacking the white queen. Take note that the black knight can take the queen with check. If the white queen moves, black will simply take the white rook with the black knight. If the white rook takes the queen, the black knight takes the queen with check.  The king has to move or has to take the knight. If white takes the knight, black simply takes the white rook. Then black is up a whole piece.

  Forks are an important part of tactics. Do fork puzzles to increase your understanding about them. Visualization and calculation are also important. As usual, I will leave you with a fork tactic that you can solve. 

Black to move.  If you find the answer, comment down below! Thank you for reading this blog! Make sure to follow me and read my other blogs!!