Fork You: The Beginner’s Guide to Mastering The Art Of Forks

Have you ever been forked and didn't understand how you got tricked? Well, I have (a number of times, actually, it's quite embarrassing). In this post, I will teach you how to avoid forks and even how to use them against your opponent. 

What you'll learn today:

1. What is a Fork?
2. How to avoid a Knight Fork?
3. How to Fork an Opponent?

Let's get started

Part I: What is a fork?

Well, a fork is a situation where one piece attacks multiple pieces and will have to lose one in the end. Here is an example:

In this position, White is both checking Black's king and attacking Black's bishop. The king will be forced to move, and the knight will be free to capture the bishop.

Let's look at a few more positions:

Here, Black's bishop is attacking both rook, and king.

In this position, White's pawn is attacking both bishop and knight. Although, Black will still take the pawn, it is an advantage.  

Part II: How to Avoid Forks?:

Now, let's move on to how to avoid forks. Things to remember? Knights have a cool power of jumping between squares and that makes them extremely dangerous. Also, forks are very surprising. Like, say, at the end of the game, you're in the lead with a rook and a pawn against a knight and two pawns. If you get too distracted trying to promote, you're cooked. One move of inattention and you lose your rook.

Try and keep your last piece and king either separated or really close together, or else the knight will finish you.

I'd also be careful with sacrifices. If the opponent makes an unexplained move, and lets their piece hanging (chess term for leaving it vulnerable), it's probably got trick you into a fork. Take this position, for example:

First, Black's king moves away, hanging their bishop. Now, don't go thinking it's a free bishop 'cause it isn't. The bishop you took will soon cost you the life of your rook.  After you take this bishop, the knight comes into action and forks both the rook and the king. And since a rook is worth more, it works out for Black after all. 

Part III: How to Fork an Opponent?

How to set up a fork, you may ask? Well, it isn't too hard, all you have to do is not get seen, and manage to find weak spots in your opponent's game. For example:

Here, White's knight has now snuck to the Black side and can now fork both king and rook! The same thing could happen to you. Really, all you have to do is always check weak spots. In this position, the weak spot is F7, undefended and ready to be used as a weapon against white. There are much simpler forks involving queens. Since queen can go almost anywhere, it makes it much simpler for them. 

Well, that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed the article, and will come back for more! And remember: in chess as in life, always bring a fork -you never know when you'll be served something tasty.