Fork Puzzles

A fork is one move attacking two targets at once. Your opponent can only save one of them — the other falls. It is the first tactic every player learns and the one that keeps deciding games at every level, from playground blunders to grandmaster time scrambles.

Knights are the fork specialists: they attack squares no other piece covers, so their double attacks are the hardest to see coming. A knight fork against king and queen — the royal fork — wins on the spot. But every piece forks: pawns hit two pieces a file apart, bishops and rooks fork along their lines, and the queen is a forking machine on an open board.

To spot forks, look for loose pieces first. Two undefended targets are the raw material; then hunt for the square that attacks both. Check every knight jump around the enemy king — if the king and another piece stand a knight's move apart from a common square, the fork is often already there.

The puzzles on this page come from real games. Solve one right here, then jump into the trainer to practice forks at your own level, from beginner to master.