What is a fork in chess?
A fork is one piece attacking two at once, so your opponent can only save one. How forks work, which pieces fork best, and how to stop missing them.
A fork is a move where one piece attacks two of your opponent’s pieces at once. Your opponent can only move one of them, so you win the other. It is one of the most common tactics in chess, and players at every level both play forks and miss them.
How does a fork work?
A fork wins material when your opponent can’t save both targets. Either the two pieces are worth more than the one doing the forking, or one of the targets is the king, which has to get out of check before anything else.
That is why a fork with check is so strong: your opponent has no spare move to save the other piece.
Which pieces can fork?
Any of them can, the king and the pawns included.
| Piece | What makes its forks special |
|---|---|
| Knight | The classic forker. It jumps, it can’t be blocked, and only a knight can attack it back from the squares it hits |
| Pawn | Cheap, so almost any fork wins material |
| Queen | Attacks in eight directions, but is so valuable that the targets must be undefended |
| Bishop | Forks along diagonals, often a king and a rook |
| Rook | Forks along ranks and files, often two loose pieces on the same row |
| King | Can fork in the endgame, when pieces wander close to it |
What is a royal fork?
A knight fork of the king and the queen. When the knight hits the king, the queen and a rook all at once, it is sometimes called a family fork. Either way, the queen is usually lost for a knight.
What do forks look like in a real game?
The fork trick is one of the first forks players learn, and it comes straight out of the opening.
The fork trick
How do you spot a fork?
Look for these before every move:
- Two of your opponent’s pieces that are not defended
- The king and another valuable piece that a knight could hit from the same square
- Pieces on the same rank, file or diagonal, with an empty square that sees both
- A check that also attacks something else
Then look at the square the fork would come from. If it is guarded, you may need to give something up first to clear the way, which is how a lot of brilliant moves start.
How do you avoid getting forked?
Keep your pieces defended, and be careful with the king and the queen on squares a knight’s jump apart. When your opponent’s knight gets close, check where it can land next move and what it would hit from there. Many forks can be seen a move before they land.
How do you find the forks you missed in your games?
You have to go back and look, because you won’t remember them. In a fast game, a fork that was there for one move is easy to play past, and it never makes it into your memory of the game.
Chesslord’s insights count the forks you played and the ones you missed, piece by piece, across all your chess.com and Lichess games. If your knight forks are fine and your queen forks keep slipping by, you know what to practise. The same panels do this for pins and mates as well.
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