Hi all. Let's look at forks today so if you go to Chessworld.net - improve menu ... puzzle
books you'll find in the tactics section Fork tactics and there's a description
here in chess terminology a fork is not a piece of cutlery but in fact it's a
chess tactic where a single piece makes two or more direct attacks
simultaneously so it does actually help eat the opponent's pieces quite often
like a fork in the cutlery sense it would. In chess though two pieces are
threatened which is also sometimes termed a double attack. The attacker
usually aims to gain material by winning one of the opponent's pieces the
defender often finds it difficult to counter two or more threats in a single
move so in chess it's a turn-based game and
we usually can only play one move at a time and so things like folks are pretty
dangerous to have to handle the attacking piece is called the forking
piece the pieces attacked are said to be forked and quite often it helps if the
fork is also a check as some of the examples in the book show that further
compels the opponent to handle something else as well on the fact of being checked
so let's have a look at some examples of this quite fundamental tactic which is
used within very good combinations sometimes as often opponents are
forking so here black play and win what would you play in this position if I
give you five seconds to pause video
okay Bishop takes f2 check now we have Knight g4 check the king went to e1 if
the King had gone to f1 we have like Ne3+ there's a nice fork there and on g1 we
have Queen b6 and that's lethal that diagonal now here has white escaped
Knight e3 which does fork Queen and Bishop it compels this check but now
Bishop d7 and maybe White was thinking there is knight takes g2 and then there's King f2
and the knight is kind of trapped but in fact the knight in the center can do
more than just take on g2. Can you see what black can play here very powerful
fork indeed okay Nc2+ forking king queen and rook but
we'd like to take the Queen off after so that was a forking example and there's
other tactical ideas in this you can see these other tags now if you want to
look them up you can also click on them and go to the chessworld glossary by
the way to see further examples and stuff information about any tags
mentioned there so anyway let's go to the next fork example now here we said
it's often even better that the folk involves a check so that's a little clue
for this one if I give you five seconds here what would you play in this
position okay
now not rook takes e8 because you might think King takes Bishop b5 check but
it's not checking the opponent because it's not check the opponent has more
options and can actually take our bishop and then queen the point end up winning
so it's actually better to not rush it as the title says here there's another
much stronger move Bishop c4 check so the bishop is out of harm's way of the
rook and now can you see why this is so powerful now this fork tactic when it's
got the spice added spice of being check as well okay we've added spice rook
takes e8 check and now Bishop b5 is check forking
the king and rook double attacking the King on rook
and then we can stop that pawn very easily after Bishop up winning. Now in
this example we can set up a fork with a preliminary move can you spot it
okay Bishop takes e3 damages White's control of c2 we can pounce in to c2
now and after the rook moves Knight x c2 forking the two rooks and the King is a
check as well - a killer check makes that fork all the more nice to use so winning
material there now here the knight is not the only one
that can double attack or fork pieces so what can black play in this position? 5
seconds okay g5! because now we can double attack
Bishop and Knight. Be wary in real games though weakening
your king can sometimes backfire but it doesn't here in this particular case but
sometimes yeah you gotta but you've got to look at your King safety when you
move pawns around your King
so here you may remember this example from another video in the series white to
play okay a fork is kind of setup because of this interference with knight e6
because otherwise Qxe4 was threatened but now we have what's been
given up basically is the key question or the weakness or the last move what's
being given up is maybe more concise when the Queen has taken on e6 the Queen
has given up the f8 square and with that, that's a mighty juicy fork and it's
actually in this case it's checkmate as well
this has an element of interference as well as a fork now this one it looks as
though we're in trouble heads of queen takes h3 - you might want to pause the
video okay rook check and now there's a pinned piece we can actually celebrate
that with Re3 defending h3 and here we can set up a fantastic fork
with check I wonder if you can spot how
okay rook takes d4 whack now rook d3 and we get a mighty folk with check
Knight e5 check winning now here this is a real fork celebration white to play
pause the video if you want ok Queen takes f5 opening up that G file now
Knight e4 check now Queen takes g3 - does that ruin everything
not quite we don't have to be content with Knight takes in which case we'd be
the exchange down we can actually play Knight takes f6 check and now we don't
have to be content with F takes G a fork saves us losing material with Knight h5
forking queen and king very nice we end up having Knight and Bishop against rook
there as well as a wreckage so we're up on material
there's a nice fork set up here. Can you spot it
okay Bishop g5 check trying to lure the King to g5 for this otherwise we're
winning the Queen anyway but now the juicy fork knight takes f7 check forking
king and queen. How can we set up a juicy fork here ?
You might wanna pause rook e8 and it is a decoy as well setting up this juicy fork
with Knight f6 double attacking Queen and King and actually we can even take
here after just to rub salt in the wound there. Now here can you spot what can be
played here? Okay rook takes f7 check so if King takes those knight takes d6 a
nice fork but alas here is even worse fate in a way Knight g5 checkmate can't
get much stronger than mate in one!
In this position the knight is holding the Queen say my finger if only you had
Knight f7 because rook takes you could take the Queen if the knight wasn't
protecting the Queen so there's a great move to start off with which kicks off
with that idea in mind actually trying to win this Queen okay and that's rook
f8 check the King moved if Knights takes there was Knight f7 forking King and
Queen on rook takes those Queen takes e5 now here a very very nice tactic is used
rook f7 Queen takes h7 and Queen takes f7 so there was a
fork behind the scenes there which was trying to it tried black trying to
avoid it. Now here pause if you want
check reaching the critical position if only we could stop the King escaping
this would be mate how come we are use can we use a fork here ? Indeed we can
Knight d7 check and if Bishop takes this would be mate so black
resigned here losing the Queen. Okay so in this position
pause the video ready Knight takes d6 it is forking Queen and King so but it's
been eliminated that forking piece has been eliminated but there's another
one now with Bishop takes d5 forking queen and king again ah the pain of
chess black thought maybe they have escaped but now to be forked again with
this horrible check wins the Queen so here our pieces are attacked here we've
got to be a bit careful about any slow moves we've also got a weakened back row
so if we move the rook there's also things to consider like the checks on b8
or a8 as well
but we can do something very very forcing here you see we can take on g1
check and that's winning because we're gonna be taking on c1 and taking on e3
which would be a fork with d1 and c1 okay so that's absolutely winning
there in this position from a game of Kasparov against Ligterink
Nb6 when the knight go? It can go to b6 now is this awkward for
black Bishop takes now here Kasparov actually kind of centralized
his bishop so it's not only reinforcing the threats on a8 but now he's looking
at h7 - Can White exploit this somehow wonderful move here which also combines
a bit of interference ok there's a Knight fork which is interfering the
the connection there so hitting that knight that's taken and now we have an
almighty fork Queen f5 hitting the rook which is unprotected and h7 and black
resigns here if the rook moves we take and then Queen
h8 is mating so very powerful example there double attack now here if only we
could play queen g4 because then on King h8 there's Queen g7 checkmate so White's
playing here you might want to pause the video okay
Knight d4 so black try to parry Queen g4 now in this position can we kind of use
a fork or a deflection to the deflect that the knight away from defending
this defensive square White to play here - a wonderful kind of not
just double attack treble attack quadruple attack move exists okay N
c6 hits Queen Knight Bishop and rook not too many options there if the
Queen say moves to a4 we could play Nxe7+ check which is nasty
winning a whole piece for nothing
and if the knight takes then we're back to queen g4 check and then after King h8
Queen g7 checkmate so this is a crushing blow black resigns here so I hope you
got something from these examples of double attack and yes the added spice of
when the opponent's also in check makes the double attack of the fork even more
effective and some of these show. Hope you got something from that all
comments/questions subscribes with a notification are
really appreciated. Thanks very much. And check these out on the improve menu
puzzle books at www.chessworld.net and you'll see to practice your forks which
could be updated as well every so often for some more training
there okay thanks again.