Fork puzzles
84 free fork puzzles from real games, rated 849 to 2373. Solve them on the board below; your accuracy feeds your weakness map.
What is a fork?
A fork is a single move that attacks two or more targets at once, usually the king and another piece, or two undefended pieces. The opponent can only save one.
Knight forks are the famous ones, but queens, pawns and even kings fork too. The puzzles below mix all of them, because in a real game you don't get told which piece is the forker.
Common mistake
Forking pieces that are defended. A fork only wins material if at least one target is loose or more valuable.
How to spot it
Look for loose pieces (undefended) and the king. Two targets on the same piece's reach = fork.
Knights fork pieces on the same colour square. Check which squares a knight could jump to with check.
A check or capture that drags a piece onto a forkable square is a common first move.
Related themes
- PinA piece that can't move without exposing something bigger.
- SkewerA reverse pin: the big piece moves, the one behind falls.
- Discovered attackMove one piece, unleash another.
- Double checkTwo checks at once. The king must move.
- Hanging pieceSpot the free material, and don't leave your own.
Let the adaptive drill find your weakest pattern
Puzzles: Lichess puzzle database (CC0), filtered for popularity and play count. See how Weakspot works.