A fork is an attack by one chess piece on two or more enemy pieces simultaneously. It can be a devastating tactic, because often the enemy will have to surrender one of the attacked pieces, thus losing material. Because of the strange way it moves, the knight is the premiere forking piece, and a knight fork can be both surprising and delightful to see executed (unless you're on the receiving end). However, even the lowly pawn is capable of administering a fork, as in the following sequence of moves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bc4 Nxe4 5. Nxe4 d5. Black's d-pawn attacks both the white bishop and knight, one of which must be lost.
The following games illustrate forks at their most devastating. See if you can spot the forks coming before playing them on the board.
Amateur vs. Swiderski (Leipzig, 1903) 1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. Qxd4 Nc6 4. Qe3 Nf6 5. Bc4 Ne5 6. Bb3 Bb4+ 7. c3 Bc5! 8. Qg3? White cannot take the bishop. If 8. Qxc5 Nd3+. The black knight then attacks the white king and queen simultaneously, a knight fork. The king must move out of check, after which the white queen will be captured. 8...Bxf2+ and white resigned. Why has white resigned? Notice that the black bishop forks the white king and queen. If white plays 9. Kxf2, then the knight fork 9...Nxe4+ wins the white queen. If white plays 9. Qxf2, then the knight fork 9...Nd3+ wins the queen. However white plays it, his queen is lost to a fork, and black will have a winning material advantage.
The following game, Bogoljubov vs. Meister (France, 1951) is decided by the threat of a deadly fork. 1. e4 d6 2. Nf3 Nd7 3. Bc4 g6?? 4. Bxf7+! Kxf7 5. Ng5+ Kf6 At this point notice that 5...Ke8 loses the queen to 6. Ne6, and 5...Kg7 loses the queen to the knight fork 6. Ne6+. 6. Qf3+ and black resigned. If 6...Ke5 7. Nf7+ forks the king, rook, and queen. If 6...Kxg5 7. d3+ Kh4 8. Qh3++.
The following game, Johner vs. Tartakower (Berlin, 1928) is decided by a very peculiar fork. 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nf6?! 3. Nc3 d5 4. exd5 Nxd5 5. Ne4 e6 6. d4 cxd4 7. Nxd4 Be7 8. Bb5+ Bd7 9. c4 Nf6 10. Nc3 O-O 11. O-O Qc7 12. Qe2 Nc6 13. Nf3 Rfe8 14. Bg5 Ng4 15. Bxe7 Nd4 and white resigned. Black's d4-knight forks the queen and f3-knight! How can a knight fork a knight? If 16. Nxd4 Qxh2++. The white knight is frozen to its place because it must defend h2. If 16. Qd3 or Qd1 (to save the white queen), 16...Nxf3+ 17. any legal move by white, Qxh2++.
Here is another short game, Leonhardt vs. Schwarz (Hamburg, 1905), that ended with a fork. 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. d3 Be7 4. f4 exf4 5. e5 Ng8 6. Nc3 d6 7. Bxf4 dxe5 8. Qh5! Forking the e5 and f7 pawns. 8...g6 Here 8...exf4 is way too dangerous, considering the threat to black's f7 square. The black king would be driven out into the open and mercilessly hunted down. 9. Qxe5 Technically, white has now forked black's rook and c7-pawn (the threat to which is backed up by the bishop). White is after bigger fish than a pawn, however. 9...Nf6 10. Nd5 Another fork on the f6-knight and c7-pawn. Why is the knight in danger? 10...Nbd7 11. Nxc7+ and black resigned. The king and rook are forked. More to the point, however, is that 11...Kf8 12. Bh6+ Kg8 13. Bxf7+ Kxf7 14. Qe6++ is very bad for black!
Because of the peculiar way it moves, the knight is the most common forking piece. However, any piece, including the king, and even lowly pawns, can deliver a fork. Teichmann once said that chess is 99% tactics. I hate to disagree with a player of Teichmann's caliber, but I'd say it's really more like 90% or 95%. In any event, tactics (the killing weapons of chess) are vitally important and make up a large part of the game. They must be constantly practiced if you are to become, and remain, a skilled player. In fact, to become a strong player, you need to do three things: to learn enough about openings to get through the first ten to fifteen moves in decent shape, to learn a few very basic endgame skills, and to have a good command of tactics. Among the most important of these tactics is the fork.
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