Double Attacks, Forks and Spoons

Tricks are for kids, by Ms Jessica Martin (aka BoundingOwl)

Besides pins and skewers (pronounced skyoo-ers), I think double attacks are my favourite kind of tactic.  Tactics are tricks to help you win material or the game.  Remember pins?  The piece in the middle had to stay where it was.wrestling

Today we are going to learn about double attacks, forks and spoons.  I bet you thought you knew what a fork was!  Well, it could be something you use to eat...

Assorted_forks.jpg

or it could be a fork in the road, or, what about the forked tongue of a snake?!

snakes.jpg

Well, in chess, there are also forks.  Some people call them double attacks.  I'm pretty sure you can figure out why!   Double means two, and attack means you are trying to capture or are threatening something.

Here is an example of a knight fork:  (Which, by the way, knights are GREAT at)

 

This is called a Family Fork, because the knight forks the entire royal family!  The king HAS to move, because it's in check, and then the knight can capture the queen or the rook for free!  Which one would you capture?

Here is another double attack:

The white queen is attacking the rook on a8 and the checkmate threat on h7!  If the rook saves himself, the queen will capture the pawn on h7 and make a helper checkmate, guarded by the rook.  If the pawn goes to h6 to stop the checkmate, then the rook goes bye-bye!

Double attacks are great against your opponent because they can't move two pieces at the same time (of course).

So, you are wondering now, what, Ms. Martin, is a *spoon*?!   A spoon is basically a really useless fork.  Tried eating spaghetti with only a spoon?  Kind of hard...

In chess, a bad fork is one where you attack something that can attack you back.

Yes, the queen attacks both the rook and the king, but, um, the rook *also* attacks the queen.  So, BYE BYE QUEENIE!

If you could put the black queen anywhere, what square would you choose? Find 6 good forks here. No spoons please.

Any piece can create a fork, but queens and knights are best because they can both move in 8 different directions.

How do you make a fork here?

Too easy, huh?  Let's combine our ideas for the last puzzle.  In this trick, you will first use a skewer, and then a knight fork.  A two-mover!  Can you do it?

More tactics soon...enjoy your spaghetti!