Super Knight Forks by the World Champions!

Do you know how to use a fork?

Sure you do! But I mean, do you know how to use a fork in chess? A fork is a tactic where one of your pieces attacks two of your opponent's pieces at the same time.

 

 

No matter how good your opponent is, there is no way he or she can move both the queen and king at the same time! Black has to save the king (since that is the rule in chess) and the knight will take the queen.

That's why a fork is a powerful weapon in anyone's hands. Using a knight to fork the opponent's pieces is very common, since a knight cannot be blocked. That's what we are going to focus on. I'll show you some neat forks that world champions used to win their games (and one fork that one of the greatest missed!) We'll also see how they managed to set up the fork.First let's see an amazing royal fork which helped Tigran Petrosian to become world champion.

 

Sometimes (especially against a good player) you can't just fork pieces right away. Because they will not allow that to happen. So you have to create the position first. That's why Petrosian played Qh8+!!, to force the king into a position where it could be forked.

Alexander Alekhine was the fourth world champion. He was a great player, but everyone makes mistakes. He missed the chance to use almost exactly the same tactic to win a valuable pawn against Max Euwe:

 

The "Magician from Riga" Mikhail Tal didn't miss the chance to make a knight fork, in his game against Konstantin Klaman:

This fork was also supported by a pin. The pawn on d6 couldn't take the knight because then the black king would be in check. So that meant White's knight could get away with some serious mischief! One knight attacked every one of Black's pieces - the king, queen, rook, and bishop.

Now that you have seen some forks in action, practice how you can use a fork. You should be able to eat lots of pieces!

 Now, let's see if you can set up the fork, like the world champions did above:

So, next time you go to battle on the chessboard, be sure to take a fork along! If you liked this article, and want to learn more, be sure to check out our Fearsome Fork Video Series!