Knight Fork in chess

A knight fork is a knight jumping to a square where it attacks two valuable pieces at once, often the king and the queen (a "royal fork"). Nothing can block a knight's jump, so if one of the targets is the king, the other is almost always lost.

• Find the squares that are a knight's jump from both enemy targets. If your knight can reach one, especially with check, it's a fork.
• Knights fork best near the enemy king and in the centre, where they reach eight squares.
• Watch c7 and f7 (c2 and f2 for Black): a knight landing there often forks a king and rook.

Solution: 1.Nc7+ Ke7 2.Nxa8. Nc7+ checks the king on e8 and attacks the rook on a8 at the same moment. The king has to step away, and Nxa8 wins a full rook. A knight's jump can't be blocked, which makes it the best forking piece.

Solution: 1.Nd6+ Kd8 2.Nxc8. Nd6+ forks the king on e8 and the queen on c8. Black must answer the check, and Nxc8 wins the queen for a knight. Before every move, check the squares your knight can reach: are two enemy pieces a jump away from one of them?

Wingo, our coach, never works out chess moves on its own. Stockfish finds the best line, chess.js writes down the facts of the position, and Wingo's explanation is built from that analysis. This is its real answer for "Royal Fork", unedited (a person checked it before it went on this page).

Side to move: White.
White: king e1, rook a1, rook h1, knight b5, pawn a2, pawn b2, pawn c2, pawn f2, pawn g2, pawn h2.
Black: king e8, queen c8, rook h8, pawn a7, pawn b7, pawn f7, pawn g7, pawn h7.
Material: White 19, Black 19 (level).
Loose/under-defended pieces: Black pawn on a7; White pawn on c2.
Defenders and attackers (verified):
Black queen c8: defended by nothing; attacked by nothing.
Black rook h8: defended by nothing; attacked by nothing.
White knight b5: defended by nothing; attacked by nothing.
White rook a1: defended by nothing; attacked by nothing.
White rook h1: defended by nothing; attacked by nothing.
Line-ups (verified geometry): Black queen c8 and Black king e8 are on the 8th rank (nothing between them); Black king e8 and Black rook h8 are on the 8th rank (nothing between them); Black king e8 and White king e1 are on the e-file (nothing between them); White rook a1 and White king e1 are on the 1st rank (nothing between them); White king e1 and White rook h1 are on the 1st rank (nothing between them).
White's legal moves (29): knight b5: Nxa7, Nc7+, Nd6+, Nd4, Nc3, Na3; pawn a2: a3, a4; pawn b2: b3, b4; pawn c2: c3, c4; pawn f2: f3, f4; pawn g2: g3, g4; pawn h2: h3, h4; rook a1: Rb1, Rc1, Rd1; king e1: Kd2, Ke2, Kf1, Kd1, O-O, O-O-O; rook h1: Rg1, Rf1.
Engine best line: 1.Nd6+ Kd7 2.Nxc8 Re8+ 3.Kd2 Rxc8 — winning (+5.6) for White.
Best move theme: knight fork.
After Nd6+, the opponent has 4 legal replies (the reply is NOT forced; the line shows the best one).

Our mistake finder checks your recent games with Stockfish and lists the 3 mistakes you repeat most. Missed knight forks are counted under "Missing forks and double attacks". Every mistake it finds becomes a puzzle from your own game, so you practise exactly the positions you got wrong.

Puzzles tell you a knight fork is there. In a game nobody does. Play Tactical Priya, one of our bots that think at a human pace and make human mistakes, and look for the pattern yourself. The coach can point it out afterwards if you miss it.