A fork is a situation where one of your pieces simultaneously attacks two of your opponent’s pieces. Because the opponent’s can’t save both pieces at the same time, your attacking piece is guaranteed to capture one of your opponent’s pieces.

Diagram A

In Diagram A, sente’s knight has forked gote’s rook and bishop. If gote saves his rook with ?R-74, then sente plays ?Nx44, taking gote’s bishop. If ?B-55, then ?Nx64 wins the rook.

Diagram B

There is a fork in Diagram B. Because of sente’s 56 pawn, he can fork gote’s pieces with ?S*55. Gote can recapture by ?Bx, but ?Px takes the bishop. Even if the forking piece can be recaptured, as long as it is protected by another piece, it can still create a fork.

Diagram C

Sente can fork the golds in Diagram C with ?R*66 or ?R*44.

There are some situations that look like a fork, but in the end, both pieces can be saved.

Diagram D

In Diagram D, it appears as though gote’s knight has forked sente’s rook and bishop, but sente has ?R-18, delivering check. After the king removes the check, sente can save the bishop.

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