The Everything Chess Basics Book (41 page)

White now forces checkmate in two moves.

22. Qf6+! Nxf6 23. Be7 checkmate.

When defending by attacking, it is essential that you make sure what you are going after is worth what you are giving up. It does no good to defend an attack on your queen by attacking an enemy rook, unless there is more to your attack. Checkmating attacks, threats to promote a pawn or two, and massive buildup of your attacking force are often worth a lot. When it comes to defending against an attack on one piece by attacking another, usually the deciding factor is what other aspects of the positions change, such as the control of the center or who has more pieces in play.

Chapter 11
What the Pieces
Can Do

It’s time to learn a bit more about what the pieces can do. Some of these special tactics can be executed by a single piece, while some can be pulled off only with a combination of pieces. The special tactics you are about to learn include double attack, fork, discovered attack, pin, and skewer.

Double Attack

There are special tactics that involve a double attack. The idea is simple: Attack one piece and your opponent will probably be able to defend it or move it easily enough. But when you attack more than one piece, your opponent has to stretch his resources, finding a way to cover everything that is under attack. That can be much more challenging than taking care of one problem at a time.

So how can you attack more than one piece at the same time? You can move only one piece at a time, after all. Actually there are various ways to do this. They are based on the principle of making full use of your pieces.

Fork

This is the easiest of the double attacks to understand. One piece attacks two or more, making use of its potential. Every piece is capable of delivering a forking attack, and even the lowly pawn can pull this one off.

In each example, you will see the position before the fork and the position after the fork. For convenience, a Black piece will do all the forking attacks in each set of positions.

Perhaps you will be surprised to know that the king can also execute a fork. But why not? The king can move in many different directions, after all. It’s just necessary to slip him in between two enemies by attacking their weak spots. That is, attack them where they cannot strike back.

There can be many prongs in a fork. A pawn can threaten to capture two pieces while threatening to march up a square to promote, making three prongs. A queen or knight can menace up to seven enemies at once!

Queen Fork

Black has the chance for a five-pronged fork: 1. ... Qd4+.

The queen threatens rook, bishop, knight, and pawn along with the check. After White gets out of check, with, say, 2. Nc5, Black will play 2. ... Qxg1.

Rook Fork

None of the White pieces is defended. Why not attack as many as you can? Black plays 1. ... Re4.

White will either lose the bishop or the knight. He cannot save both.

Bishop Fork

Although the Black rook is en prise to the White queen, Black sees a great chance. He defends the rook by attacking with 1. ... Bd4+.

The Black bishop forks the White king and queen. All White can do is get something for the queen with 2. Qxd4 Rxd4.

Knight Fork

Black has a fabulous move available here. It is called a
family
fork
, since Black attacks practically the whole family at once: king, queen, and rook.