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Forks, where one of your pieces attacks two or more of your opponent’s pieces simultaneously, are a great tactic in chess. As we can only usually move one piece per turn, making two or more threats with a single move can mean that we potentially force the opponent to making a concession, for instance, losing a piece. I played this game as a rapid 10 min + 5 sec bonus game on Lichess, which is what I sometimes do when I don’t have time to play my preferred format of 30 min rapid on chess.com. Unexpectedly, my opponent was likely much lower rated than me, in fact, a complete novice. This game thus gives many examples of different types of forks. I think there may have been six forks! And also some pins and a skewer! This is also an example of the sorts of mistakes that beginner players make which is useful for reflection.

Some insights from this game. I’ve mentioned quite a few times before that our visual biases tend to be such that we can miss threats along diagonals. So, look explicitly at the diagonal attacking pieces – the bishop pair and the queen. My opponent made many moves which can be described as fairly superficial one move attacks. It’s critical to consider how your opponent is likely to respond to your threat in such a situation. Many of the forks in this game came as a result from the knight – the tricky trappy knights. When I was earlier in my chess journey, I would often use the platform to mark out where the knights could go, you can do this with a right mouse click on squares, to help me visualise potential traps. Over time, it becomes easier to recognise problems to avoid. And lastly, rather than immediately playing gambits as a beginner, it might be more solid to learn a basic opening first – for instance, the Italian, the Scotch, or maybe even the English openings. This can help you learn the basic principles of chess.

I hope you enjoyed this video, and thanks for watching!

Analysis on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/analysis/library/3KVk6MWAnS

[Event "Rated Rapid game"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/v0ZsRXBK"]
[Date "2022.02.02"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Himanshmaheshwari"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[UTCDate "2022.02.02"]
[UTCTime "04:58:46"]
[WhiteElo "1500"]
[BlackElo "1577"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "-192"]
[BlackRatingDiff "+6"]
[TimeControl "600+5"]
[ECO "D10"]
[Opening "Slav Defense: Exchange Variation"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[Annotator "lichess.org"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. cxd5 {D10 Slav Defense: Exchange Variation} 3... cxd5 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Nf3 e6 6. b4 Bxb4 7. a3 Bxc3+ 8. Bd2 Bxa1 9. Qxa1 O-O 10. Ng5 h6 11. Nf3 Nc6 12. Bb4 Re8 13. e3 e5 14. dxe5 Nd7 15. Bb5 a6 16. Bd3 Ndxe5 17. Bc3 Nxd3+ 18. Kd2 Nxf2 19. Rf1 Ne4+ 20. Kc2 Nxc3 21. Kxc3 Qf6+ 22. Kc2 Qxa1 23. Rxa1 Rxe3 24. Nd2 Re2 25. g4 Rxh2 26. g5 Bf5+ 27. Kb2 Rxd2+ 28. Kb3 Nd4+ 29. Ka4 b5+ 30. Ka5 hxg5 31. Kb4 Nc2+ 32. Kc5 Nxa1 33. Kd6 g4 34. a4 bxa4 35. Kc7 g3 36. Kd6 g2 37. Ke5 g1=Q 38. Kxf5 Qe1 39. Kg5 Rf2 40. Kh5 Qg1 41. Kh4 Rh2# {Black wins by checkmate.} 0-1