Week 5: Forks
12-week course · lesson plan for a 60-minute live group class · for the coach
Lesson plan · Worksheet · Large print · Answer key · 12-week syllabus
Learning objective
Students can spot and play a fork: one piece attacking two enemy pieces at once, starting with the knight, so that one of them is won.
Before class (under 10 minutes)
Prerequisites: Weeks 1–4, especially how the knight moves and what check means.
- Open "Week 5 demonstration".
- Have "Week 5 practice" (or "Week 5 all levels" for a mixed group) ready in the Puzzles list.
Class plan, minute by minute
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 0–5 min | Warm-up Quick review: a back-rank mate in 1 on the shared board, solved by a volunteer with control. |
| 5–20 min | Shared board: forks Load "Week 5 demonstration": the knight fork of king and queen, then a pawn fork. Draw arrows from the forking piece to both targets. Ask: which piece can the other side save? |
| 20–35 min | Puzzles on their own boards Puzzles → "Week 5 practice": knight and pawn forks, then real-game forks. Mixed-level group: "Week 5 all levels". |
| 35–52 min | Play each other Pair students and start. Challenge: look for a fork before every move, and check whether your own pieces can be forked. |
| 52–60 min | Review Review questions below. Preview: next week, pins. |
Shared-board demonstration
In the lesson app: Lesson library → Week 5 demonstration: Forks.
White to move: the knight forks the king and the queen.
Draw both arrows from c7. A check is the strongest fork: the other side must deal with the king first.
Answer: Nc7+ attacks the king and the queen. The king must move, so Nxa8 wins the queen.
White to move: a pawn can fork too.
Pawns are the cheapest forkers: even if the pawn is lost later, it wins more than it costs.
Answer: c4 attacks both knights at once. Black can save only one: after Nbc7 (guarding d5), cxd5 still wins a knight for a pawn.
Puzzles on every student’s own board
In class: Puzzles → choose the set → Start puzzles. Each student solves on their own board while you watch every board live. A wrong move gets a reason or a hint (for example “look for a check”), and any checkmate counts as solved.
- Everyone: Week 5 practice: Forks (6 puzzles, including real-game puzzles from Lichess). The worksheet uses the same puzzles.
- Mixed-level group: Week 5 all levels: Forks (15 puzzles): the 4 easier ones first, then the practice set, then 5 harder ones, including real-game puzzles from Lichess. Each student goes at their own pace, so beginners stay with the easier puzzles while stronger students reach the harder ones.
- A whole group that needs more support: Week 5 easier: Forks. A whole group ready for more: Week 5 harder: Forks.
Check for understanding
- What is a fork? Answer: One piece attacking two (or more) enemy pieces at the same time.
- Why is a fork with check so strong? Answer: The other side must get out of check first, so it can’t save the other piece.
- Which piece is the best at forking, and why? Answer: The knight: it jumps, and the pieces it attacks can’t attack it back the same way.
Help for beginners
Put a finger on the knight and trace its L-jumps before choosing. Ask: which square attacks two things at once?
For stronger students
"Week 5 harder": real-game forks from Lichess, by queens, rooks and a pawn.
Every position, answer and hint on this page is checked move by move with chess.js before it is published. Real-game puzzles come from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).