Beginners workout

Creating Knight Forks

Young chess players this week have a challenging worksheet. The plan is for them to work through these eleven problems with a partner for no more than fifteen minutes. If need be, I give them the answer to the first problem. Number four is on the demonstration board for the purpose of going through it briefly at the end of the fifteen minutes.

A combination is a series of forcing moves that often begins with a sacrifice and that culminates in a gain of material or checkmate. These eleven problems all feature a knight fork that results in a decisive gain of material. In a few problems, the combination leads to simplification of a position where a material advantage is already present.

In most of these eleven, the player to move sacrifices a queen to fork the enemy's queen and king, while other pieces are gained in the process.

White to move (1-8)
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8
Black to move (9-11)
9


10


11

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