Forking terminology

Let's say your white bishop moves to d4 and attacks a black rook on c3 and there is another black rook on b2. One of the rooks is lost and black loses the exchange.

Do you call that a bishop fork? It would be an obvious fork if your bishop on d4 attacked a rook on c3 and another one on e5 of course.

Originally posted by homedepotov
Let's say your white bishop moves to d4 and attacks a black rook on c3 and there is another black rook on b2. One of the rooks is lost and black loses the exchange.

Do you call that a bishop fork? It would be an obvious fork if your bishop on d4 attacked a rook on c3 and another one on e5 of course.

I call it a skewer, although there are some encyclopedias that insist the piece at the back must be more valuable. (Edit: or maybe it's the piece at the front. I don't really care.)

Originally posted by homedepotov
Let's say your white bishop moves to d4 and attacks a black rook on c3 and there is another black rook on b2. One of the rooks is lost and black loses the exchange.

Do you call that a bishop fork? It would be an obvious fork if your bishop on d4 attacked a rook on c3 and another one on e5 of course.

WTF difference does it make what it's called? Play the frickin move if it wins and go on with life. 😞



Sorry I forgot my meds. I've heard spear, harpoon and skewer for that attack. Fork is incorrect as GP so keenly illustrated a true Bishop fork. A Bishop on d4 would also fork rooks on a7 and f6

Originally posted by ChessPraxis
WTF difference does it make what it's called? Play the frickin move if it wins and go on with life. 😞



Sorry I forgot my meds. I've heard spear, harpoon and skewer for that attack. Fork is incorrect as GP so keenly illustrated a true Bishop fork. A Bishop on d4 would also fork rooks on a7 and f6

Shishkabob. Someone called it that once.

A nice, vivid term.

Hi CP.

"WTF difference does it make...."

I doubt if it helps in thinking or looking for such moves but it helps when noting up a game.

I think this;

"....White cannot take the pawn because of the Bishop fork on e4."

Reads and explains better than;

"....White cannot take the pawn because of the Bishop double attack on e4."

I once saw a very lengthy argument on another site about what is a genuine fork.

The argument being, this is a genuine Bishop Fork.



...and this was not a Bishop Fork.



Quite a few people got involved, in the end someone asked what should
they call the second diagram. Nobody could come up with a better term
and that was the end of that one.

I guess the only piece that can claim to have a genuine fork is a pawn
and even then they cannot do it on the 'a' and 'h' files.

This is the bones of one of my OTB games, I was Black. (White to move.)

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Hi CP.

"WTF difference does it make...."

I doubt if it helps in thinking or looking for such moves but it helps when noting up a game.

I think this;

"....White cannot take the pawn because of the Bishop fork on e4."

Reads and explains better than;

"....White cannot take the pawn because of the Bishop double attack on e4."

I once sa ...[text shortened]... w - - 0 1[/fen]
I spent a while wondering have I just been Skewered or Knight Forked?[/center]

Forkewered. 😵

"Fkewered." {ooo, that got passed the mechanical censor!}

'Forkewered.' I like. Totally buggered is another.

There was an article in CHESS a few years back by some Grandmaster who
came up with a whole load of positions containing tactical tricks with no name.
I'll see if I can dig it out.

I've often thought that this trick deserved a name.


Black has just played Qb1+ and White replies Rd1 discovered check.

It's not your average discovered check as this move gets
the King out of check whilst at the same time giving check.

A Block Check? A Splatt Check? A Discovered Block Check?
And if it was a mate - what then?


Rd1 is checkmate. A Block Checkmate?

Here is one from an RHP game.





There is your next challenge S.G.
From the inital position what is the quickest Block Checkmate?

GP: "A Block Check? A Splatt Check? A Discovered Block Check? " Howbout "counter-check", and the analogous "counter-mate"--getting oneself out of check and in the same move giving check(mate).

We have to find something to call "bounced check" or "rubber check".

Originally posted by greenpawn34
'Forkewered.' I like. Totally buggered is another.

There was an article in CHESS a few years back by some Grandmaster who
came up with a whole load of positions containing tactical tricks with no name.
I'll see if I can dig it out.

I've often thought that this trick deserved a name.

[fen]5k2/8/3R4/2B5/8/8/5PPP/1q4K1 w - - 0 1[/fen]
Black ha ...[text shortened]... here is your next challenge S.G.
From the inital position what is the quickest Block Checkmate?

In Chess Problemdom, we call those "cross-checks". There are a few problems in which white exposes his own K to check because he has a cross-check answer for every one of them.

I'll see what I can find for shortest game with a cross-checkmate.

Originally posted by Paul Leggett
We have to find something to call "bounced check" or "rubber check".

"Cheque" (Brit.).

There is an old American joke that gets recycled every time we elect a new President:

Question: Why is it that when the President plays chess and attacks two of his opponent's pieces with one of his own, his piece is always on the first rank?

Answer: Because he only knows how to fork up.