Figure 2.1.8.10[Black to move]

Black’s advanced knight at c3 is on a dark square. So are White’s king, queen, bishop, and rook; examine the knight’s ring of possible moves, and see that the king and queen can be forked at e4—but that the square is protected by the pawn at f3. Can the pawn be pinned, captured, or distracted? No, no, and no. Okay; what results if Black plays the fork anyway and permits f3xN? Visualize what is left on the board. Black then has two checks—Qd2 and Qe1—but neither are helpful since White captures the queen in either case. Nor does Black have any further knight forks. But remember that when considering an exchange you also want to examine what lines would be opened by it and what pins then would exist or become possible. Here, moving White’s f-pawn to e4 would put White's king and queen on the same file with nothing between them. Anytime you see this pattern you should be thinking “pin”; the opponent’s second piece will be powerless to move when attacked if moving would expose the king. (Consider this a preview of the patterns we will be studying in our later work on pins.) Here Black would be able to pin the queen with Rf8 and take it a move later. So the original Ne4+ ends up winning the queen after all in exchange for the knight and a rook.

If you didn’t spot this, it’s probably because you haven’t studied the art of the pin in any detail—a problem we will cure later. But the next couple of positions also will offer some practice in thinking about pins that may arise after a "failed" fork. Watch for them.