Lichess Puzzle #1: A Decoy and Fork Tactic Combination

It's Black to move and win some material. This is a pretty easy puzzle. To give some background, White played the knight from c4 to e3 in the previous move which gave rise to this tactical motif. The best move here is Nxe3 and after the queen takes the knight, the other knight will jump in to c2 and fork the queen, rook, and bishop. White saves the queen and Black is up the exchange.

Of course, the rest of the game is a whole different story. It doesn't mean that since Black won the exchange that it will result in a sure victory in the end. However, in this case, it was enough of an advantage for Black to win in the end.

Here is the rest of the game for your viewing pleasure:

While I'm at it, I took a look at the game where this puzzle was taken from. I just want to note that Black played the Pirc Defense and from that point, the engines were already indicating that White has a slight advantage over Black even though not much has really happened in the game yet.

Morever, according to the engine, Black was at a big disadvantage from move 9 when he played b5. Despite that shaky start, Black was able to turn the tables around at the end of the game to come out victorious. In fact, because of White's passivity and the blunder in move 21, Black converted the initial disadvantage into a miraculous comeback.

Of course, it would have been better if Black hadn't weakened his position right from the get-go. I don't blame him though as I have played in this way many times. As long as you have enough pieces on the board and you can create some counterplay, you should take your chances and give it all you got. Unless you're facing an elite chess master, the chances that your opponent will make few to zero mistakes is small. So wait for that opening and play solidly until the very end.