Deflection: making a defender leave its post

Most tactics fail because one piece is defending the key square. Deflection is the answer to that sentence, and it is why strong players look at moves that appear to hang material.

• 120 positions in the course
• Difficulty 830–2260
• Section: Sharper Tactics
• 5 levels

What deflection is

A deflection is a move that forces an enemy piece to leave the square or line it was defending. It is usually a capture or a check the opponent cannot decline, and it frequently gives up material, because the point is not what you win with the move -- it is what becomes possible after the defender has moved.

The reason it is worth training separately is that the winning move looks like a blunder. You attack a piece that is well defended, or capture into a recapture, and the evaluation only makes sense one move later.

How to spot it

• Identify the square you would like to play on, and what is stopping you. There is almost always exactly one defender.
• Now ask what would make that defender move: a capture it must answer, a check it has to block, a bigger piece attacked.
• Look at pieces doing two jobs at once. An overloaded defender is a deflection waiting to happen.
• Do not filter out moves that lose material. In a deflection the material comes back on the next move or the tactic is not a deflection.

Three deflections

Three positions from the 120 in this skill, easiest first. The highlighted squares are the move your opponent has just played. Work it out before you open the answer.

The defensive side of it

Deflections work on overloaded pieces, so the prophylactic is to notice when one of your pieces is the only defender of two things. That is not a comfortable position that needs watching -- it is a tactic that has not been found yet.

When one arrives, the practical defences are to find a second defender for the critical square, to move the piece being deflected before it can be forced, or to answer with a counter-threat that is faster. The last of those is the one most defenders never look for.

Questions people ask

Nearby patterns

Deflection sits in Sharper Tactics. The rest of that section:

• Discovered AttacksMove one piece, attack with another
• Double CheckTwo checks at once, king must move
• AttractionLure a piece to a bad square
• X-RayAttacking through a piece
• ClearanceGet out of your own way

Tell it apart from its neighbour

Deflection is confused with these more often than anything else, and the difference is usually one sentence long.

• Deflection vs decoyDrag a piece away, or lure it in