Chess tactics
Deflection: pull the defender off its job
A defender is doing important work — guarding a mating square, holding a piece. Deflection gives it something it can’t refuse, and once it moves, what it guarded falls.
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The trick is to find the overworked piece: the one doing two jobs at once. A forcing move — a check, a capture, a bigger threat — pulls it off the square that matters, and the tactic underneath is suddenly free.
How to spot it
- Find the enemy piece doing double duty — guarding two things at once.
- Hit it with something forcing it must answer.
- When it moves, collect what it was holding.
From the corpus
Three real deflection, each verified by Stockfish at depth 22. Click any one to solve it.
More tactics
Forks
A fork is a single piece attacking two or more enemy pieces at the same time. Your opponent can only save one — you take the other.
Pins
A pin freezes an enemy piece against a more valuable one behind it. It can’t move without giving up the piece in the rear — so you pile up on it and win it.
Skewers
A skewer attacks a valuable piece in front; when it steps aside, the piece behind it on the same line falls.
Discovered attacks
A discovered attack moves one piece out of the way to open fire from the piece behind it. Two threats land at once, and your opponent often can’t meet both.
Trapped pieces
A trapped piece has no safe square. It’s still on the board, but it can’t get out — so you win it at your leisure.
Back-rank mates
A rook or queen reaches the back rank and mates a king boxed in by its own unmoved pawns. With no escape square, one heavy piece ends it.