Decoy
A decoy is a tactic that lures an enemy piece onto a chosen square, usually with a sacrifice it has to accept, so that the piece can be forked, blocks one of its own lines or loses its old job.
A decoy drags an enemy piece to a square you picked in advance. You offer something the piece must take, or you give a check it can only answer by capturing, and the capture puts the piece on a square where it suffers. The suffering can be a fork, a pin, a blocked escape square or a piece that now stands in the way of its own side.
The idea is close to deflection, but the two answer different questions. Deflection asks which duty a defender can be pulled away from. A decoy asks which square would be bad for the enemy piece and how to make it go there. The target is often the king, because a king in check has very few choices, but any piece can be decoyed.
To spot one, look at your forcing moves, such as checks and captures, and ask where the enemy reply must land. Then check whether a knight, bishop or rook can punish that square at once. A knight is a favorite follow-up because forks are hard to see coming.
To defend, count the forced reply before you allow a sacrifice, and keep the king and queen off squares that a knight can attack together.
In the diagram White plays Rd8+. The knight on g5 guards f7, so the king has no other move and must take on d8. Then Nf7+ forks the king and the queen on h6. The king steps aside and Nxh6 wins the queen for the rook.
Also worth reading is Clearance sacrifice. A clearance sacrifice gives up material to remove a piece from a square, file, rank or diagonal, so that another of your pieces can use that line or square for a winning or mating move.
Also worth reading is Poisoned pawn. A poisoned pawn is a pawn that can be captured, but whose capture lets the opponent punish the greedy player with a tactic that costs more than the pawn is worth.
Compare it with Attraction. Attraction is a tactic that draws the enemy king or queen onto a square where it can be checked, forked or mated, usually by offering a piece that cannot safely be refused.
To see how often "Decoy" or a pattern like it decides your own games, book a first lesson: George Li reviews your games and writes a study plan around what he finds.
Related terms
Deflection is the tactic of dragging an enemy defender off its post, often by a threat or an offered capture, so that what it was holding together falls apart.
Attraction is a tactic that draws the enemy king or queen onto a square where it can be checked, forked or mated, usually by offering a piece that cannot safely be refused.
A fork is a move that leaves one of your pieces threatening two enemy pieces together. Because the opponent gets only one turn to respond, something usually falls.
A combination is a forcing sequence of moves, usually built from sacrifices and checks, in which every move leaves the opponent few or no choices and the sequence ends in a concrete gain such as mate or material.
Guides that go further
What to decide first, the questions to ask, what a first lesson should show and the red flags to avoid.
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