Deflection
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.
A defender can only be in one place. Deflection exploits that by making it choose: either it stays and a threat succeeds, or it goes where you want and the post it left behind is free to be hit. Unlike removing the defender, you do not need to win the defender; you only need to send it elsewhere.
How you send it matters. The common methods are a capture it must make, a check it can answer only by moving, or an attack on it that cannot be ignored. A deflecting sacrifice often looks like a piece thrown away, until the line shows what the departed defender used to cover.
Classic targets are the guard of the back rank, the sole protector of a loose piece, and a piece that blocks the line to the enemy king. Deflection drives a huge number of mating finishes, because kings rely on a few key guards.
To find it, name the enemy piece that keeps the position stable and ask how you can pull it away, what it would capture, and what its absence allows. To defend, avoid giving any single piece two or three jobs, and make luft so the back rank is not hanging on one rook.
In the diagram White plays Bxc6. The knight is a bait for the rook on c8, which guards the eighth rank. If the rook takes on c6, the back rank is no longer covered and Re8# is checkmate.
Compare it with 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.
A neighboring idea is Desperado piece. A desperado is a doomed piece that cashes in before it dies: it captures or gives check, taking the most it can from the position instead of being lost for nothing.
Compare it with Overloading. Overloading is a tactic against a single defender that has two jobs at once, so that when you win one of the things it guards, it can no longer protect the other.
Knowing "Deflection" helps most once you can spot it in a real game. A first lesson with George Li starts from your own games and finds the tactics you keep missing.
Related terms
Removing the defender means getting rid of the one piece that protects a target, by capturing it or forcing it to move, after which the target can be taken for free.
A pin ties a piece to its square: a bishop, rook or queen attacks it, and stepping aside would expose a more valuable piece standing behind it on the same line.
In a discovered attack one of your pieces steps off a line, and that move unmasks a bishop, rook or queen standing behind it, so a single turn produces two threats.
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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