decoy

The idea

A sacrifice lures an enemy piece or the king onto a particular square — and that is exactly where the blow is waiting. Your opponent appears to win material, but ends up precisely where he was being led.

How it looks

You give up a rook with check, the king is forced to take it — and ends up in the corner. Now the queen steps right next to him with mate: a bishop protects the queen from a distance, and the king has nowhere to go. The rook was not a gift but bait.

Without the sacrifice there is no mate: if the queen checks at once, the king simply walks away to the other side. He had to be lured into the corner first.

How to spot it

Start from the end. Picture where you would like the enemy king to stand for mate to already be there. Then look for a way to drive him to that square.

The key word is force. A decoy only works when your opponent has no choice: a check, or a capture that cannot be declined.

If your opponent declines

He may refuse the sacrifice. Then he avoids the worst, but still loses something — usually a piece. The tactic has worked anyway: it forced him to choose between bad and much worse.

Often confused with

A deflection. Ask which matters more: that the piece left its old square (deflection) or that it arrived on a new one (decoy).