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Delfection: Boy These Tactical Themes Have Good Names

Also sometimes called The Overworked Piece, deflection is a tactical theme in which one player has a piece that must remain on a square that it is on, either becuase it defends another piece, or because it blocks a threat. If this piece were forced to move, the opponent's position would crumble. The reason it is sometimes refers to as the overworked piece is because, most often, this defneding piece is forced by it's leader to do too many things at once, defending two pieces, etc. By meeting one threat, the other threat is left unattended to and thus leaves him at his opponent's mercy. Let's take a look at an example.

At first glance at the position above we see that black is now a pawn ahead. It looks as though black's queen is well defended by the bishop on g7. However, a closer look at the black bishop shows that it is overworked. It defends both the queen and a check along the back rank. If we could deflect the bishop from the defense of the queen it would be ours for the taking. But how...

Piece of cake! With 1. Rd8+!! the bishop is forced to defend the check and we get ourselves a free queen! (The moves that would follow are 1. ... Bf8 2. Qxb2!)

Pretty cool stuff, eh? I personally like the concept of the overworked piece, especially if you see one to play! Now, one more example to clarify things.

White to play.

To find the deflection in the above example is a little more tricky. What piece is overworked? At first glance there doesn't seem to be one. But wait! You've forotten the king! Is it overworked? Of course it is! It's stuck defending both it's lady and the pawn on h7. How can we take advantage of this?

TIP: Finding the right way to take advantage of a deflection tactic is probably much easier than you think. Usually by taking the piece of lesser value, you've taken advantage properly. Using this technique, what would be the correct move in the above position?

To finish the job, white plays 1. Rxh7+!!. Then black has no better than 1. ... Kxh7 2. Qxf7 and white wins the lady.

Now for some tests to develop your "tactical eye."

WHITE: Mieses
BLACK: Unknown
DATE: Unknown
EVENT: Unknown
LAST MOVE: Unknown
Black to play.
Mate in 4. Beware! Frustation is immanent!

EXAMPLES COMING SOON

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