{"schema":"chessgrammar_motif_entry/1","slug":"deflection","name":"Deflection","aka":"diversion · removing the guard · removal of the defender · undermining","category":{"key":"dynamic","label":"Sequence tactics"},"edition":{"version":"v3.0","year":"2026"},"certified":true,"canonical":"https://chessgrammar.com/motifs/tactics/deflection","tabs":{"identity":"https://chessgrammar.com/motifs/tactics/deflection#identity","structure":"https://chessgrammar.com/motifs/tactics/deflection#structure","examples":"https://chessgrammar.com/motifs/tactics/deflection#examples"},"citation":"ChessGrammar (2026). Deflection. In: ChessGrammar: A reference for chess concepts, Tactics grammar, edition v3.0. Entry cg:deflection@1. https://chessgrammar.com/motifs/tactics/deflection","variants":["check","king","line_defender","overloaded_guard","queen","rook"],"seeAlso":["attraction","overloading","self-interference","forced-discovery"],"definition":{"id":"cg:deflection@1","statement":"A move, the lure, forces an enemy defender away from a square or line it was guarding. A second move then captures on the square that the defender no longer covers.","predicate":["The sequence has three moves: the lure, the forced departure of the defender, and the capture. Just before it leaves, the piece forced to leave guards the square where the capture lands. On its new square, it no longer guards that square.","The final move is a capture. A capture on the defender's new square, instead of on the target it guarded, belongs to a different motif, Attraction.","The whole sequence must also work against the opponent's best defence. A gain that comes only from an unrelated check during the sequence, and not from the deflection itself, does not count."],"diagnosis":"Deflection and Attraction differ in what the final capture takes. Deflection wins the target that the defender left behind. Attraction captures the displaced piece on its arrival square. In the counter-example shown here, the knight blocks the check, so the king need not move, g5 remains defended and neither motif forms.","maturity":{"state":"stable"},"holotype":{"fen":"8/5r2/7k/6pp/7P/5PK1/R7/8 w - - 0 59","move":"a2a6","san":"Ra6+","line":["a2a6","h6g7","h4g5"],"best_defense":"h6g7","exploit":"h4g5","deflected":"h6","duty":"g5","why":"The rook moves to a6 with check along the sixth rank. The black king on h6 is the only piece guarding the pawn on g5. Every king move leaves h6 and abandons g5. The block Rf6 loses the rook to Rxf6+. After Kg7, hxg5 takes the pawn. The defender is forced away and the pawn it guarded is lost."},"nearMiss":{"fen":"8/5n2/7k/6pp/7P/5PK1/R7/8 w - - 0 59","move":"a2a6","san":"Ra6+","best_defense":"h6g7","exploit":"h4g5","deflected":"h6","duty":"g5","why":"The rook on f7 is replaced by a knight. Ra6+ is still check, but the knight on f7 reaches d6 and blocks the sixth rank. The king never has to move, g5 stays guarded, and nothing is deflected.","delta":"The rook on f7 is replaced by a knight, which can interpose on d6. Everything else, including the trigger move, is identical.","neighbour":null},"nearMissPending":null,"standing":{"certified":true,"scope":"definition"}},"axes":[{"key":"lure","name":"What forces the defender's departure","values":["check"],"nature":"facts","note":"This value applies when the deflecting move itself gives check -- a simple board fact. The complementary case -- the move is a capture threat or other tension, not a check -- carries no name of its own: it is the bare motif unless a defender or overload value also applies to the same case."},{"key":"overload","name":"Whether the deviated piece was an overloaded guard","values":["overloaded_guard"],"nature":"facts","note":"This value applies when the deflected piece was already the sole defender of two or more independently threatened obligations before the deflecting move. 'Overloaded guard' and 'plus deflection' name the same fact: one case, two labels, never two entries. The value is independent of the defender's identity and of whether the move also gives check."},{"key":"defender","name":"The identity of the piece forced to leave its post, read specific-before-generic","values":["king","queen","rook","line_defender"],"nature":"facts","note":"Read on the square the deflected defender vacates, on the board right after the lure move. It is not the deflecting piece itself, and not the guarded piece. These four values form one axis, read specific-before-generic: queen and rook always imply the line-defender value (both are sliding pieces) and absorb it -- only the specific value is published, never both; king is exclusive with line-defender (a king is never a sliding piece); a bishop defender leaves only the generic line-defender value, published on its own since a bishop triggers no more specific value; a knight or pawn defender carries no value at all and falls back to the bare motif."}],"summary":"A forcing move that drives a defending piece away from a duty it was performing."}