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Tactics

Deflection

Forcing an enemy piece away from an important duty so something it was guarding falls.

A piece is often doing a job — defending a mating square, guarding a back rank, holding a knight in place. Deflection is the tactic of forcing that defender to move, usually with a check or a capture it cannot refuse, so the thing it was protecting is suddenly undefended.

It is the mirror image of overloading: overloading spots a piece with too many jobs, deflection is the blow that drags it off one of them.

Why it matters

Most back-rank mates and many winning combinations are deflections at heart — you win not by attacking the target but by removing its guard.

The mistake everyone makes

Leaving one piece as the sole defender of two things at once; a single forcing move deflects it and you lose one of them.

Related terms

Overloading
A piece given more defensive jobs than it can perform, so removing or distracting it collapses the defence.
Decoy
Luring an enemy piece — often the king — onto a square where it can be hit by a follow-up tactic.
Back-rank mate
Checkmate on the back rank against a king trapped by its own pawns.
Tactic
A short, forcing sequence of moves that wins material or delivers mate.

See Deflection in your own games

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