5 Deflection

In the earlier chapters of this book, the tactics rather than real. White played 20xc6+,
depended on the geometrical arrangement of placing Black in a dilemma. After 20...Дхсб,
the pieces on the board; for example, pins White can reply 21 d8#, while the only
and skewers are basedon the lining-up of the other legal move, 20...f8, allows 21 xc8#.
pieces involved. Not all tactics are of this Black therefore resigned.
type. In this chapter we meet for the first time
tactics which depend on the functions of the The important duty which forms the basis
pieces involved rather than the geometry of for a deflection doesn't have to be defence
the chessboard. against a mate threat, although this is a com-
A deflection arises when an enemy piece mon motif. In the following example it is the

has important duty. If it is forcibly pulled

an defence of another piece.
away from its current position, then it may no

longer be able to fulfil its duty, and catastro- a b C d e f g h

phe ensues. 8
W

d 7
a b C e f g h

8 6
W

7 5

6 4

5 3

4 & 2

2
A. Horvath - Priehoda
1
Mitropa Cup, Leipzig 2002

Marciano Prié
Here Black's king has the duty of defend-
-

French Ch, Narbonne 1997

ing the rook on f8, which is under attack by
White's queen. Unlike a mating threat, the
In the diagram, Black's c8-rook has a vital duty of defending a piece can be abandoned,
responsibility covering d8 so as to prevent
- albeit at the cost of the piece in question.
White from mating by d8#. If it is forced to Whether the deflection is worthwhile depends
abandon this duty then the game will end at on the relative value of the pieces in question;
once. It follows that the rook is unable to ex-
if the attacker wins a more valuable piece by
ercise any influence along the file, and there- sacrificing a less valuable one, then the tactic
fore its defence of the c6-pawn is apparent is worthwhile. White continued 23 h7+
 DEFLECTION 47

xh7 24xf8. By giving up a bishop, he de- while 48h2 is also mate after 48.. h1# or

flected Black's king away from the defence 48...Wh1#. This deflection is harder to see

of the rook and thereby won the exchange, than those in the examples given above be-
securing a winning position. When you have cause the white king's important duty isn't
won material, it is important not to relax and obvious in the diagram -...h1+ is hardly a
assume that the game will win itself. The move one would consider while the white
rest of this game is a perfect example of how king is still guarding h1. Chess cannot be
not to exploit a material advantage. White played successfully by rote and a certain de-
carelessly became embroiled in unnecessary gree ofimagination is necessary to spot many
complications, miscalculated some tactics ideas.
and eventually even lost: 24...b6 25 axb6
axb6 26 a3 b8 27 a8 xc2 28c5 One type of deflection occurs time and
d8 29d6? (29 g3! would have snuffed out time again in practice and regularly catches
Black's counterplay and won easily) 29...h4 out players of all levels, up to and including
30d3? (30 f1 was still winning) 30...2c6 grandmasters. Here is a recent example.
31 Axe8 xd4 32 Ze1 f3+ 33 gxf3 Wg5+
34 f1 Wxh5 35 g2g6+ 36f1? (36 a b C d e g h
h2Wxd3 37 g1 would still have drawn) 8

36...xd3+ 37 g2 d2 38 Afl g5+ 39 B

7
h2c4 40e7 h4#.

6
It is quite common for deflections to play a
5
major role in attacks on the king.
4

a b C d e f g h
3

8
B 2
7
1
6

5
Bui Vinh Frey -

4 Olympiad, Bled 2002

3
White's b1-rook has the important duty of
2 defending the queen. If this rook could be
deflected away, then White would lose his
1
queen. 32...c1+ does the trick. After 33
Axc1 xb4 Black has won a queen for a
Topalov
Kasparov -
rook, while after 33g2 Black wins a rook
Rapidplay match (game 3), Sofia 1998 with the characteristic continuation 33...xb4
34 xb4 xal, exploiting a kind of pin along
Here Black is a piece down, and in addi- the first rank. White therefore resigned. The
tion his d4-knight is caught in a pin. It might typical features of this tactic are a rook on the
seem hopeless, but Black actually won with first rank defending a queen, and an enemy
the aid of a deflection: 47...xf1+. White rook which can land on the first rank with
resigned as 48xf1 is met by 48...h1#, check. It is amazing how often this trick
48 LEARN CHESS TACTICS

occurs in practice; for some reason it is in- that 33 xd2 is met by 33...xg2#). In all
credibly easy to overlook. cases White faces catastrophic material loss.

In all the examples given so far, the de- As with all the tactical elements covered in

flecting move has been a check. Since checks this book, deflections can occur with varying
are such forcing moves, it is not surprising degrees of complexity. The next example is a

that they occur frequently in this type of tac- little more involved.
tic. However, non-checking deflections are

also quite common. a b C d e f g h

8
b d W
a C e g h
7
8
В
6
7

5
6

4
5
3
4
2
3
1
2

1
Beshukov - Jenet!
Krasnodar 1999
Cifuentes - Reinderman
Dutch Ch, Rotterdam 1999
Black's queen has the 'important duty' of
defending the knight on d5. At first sight the
duty'
White's f1-bishop has the 'important queen is not needed because the d5-knight is

of preventing ...xg2#, so it is not genuinely defended by the e6-pawn, but this pawn is
covering the d3-square. Black exploited this pinned by words, if
the white queen. In other
by 29...d3!, attacking White's queen. The the queen defending d5 then White
were not

queen also has a duty, that of guarding the could win a piece by playing xd5, meeting
knight on e4. A quick check shows that the ...exd5 by xe7. This leads us to the winning
queen has no move which still defends the move 12 g4!, after which the queen cannot
e4-knight, and so White must lose material. retain its defence of d5. White wins a piece
The game continued 30xd3 (this looks like 12...xg4 13 xd5
and the game concluded
a reasonable chance, giving up the queen for exd5 14 xe7f6 15 Agl f4 16d6
a rook and a knight, but it turns out that h6 17De4 and Black resigned since
White faces further material loss) 30...2xd3 White's threats of 18 xh6 and 18xf6+
31 xd3 d8 and White resigned. If he de- win further material.
fends the bishop by 32 ad1, then 32... xd3
33 Axd3 xe4 gives Black queen and bishop Sometimes a preliminary action is neces-

for two rooks, while after 32 bl (32 c2 sary before the actual deflection takes place.
d2 is the same) 32... d2! White has no rea- A deflection is not apparent in the following
sonable way to defend against the mate threat diagram, but White set one up with a prelimi-
on g2 (note that the e4-knight is pinned, so nary sacrifice: 25 Axd5! exd5 (Black can
 DEFLECTION 49

a b C d e f g h This position looks rather confusing, with

8
both sides having advanced pawns, but White
W won the game with a neat combination: 29
7 h8+! (this deflection allows White to take
6 on f7 without the king recapturing) 29...xh8
30 gxf7 (suddenly White has two deadly
5
threats, 31 h1# and 31 fxe8+; there is no
4 defence against both) 30...bxa2++ 31 xa2
1-0. Black resigned because after 31...b2+
3
32al he runs out of checks and cannot
2 meet White's threats. In this case the deflec-

1
tion combined with pawn promotion and
was

with the creation of mating threats.

P. Cramling - Barkhagen
Hasselbacken 2001
a b C d e f g h

8
insert some checks, but 25...Дc1+ 26 f2 W

c2+27g3 doesn't change the situation) 26 7

Дe8+b7 (the only square for the king; oth- 6

erwise White can take the a8-rook immedi-
5
ately) 27 a6+! (here is the deflection; Black's
king must abandon the important duty of de- 4

fending the rook) 27...хаб 28 хa8 (White

3
has won a piece for a pawn; Black soon gave
up) 28...c7 29 e5 #d7 30 f2 1-0. 2

1
In the following example, the deflection is
combined with other tactical elements.
Dreev - Svidler
European Clubs Cup, Kallithea 2002
a b c d e f g h

8
W This example is even more complex. Black
7 has a bishop and knight for a rook and a

pawn, so roughly equal. A more

material is
6
important factor is the activity of several
5 white pieces, but for the moment there is no

4 direct way to break through. A queen check

on e7 would be decisive, but Black's queen
3
covers this square. However, Dreev noticed
2 that this is an important duty for the black
queen, and he went on to look for a way the
1
queen could be deflected away from this
duty. The game continued with the sacrifice
Kogan - Samaritani 26 c4!, trying to force the queen to quit the
Bled 1998 a3-f8 diagonal. If Black plays 26...Wa3, then
 50 LEARN CHESS TACTICS

27 Ze4 wins (the e8-knight is attacked, and a bad square for the queen as this move, cut-

after 27...f6 White mates by 28d8+), so ting the queen's guard of g5, comes with gain
Black must accept the sacrifice. The forced of tempo) 13 e5 f5 he ends up a piece
continuation is 26...xc4 27We7+g8 28 down.
xe8+f8 29 De7+g7 30f5+! (better The distinction between this idea, which is
than 30xa8 xe7 31 xa7, which only often called a 'decoy', and that of deflection
leaves White slightly ahead on material) may at first seem obscure, as in both cases a

30...f6 31xa8xf5 32xf8 and White forcing move compels an opposing piece to
is the exchange and a pawn up, a decisive take an unfavourable action. The difference
material advantage. Black saw all this and is that in a deflection it is the departure of the
therefore resigned. Although this combina- enemy piece which is unfavourable, while in
tion was quite deep, most of it was forced and a decoy it is the arrival of the enemy piece
the really difficult part was having the idea on a particularly bad square which is unfa-

for the deflection in the first place. Then it vourable. The terminology for these different
was a matter of calculating whether the ma- motifs is not wholly standard; the words 'de-
terial White gains by checking on e7 out- coy' 'diversion' and 'deflection' are used to
weighs the initial rook sacrifice. mean different things by different writers. In
this book our focus is on winning games, and
We end with a form of deflection which is not on the nuances of chess terminology;
subtly different from the examples we have therefore for simplicity we will use the word
seen so far. 'deflection' for all such ideas.

a b C d e f g h

8
B
7 Deflection Exercises
6

5
Solutions start on page 127.
4

3
a b C d e f h
2
8
1
1
W 7

6
Bhuiyan - Liogky
5
Sautron 2001
4

White's queen has the important task of 3

defending the outlying knight on g5, but 2

there is no way to deflect the queen away
from this duty. Instead Black wins a piece by

drawing the queen onto an especially unfa-

vourable square. The game continued 11...e3 White is a pawn down. What should he
and White resigned as after 12 xe3 f4 (e3 is play?
 DEFLECTION 51

a b C d e f g h a b C d e f g h

8 8
2 5
W 7 W 7

6 6

5 5

4 4

3 3
2 2

1 1

What is the simplest win for White? Black resigned after White's next move.
What was it?

a b C d e f g h a b C d e f g h

8 8
3 6

B 7 W 7

6 6

& 5 8 5

4 8 4

3 3

2 2

How did Black force a quick mate? How did White win material?

a b c d e f g h a b C d e f g h

8 8
4 7
W 7 W 7

6 6

5 5

8 4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

What is White's quickest way of pushing How did White win a rook with a deflec-
his attack home? tion?
52 LEARN CHESS TACTICS

a b C d e f g h a b C d e f g h

8 8
8 11
W 7 B 7

6 6

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

White played 16 h3 in this game between Deflections can also occur in the endgan
two top grandmasters. Was this a good move? How did Black win here?

a b C d e g h a b C d e f g h

8 8
9 12

B 7 B 7

6 6

5 5

3 3

2 2

A deflection secured Black a decisive ma- How did Black use a deflection to force

terial advantage. How? quick mate?

a b C d e f g h a b C d e f g h

8 8
10 13
W 7
B 7

6 6

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

How does White win most easily? How did Black end the game with a single
deadly blow?
 DEFLECTION 53

a b C d e g h a b C d e g h

00 8 8
14 17
W 7 B

6 6

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

White has sacrificed a piece for a strong Black played 25...c8 and the game ended
initiative. How did he press his attack home? in a draw. Did he have a better move?

a b C d e f g h a b C d e f g h

8 8
15 18
B 7 B 7

6 6

5 5

4 4

3 3

8 3 2 2

1 1

How did Black force material gain? How did Black force an instant win?

a b C d e g h a b C d e f g h

8 8
16 19
W 7 7
W

6 6

5 8 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

White has sacrificed a piece. How did he White used a deflection to start a decisive
win with a deflection? attack on Black's king. How?
54 LEARN CHESS TACTICS

a b C d e g h a b C d e f g h

8 18
20 23
B 7 B 7

6 6

5 5

4 4

3 3

8 2 2

1 1

A deflection forced immediate resignation. How did Black force a quick mate?
How?

a b C d e f g h a b C d e f g h

8 8
21 24
W 7 B 7

6 6

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2
ក
1 1

White has sacrificed a piece. How did he How did Black win using two consecuti
force his attack home? deflections?

a b C d e f g h a b C d e f g h

8 8
22 25
B 7
B 7

6 6

5 5

8 14 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

How did Black win with a double deflec- How did Black win with a preliminary sa
tion? rifice followed by a deflection?
 DEFLECTION 55

a b C d e f g h a b C d e g h

8 8
26 27
W 7 W 7

6 6

5 Mi 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

How did White break Black's resistance? A tough one to end with. How did White
win with two deflections?