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Decoying: What a Neat Idea

You can't expect to have a war game without the decoy! Decoying, as the name implies, is the idea of luring your opponent to a weak or otherwise vulnerable square. You can sometimes force these sequences of moves, which can lead to some beautiful finishes.

Decoys can come in two forms. That of the luring of a piece away from the defense of a crucial square, or the luring of a piece to a vulnerable square where it can be attacked, or often times, won. Let's explore these two types in greater detail.

The Best Offense is to Take Away the Defense

Ok, so it's probably not the saying you're used to, but it certainly holds true! The first form of decoying involves removing the defender, a phrase you might be familiar with. Removing the defender, however, does not mean that you must capture it. By removing the defender away from the square which it defends , then it can no longer be considered a defender.

How do you do that? There are many different ways, you could pin the piece so should it decide to defend anyway, a piece would be lost, or in the case of an absolute pin, it doesn't get a choice. You may threaten mate on the move, should this piece not move, etc. Let's take a look at an example:

The above position has the makings of a Remove the Defender decoying maneuver. Black's position is quite solid! He has a knight firmly planted in the center which is choking white to death, and black's queen gives a hassleto all the white pieces [1. Qxh3 Nf2+ with double check, winning the queen back]. Unfortunately for black, his position will fall to pieces in a mere two moves, in fact, his kind will fall in this time! How can we come up with such a move? We must crack down the position and really look hard at what each piece accomplishes.

NOTE: Only pieces which accomplish tasks relavent to the position will be listed below.

• White:
  • Queen: The queen races down the long diagonal and threatens 1. Qxb7. It also currently has access to the black king.
  • Rook[f1]: This rook gobbles an entire file and is perfectly suited here.
  • Knight: The knight is making the black king feel a littel uncorfortable being so close to him. Why would black let such a thing when it is available for taking at any time? My guess is that black wished to play Qh3 and felt that this move took priority over taking the knight, he feels that with the tempos he thinks he gains, that taking the knight can wait.
• Black:
  • Queen: Black's queen is causing white some major problems, it skewers white's queen and rook and can attack the white king at any time.
  • Rook[d8]: This rook prevents white from taking black's queen indirectly because should the knight move it will result in a double check. It also prevents subtle threats from the queen and defends against white taking the f8-rook.
  • Rook[f8]: This rok challenges white's rook to domination of the open f-file, and also makes the black queen's skewer playable.

Whew! All done! Now, we take what we've studied about the position and attempt to find a decoy. Typically, a decoy is implemented on the most vulnerable piece in the position. How do we tell which is most vulnerable? The following two rules:

1. Pieces which have no protection from other pieces are vulnerable
2. Pieces which are aksed to do too much by their king are vulnerable (no one can serve two masters).

Wow! If you made it this far that means you're still standing, (or sitting at your computer chair). Let's take a look at another example:

A somewhat easier problem than that of the last example, however, it does illustrate another motif behind the decoy. In this example, white would be thrilled if black would be so kind as to move the g-pawn so white can gobble that juicy looking bishop on f6 and say, "Thank You!". However, white reasons that black isn't going to just hand his bishop away, we will have to force this move. How are we going to do that? The simple 1. Qf5! threatens mate next move, so black is forced to react? Low and behold, he has to move the g-pawn! White's wish comes true and he nibbles on this dainty dish!

Using a Tactic So You Can Use a Tactic, What a Great Idea

Occasionally the decoy can be used to lure your opponent into another tactic (the basis of the combination, dicussed in the next section)! These instances are especially pleasing should you play these moves on your opponent. Spotting them however can be quite tricky, let's look at our last example to end the section.

Black to move

A truly difficult example. Not only must you find a decoy, but you must understand why this decoy works. Here's the breakdown of the position, and how this decoy comes to be.

The first thing I notice about the position in the above diagram is that the queen cannot move. It is stalemated. This means that if we were able to attack the queen in a favorable manner, we would win it. The other thing that I notice is that white's king is quite vulnerable, particularily to a check from the black knight on f4. Combining these two factors, we come up with the move 1. Bg5!! Qxg5. No Choice, if white decides not to take the bishop, he will lose his lady. 2. Nh6+ and white can kiss is queen goodbye. The decoy led to a knight fork!

Congratulations on your completion of the tactics section of the tutorial! It's time to learn the basis of the combination.

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