Deflection — what it means in chess
Forcing a defending piece away from a square or duty it was guarding.
Forcing a defending piece away from a square or duty it was guarding.
Deflection chases a defender away from its duty. Some piece in your opponent's camp is holding a critical square or guarding a critical pawn; you attack that piece, or offer it something it must deal with, and the duty goes unattended. The defender is not captured and not lured to a bad square — it is called away, and the tactic lands where it used to stand guard.
[[board startfen="5rk1/5ppp/5n2/8/6P1/3Q4/5PPP/1B4K1 w - - 0 1" pgn="1. g5 Nd5 2. Qxh7 " caption="Deflection: the pawn chases the knight off its guard duty, and the battery lands on h7." notes="White to move. The queen and bishop are stacked on the b1-h7 diagonal — but the f6 knight guards h7 alongside its king, and two defenders hold against two attackers. g5 — the humble deflection. The pawn attacks the knight, which has no way to keep guarding h7 and save itself. Nd5 — the knight steps away, and the guard count on h7 drops to one. Qxh7 — the battery fires. The king cannot recapture with the bishop behind the queen, and its own rook seals f8."]]
Deflection is the first of a family of three: chase the guard away (deflection), capture the guard outright, or give the guard more duties than it can answer (overloading). Diagnose which one the position wants and the move often finds itself.
The Endgame Society glossary defines more than 240 chess terms — rules, notation, tactics, strategy, pawn structures, endgames, and openings — in language a beginner can act on rather than dictionary shorthand.