Decoy in chess
Do not chase the king. Invite it onto a square where a knight is waiting.
A decoy (or attraction) lures or forces an enemy piece or the king onto a particular square, where it becomes vulnerable to a fork, pin, skewer or mate.
The idea
A decoy is usually a sacrifice. The surest way to put an enemy piece on a bad square is to offer it something it has to take there, so you pay for the follow-up with material.
A common form drags the king out. You sacrifice a piece on a square next to the king, often with check, and once the king takes it, a knight fork or another check on its new square finishes the job.
The strongest decoys are found by working backwards. Imagine the enemy king on the square you want it on, find the winning move from there, and only then ask how to force it to that square.
Standard decoy patterns
- The Greek gift (Bxh7+): the bishop sacrifice pulls the king to h7, usually followed by Ng5+ and Qh5.
- Queen sacrifice for a knight fork: give up the queen on a square where taking it leaves the king or another piece open to a knight fork.
- Decoy to the back rank: pull the king or one of its defenders onto the back rank, where the king can be mated or the defender skewered.
- Promotion decoys: promote with check on a square where taking the new piece pulls the king into a mating net.
Decoy versus deflection
Both usually use a sacrifice to move an enemy piece, and many tactics are both at once. To tell them apart, ask which square matters: a deflection is about the square the piece leaves, a decoy about the square it arrives on.
Practice the decoy
Reading about a pattern is not the same as spotting it under time pressure. The free chess puzzles trainer serves rated positions from real games and adjusts to your level as you solve. When you get one wrong, press Analyze once the puzzle is over to open it on the analysis board and see what you missed.
Related tactics
Deflection
A piece is doing an important job. Give it something it cannot refuse, and the job goes undone.
Fork
One piece, two targets. On Lichess, more puzzles turn on the fork than on any other motif, over twice as many as on the pin. It is the first tactic worth mastering.
Discovered attack
Move one piece and a different piece behind it makes the threat. The piece that moved can make a threat of its own, so one move often creates two attacks.
Frequently asked questions
What is a decoy in chess?
A sacrifice or forcing move that lures an enemy piece, very often the king, onto a specific square where a follow-up tactic wins material or delivers mate.
Is a decoy the same as an attraction?
Mostly. Lichess uses "attraction" for any piece lured onto a square where a follow-up tactic works, and the puzzle trainer here, which uses Lichess puzzles, lists this theme as Attraction. Some reference books use the words differently: The Oxford Companion to Chess uses "decoy" for luring a piece away from its defensive role, which covers deflection too, and keeps "attraction" for when the piece lured is the king.