⭐⭐⭐ Take 3 minutes to read and improve your chess game ➡️ : This article was first published on, and is Copyright of Chessquestions.com<\/p>\n
The decoy strategy is a tactic in chess that uses a sacrificial piece, usually a pawn or knight but can be any minor value piece, to distract the opponent’s attention away from your true target which is often an enemy piece. This blog post will go over what the decoy strategy is, how it works in chess and how to employ it to help avoid defeat<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A ‘Decoy’ in chess is a strategy to make an opponent move to a square in order for you to be able to capture the piece, or if the enemy king, make a checkmate move in response. The decoy is usually a sacrifice of one of your pieces, which your opponent can’t resist while not noticing the real danger of the move.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Read on and you will find more information and examples of the decoy strategy in chess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So let’s start by explaining the definition of the word decoy in chess. A decoy is not only used in chess but in other games as well. A well-executed decoy tactic is to make an opponent move in order for you to be able, to make material gain and the advantage in a game. IN most cases, you may have to sacrifice a lesser valued piece<\/a> in order to capture a higher valued piece from your opponent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other purpose of a decoy could be not to capture the moving piece, but to encourage your opponent to move a piece that is holding up your attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This could be a piece that is pinning one of your pieces or is in a position to fork<\/a>. Your opponent may not be aware of the opportunities of this piece or the consequence of moving it, the idea is if they are, to make them momentarily forget and make a mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whilst any piece of your material can be used to create the decoy, it is better to use lesser valued pieces<\/a> that are not essential to your attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reason for this is that if the decoy piece captures a higher valued opponent’s pieces, you will have lost more material than them and it may be difficult or impossible in some cases (depending on how many of their high-value units remain) to recover from such an exchange without sacrificing even greater amounts yourself; which would make any potential gain nullified by losing what remains after they recapture with one move!<\/p>\n\n\n\n An exception to this might be to place a high-valued piece as a decoy that can not be resisted by your opponent which opens a route to a swift checkmate, or capture of an equally valued piece that would still facilitate your attack strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The decoy should play a part in your basic tactics, but can also be used as an advanced tactic as shown in some example videos below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here we have an excellent video from the chess website, which at first shows an example of drawing the Queen to a square that is not en prise<\/a>, but leads to a triple fork of the Queen, Rook and King<\/p>\n\n\n\n The video is about 10 minutes long and provides more examples and some puzzles<\/a> to try to solve where the decoy is the aim.<\/p>\n\n\n\nChess Decoy Definition<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You can use any piece to create the decoy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Example of a decoy leading to a triple fork & More<\/h2>\n\n\n\n