Decoy

A decoy is a forcing move that lures a piece onto a square where it can be exploited.

White to play Re7+, decoying the queen or king to e7abcdefgh12345678

The lure is often a check or a sacrifice. The opponent takes because the alternative is worse, and the piece that captured is then forked, pinned, or mated.

Re7+ offers the rook. If the queen takes, the knight on c6 recaptures a queen for a rook. If the king flees to f8, you have still dragged a defender off d8 and e8.

Decoy and attraction overlap. Use decoy when the point is “I needed that piece to stand on this exact square.”

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