Attacking motifs
Attraction
By Antoine TamanoUpdated
A sacrifice that pulls a piece, usually the king, onto a square where a second blow lands.
An attraction is a sacrifice that pulls an enemy piece, usually the king, onto a particular square. The sacrifice is only the lure; the point is what that square does to the piece once it stands there: a mate along an open rank, a fork, a skewer along a diagonal it did not stand on a move ago.
What makes an attraction WORK is that the capture is forced or too good to refuse. A rook offered with check on f1 leaves the king exactly one legal move, and that move is onto f1. A rook offered for a bishop with check leaves the king a choice between taking and staying a piece down. Either way the piece ends up where you wanted it.
The way to spot one is to look at the square, not the sacrifice. If Qd1 would be mate with the king on f1, or Be4 would skewer king and rook with the king on c6, ask what forces the king onto f1 or c6. When the answer is a piece you can give away with check, you have found the attraction.
Above 1600 the bait is often the queen, and the blow that follows comes from a piece that has not moved yet: a rook waiting on the third rank, a bishop on a far diagonal. Count the escape squares of the attracted king before you count the material.
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Real puzzles from real games, rated 1380 to 1488. No account needed.
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