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BLUE BELT - DEFLECTING
The Blue Belt is a thing of beauty, but it can only be obtained by executing the move we in The Knight School call "deflection." This tactic is so nice we named it twice: it is also known as "removing the defender."
Deflection is when you remove a piece from influencing a square you are interested in. In the example below, note that once you move the pawn up to the red square, the rook either flees to safety or is captured. Once it moves, the green square it had been guarding is suddenly unguarded! You have effectively deflected the rook and once you did, you checkmated! "Referee!"
Below is another example. Can you spot the deflection that wins the game? This is another common scenario that is generated when our students use the Modified Scholarsmate opening. As discussed on the Tan Belt tutorial webpage, the Modified Scholarsmate is an opening that hides nine different traps, and the one illustrated below is based on deflection. At this point in the tutorial I typically ask if you see it, but to be honest, almost no one sees it, not until it is too late!
But take a look and try to find the deadly sequence that ends with a deflection:
The answer is to crank the D pawn two spaces, sacrificing that pawn. Then the C1 bishop on the yellow square captures the H6 knight. The most common reply by black is to just capture the bishop with the pawn, since capturing with the queen leaves the red F7 pawn vulnerable to the queen.
But watch out! If they take the bait and capture your bishop with their pawn, what then guards their queen? NOTHING. You have deflected the pawn that previously defended the queen, and now you gobble up that queen for free. Deflection is an amazing tactic, definitely worthy of the beautiful Blue Belt.