Attraction Chess Puzzles

About attraction puzzles

Attraction — also called luring — is a tactic where you sacrifice material to force an enemy piece onto a square where it becomes vulnerable to a follow-up attack or combination. The piece is attracted to a square it would otherwise avoid. Classic attraction sequences involve sacrificing a rook or queen to force the enemy king onto an exposed square where it can be mated. Attraction puzzles are among the most beautiful in chess — the initial sacrifice often seems counter-intuitive but leads to a forced win. Practising attraction puzzles trains deep calculation and the creative thinking required to see beyond the immediate material exchange to the position that follows.

How to train attraction

A attraction is a shape, not a sequence. Once you can spot the shape you will find the move in seconds instead of calculating from scratch, so train for recognition speed: glance, name the pattern, then verify.

Questions

How many attraction puzzles are there?

Enough that you will not repeat them — this set is drawn from a library of over 1,000,000 puzzles taken from real games, graded from easy to hard.

What level is this suitable for?

Children from about age 5 upward, once they know how the pieces move, through to rated tournament players. Start on the easy set and move up when you are solving most of them at a glance.