Chess notation cheat-sheet (for new readers)
Pieces: K king · Q queen · R rook · B bishop · N knight · (a pawn move has no letter)
Actions: x takes · + check · # mate · O-O short castles · O-O-O long castles · e8=Q pawn promotes to queen
Annotations: ! good move · !! brilliant · ? mistake · ?? blunder
Where attraction drags a king (the mate-square sacrifices in these puzzles)
The cleanest attractions give the king nowhere good to land. You hand over a rook or queen with check, the king must take, and now it sits on the one square your remaining pieces already cover. Picture a rook check that drags the king onto a square a waiting knight already attacks: the king grabs the rook, the knight checks, and the fork wins the queen behind it. Most king attractions in this set work that way. The capture is forced, the new square is fatal, and the mate or winning check is sitting there.
While solving, look for a checking sacrifice the king cannot decline, then ask which square it ends on and what hits it there. A king hunt is the loud cousin of this idea: a run of checks drags the king up the board until it has no shelter. Spotting the landing square before you give the check is the habit these positions build.
Attraction vs deflection: pulling a piece toward a square, not off one
Attraction pulls a piece toward a square where you can hit it. You offer bait, the defender grabs it, and the captured square is the trap. The king lands on a fork, the queen lands on a skewer, the rook lands in line with a bishop. The destination is the whole point.
Deflection drives a piece away from a job it was doing. There the original square matters, because once the guard leaves, something it protected falls. Same family of forcing moves, opposite direction. If you want the contrast side by side, work the deflection puzzles next and feel how one set drags a piece in while the other shoves it out.
Here is a quick tell. If your tactic only works after the enemy piece moves to a new square, you are attracting it. If it works the moment that piece stops guarding, you are deflecting.
Reading the forced reply: which check or capture the defender cannot refuse
Attraction lives or dies on force. The bait only works if the opponent has no sane alternative, so the first job is reading the reply you are trying to compel. A check the king must capture, or a piece hanging in a spot where declining loses on the spot, both qualify. If the defender can ignore your offer or interpose, the lure breaks and you have just dropped material.
I find the fastest read is to picture the board after the forced capture and check whether my next move lands with tempo. These positions come from real games, computer-checked, and the rating slider runs from roughly 400 up to 2400 so the play stays solvable at your strength. Three free hints sit there if you stall: the first names the motif, the second points at the piece to move, the third gives the move. Use them to confirm the reply is truly forced, not to skip the reading practice that makes the pattern yours.