Tactics: Buy a Move

"Buying a move" or getting an "in-between move" is a tactic that sometimes can do wonders for you.  The way to buy a move is to give your opponent something more important to deal with than what he was going to do.  If, for example, your queen is trapped and he could take it on his next turn, you could buy a move by putting him into check, or by threatening his queen.  This can be a very useful tactic, but if you aren't careful, it can also backfire on you and set you back even farther.  Unless your in-between move can solve your problem, or force your opponent into a series of in-between moves that eventually solve your problem, it probably won't do you any good, and it will undoubtedly make things more complicated.

In this example, black's queen just took white's knight.

But it was a trap!  White puts the knight on the queen's escape route, and black's queen is trapped!

Or is it?  Black throws the bishop at the king, buying a move, and now white must respond to the check.   If the king takes the bishop, or moves to the corner, black's queen can take the rook for free.  If white's queen takes the bishop, black's queen takes the knight and escapes with two knights and a pawn for a bishop!