Contents
What a sacrifice is
A sacrifice is deliberately giving up material for something more valuable: mate, winning more material, an attack or a positional advantage. The difference from a blunder is simple: when sacrificing, the player knows what they are giving up and has calculated what they will get in return.
A sacrifice for mate
The most beautiful sacrifices lead to mate. Here White gives up the queen to deflect the black queen from defending the back rank.
White to move. Mate in 2
Show solution
1. Qxe8+ Qxe8 2. Rxe8# — after the queen capture the black queen has to leave d7 for e8, and the white rook mates along the eighth rank.
This technique is called deflection: an enemy piece is forced away from an important square or line.
Kinds of sacrifice
- Mating — leads to a forced mate (as in the puzzle above).
- For material — give less to take more: for example, sacrifice a knight and win the queen.
- Attacking — to open up the king's position. A classic example is the bishop sacrifice on h7 (we cover it in the section for club players).
- Positional — giving a pawn or the exchange (a rook for a minor piece) for long-term benefits: active pieces, an open file, weaknesses in the opponent's camp.
- Opening — a pawn in return for rapid development and the initiative. Such openings are called gambits.
How to tell whether a sacrifice is sound
- Calculate the variations. What happens after each of your opponent's replies? If even one reply refutes the sacrifice, it is unsound.
- Look at the opponent's defence. How many of their pieces are near the king, and how many of yours can join the attack?
- Do not sacrifice “on a hope” against a strong opponent. Against an equal one you can sometimes take the risk in a complex position where it is easy for both to go wrong.
The other side
If your opponent offers you a “gift”, do not rush to take it. Ask yourself: why is he giving the piece away? Many traps are built on greed — like the famous Légal's mate.