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Don't be selfish, share your pieces!

Oct 17, 2016
  lennartm
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"Don't be selfish, share your pieces? Well here we go!"

No, I don’t mean that you should give your pieces away immediately, but you should try and sacrifice once, maybe twice or maybe very often during a game!
Sacrificing pieces is very different from giving away pieces. When you sacrifice a piece, you get something in return. Most of the times something better. Mate, perhaps. A wide known example of a sacrifice is Damiano's mate.

Mate in 5, white to move.

BD_27820_405_0.pngDiagram #1

1.Rh8+

The first of two sacrifices. Black must take the rook.

1... Kxh8 2.Rh1+

White wants to sacrifice the second rook.

2... Kg8

Black can play only one move.

3.Rh8+

And White sacrifices his second rook.

3... Kxh8 4.Qh1+

Now White has mate in two.

4... Kg8

And White has mate in one:

5.Qh7#

This was an example of how a sacrifice can help you.

Of course, mate is not the only goal of sacrafizing. Obviously, you can also sacrifice a piece or pawn for another piece. The queen, for example.

27820--fbda-offer-voor-dame-1.png 

In the example above, White checks Black with his knight. Black can take it back with his knight, but even then White can take Black's queen: the knight made a way for the bishop to take her.

'So,', you may think by now, 'the only things you can sacrifice a piece or pawn for is mate or a stronger piece, right?' 
Well, you couldn't have been more wrong (you could)! You can also sacrifice a piece for a strong king attack. A famous example of this is the fried liver attack. This is part of the opening:

27820--3f5a-fried-liver-attack.png
27820--3f5a-fried-liver-attack.png

In this (famous) example White sacrifices the knight so the king has to move to the centre of the board. Actually, White will win back a knight in a few moves and prevented the king from castling, well that's pretty good, eh?

That was it for this blog and remember: In chess there is always a possibility of winning or drawing, so never give up!

27820--4eee-knight-sac.png
gameviewer_mockup.jpg

 

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