Of Sacrifice

A player is said to sacrifice if he allows a certain amount of his forces to be captured without recapturing himself an equivalent amount of his opponent's forces. He will not, of course, knowingly do so unless he expects to obtain some other advantage which will at least compensate for his loss of material. Such compensation can only be afforded by a superiority of the position. In as much as a position can only be considered superior if it enables the mating of the opposing king or the obtaining of an advantage in material which will secure a win in the ending, it is evident that in sacrificing a player really never intends to give up more than he gets, but that on the contrary he expects to gain more than he loses. In other words, a sacrifice, if correct, is a sacrifice only temporarily, and very soon yields either the same, if not more material, or an attack on the king to which the latter falls victim.

The less evident the way is in which a player recovers the material sacrificed or realizes an equivalent advantage the more beautiful the sacrifice is considered.

If the effect of a sacrifice is a direct mating attack on the king, it is as a rule not difficult to foresee as long as the typical mating positions are known to the player, that is, when castling on the king-side a player must always beware of an attack by a heavy piece and another piece on the F-, G-, and H-files.

Below, White on the move can play for a similar mate as the one explained above by placing his rook on g3.

In the position below White institutes a mating attack by 1. f6.

If Black's queen were standing on c5 instead of b5 he could avert the mate by moving ... Rf8 and playing ... Qf8, thereby protecting g7.

A situation which frequently occurs in the end game is illustrated below.

The mate with rook and knight demonstrated by the position above is liable to occur in several variations of the play which might result from the following situation.

The king-side pawn shield is generally a good target for an attack.

In the position below White can make an attack which will recall somewhat the play shown above.

Frequently a sacrifice is brought to maintain a pin which is bound to yield a piece in return sooner or later. The position below is typical for cases of this kind.

Sacrifices with the view to utilizing a pin occur in various other versions which are essentially different from the one illustrated above. Following are typical examples of the three most frequent cases.

In the position below Black must not take the pawn on e4 although he can protect the knight with ... Bf5 in case White pins him with Re1.

The position below is somewhat related to that above, as far as the possibility of a sacrifice for the sake of a pin is concerned.

In the position below there is also a possibility of a sacrifice with the view to pin a piece that defends a certain threat as long as it is mobile.

A sacrifice with the view to enabling a mating attack through the cooperation of rooks and bishop, somewhat similar to the first example discussed, is possible in the position below which occurred in a tournament game in London in which the author conducted the black men.

A mating position which has not been discussed up to now but which occurs frequently enough in the actual game to warrant its special mention is one in which the king is deprived of all mobility by his own men who surround him and in which a hostile knight can check the king. The diagram below offers an example.

Sacrifices made with the view of a direct mating attack are, as a rule, the easiest to figure out, as there is no guesswork connected with them. In those cases the player does not face the question as to whether the position attained after the sacrifice will be strong enough to insure a gain of material at least equivalent to the amount of material sacrificed, a question which to answer correctly sometimes requires a good deal of instinct trained by experience; all that is necessary is to ascertain whether the opponent can be mated in a definite number of moves or not. If the mate cannot be clearly foreseen, the sacrifice must not be made. The possibility of a sacrifice with consequent forced mate is always indicated if a greatly superior force is available for attack at the part of the board where the opposing king is located. An example is offered below.

This position occurred in a game between Sir G.A. Thomas of London and the author. Black has just played ... Qe7 in order to protect the mate which was threatened by Nxf6+ followed by Qxh7.

As can be seen, victory is often brought about by a timely sacrifice of material.

-- Edward Lasker, 1918