Positional Chess Sacrifices - download book

   Excerpt from the introduction to the book

   Some series of moves stand out from the expected trend of a chess game. They are surprising to our common sense. They often go beyond our erudition or chess culture, however extensive it might be. We call them combinations. Usually, the distinctive feature of a combination is a sacrifice.

   In a simple and quite restricted meaning, a sacrifice is an exchange of one or a set of pieces for another set of pieces which add up to an inferior points value. But in a chess game we can recognize more values, other than raw material, which is counted in pawns or points: the bishop pair, advanced passed pawns, the superior pawn structure, general coordination of pieces and pawns, an advantage in development, space, mobility, etc On the negative side we may count lack of coordination, disharmony, damaged pawn structures, pieces out of play, weaknesses around ones king, the king being trapped in the wrong area of the board (be it centre or corner).

   In a more extended meaning, a sacrifice is an exchange of values - normally of more tangible (the most obvious being material) for less tangible ones. The decision-making process has to do with evaluation, and this normally depends on the strength and style of the chess player. Giving up a rook for a knight in many Sicilians, which may be simply routine for a grandmaster, may look profound or even inconceivable to the eyes of an amateur.

Author: Mihai Suba
Title: "Positional Chess Sacrifices"
Released: 2012
Format: rar/pdf
Quality: good
Number of pages: 376
Size: 8 Mb