Hmm... although you're probably a bit better than me, judging from your games, I'll venture an answer just because sacrifice is something of a specialty of mine.
I AM High Priest of the Virgin Sacrifices clan, after all :-)
Philosophy of Sacrifice:
Tal: "I sacrificed a bishop to cheer myself up." See also the hippo story:
http://nic.funet.fi/pub/doc/games/chess/hippo.htm
Apart from the obvious "when you can calculate a forced won position after the sac," the main conditions I PERSONALLY choose to consider when sacing are:
1. Brings enemy king into the open in such a fashion that he can't easily get back into shelter, and will be exposed to numerous checks, with the possible opportunity to later (a) force a mate, or (b) get some tactics, aided by checks, winning material back with interest
2. Forcing for several moves, and I like the strategic features of the position it's forced into better than the piece
3. I'm screwed anyway, I'm going to lose, and the sac will create complications
or sometimes just
4. It looks like it might confuse and/or shock the opponent.
"You must take your opponent into a deep, dark forest where 2+2=5 and the path leading out is only wide enough for one."
Tal again (who else?)
-Paultopia
Originally posted by paultopia3 & 4 always seem best to me 😀
Hmm... although you're probably a bit better than me, judging from your games, I'll venture an answer just because sacrifice is something of a specialty of mine.
I AM High Priest of the Virgin Sacrifices clan, after all :-)
Philosophy of Sacrifice:
Tal: "I sacrificed a bishop to cheer myself up." See also the hippo story:
http://nic.funet ...[text shortened]... 2=5 and the path leading out is only wide enough for one."
Tal again (who else?)
-Paultopia
Originally posted by PereiraPaultopia already made good points but I'll comment on a specific form of sacrifice;
Hi,
can someone suggest what are the parameters one should consider to sacrifice a pawn or a piece. This can be in any stage of the game.
I know this is very vague, but comments are awaited
A common form of sacrifice is to sac a minor piece (in rarer occasions a queen or a rook!) to shatter the pawn-wall in front of a castled king.
Whether this sacrifice is worth it depends on the position - if your oppenent's pieces are out of position to quickly come to the defense of their king, and your pieces are positioned to follow up the sacrifice with a quick attack on the enemy king, then sacrificing a piece to initiate the attack may be a good way to go about it.
I just actually won a game with an attack that began with a bishop sacrifice of this sort: Game 460129
In that position, in my view, the sack was an easy choise to make - I had a queen and a rook and another bishop already aiming at the king position, and a second rook two moves away from joining the fun. Also, his pieces were not immediately manouverable to form a sufficient defense of his king.
-Jarno
Aaah yes... the classic bishop sacrifice against the castled king is always good. Some other specific sacrifices I personally swear by include:
- Sac a knight for two center (or otherwise well placed) pawns when I have a development advantage and opening the center is a good thing.
- Sac a piece to open up the h file against a fianchettoed king. In the words of Bobby Fisher "pry open the rook's pawn file, sac, sac, mate."
---- edit -----
although I really must add the obvious caveat: DON'T OPEN THE CENTER, ESPECIALLY WITH A SAC, BEFORE CASTLING! 🙄 I just got a little too fancy in a game currently going on, decided to rip open the center before castling, my own king safety notwithstanding, by sacing a knightr for two center pawns, with double pinns on several knights and numerous complicated tactical opportunities... and missed the obvious duh check-fork losing the bishop that was the crux of my plan...
Some more sacrifice thoughts:
The two key factors, for me, in deciding when to sac:
1. King safety
2. Center opening/closing
Which lead to the three principles:
a. If your king isn't safe, don't sac to open the center
b. If the center isn't open, don't sac to make the opposing king unsafe
If either of these conditions is violated, generally you either (a) lose the initative, so your sacrificial attack goes to naught, (b) lose a pile of material, or (c) get checkmated outright.
Illustrative games:
Principle a: Game 477374 -- Paul's Big Blunder is on move 8. This is the game I mentioned in my earlier post. Ooooh... I want to open the center. I like open centers. I'll sac a piece to do it. Hey.... now my king is subject to all sorts of tactics. Hey.... now I lose another piece by force. Oooh... lets blunder away the queen too!
Principle b: A game where it's Paul's Opponent that makes the blunder. This isn't a RHP game, its a FICS blitz game. PGN is below. Look at move 9. I, as white, am sick of that obnoxious bishop threatening my knight's center control. I put the question to it. He decides to use the Classic Bishop Sacrifice. Usually a good move in such situations. The raw material loss is only a piece for two pawns, and, king-safety-wise, it's devestating. Problem is, the center is rather closed, and the only piece he has for follow-up is the queen. Which he so kindly sticks in the middle of all my pieces. After I trap it, the rest is a cakewalk.
1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nf3 d6 4. c4 Bg4 5. Be2 Nc6 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Nc3 O-O
8. O-O Qd7 9. h3 Bxh3 10. gxh3 Qxh3 11. Nh2 Nh5 12. Bg4 Qh4 13. Nf3 Qf6
14. Bg5 Qxf3 15. Qxf3 Nxd4 16. Qd3 f5 17. exf5 Nxf5 18. Bxf5 Rxf5 19. f4
c5 20. Bxe7 Bd4+ 21. Kg2 Re8 22. Nd5 b5 23. Rad1 bxc4 24. Qxc4 Kg7 25. Bxd6
Rd8 26. Be5+ Bxe5 27. fxe5 Rxe5 28. Qc3
{Black resigns} 1-0
-Paul, High Priest of the Virgin Sacrifices