Sacrifice (chess)
Sacrifice is a move in chess that you could move your piece into a place where it could be captured by an opposing piece. You usually do this because/when if your opponent takes the offered sacrifice you could capture a higher level piece immediately following it, or it moves the board into a good position for you.
Types of sacrifices[edit | edit source]
(note: this article is still incomplete. Don't use it as your only source for game advice)
King sacrifice[edit | edit source]
A king sacrifice is where you put your king into a place where it can be captured. It is technically illegal. In chess played on a computer, the computer usually keeps you from making such moves. In casual play, your opponent might take your king anyway, because if you think about it, the objective of chess is to capture your opponent's king, and the steps that players need to take to get out of check got formalized into the game,[1] which makes checkmate the technical objective.
Here is an example of a king sacrifice in high level play:
Queen sacrifice[edit | edit source]
A queen sacrifice is where you put your queen into a place where it can be captured. It is fully legal, but you need a good reason to do it, because the queen is the most powerful piece in the game.
If done carelessly, it is called a "Botez gambit," after Alexandra Botez. It is technically not a gambit, but a blunder.
Notes[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Although that isn't technically true because if you aren't in check and your only moves would put you in check (which are technically illegal), it's a draw, not a loss.
