The definition Rudy and Jimbo Loved

The Rudolf Spielmann definition(The late NM Jim Gallagher of San Antonio,TX was quite fond of this definition) of a chess sacrifice is the giving up of material where the goal is not necessarily to recover the material, but to create a difficult to defend position. Also the consequences of a true sacrifice are incalculable.




In the following position, with Black to Move, Bishop captures at h3 is to be considered. Black gets two pawns for the sacrificed Bishop and pressure on the the White Monarch. Since White has not done anything wrong other than not play for the initiative, you wouldn't expect him to be losing.

I have seen these type of sacrifices be well defended where the defender takes it to the ending while maybe dropping another pawn yielding an imbalance( A mainstay in Jeremy Silman's lexicon) of 3 pawns for the piece.

So a relatively common outcome for this type of sacrifice would be a minor piece and six pawns versus two minors and three pawns. All truly in keeping with the incalculable aspect of the piece sac definition Jim was so fond of.

Also it is vital that a strong chess player realizes that the goal of sacrifice is to not necessarily recover the material or to quickly checkmate the enemy King. A sacrifice can place psychological(the word that Fischer hated) pressure on the defender inducing mistakes leading to excellent practical results. Just don't sacrifice against Carlsen, even in a simul, as he proved in his win against Anand that he does not not make mistakes even under the blistering weather of an attack, e.g. how he got his Knight to e8 defending the mating square g7 on Black side of Nimzo Indian.