Exchange Sacrifice for Weak Pawns

 You all remember those material point tables published by the German Bernhard Horwitz who claimed a Queen was worth 9 pawns, a Rook 5, Bishop or Horse worth 3

This dude who plays on the internet named Blackdata believes these values are absolute indicating he never has read Rowson. 

So when I play this cat, he always lets me take off his Horse with my Tower as you can see in the following diagram(Notice the f3 Knight has been snapped off by the f8 Rook shattering his Kingside pawn structure). I thought he might be a computer programmer or a bitcoin miner or a data scientist, but probably not since those type of professionals always learn from their mistakes.

Blackdata does not get the quality and coordination aspect of a chess position. In the above position, he thinks he is winning because his pieces add up to 16 pawns and Black's pieces add up to 14 pawns according to the German MoFo who formed the infamous group "The Pleiades"

I am sure the Chess Improver  Valer Eugen Demian and his copyrighted content could talk about the weak squares around the White Monarch along with weak pawns as being more than adequate compensation for the exchange sacrifice. Black has an enduring initiative despite having "lost the exchange". 

Demian  will quickly learn that a standard Blog is no match for Streaming Twitch content or YouTube. Daniel Naroditsky does not give the USCF the time of day after becoming a Twitch ad revenue animal. I sure as hell do not blame him, although I miss his outstanding column in Chess Life.

In closing Blackdata, like many lovers of the game suffers immensely from materialism and should realize chess would not be much of game if one could just do a Horwitz count of material to determine who stood better in an arbitrary position. 

An invasive Steed Saves the Day

I figured out why the guy my YouTube account defaults to is so damn popular:

1. He does not babble on while playing out the opening moves like some chess commentators do who pretend to know what the best move is.
2. The dude has the most tranquilizing, soothing voice I have heard.
3. He provides just a dollop of history as he quickly gets to the critical positions of the chess masterpieces he presents 

I wonder what Antonio Radic would think about the following position where Black is down the  exchange with an exposed and apparently vulnerable King. Czech Republic jugadore Nadateho must have believed the game was his after playing the instinctive Qd6 check. 

However, it is White who has to be careful and could easily lose with a careless misstep after Black moves his Monarch to the "safe square" h5. A key feature of the position is White's inactive f1 Rook viz a viz Black's hyperactive Horse! White's error was to ingest Black pawns at the expense of not activating his his f1 Rook. Rowson would certainly scold White for not having intimate cozy conversation with his phlegmatic Tower. White also unnecessarily weakened the f3 square providing a simple goal for the Black Knight. White can draw but has to acquiesce to a perpetual check which is hard to do psychologically when you had been winning the entire game.

Long live Agadmator and his lucrative passive income stream. 3.2 million subscribers to his channel and counting!!

Fascinating Conversion to Winning KP ending an Exchange Down!!

ICC player eternalwarrior blundered in below diagram by moving his Rook to c7 rather than c8. His logic was impeccable wanting to protect d7 pawn, but there was a tactical oversight in his reasoning. 

Can you see the flaw in his reasoning based on Black's King location and the harmonizing/coordination of the g5 Knight an the e6 pawn?

After pawn to e7 there are two Knight Forks that lead to a won King and Pawn ending where the White King ends up at the dominating d5 square and Black possessing a weak isolated passed d pawn still stuck on its original d7 square!!! One of the variants actually forces the Black Monarch to block the passed pawn in order to to gobbled up by f6 Knight Fork!!!! SO BEAUTIFUL

It is impossible to go through all the variations as to why White is winning, but some of the ideas are White has two pawn islands to Black's three, White has 3-2 King Side pawn majority, Zugzwang(means German for every move loses),  a more active centralized King, and maybe even triangulation in some variations. 

I would love to know if Doug Hyatt or Russian Speaking White guy GM Bryan Smith would consider this position, after the blunder, to be worthy of study?

Advanced Pawn Triples win in all Variations!!

As a weak USCF class player with a rating usually a little under 1500, one of my major weaknesses is being too materialistic. I go out of my way to win a pawn in the opening only to be slaughtered like a lamb by stronger players who see the pawn I won as a gambit pawn!!!

In the game above, Denmark player Superboy seemed to be well on his way to another crush of the weaker player. The skilled Danish player was up a piece and attacking my f8 Rook with his a3 Bishop. There is a spectacular move in the position that allows the second player to mobilize his blockaded pawn phalanx at f4,e3, and d4. Hint: The winning move also threatens to pin the White Queen to the White King!

Now, of course, I did not find the move over the board, but just imagine a tactical sequence that creates a PAWN TRIPLE. We all know about the potency of a pawn duo(couple), but how about at Fuckin pawn triple my chess loving friends??? Scroll down to see the winning conception figured out by StockFish.

Rf5!! putting the Rook en prise to the d3 Bishop. Capture allows for the winning mobilization of static pawn wedge!!!!!

Winning pawn Duo

Canadian chess player HotCanary missed a grand opportunity to create an oppressive/winning pawn duo by failing to capture Black's f5 Bishop with a pawn. The Maple Leaf stud must have been worried about his hanging h4 pawn, but it is curtains for Black  after the formation of the f5 g5 pawn duo.

The e pawn recapture at f5 also clears the e4 square for the Ricardo Martinez marauding White Monarch. Note that Black's pawns have zero mobility, whereas the White counterparts are lusting to advance producing   a winning passed g or f pawn. White's prelate at c8 prevents Black's King from chasing down the passers by controlling the vital d7 and e6 entry points!

Final takeaway is the creation of pawn duo on the 5th rank or higher is a goal worth sacrificing pawn or even the exchange  in some cases!  Ask Sergey(Not Garry) Kasparov if you doubt this writer's claim.

Widow Making 101

An old master chess buddy of mine from Austin, Texas had a cool rule of thumb for when to sacrifice the exchange which means to give up a Rook for a Horse or a Bishop. Drew said that if you could get an extra pawn out of the deal, then the exchange sacrifice was likely to be sound.

Widowmaker, a tactically aggressive player from the United States of America, had just casually played b4 expecting to casually post his prelate at b2 and positionally punish the French Defense major handicap at d7.

So remembering Sarkisian's sage advice, I ripped off the f3 Knight with the f8 Rook resulting in the e5 pawn getting munched by either of my Horses. This exchange sacrifice did not result in the maiming of White's Kingside pawns, but left Black with a passed d pawn and open lines for his remaining forces.

The player boasting the nickname of the left anterior descending  artery was crushed in this game in a fashion consistent with his ICC label.

I moved from Austin area long, but will be always grateful to the kind chess players from that region. Thanks for the memories guys!!

Even National Masters suffer from Materialism

The diagrammed position, arising from the Leningrad Dutch Defense, is sound evidence that even titled USCF players fall prey to the Chess Sin of greed. ICC player National Master rpenquin, is a gentleman and a scholar, but became fatally weak along the h1-a8 diagonal after mistakenly "winning the exchange" snapping off the inactive Rook in the corner.

It is just a blitz game, but look at the c1 Bishop and a1 Rook the NM is neglecting while all of Black's forces are active poised to attack on the permanently weakened light squares near White's Monarch. The NM should have "talked to his pieces" in the chess psychologist Rowson fashion. They would have articulated their abject misery about being locked out of the action and poorly coordinated due the avarice and materialism of the first player.

Concretely, with White to Move, the NM has no choice but to "castle into the menacing assault" on his trepidating King.

Neophyte players should be comforted to learn that even GMs are willing subject themselves to brutal onslaughts hoping to hang on to their precious material for an endgame conversion to victory.


Finally, I would welcome the valued input of Seattle, Washington GM Gregory Serper on the soundness of this National Master's decision to engage in such risky play. Serper is flexible in his approach to Royal Game capable of attacking or defending as the position dictates. Go Seahawks!!

Exchange Sacrifice arising from Advance Variation French Defense

One of the acts of chess maturation is being able to discern when to part with material for positional, long term benefits.

In the following game of chess played at ICC, MathSS essayed the advance variation against the French Defense.

A position was reached where Black had a protected passed pawn at c4 and a very powerful light squared Bishop anchored at e4 with the potential to terrorize the White King Side down the h1-a8 diagnonal. This observation is all the more significant given the absence of White's light square guardian.

So a powerful Bishop and a protected passed pawn along with the lever(file opening) h pawn motivated Black to sacrifice the exchange by ripping off the f6 Bishop with his Rook and then follow with pawn to h4.

The StockFish chess playing computer program found a complicated way to hold the position for White, but in a practical game between USCF experts or even masters, the practical winning chances lie with the Second Player!

Winning by Entering the Square of a Passed Pawn

Being familiar with the pawn structure is crucial at every point in a chess game. Pawns determine the topology of the board which is a major determinant of the strategy and tactics that will ensue. This is why Philidor referred to the pawn structure as the soul of chess.

In the following game played at the ICC, REVOLUCIONCHILE played his usual aggressive Dutch Defense. White won the exchange early and the following position was reached with White having a winning pawn structure due to his connected passed g and h pawns.

Black just played b5 to provide an outpost for his Knight at c4. White quickly reacted with Rook captures Horse at c4, giving back the exchange for a won King and Pawn ending. Note that this would have been a losing move had the White King been at h1 instead of g1.

After the obligatory recapture at c4 with the pawn, White enters the square of the pawn with either Kf1 or Kf2. The square or quadrangle of the pawn is any easy way avoid the calculation of determining whether one can catch up with a pawn before it queens.

After the forced recapture, the pawn at c4 helps form the vertices of square composed of the chess board squares f4,f1, and c1. Black's King which cannot support the queening of the c pawn has to stay close to the connected passed pawns while the White King is ingesting the separated and weak Black Queenside pawns.

I wonder if REVOLUCIONCHILE is serious about being part of a coup, insurgency, or revolution in Chile? The angry capitalization of his ICC name suggests more than a hot blooded Latina chess player.

Pawn Center Easily worth the Exchange Sacrifice

In the following French Defense played at the internet chess club, Nooky from the United Kingdom is "up the exchange" handling the White pieces. However, with proper play Black should come out on top owing to his suffocating pawn center comprised of the e4, d4, and c5 pawns.

White just played b3 to protect his pawn from capture by the the Black Rook at b8. While this protects the pawn, it creates a weakness on the c3 square for occupation by, perhaps, Black's f6 Knight after it hops to d5.

Also, the h1-a8 diagonal will be terrorized by the light squared Black Bishop.  It is crucial to recognize that both of White's Rooks are impotent due to the lack of open files. Also the Black pawns are lusting to expand Aron Nimzovitch which will weaken squares for occupation by the Black forces.

Hopefully the reader will now be more convinced of the value of an advanced, difficult to dissolve pawn center as in this case it is worth more than being "down the exchange".

Positional Exchange Sacrifice

Chess GrandMaster Jacob Aagaard wrote an excellent instructive book which emphasized the theme of positional exchange sacrifice. I would like to think that Mr Aagaard hailing from Scotland would find the following diagrammed position a very illustrative example of offering a positional exchange sacrifice.

 The game was played at the internet chess club under a 3 minute blitz time control. LucianoPavez playing out of Australia was handling the Black pieces defending against the Catalan Opening. His b7 Bishop was looking worse than the infamous bad French Defense Bishop.



The squares c5 and d6 are potential strong points for White pieces provided the e7 Bishop guardian could be removed. Moreover, Black's Rooks at c8 and c7 are clumsily and ineffectively placed in a game where  no open files are imminent.

How does White exploit the passivity of Black's play obtaining an iron grip on the dark squares including complete hegemony on the d6 square?

I believe that Jeremy Silman would cream "fantasizing" about this one in the never ending tug of war between position and material!

Strong Point Leading to Effective Exchange Sacrifice

Offering your Rook for a Bishop or Knight is referred to as an exchange sacrifice in the game of chess. A Rooks is usually worth more than either minor piece in a wide open position whereas Knights can be stronger in closed positions where there are few open files.

In the following game played at the Internet Chess Club, Black played Qh4 threatening Qg3 check. Now should White accept the exchange sacrifice offered by Black at d3? If he does, Black will get an extra pawn plus a passed pawn at d3 AND chances against the vulnerable White King.



The possibility of the exchange sacrifice is partially due to the strong point/square at d3 supported by the c4 pawn. Jeremy Silman does an excellent job of sizing up the notion of material and when to give it up in his classic How to Reassess your Chess. If the reader is not absolutely convinced of the effectiveness of exchange sacrifices, given the necessary preconditions, after reading this great chess author's book, then he did not spend enough time with this magnificent, chess axiom spewing tome. Ask IM John Donaldson if you do not believe this dim light!


 

Exchange Sac: Vulnerable King

The purpose of a relatively common exchange sacrifice is to strip the enemy king side of defenders and make that sector of the chess board more vulnerable. An exchange sacrifice is where one gives up a Rook for either a Knight or Bishop.

In the following 3 minute game played at internet chess club, Svinotigr of Russia has an extra two pawns and will win all endings if he can trade down and consolidate his position. Observe that his g3 pawn is weak defended only by the f2 Bishop.

Many chess masters, including the late FM Jim Gallagher of San Antonio,TX, believed that a "true sacrifice" was one that was incalculable to the end by humans. Jim was an excellent positional player, but was not afraid to mix it up with an aggressive sacrifice recognizing the psychological advantage of putting his opponent on the defensive knowing the chance for error when defending was quite high.




The rotund Andy Smith also loved to mix it up in tactical skirmishes rather than play a long technical ending. Other bright lights from that region of America like Peter Kappler and Drew Sarkisian preferred the the slow positional build ups that might culminate in explosive tactics when the position reached critical mass.

With Black to move in the following position look for a  move that offers to "mix it up" as the Golden Glove boxers are so fond of.

Punishing Underdevelopment and Greed

One of the most remarkable insights into the game of chess is the well known comparison between it and the game of life. Just as countless television programs, articles, and social commentary speak to the extent that greed can ruin one's life, greed can also cost you the game in chess.



I have a copy of a book once owned by Anthony F. Kaye titled Common Sense in Chess by Emanuel Lasker. The great long time world champion spends some time showing the reader how excessive greed can turn a winning position into a losing position.

In the following 3 minute blitz game played at the internet chess club, Ewanyengi of the United Kingdom sees a way to win the exchange before he has castled or fully developed his pieces. His Queen at b3 and Knight at g5 can combine to win the Black Rook at f8.

White can not prevent this or he will lose to the sadistic and much dreaded smothered mate. With White to move, can you see why he will lose the game if he tries to win the Rook for his Knight? Chess also has a principle of Justice which is manifest here also. Bill Wall the prolific chess writer from Colorado who knew Bobby Fischer on a first name basis has, I believe, written beautifully on the manner in which chess and living a decent life go hand in hand.

Finally it is a widely promulgated rule of thumb in chess that a Rook is worth 5 points and minor pieces 3 points. Relying too much on rules of thumb do not lead to chess mastery!

Exchange Sacrifice Black Side of Dutch Defense

The oddly named exchange sacrifice in chess means giving up your Rook for a Bishop or Knight. Calling it a sacrifice can be misleading as sometimes an exchange sacrifice is just the best move and nothing is really being sacrificed.

Mat1983 of Brazil stands much worse here playing White in a 3 minute game at ICC. His King is exposed with many weak squares. Black played the aggressive Dutch Defense which is also known for weakening the king side on move one!




Given the sensitivity of the g2 and f3 squares, can you find a move that offers an exchange sacrifice and the removal of White's most active piece in the same breath? The Dutch Defense is for fighting players and with Black to play there is definitely a fighting move to be found!

Some Pointers on when to Sacrifice the Exchange

Sacrificing the exchange is difficult to evaluate since it can involve a permanent loss of material. In the following game played at ICC, heron of the Netherlands playing at the Internet Chess Club with the White chess pieces has stripped the Black King of all his pawn protection and Black appears doomed to lose.



With Black to move, Rook captures Knight at f3 is tempting, but after pawn captures at f3 White has a difficult but effective defense. Blacks best is to intensify the pin on the Knight with Qh5. After Ne3 attacking the pinning g4 Bishop, Black can occupy the strong square f4 with his rook after the Knight captured at f3 by the Bishop.

Black has the better chances despite having two fewer pawns.

The Price of Passivity

Many chess players do not like to throw the first punch. Rather, they prefer playing provocative moves encouraging their opponent to attack them. There are animals like hedgehogs and porcupines who are designed by evolution to be master defenders equipped to attack with vengeance if another animal gets too close.



Pawnstar11 of the ICC is an excellent defensive player who is frequently rewarded by pouncing on chess players who are overly aggressive. One of the drawbacks to his style of play is that his defensively placed pieces can sometimes be captured sacrificially leaving weakened squares in their wake.

In the following position, he just played Nf8 in an uncastled position in order to guard the sensitive pawn at g6. White reacted by sacrificing exchange(means to give up ones rook for either a knight or bishop).

After Black recaptures at f8, White recovers the exchange sacrifice with a pawn to boot by capturing at g6 with a fork leaving the Black King exposed in the center. In this particular game Black's defensive play resulted in a hopelessly weak/pasive position, but sometimes good defense results in a better position for the defender if the attacker overextends his position and becomes vulnerable.

Just threaten Mate

Chess is probably the most subtle game of strategy in the world. Beginners often just attack the King from move one come hell or high water until they realize there are principles like controlling the center, developing your pieces, King safety, coordination that the world class players understand almost perfectly.

 The current world champion Magnus Carlson probably understands the principle of coordination better than any player in the history of the Royal Game. Mick Bighamian of Houston and Mack Novosad of Austin,TX were also exceptional in this facet of the game.



Despite all subtleties of chess, sometimes a caveman approach is enough to win depending on the nature of the position. In the following position, black is "up the exchange" with White to move. Black, rather greedily in this case, grabbed a rook in the corner at a1 with his Bishop. It turns out  that left him fatally weak along the a3-f8 diagonal.

See if you can find the move that forces Black to resign due to the unguardably weak e7 and f8 dark squares.