Sacrifice And Win Like World Champion Mikhail Tal

There is an interesting story told by GM Mikhail Tal in his book The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal:

An amusing episode accompanied the start of this tournament. The day before, on the birthday of one of my friends, by no means a chess player, someone suddenly expressed the desire that in my game with the Dutchman Kuijpers the following day I should sacrifice something.

"Which piece, and on which square, would you like?" I asked jokingly. "Well, let's say a knight on e6." The following day I had naturally forgotten this conversation, and my game with Kuijpers first proceeded quietly, and then became more complicated in the time-scramble. I made a move, and with time trouble over, Kuijpers realized that mate was inevitable and resigned. In the foyer, my delighted friends gathered round. 

"Good man! Did you do it on purpose?"

"Do what?"

"Well, make that last move with your knight on e6?"

"I immediately remembered and realized that my chess prestige in these circles had risen sharply, and so as to maintain this, I pompously asked:

'What would you like me to sacrifice tomorrow, and where?"

I frequently recall this story when I analyze my less experienced students' games. Like this one, played a few days ago:

That's why I frequently tell players who just start at chess: look at the f7-pawn (or f2-pawn if you play Black) and try to capture it if possible! The reason is very simple: the f7-pawn is Black's weakest spot in the initial position.  I don't know any chess player who at some point in their chess career hasn't succumbed to Scholar's Mate or the Fried Liver Attack. We discussed both of these openings in my last article. 

Unlike Tal's friends, I am not asking you to sacrifice your pieces at some random squares of the chessboard. Hitting the f7-square is all I am asking! Speaking of Tal, here's how he did it:

By the way, another World Champion, GM Gukesh Dommaraju, missed a very similar combination. To be fair, he wasn't the World Champion yet when he played this game, and it was just blitz. Can you spot the tactical shot that he missed?

Even though Gukesh missed this beautiful combination, he still won the game:

A much more complicated and beautiful version of this combo happened in the game of the American Chess Superman:

While in all these games it was Black who delivered a fatal blow to the key f2-square, it is usually White who hits the corresponding f7-square more frequently. This is a short game from one of my first chess books:

Here is a more complicated version of this typical sacrifice. Can you figure out the key idea on the second move?

If you solved the previous puzzle, then you should easily find the classic combination by GM Bobby Fischer:

Sometimes you don't even need to capture the f7-pawn: just the sheer threat to take it can decide the game. The following position probably still comes back to GM Garry Kasparov in his nightmares:

This opening catastrophe is very similar to what happened in a game of two amateur players:

As you can see, the attack against the f7- or f2-squares is equally deadly in the games of club players and world champions. Moreover, sometimes it is good even when it is bad! In this article, we analyzed the paradoxical opening idea which is not very sound objectively, yet it scores quite well in blitz games:

I hope the main point of this article is very clear. In your next game, try to sacrifice something on the f7- or f2-squares just like Mikhail Tal did!