Winning When a Piece Down

All of us admire chess sacrifices. Sometimes it is possible to win (quite correctly, not as a result of an opponent’s blunder) even being a piece down. Usually it is connected with an opportunity to convey a tactical operation – give a forced mate, or win back the material. However, there are some amazing cases when one side (willingly, or by chance) sacrifices a piece for positional advantage or initiative, and manages to decide the game in its favor.

While reviewing the results of the Russian Women's Chess Championship – Higher League, I have stumbled upon a spectacular game between IM Elena Tairova and WGM Yulia Demina. After analyzing it for a few hours, I was shocked with the conclusions: Black, who according to chess common sense and the evaluation of engines, has an extra piece…is on the edge of losing! I have published some of my findings at my website – http://pogonina.com, but then decided that the game is worth a more detailed investigation and prepared an exclusive article for Chess.com.

About the players:

IM Elena Tairova – a young and gifted chess player, member of the Russian chess team.

WGM Yulia Demina – a very experienced chess player, 3-times Russian champion, ex-member of the Russian chess team.

The encounter between the two female grandmasters took place in the 5th round of the championship. Tairova had the perfect 4 out of 4 score, while Demina was the top pursuer.

Press "Move List" to see the game annotation.