To Sac or Not to Sac?

The most memorable games usually come with some amazing sacrifices. Sacs are pretty appealing and exciting to pull off. But you'll need to think it through first.

There are two main ways to check if a sac is necessary and best in the position. You can calculate the entire line of moves that'll happen, which takes longer, but is more precise or evaluate the position after the sac, which is quicker, but less effective. However, I advocate for using a combination of the two.

I start by considering these factors: 

• Does the opponent have a defense?
• Do you have pieces that can help?
• Are you doing well after a couple moves?

These tips are mostly practical, but you have to calculate for the last one.

Here's an example of a really good sacrifice. White has a bishop, a queen, and a rook to help, the opponent doesn't have many active pieces to defend, the h3 pawn is pretty weak, and the attack won't die out in a few moves.

Now, thinking about those four factors, look at the position below. Should you calmly castle or sac your bishop on h2?

Along with evaluating whether the sac is good or not, there are some other things to consider. If you're a bit low on time then you wouldn't want to sacrifice, as you'll have to doing a lot of thinking to build off of it. But if you're at ten seconds, it's probably your best chance.

You mostly want to go for sacrifices when you're tied or losing, unless you're still winning if the attack fizzles out. If you're seriously down in material you don't have much to lose, but if you're winning, usually you want to calmly convert.

When sacrificing, make sure to keep those in mind. Now here's another puzzle to end off the blog. Black's king is White's goal, but should White really sacrifice a queen with Qxh7+ or do a safer push with Nxf6+?

That ends the blog! If you're down a piece or doing really badly, then a sacrifice might be your only way to save the game, so follow these tips and prepare your attack.