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Real vs. Sham Sacrifices in Chess Part 1

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In his book, The Art of Sacrifice in Chess, Rudolf Spielmann goes into great depth on the different kinds of sacrifices in chess. He classifies sacrifices as either being real or sham. A sham sacrifice is a temporary loss of material and one in which compensation is immediate, either in the form of positional/ material gain or checkmate. The sham sacrifice can be fully calculated and from the calculation, the material loss is only for a definable period of time and there is no risk. A real sacrifice on the other hand cannot be fully calculated and the loss of material is for an unknown period of time and compensation is not immediate, therefore it is risky. I want to share some examples of real and sham sacrifices. I have taken some examples from his book as well other games/positions to illustrate these sacrifices. 

The Art of Sacrifice in Chess by Rudolf Spielmann

Sham Sacrifices 

There are three kinds of sham sacrifices: positional, material gain, and mating.

Positional Sacrifice 

The above example is a sacrifice aimed at improving the position. By sacrificing the knight, White is able to force Black's King out into the opening, causing his pieces to be pinned and hanging. This gives White an opportunity to launch strong attacks, fully compensating him for the sacrificed knight. 

 Material Gain Sacrifice 

This example is actually taken from a puzzle book but it illustrates a sacrifice for material gain. White cannot capture the Queen due to the Knight protecting it. So after White sacrifices the exchange to capture the Knight with the Rook giving Black's King a check, Black's king is forced to recapture and White wins the Queen. Again this is a sham sacrifice because White receives immediate compensation. 

Mating Sacrifice 

This example is actually from a game I played recently and illustrates a sham Queen sacrifice. I sacrificed my Queen with Qxf7+ and the Rook captured on f7, but because of the Bishop on d5, the Rook was now pinned. So I played Re8# and it was a forced checkmate. This Queen sacrificed resulted in immediate compensation in the form of checkmate so it would be considered a sham sacrifice. 

So many of the sacrifices we see in tactical puzzles these days are sham sacrifices. The goal of the puzzle usually involves a sacrifice that leads to mate or a material gain so we are very familiar with these patterns. So what does a real sacrifice then look like? 

Real Sacrifices

So having examined Sham Sacrifices, lets take a look at some of examples of Real Sacrifices. Spielmann separates them into different categories: 

1. Sacrifices for Development

A sacrifice for development is when you give up a pawn for faster development. In the above game, Spielmann opted not to defend the g7 pawn but rather developed his knight. By capturing the pawn, White lost time, was unable to complete development of his pieces and had to respond to threats from Black's mobilized pieces. So a key characteristic of a sacrifice for development is that material is lost, but time is gained.

2. Obstructive Sacrifices 

This game has an example of an obstructive sacrifice. It seems like this sacrifice is very similar to the sacrifice for development. As we know in that sacrifice, the attacker loses material but gains time. In the obstructive sacrifice, the attacker loses material and time. This sacrifice though has long term detrimental effects on Black's development and gave White a better position. 

3. Preventive or Anti-Castling Sacrifices 

This sacrifice usually involves giving up pawns or even a piece in order to prevent the opponent's King from being able to castle. Castling is very important for the King's safety so preventing this opens the King to being attack and also prevents the easy connection of the Rooks. The anti-castling sacrifice is risky, but if it works it can give the side that undertakes it an edge. In this game, we see White sacrificing pawns in order to prevent Black from castling. Black's King is unable to castle kingside and then forced to the d8 square because of the threat of Nf5. With Black's King unable to castle, White was able to seize the initiative and win. 

The other categories for real sacrifices are as follows and I will give a closer examination of them in my next blog post as well as going into more detail on the exchange sacrifice and Queen sacrifice. 

4. Line Clearance Sacrifices 

5. Vacating Sacrifices 

6. Deflecting or Decoy Sacrifices 

7. Castled King Sacrifices 

8. King Hunt Sacrifices