My 4th 10,000 view article!

Wow!  My fourth 10,000 view article!  It's called "Losing a pawn can lose the game".  You can see it here: http://www.chess.com/article/view/losing-a-pawn-can-lose-the-game

I remember writing it after a number of students had indicated that "just losing a pawn" was not a big factor when deciding on which move to make.  At the lower skill levels, players often lose whole rooks or even a queen and still win, so the loss a mere pawn doesn't seem like a big deal.   And maybe it isn't when the advantage lurches back and forth with players trading blunders on every other move.

What I was trying to illustrate, was that if you lose a pawn with no compensation (crucial idea), you will lose the game with best play from both sides.  I show a game where I did just that. 

To those who point to the King's Gambit, Evan's Gambit, or even the Danish Gambit (where White loses 2 pawns!) as counter-examples proving my idea wrong, the answer is that in those openings, White gets COMPENSATION for the pawn in the form of accelerated development and attacking chamces.

For those 10,000+ players who read my article, THANK YOU!  And for those of you who haven't, take a look!  You may learn a useful lesson!

Bruce (aka "Spassky")