Desperado

There are sometimes situations where a piece is unable to be saved, so the best course of action is to trade it immediately instead of trying to protect it. How do you recognize a situation like this, and what are the most common patterns that lead to a desperado?

I find that many Desperado instances occur by either a trapped piece or some tactical idea where long calculation is needed due to you sacrificing a piece to take a piece etc. Usually, an intermesso gets in the way of this, so true Desperado plays are less common. One must always be careful of move order and subtleties when looking for these Desperado ideas. Sorry if this is not as clear as it sounds in my head, but I hope this helps and least a little. 

Usually a piece is simply trapped, so you at least take a pawn, or mess up the opponent structure or something; but these long Desperado attempts turning into a charging stallion happen pretty rarely.

So a desperado will happen because of a trapped piece or because of a tactical idea. And you would recommend checking for an in-between move before doing the desperado. What do you mean by "charging stallion"? I am not familiar with that term

You seem to get it

"Charging stallion" is an old term, but with nothing to do with chess; it refers to someone/something that can't be easily stopped. In this case, I meant that these Desperado plays that result in the piece escaping or gaining material are rare. They do occasionally happen though, but usually a trapped piece just gets something small out of it like doubling the opponents' pawns or something - not something huge like a Desperado Knight winning a Rook or something else of higher value.

Okay, I understand now. Thank you