yeah,,,a chance to sucrifice and a chance to win.
Sacrifice To Win
Thanks so much, that puzzle is exactly what I have been trying to memorize the past few days.
I solved it first try, yay. :D

Nice puzzles, I really liked 3 I figured it out on my first try but I got stuck 3 moves in (in my head) but went for it and solved it using my intuition. I need figure out how to see those moves in my head!

I reset my tactics trainer history and got a pretty hard sacrifice puzzle on attempt #8. Oh, I got it right.
Rating
Current: | 1341 |
Highest: | 1341 (26 Sep 2011) |
Lowest: | 1182 (26 Sep 2011) |
Problems
# Attempts: | 8 |
Passed: | 7 (87.5%) |
Failed: | 1 (12.5%) |
Total Training Time: | 0.1 hrs |

Is White even much better there?
The position is about equal (+ 0.20) in Sacrifice Puzzle 6. Any other reply by White would give Black a moderate advantage.
This puzzle is different, because in 99% of tactics puzzles, I win material.
There are tactics categorized as defensive, where the best continuation does not always produce a material gain.

There wasn't a sacrifice involved in #8?
#7 was a good one. Basic mate patterns always help!
Chess Tempo calls #8 a pin, fork and sacrifice. The sacrifice is the rook for a bishop. Maybe some will call that an exchange sacrifice?
Update: 10-03-2011
Sacrifice To Win puzzles 1 - 20 begin at post 57.
Update: 10-05-2011
Sacrifice To Win puzzles 21-25 begin at post 67.
Sacrificing material for some advantage or even a win is not intuitive for a beginner - me!
In this topic I will post puzzles that involve a sacrifice when I find them in my tactics training, chess mentor lessons or in my Live Chess games, and invite others to do the same. My goal is to repeat these puzzles over and over again until they stick forever. Enjoy the puzzles!