The Exchange Sacrifice Unleashed

Compensation is a chess conceptthat we only fully understand when we enter the world of serious chess.

The relative value of pieces isperhaps the most difficult chess concept of all to explain.

It is one that every playermust feel and believe in and can only be accepted with the help of our ownpractice, and when we feel it come together as though a part of us.

Why so much talk about such orsimilar sacrifices? Quite simply because we are afraid! We have been taught,and practice shows and proves the clear fact, that the closer we get to thelast part of the game, the ending, the more pronounced a material advantagebecomes.

If in the middlegame we canstill hope for sudden turns, for the influence of other pieces, this isnegligible in the endgame.

Maybe less so with tacticalsacrifices, where we immediately see what the sacrificer gets in return.

How can we not accept the rookthat the opponent offers us, when there is nothing concrete to see? One or twoweaknesses perhaps, but they can be eliminated, and the material advantage anda secure victory in the endgame remains.