The Exchange Sacrifice

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You don't see a lot of exchange sacrifices in club chess; or at any rate not until you reach a certain level. I'm pretty sure that I've never played one myself, and I can't recall meeting one before Tuesday's game either.

I think that the problem is that the exchange sacrifice tends to be for long-term compensation. (I see plenty of players willing to give up pawns and even pieces for an immediate attack, so it's not just that we're all petty piece-counters). For us amateur players it's hard to evaluate long-term compensation and, perhaps worse, hard to exploit it. You're always afraid that if you play a few inaccurate moves your opponent will have a chance to regroup and you'll just be losing.

So I have much sympathy with my opponent in this game. He played a good exchange sacrifice, and was probably better for some time. But he misplayed the attack slightly (26 ... Nf5 looks like a big improvement), and when it became clear that I wasn't going to be checkmated after all, his position collapsed all too quickly. (Though the computer points out that actually I let things slip with 37. Ng2?, after which ... h6! would have kept things interesting. Both sides were short of time by this point).

In spite of the result, I see this game as a very positive example of an exchange sacrifice. Here's hoping that I get a chance to play an equally good one myself some day.

Comments

Tom Chivers said…
You should see the players who defend the Sicilian Dragon - they get to exchange sacrifice every game!
26 November 2007 at 11:44
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