UNDERSTANDING THE SACRIFICE deals with all type of sacrifices, from pawns to Queens, but readers will probably get the most out of chapter one. There, Dunnington spends 30 pages dealing with the importance of structure. The following example will give you an idea of what Dunnington is talking about. I have put in to words what I got from playing over the game and the explanatory prose. Thus, all game comments are mine.

The idea of sacrificing the Exchange is nothing new, but in modern chess this is not always connected with the idea of immediately winning a couple of pawns to establish material equality. Often in the Sicilian Dragon, Black will make an Exchange sacrifice for a pawn and better pawn structure. In the following example we see far-sighted judgment by Bulgarian World Championship Contender Veselin Topalov who shows his understanding of chess is much deeper than a FIDE 2650!

Bacrot-Toplaov, Bosna 2000
1.d4 d6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.Nc3 c5 5.dxc5 Bxc3+!? 6.bxc3 dxc5 7.Qxd8+ Kxd8 8.Ne5 Be6 9.g3 Nd7 10.Nxd7 Kxf7 11.Bg2 Nf6!? 12.Rb1?! b6!

13.Bxa8 Rxa8

What does Black have for the Exchange? Sooner or later he will pick up the pawn on c4, but the real problem for White is an absence of counterplay. It is very hard for the first player to improve his position while Black can just keep building.

14.f3 Ne8 15.Bf4 Bxc4 16.Rb2 Kc6 17.Rd2 Nd6 18.Bxd6?!

A natural move, but a mistake.

18…exd6 19.Kf2 d5 20.e4 dxe4 21.fxe4 Re8 22.Re1 Be6 23.Kf3 Kb5! Black soon brought his King to c4, completely tying White up and then advanced his queenside pawns to victory.

Quite an inspiring example! Dunnington’s book is full of similar material on a subject that is not all easy to explain. The positions he has chosen are modern and his explanations are clear and to the point.

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