UNDERSTANDING THE SACRIFICE by IM Angus Dunnington isn’t the usual dime-a-dozen book about combinations. Instead, it takes a serious and pleasing look at the world of positional sacrifices, and at true sacrifices that lead to long-term chances against the enemy King.

Though many players see the words “sacrifice,” “tactics,” and “combination” as interchangeable, this simply isn’t the case. Let’s take a look at each, using definitions taken from Seirawan’s and Silman’s WINNING CHESS TACTICS:

TACTICS: “Maneuvers that take advantage of short-term opportunities. A position with many traps and combinations is considered to be tactical in nature.”

SACRIFICE: “The voluntary offer of material for compensation in space, time, pawn structure, or even force. Unlike a combination, a sacrifice is not always a calculable commodity and often entails an element of uncertainty.”

COMBINATION: “A combination is a sacrifice, combined with a forced sequence of moves, which exploits specific peculiarities of the position in the hope of attaining a certain goal.”

UNDERSTANDING THE SACRIFICE is supposedly about something beyond simple calculation, though at times the examples blur these things together. This can be seen in Dunnington’s very first example.

WHITE TO MOVE

White (Marshall - Ed. Lasker, NY 1924) is a pawn up, but Black has serious compensation in the form of two strong Bishops. Since a quiet move like 1.Ne3 Qf4 would be good for Black, Marshall sacrificed his extra pawn back in order to create a long-term positional advantage: 1.e5! Bxe5 (and not 1…Qc5?? 2.b4) 2.Qxe5 cxd5 (Not 2...Qxe5? 3.Ne7+ Kg7 4.Nxe5) 3.Qxd6 Rxd6 4.c5 when the position has been transformed: White’s Knight (which will live on the luscious d4-square) will prove stronger than Black’s Bishop, Black’s passed d-pawn will be firmly blocked, and White’s queenside majority of pawns gives him some serious dynamic and positional plusses.

I like this game a lot, but the moves were all forced after 1.e5, and this makes the example a combination, not a true sacrifice. Does the occasional “fall” into combinatory splendor make the book less valuable? No, not at all.

When I first got UNDERSTANDING THE SACRIFICE in the mail, I sighed and thought, “Most likely another badly thought out book of random tactical positions.” Then I stuck it on my pile of “to look at” titles and forgot about it until John Donaldson gave it a positive review (click HERE for Donaldson’s review).

Because of John’s thumbs up, I took it down from the “review pile graveyard” and got happily lost in the enjoyable ten-page introduction, and the enjoyment turned to rapture when I stepped into Chapter One’s absolutely wonderful THE IMPORTANCE of STRUCTURE (30 pages).

In Donaldson’s review, he says that readers will get the most out of this chapter, but I think this does a disservice to the book. Chapter Two, THE COLOR COMPLEX, covers (in only fourteen pages, more would have been appreciated) a subject that most amateurs have real problems with (i.e., winning a game merely by controlling the light or dark squares in the enemy camp).

What follows is a true course in dynamic positional understanding: Pieces for Pawns (chapter three), Rampant Knights (chapter four), Bishops at Work (chapter five), Exploiting Key Squares (chapter six), The Exchange Sacrifice (chapter seven), The Vulnerable King (chapter eight), The Restrictive Sacrifice (chapter nine), and The Queen Sacrifice (chapter ten).

A quick digression: Whenever somebody mentions a Queen sacrifice, I always think of Jerry Hanken’s many articles in CHESSLIFE magazine where he crows about the wonder of giving up his Queen in some fashion or another. These articles, titled PARTING WITH THE LADY, eventually caught the eye of GM Joel Benjamin who, after mating Hanken in a game, wrote an article about it titled: PARTING WITH THE GENTLEMAN.

Of course, a nice Queen sacrifice (especially a positional Queen sacrifice) does indeed give its creator a real thrill. Dunnington recognizes this fact and treats us to a bit of whimsy from the game A. Petrosian - Hazai, Belgium 1970.

BLACK TO MOVE

Black is in serious trouble thanks to the weakness of his a-pawn. White can surround the poor thing by Qd2, Kb3, Nb2, Ka4, etc. Realizing his plight, Black stunned his opponent by playing:

1…Qb6!!

Shocked, White scooped up the gift with 2.Nxb6+, only to realize after 2…cxb6 (threatening to kill the position with 3…h4) 3.h4 gxh4! the game couldn’t be won. A draw was agreed since 4.Qc1 h3! 5.gxh3 (5.Qh1 h2) 5…h4 creates an unbreakable block.

This sacrifice works very well against highly rated computers, which suck up the Queen as fast as they can. However, a calmer (or less materialistic) mind would ignore the Greek gift and continue with the assault against a5 by 2.Qd2, 3.Kb3, etc.

Dunnington’s UNDERSTANDING THE SACRIFICE is a fantastic book. Players of all strengths will get a lot of pleasure from it, and they will gain a far deeper understanding of both tactical and positional concepts.