Most spectacular sacrifices
Give up a queen or a couple of pieces and still win by force. The twenty boldest sacrifices in the collection, ranked by how much is surrendered and how long the forcing line runs after the blow.
- 01Black to move Solve →
- 02Black to move Solve →
- 03White to move Solve →
- 04White to move Solve →
- 05White to move Solve →
- 06Black to move Solve →
- 07Black to move Solve →
- 08White to move Solve →
- 09White to move Solve →
- 10Black to move Solve →
- 11Black to move Solve →
- 12Black to move Solve →
- 13White to move Solve →
- 14Black to move Solve →
- 15Black to move Solve →
- 16Black to move Solve →
- 17Black to move Solve →
- 18Black to move Solve →
- 19Black to move Solve →
- 20White to move Solve →
Sacrifices in Chess960
A sacrifice gives up material on purpose — a pawn, a piece, sometimes the queen herself — in exchange for something the scoreboard does not show: an exposed king, an unstoppable attack, a forced mate. It is the most human move in chess, a wager that calculation will pay back what material was spent.
In Chess960 there is no book to lean on. The king may start tucked in a corner or sitting awkwardly near the centre, and the usual defensive shells never assemble, so whether a sacrifice is sound has to be judged at the board, line by line. That is exactly why the boldest ones are so striking — nothing about them was prepared.
Positions here are ranked by two honest numbers: how much material is surrendered, and how long the forcing line runs after the blow. The more that goes in, and the further the win is still nailed down by force, the higher the sacrifice ranks.
Key terms Sacrifice