Clearance Sacrifice - Principles of Chess Middle Games

"We cannot resist the fascination of sacrifice, since a passion for sacrifices is part of a Chessplayer's nature"

-Rudolf Spielmann

Hi chessbros, Welcome to the series where we learn the middle game concepts. Before introducing you to our today's topic, you need to know that this series has already completed the following topics before this blog is uploaded,

Blockade & Restriction ( https://www.chess.com/blog/siddharth026/blockade-restriction-principles-of-chess-middle-games )

Greek Gift sacrifice ( https://www.chess.com/blog/siddharth026/greek-gift-sacrifice-principles-of-chess-middle-games )

Opposite Side Castling ( https://www.chess.com/blog/siddharth026/opposite-side-castling-principles-of-chess-middle-games )

Weak Square & Outpost ( https://www.chess.com/blog/siddharth026/weak-square-outpost-principles-of-chess-middle-games )

The Bishop Pair ( https://www.chess.com/blog/siddharth026/the-bishop-pair-principles-of-chess-middle-games )

Prophylaxis ( https://www.chess.com/blog/siddharth026/prophylaxis-principles-of-chess-middle-games-2)

In today's blog, we are considering the most advanced concept in chess. This concept is called " CLEARANCE SACRIFICE." These concepts are greatly popularised by Mikhail Tal, Bobby Fischer, Tigran Petrosian etc. This is said to be advanced since we have to calculate perfect moves after the sacrifice of material for accessing squares. What is accessing by sacrificing will be better understood in below content section.

Clearance sacrifice-

In chess, a clearance sacrifice is a tactical motif that involves a square on the chessboard being vacated to open up lines of attack. The tactic may also result in the substitution of a piece hindering the attack by a piece useful to the attack. It is also when you sacrifice a piece simply to get it out of the way of your other pieces. Often these sacrifices will gain time and give you an irresistible attack.

What is sacrifice?

A sacrifice is when one player gives up a piece, either for nothing or in exchange for one of lesser value, in return for some other advantage. Because it is normally important to keep your pieces safe and avoid having them captured, sacrifices can have great surprise value. For many players, when a sacrifice works it is one of the most exciting and appealing parts of the game, and many tournament brilliancy prizes have been awarded to players of beautiful sacrifices. Some grandmasters, such as former world champions Alexander Alekhine and Mikhail Tal, are especially popular with chess fans because their games contain many spectacular sacrifices.

Why sacrifice?

Sometimes one of your pieces is on a square that another one of your pieces would just love to get to. When that happens, you should look for the most advantageous way possible to get the piece out of the way. Sometimes the best way to get the piece out of the way is to sacrifice it.

Clearance sacrifices can be used for two reasons,

• Checkmate
  
• Gaining material

We will understand the physical approach of such a position in both cases.

Checkmates - 

As of the start of my blogs, I have been supporting and motivating you to solve more and more puzzles. If you have limited puzzles, you can find free puzzles on lichess. You have to upgrade this skill by adding a layer of sacrifices and understanding the weak square and weak pieces in positions. 

Position 1 - ( Easy )

Approach-

I see a triple stack on g phile. Now what are weak squares around King? Oh, I see g8,g7 and h7. Now I have to find the no. of the defender in these squares. g8, is protected by Rook, knight and king. So it's not a good move. But what about h7 square it has only two defenders. In reality, it's only a knight. So if I play Rh7, then either he takes with Knight or King, He will be mated by Qxg7.

Position 2 - ( Intermediate )

Approach-

Here, I see the opponent has battery and mate in one threat on a phile. So my moves should be forcing. The second thing I notice is his King is weak and stuck at the edge. The third thing is we have to just check him. Since his King doesn't have any squares to run. I need a forcing move so there is only one which is Qxg5. I am sacking my queen, So I should be 100% sure about my plan. He will take it with Nxg5. Now I have two checks,

• Nf5
• hxg  

If I take hxg, Then he takes with the king. Nxf5 discover check, but Kings runs my Kxg4. So this is not the way.

If I play Nf5, Then his only move is Kg6 and then I have one check which is eventually a mate. The move is h5.   

Position 3 - ( Advance )

Approach - 
From the position, It's not simple to understand what moves you should play. To understand this position, you need complete acknowledgement of the position. Personally, I solve a lot of puzzles. So I know the move is Re8. But I am here to teach you an approach and not to tell you my intuition. 
So, How 'Re8' is a move?
I will answer this from total basic. Look at the king and think, What squares does it have? No squares. So how would it be mate? It would be mate by Nf6. Right, what is avoiding that? The Queen. We have to play a move such that Queen moves from guarding f6 square. The only forcing move is Qg4 Then he would forcefully have to take our Queen. Then Nf6 is mate. But we are not lucky enough. Our own rook is blocking the Queen. Hence Re8 is forcing a move. It doesn't change the threat. So Re8 is the move.

Now this is only the first move. 
Re8- Rxe8
Qg4 
is played as planned. Now the opponent sees the threat and plays Ng5. He is just lengthening our process. But we know the square we are attacking. So, we play Qxf5. Re6 is again blocking f6 square. Here right now best, we can do is get lead in material with the attack. So we play Bxg5. Mind it. We are not blindly taking material giving him a chance to develop. His bishop is hanging, Also Rook is hanging. He doesn't have an easy move here. His only counterplay is promoting the d pawn.

So his most possible moves are,
Re2
Rg6
If Rg6,
Re1 will be played forcing mate in 2. Be7 blocking that.Rxe7 anyways. Rf6 stopping mate in one. Qxf6 is the final blow we play now. Now this is not a checkmate but he has a mate in 1 threat and the only move he has is random pawn moves,

If Re2,
 Bh6 ( Again closing king square )- Re5  
Qxe5- Kf7 ( only lengthening move ) 
Re1 (Adding attacker and threatening mate)- kg6
Qf6( check )- Kxh5
Qg5( Mate )

Gaining material -
These are easy to identify. Most of them include the same theme like sacrificing the rook or queen or just understanding the knights possible square. 
Position 1 -

Here we see the king and queen are at a forkable square. Also, The knight is attackable by our queen. So, the idea becomes fairly simple. We are winning an exchange in the endgame.

Position 2 -

This position goes by the definition of clearance sacrifice. As I have mentioned above, sometimes some other piece wants to access a square which some other piece is accessing. Now in this position, Queen will be trapped, if our knight would be in place of the bishop on c4. So the idea becomes simple.

Position 3 -

As I said in the introduction most of the positions will relate to knight squares. Here knight has a triple fork at b4. So the idea is now clear to us.

Grand Masters Game -

Match 1 -

Wilhelm Steinitz vs Curt von Bardeleben ( 1895 )

 Match 2 -

Ivan Ivanisevic vs Igor Miladinovic ( 2007 )

'd6' is the sacrifice here.

 Match 3 -

Gavriil Veresov vs Mikhail Botvinnik ( 1944 )

'c3' is the sacrifice here.

With this, we end our blog on clearance sacrifice. It's not easy to find such sacrifices in the game. But once you find it, you will definitely get a brilliant remark from chess.com. Now to identify such moves in the middle game we need to be aware of the,

• Restricted pieces.
  
• Pawn breaks.
  
• Important squares.
  
• Potential attacking plan.
  I hope you love this content. Follow my page for more such blogs.
  Till then, 
  Let us all grow at chess together.

...The End...