queen sacrifice

In chess, a queen sacrifice is a move that sacrifices a queen in return for some compensation, such as a tactical or positional advantage. Queen sacrifice: real versus sham In his book The Art of Sacrifice in Chess, Rudolf Spielmann distinguishes between real and sham sacrifices. A sham sacrifice leads to a and immediate benefit for the sacrificer, usually in the form of a quick checkmate (or perpetual check or stalemate if seeking a draw), or the recouping of the sacrificed after a forced . Since any amount of material can be sacrificed as long as checkmate will be achieved, the queen is not above being sacrificed as part of a combination. Possible reasons for a sham queen sacrifice include: a forced checkmate after the opponent takes the queen; more than adequate material compensation (say, a rook and two knights) after a forced continuation; clearing the way for a pawn's promotion to a replacement queen; the subsequent capture of the opponent's queen, resulting in some positional or material gain.