FIDE Surveys – Viorel Bologan

1

Viorel Bologan:
The Sacrifice in Chess

The theme of sacrifice it’s well known from
the very beginning of human history. The
fact itself - to give or lose something which
belongs to you, it is always a shock -
something abnormal. Still the greatest
religious moments were connected with
sacrifices: The sacrifice of the animals to the
multiple gods, the readiness of Abraham to
sacrifice his son Isaac and of course the
sacrifice of Jesus.
Even in chess the sacrifice of a very small
pawn it’s a very painful and difficult
decision to make. Beside the calculation and
evaluation itself we should also talk about
psychological aspects of the sacrifice.
First of all we should be frank and admit
that there is never a sacrifice for nothing. It
is still a kind of a trade, exchange. For the
better future, for respect, glory, in chess we
also try to get something in exchange. I
might miss something but here is the list of
awards we get after sacrificing the material:

1. Mating attack
This is the highest reward we can get for the
sacrificed material. Usually it’s linked with
destroying opponent’s king position,
eliminating the strongest opponent defenders
or freeing the way for our pieces to
opponent’s king. Esthetically this is very
nice and mathematically precise.

Bologan V. : Mikkelsen N.
Gibraltar 2014

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37.Ng5!

Sacrifying the knight. White is cleaning his
way to the black king.
37...Qd3 38.Kh4!
In my 33 years practice I've never met such
an attacking construction! All pieces on
attack!
38...fg5 39.Qg5 1:0.

2. Destroying opponent’s king position
Of course this can lead to a mating attack
but not necessarily. Some times thanks to
the weaken king we can gain back or even
win material.

Bauer C. : Bologan V.
Enghien 2001

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26...Bg3!
Depriving white king of his last defenders.
27.fg3 Nh4!–+ 28.gh4 Qf3 29.Kh2
29.Kg1 Qg3 30.Kh1 Qh4 31.Kg2 Rf6
32.Rg1 Rg6 33.Kf1 Qh3–+.
29...Qf2! 30.Kh1
30.Kh3 g5 ! (30...f4 31.Rg1 fe3 32.Be4 Rf4
33.Rg3 Re4) 31.Qc3 Kg8 32.hg5 hg5
33.Rg1 g4 34.Rg4 fg4 35.Kg4 Qg2 36.Kh4
Rf3–+.
30...Qh4 31.Kg1 Qg3 32.Kf1
32.Kh1 Qh3 33.Kg1 Rf6–+.
32...f4!
Black Queen needs some assistance in his
attack.
33.Be4 fe3 34.Ke2 Rf2 35.Kd3
White king runs away but the price paid for
the escape is too high.
35...e2 36.Kc4 ed1Q 37.Qd1 Qe5
37...Qe3! would be faster.
38.Nc3
38.Qd5 Re6.
38...Rb2 39.Qd7 b5 40.Kd3 Qg3 0:1.

FIDE Surveys – Viorel Bologan

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3. Positional sacrifice:
- Queen sacrifice.
Giving the strongest piece, which value
according different systems 9-10 pawns, it is
always a challenge. Instead we should get a
long term compensation which is usually
connected with the weaken position of the
opponent’s king or with a passed pawn.
Morozevich A. : Bologan V.
Poikovsky 2014

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13...Qg2!
One of the enoucraging points for this
sacrifice is the weaken position of the white
king as well as the weakness on d4.
14.Kg2 Ne5 15.f3 cd4 16.ed4 Nc6 17.Rc1
Rd5
17...Rd7 18.a3 Rfd8 19.Qe2 Bf6 20.b4 e5
21.d5 Rd5 22.Rfd1 Nd4 23.Bd4 ed4 24.Rc7
Bc8 25.Ra7 d3 26.Qe4 Be6 27.a4 d2 28.Qe2
Rd4 29.Qe3 h6 30.a5 ba5 31.ba5 Rd3
32.Qe2 Bb3 33.Ra8 Bd1 34.Qd3 Ra8 –
Kramnik V. : Ezat M., Antalya 2013.
18.Rc4 b5 19.Rc2 Bd6 20.Qe2 Ne7 21.Rfc1
Rf5 22.Bc3 h5 23.Bd2 Rd8 24.Rc3 b4
25.Rc4 a5 26.Kf2 g5 27.h4 Bf3 28.Qf3 g4
29.Qf5 Nf5 30.Rc8 Bg3 31.Kf1 Rc8 32.Rc8
Kg7 33.Rc5 Bh4 34.Ra5 Bd8
34...Be7 35.d5 h4 36.de6 fe6 37.Rb5 h3
38.Bb4 Nh4 39.Bc3 Kg6 40.Be5 Nf3 41.a4
Bh4 42.Rc5 g3 43.Bg3 Bg3.
35.Rb5 h4
With good chances for a win. (1:0).

- Pawn sacrifice.
This is one of the most common sacrifices in
chess. Since we pay not very high price we
can afford it more often. We can sacrifice

the pawn for many things but usually this is
for the initiative.
Bologan V. : Ye Jiangchuan
Beijing 2000

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19.e5!!
The key point of the whole position. In this
pawn structure discussions in center it's
always important to take into consideration
the settlement of the pieces. For example, if
after d5 Black manage to open the game, it
will bring him a clear advantage. And
opposite, if White will block the d pawn,
that will say us, that all black pieces will fill
sudenly bad placed. It's not so difficult to
sacrify even a central pawn for positional
advantages. I liked very much my position at
this moment, but when the first minutes
euphorie went away, I realised that the
struggle only begins.
19...Be5
Forced. 19...Qe5 20.g5+–; 19...Be7 20.g5±.
20.f4 Bd6
I think that is also the best. Black could win
some tempes after 20...Bd4 21.Bd4 Nd6
22.h5 Nc4, but after 23.Qf2 it becomes
obvious, that white's blacksquare bishop is
decideing the game.
21.g5 e5 22.fe5 Be5 23.g6!!
When the first exlamation mark is given for
estecy, the second one is more deserved
because is given for it's punctuality. I didn't
see anything better for White: 23.h5 Nd6
24.g6 Nc4 25.gh7 Kh8.
23...Nd6!?
It was clear that Blackk's material advantage
wouldn't affect my attacking ambitions. For
example: 23...hg6 24.h5 gh5 (24...g5
25.Bf5) 25.Rdg1! Nf6 (25...g6 26.Rh5)
26.Bh6 (26.Qg2 Ng4 27.Rh5 Ne3 28.Qh3 g6

FIDE Surveys – Viorel Bologan

3

29.Ne6! fe6 30.Rg6 Kf8 31.Qe6+–)
26...Ng4 27.Rh5.
24.gf7 Qf7 25.Rhf1 Qd7?
This allows White to develope a straight
attack with tempous. The best chance for
Black was 25...Qe8 26.Bf5 Nf5 27.Rf5 Rd7
28.Re1 and White got a full compensation
for the pawn. Actualy the Black's problem is
the Bishop on b7 and I don't see any
comfortable way to get it into the play.
26.Nf3 Bf6
26...Re8 27.Ne5 Re5 28.Bd4 Ne4 29.Be4
Re4 30.Rg1 Re7 31.h5±.
27.Ng5 Nc4 28.Bh7 Kh8 29.Qe2 Qe8
30.Rf6!
Just forced.
30...gf6 31.Bd4
The tactical background of the whole
White's combination started on 26th. move.
From the beginning I wasn't so sure about
the final position looking for a better way
but as closer I got to it as more I liked it.
31...Rc6 32.Qf2 Qf8 33.Bd3!
The game is over. Now beside the natural
Qf5 white also is threatening Nh7.
33...Rd7 34.Qf5 Re7
34...Qe7 35.Qg6 Ne5 36.Qh5 Kg8 37.Rg1+–
35.Nh7! Bc8 36.Qh5 Qf7 37.Bg6 1:0.

- Piece sacrifice.
Beside the typical ideas of sacrificing the
pieces for the initiative or the attack, there is
also a possibility to sacrifice it for strong
passed pawns which even is stronger in the
endgame. My young opponent definitely
didn’t even consider Ne5.
Bologan V. : Shimanov A.
Russia 2014

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23.Ne5! fe5 24.Ke5

Usually two pawns for the piece is not
enough in such positions, but here are
pointed out that the knight is missplaced on
edge of the board as well as the bishop on c8
doesn't have too much space.
24...b6 25.Kd4 Nb7 26.e5 g6 27.Ba6!
Now black has to loose enother precious
tempos in order to escape from the pin.
27...h5 28.f3 Kd8 29.Bb7 Bb7 30.e6 Ba6
31.g4 hg4 32.fg4 Be2 33.g5 b5 34.Ke5 Bc4
35.d6 Ba2 36.Kf6 b4 37.h5 gh5 38.g6 Bb1
39.g7 1:0.

- Exchange sacrifice
This sacrifice is often connected with the
detriment of the opponent’s pawn structure.
The most famous sacrifices are Rc3 in
Sicilian and Rf3 in French.
Paehtz E. : Bologan V.
Gibraltar 2014

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18...Rf3!
Typical french sarifice, which allows black
to take the control over the important
squares d4 and e5.
19.gf3 Ne5
Not all natural moves are the best. Better
was 19...Qd5! 20.Bc6 bc6 21.Qd4 Qf3 22.0–
0 c5!, freeing sacrifice.
20.0–0–0 Qd5 21.Bd4 Nf3 22.a4??
Difficult to explain this move. Better was
22.Rhf1!
22...Qe4?
22...Bg5 23.Kb1 Nd2–+.
23.Rhg1 e5 24.Qb3 Kh8 25.Qf7 Bg4!
26.Rg4 Qg4 27.Qe7 Nd4 28.Rf1 Qc8
0:1.

FIDE Surveys – Viorel Bologan

4

4. Creating or promoting the pass pawns

This can be regarded as an investment into
some material profits in the nearest future,
since potentially the pawns can transform in
queens.

Bologan V. : Motylev A.
Poikovsky 2014

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30.cb7!
30.d5 Ng5 31.cb7 would lead to the text.
30...Ng5 31.d5 Bc7 32.d6 Bb8 33.Qd2
Rg1!
Nice try.
34.Kf2
34.Kg1 Nf3.
34...Nf3 35.Kf3 Rf1 36.Kg2 Rf6 37.Qd5
Three pawns and queen against three pieces!
37...Rf5 38.Qc6 Ba7
38...Rf6 39.Qc8+–.
39.d7 Rc5
39...Bc5 40.Qc7 Be7 41.b8Q+–.
40.Qd6
Important nuance - the pawns go through!
40...Rd8 41.Qe7 Rc2 42.Kh3 Rd7 43.Qd7
Rb2 44.Qc8 Kh7 45.Qa8 1:0.

5. Overtaking the initiative

Especially nowadays the speed of chess
increased enormously. The times when we
could peacefully develop our pieces making
all kind of prophylactic moves like h3, Kb1,
Kh1 are in the deep past. Chess engines
teach us to be fast and efficient. That’s why
the fight for the initiative becomes very
important and often we can apply for
sacrifice.

Jussupow A. : Ivanchuk V.
Riga 1995

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14.f4!!
Paying only one pawn white brings into the
play all his pieces and prepares an imediate
attack on black's king.
14...Bf4 15.Bf4 Qf4 16.e5 Nd7 17.Rf1
17.Re1©!, according Aagard.
17...Qe5 18.Re3 Qd4 19.Rd1 Qa7 20.Ne4
0–0 21.Kh1 Ne5?
This example I was taken from Aagard's
excellent book Attacking manual, in which
he suggests to bring the queene into defense
via 21...Qb6 22.Rg3 Qb5! or 21...Qb8!,
targeting same square e5.
22.Rh3 Ng6 23.Qh5 h6 24.Nf6! gf6
24...Kh8 25.Qg5!+–.
25.Qh6 Re8 26.Rg3
Instead 26.Qh7! Kf8 27.Rf3 f5 28.Rf5 was
winning.
26...Qf2 27.Rg6 fg6 28.Qg6 Kf8 29.Qh6
Kf7 30.Qh7 Kf8 31.Qh8 1/2

6. Freeing sacrifice

This type of sacrifice can be used both in
attack and defense. In both cases we free the
files and squares for our pieces. Especially
this is efficient in different color bishops
endgames.

FIDE Surveys – Viorel Bologan

5

Jakovenko D. : Bologan V.
Poikovsky 2013

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42...a5?
How can be this natural move decisive
mistake? The answer is time. Often in a
worse positions there are not many ways to
hold the defence, some times there is only
one move. I think this was exactly that kind
of situation. My logic during the game was,
that I should activate at any price my pieces,
especially the bishop, but beside the fact that
I am weakening my pawn and the bishop
maneuvre a6–e2 is quite slow, I still don't
develop the king. Instead I had a typical
pawn sacrifice in a different color positions:
42...c5! I was thinking of giving this pawn
only connected with the march of the king to
f5 and leaving it unprotected on c6. The
difference of the two version is huge. In case
of 43.dc5 more strong is 43.Rc5, but in this
case I take the very important pawn on f3
which is increasing my chances a lot, since
in many positions the exchange of the rooks
becomes possible. 43...Rf3 44.b3 Rf2
45.Rd5 Ke6 46.Rd6 Ke7 47.a4 Rf3 48.b4
Rh3 49.Kg5 h4 50.Rh6 Rh1 51.b5 ab5
52.ab5 Rg1 53.Kf4 h3 54.b6 Rf1 55.Ke3
Re1 56.Kf2 Rb1 57.d5 Rb5 58.Rh7 Ke8
59.Bc7 h2 60.Rh2 Rb2 61.Ke3 Rh2 62.Bh2
Kd7 =) 43...Kc6 44.f4 Bg4. I succeed in
three aspects improve the king and the
bishop as well as create a passed pawn d.
The chances for draw here are very good.
43.f4
After this Dmitrii showed his technique
convicingly.
43...Ke6 44.Rc6 Kf5 45.Rc5 Be6 46.Ra5
Rg8 47.Kh5 Rg2 48.Kh6 Rb2 49.Kg7!
The king is going to queeneside.

49...Bd7 50.Ra7 Bb5 51.a4 Bc4 52.a5 Ra2
53.Kf8 Ra1 54.Ke7 Ra2 55.Kd6 Ra1
56.Kc5 Ke4 57.Ra8 Ra2 58.Bc7 Rc2
59.Re8 Kf5 60.Re5 Kf6 61.Bd8 Kf7 62.f5
Rf2 63.Bg5 1:0.

7. Killing most important opponent’s
pieces

Often there is a piece which holds the whole
position or controls very important squares.

Bachmann Ax. : Bologan V.
Tromso 2014

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40...Rf3!
Now beside the fact that there is no one left
to control the white diagonal h1–a8, black
gets an extremly important square e4 for his
knight.
41.Rf3 Ne4 42.Qb2 Kh7 43.Rg7 Kg7
44.Be5 Kg6 45.Qb7 Nf6 46.Qc6 Qd5
47.Qd5 Nd5 48.h3 f4 49.Rb3 Kf5 50.Kg2
Ra2 0:1.

8. Opening the files and diagonals (mainly
against the king)

The importance of files and diagonals
drastically increased with use of chess
engines. They teach us how to use much
better the space and how to fight for it. Even
better when we open a file against the
opponent king which allows some times a
direct attack on it.

Eljanov P. : Bologan V.
Poikovsky 2014

FIDE Surveys – Viorel Bologan

6

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27...d4!!
The classical pawn breakthrough in the
center, the key moment of this sacrifice is
the opnening of the big white diagonal for
black queen and the e file for the rooks.
28.cd4 cd4 29.Rd4 Qc6 30.Nd5
30.e4 Nef3–+.
30...Nef3!
30...Rd7 31.Nb4 Qb7 32.Rd7 Qd7 and there
is no defense from Nef3.
31.Ne7 Re7 32.Rd8 Kh7 33.Qd3 g6
34.Rd6 Qb7 35.Rd5 Ne5 36.Qb5 Qa8
White is an exchange up, but he can not stop
black's attack on the big diagonal.
37.Kg1 Ngf3
Such a subtlle move like 37...Rc7 didn't
come to me in the time trouble, even it's
very natural to take the open file 38.e4 Qc8!
- double attack.
38.Kf2 Nh2 39.Rh1 a6 40.Qb3 Nhg4
41.Ke2 h2
The time trouble is over and I still have to
win this game.
42.e4 Qc6 43.Bd2
43.Re5 Ne5 44.Rh2 Kg7–+.
43...Kg7 44.Qc3 Qf6 45.Qg3 Rc7
Threathening Rc4.
46.Re5!? Ne5 47.Bc3 Rc4
Only, but enough.
48.Kd1 Re4 49.Rh2 Qf1 50.Kc2 Re2
51.Re2 Qe2 52.Kb3 f6 0:1.

9. Achieving a theoretical draw or
building a fortress
This can be helped by the knowledge of
typical fortresses in the endgames. Myself I
learned a lot from Mark Dvoretsky
personally and from his excellent books.

Howell D. : Bologan V.
Solingen 2013

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68...Bb5!
The pawn on b4 will be gone anyway, so it's
to get some counterplay in exchange.
69.Nb4
69.Bb5 Nb5 70.Nb4 Nd4.
69...Qd4 70.Qc2 Qb4 71.Qc7 Bd7 72.Qc2
h6 73.Bc4 Kd8
In taking the decision on 68th move was the
evaluation of the bishop endgame.
74.Kf1 Qa5 75.Qb2 Qb4 76.Qc1 Qa5
77.Qb2 Qb4 78.Qc1 Qa5 79.Ke2 Qa2
80.Ke3 Qa7 81.Ke2 Qa2 82.Ke3 Qa7
83.Kd3 Qf2 84.Qe3 Qe3 85.Ke3 Kc7
86.Kd3 Kb6 87.Kc3 Ka5 88.Be2 ½.

10. Sacrifice as the part of combination
The combination usually is happening when
there are motives for it. The main are the
presence of the tactical weaknesses and
critical constructions in the position.

Bologan V. : Stellwagen D.
Solingen 2013

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26...Neg4!!

FIDE Surveys – Viorel Bologan

7

With his last two moves (Kf2 and g4) white
first created a critical construction
(Gavrikov) Kf2, Nc3 and then tactical
weakness (Chebanenco), the pawn on g4.
27.Kg1
27.fg4 Rc3 28.Rc3 Ne4.
27...Ne5 28.Nd5 Nd5 29.Rc8 Bc8 30.Rd5
Nc6 31.Kf2 Be6 32.Rd2 g5 33.Kg3 a5
34.h4 h6 35.e4 b5 36.f4 gf4 37.Kf4 Nb4
38.Ke3 Nc6 39.Rg2 Kf6 40.Rc2 Ne5
41.Rc5 Bd7 42.Kd4 Nf3 43.Kd5 Ke7
44.Rc7 Nh4 45.Ra7 a4 46.Ra6 h5 47.ba4
ba4 48.e5 Ng2 49.Ke4 h4 50.e6 Be6
51.Ra4 Ne1 52.Ke3 h3 53.Kf2 h2 54.Rh4
Nd3 55.Kg3 Ba2 56.Rh2 ½.


11. Distracting sacrifice
Usually when a piece is charged with an
important mission we bribe it with some
present in order to distract it from it’s duties


Mamedov R. : Bologan V.
Dubai 2014

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31.Nc6!
Distracting the rook from the important 8th
rank and meanwile using the critical
construction Rc8 and Kg8.
31...Raa8 32.Ne7 Kf8 33.Nc8 Rc8 34.a5
Ra8 35.Ra1 Nd7 36.a6 Ke7 37.c4 Nc5
38.Rb6 Ra7 39.Rc6 Nb3 40.Ra3 Kd7
41.cd5 ed5 42.Rb6 Nc5 43.Ra5 Kc7
44.Rbb5 Na6 45.Rd5 Kc6 46.Rd2 Kb6
47.Rda2 g6 48.Kg2 Ra8 49.Kg3 f6 50.f4 f5
51.h4 h5 52.Kf3 Ra7 53.Ra6 Ra6 54.Ra6
Ka6 55.Ke3 Kb6 56.Kd4 Kc6 57.Ke5 1:0.

12. Psychological sacrifices
- Which make opponent feel uncomfortable
(open king, passed pawns, passive position,
not coordinated pieces).
- Which make our own play easy and
smooth.

Conclusion:
To conclude I would take this article as a
beginning of a discussion “what we get in
exchange for the sacrifice?”. Definitely we
can add some more type of rewards but the
one described here I found the most typical
and important from practical point of view.