Урок 8. Ценность шахматных фигур

Uneven distribution of material

An uneven distribution of material occurs when the total number of pawn units on both sides may be equal, but White and Black have different pieces.

Pieces	Approximate equivalent

The sacrifice

Whenever a player accepts a loss of material in order to bring about an attack or a positional advantage we call that a sacrifice.

Sacrifices are often made when attacking the king. Pawn sacrifices allow you to rip open the opponent's king position or open up files for the attack. With piece sacrifices you can destroy the defensive wall of pawns.

When sacrificing major pieces the attacking player generally calculates the resulting variations all the way to the end. Here the end means the checkmate of the opposing king or recovering the material with an advantage.

The exchange of a rook for a bishop or a rook for a knight is called an exchange sacrifice. Exchange sacrifices and pawn sacrifices are often purely positional sacrifices. They are used to obtain a positional advantage, which may not be able to be calculated in concrete variations but which promises the player making the sacrifice a superior position for his pieces, attacking chances or a clear initiative.