Part II · Tactics Chapter 19 of 40
Sacrifice and combination
A combination is a chain of forced moves with a sacrifice that ends in mate or a material win. All the tricks of the previous chapters come together in it. We will see how to tell a sacrifice that works from one that simply loses a piece, and how to calculate such chains to the end.
What to know first: 18 · Mating patterns 16 · Overloading and removing the defender
What you will learn
- tell a sacrifice that pays off from a lost piece
- look for a combination through forcing moves: checks, captures and threats
- calculate a line to its final position and check every reply of the opponent on the way
A game on lichess.org, 2014. White to move. Two white rooks stand on the h-file, one behind the other, and run into the pawn on h6. Behind it is the black king. The white queen on f4 also looks at h6. The pawn on h6 is defended only by the pawn on g7.
You can take on h6 with the rook or with the queen. The two sacrifices look alike, but one leads to mate and the other only to a draw. Find the right one.
White to move, a game on lichess.org, 2014. Mate in three.
Rxh6+: the rook sacrifices itself. The pawn takes, …gxh6, otherwise mate comes even sooner. Qxh6+: now the queen checks along the same file, the king goes to g8, and Qh8#: the queen is protected by the rook on h4. If you start with the queen, Qxh6+ gxh6 Rxh6+, the king goes to g8, and a single rook is not enough to mate: White can only give perpetual check. Full game.
White gave up a rook and got mate. That is a combination: a sacrifice, then forced replies, and at the end the result the sacrifice was made for. And notice the order: the same sacrifices in a different order gave only a draw. In a combination every move counts, and a mistake in the move order costs as much as a mistake in the idea itself.
Sacrifice and combination
A sacrifice is a move by which you give up material on purpose. You have seen plenty of sacrifices in earlier chapters: the queen on g1 in the smothered mate, the rook on h8 in Damiano's mate, the queen on f7 to pull the rook off the back rank. A sacrifice is never made for its own sake. Behind it there is always a calculation: what you get in return.
A combination is a chain of forced moves with a sacrifice that ends in mate or a material win. The key word is "forced". If the opponent has to reply with one particular move at every step, you know how the game will go and can calculate it to the end. If they have a choice, the combination turns into a hope.
Some sacrifices pay off at once. You give up a piece and take back more a move later. Such a sacrifice is sometimes called a sham sacrifice: the material leaves the board only for a moment. Here is an example straight from the opening.
White to move, a game on lichess.org, 2014. Move seven. The black queen on d8 and the white queen on d1 stand on the same open file. The queen on d8 is defended only by the king.
Bxf7+: the bishop sacrifices itself with check. The king takes, …Kxf7, and leaves the queen. Qxd8: White has won the queen for a bishop. Black also took the pawn on b2, …cxb2, but after Bxb2 White is a queen up for a minor piece. Full game.
This is the deflection from chapter 15: the sacrifice lures the king away from the queen. There are also sacrifices that do not pay off in material at all. You give up a piece for an attack, for an open line, for the fact that the enemy king is left without cover. These are called real sacrifices, and we will come back to them in the strategy part of the course. In this chapter we stick to combinations that can be calculated to the end.
To tell whether a sacrifice paid off, compare the material at the start and at the end of the chain. The values from chapter 2 help here: a pawn is one, a knight and a bishop three each, a rook five, a queen nine. Gave up a bishop and won the queen — you are six pawns up. Gave up a rook and mated — values no longer matter, the game is over. And if at the end of the chain you have less material and no mate, the sacrifice was a mistake, however pretty it looked.
Forcing moves
A combination is built from moves the opponent must answer. There are three kinds, and you know all three. A check: the opponent must move the king, block or capture. A capture: the opponent must recapture or stay down material. A threat: an attack on the queen or a mating threat that has to be met. The stronger the forcing move, the fewer replies the opponent has and the easier it is to calculate.
So the search for a combination starts with a list. Go over all your checks, all your captures and all serious threats in your head. These are the candidates. For each one, look at the opponent's replies, and after each reply look again for your checks, captures and threats. Usually the branches end quickly: a reply is found, and the move drops out. But sometimes one branch goes on and on, and at its end there is mate.
Check the checks even when they look absurd. A queen sacrifice with check, a rook given up on h8, a bishop given up on h7 at first sight just lose a piece. But these are exactly the moves that most often hide a combination, because they leave the opponent no choice.
White to move, a game on lichess.org, 2014. The white queen on d3 looks along the diagonal at g6, but its own bishop on e4 is in the way. The bishop on e5 hits g7. Mate in three.
Bh7+: the bishop sacrifices itself with check and clears the diagonal for the queen. The rook takes, …Rxh7. Qg6+: the queen checks the king on g8 along the cleared diagonal. The king cannot go to h8, the bishop on e5 covers it, so Black blocks with the rook, …Rg7. Qxg7#: the queen takes the rook and is protected by the bishop on e5. Full game.
In this combination the sacrifice did two things at once: it cleared the diagonal for the queen and came with check, so Black had no time to defend. This happens a lot. One sacrifice opens a line, another lures a piece, a third removes a defender. The names of the tricks from earlier chapters help you understand what each move does, but it is easier to search for a combination through forcing moves.
Sometimes a combination has two checks in a row, and each one does its own job. The first lures the king onto a bad square, the second arrives where the king can no longer hide. Find such a pair in the next position.
White to move, a game on lichess.org, 2014. One white rook is already on the seventh rank, the second waits on a1. The knight on f6 and the bishop on d6 control e8, f8 and g8. Mate in three.
Rxf7+: the first rook sacrifices itself and drags the king to f7. …Kxf7. Ra7+: the second rook comes to the vacated square with check, and Black blocks, …Rc7. Rxc7#: e8 and g8 are covered by the knight on f6, f8 by the bishop on d6, the knight on f6 is protected by the pawn on e5, and the rook holds the seventh rank. Full game.
On g7 the king was relatively safe. The sacrifice put it on f7, where the neighbouring squares are already held by the knight on f6 and the bishop on d6, and a single check along the seventh rank was enough for mate. This is a common motif: before you check, think about which square would leave the enemy king defenceless, and whether you can drive it there.
Breaking the shelter
A king that has castled short usually stands behind the pawns on f7, g7 and h7, or f2, g2 and h2 for White. The pawns protect it from checks. Many combinations begin by removing one of these pawns with a sacrifice. After that the king has no cover, and the queen and rook break in.
The most common targets are h6 and h7 for Black, h3 and h2 for White. A rook or bishop sacrifice on h6 destroys the g7 pawn and opens the h-file for the queen. A bishop sacrifice on h7 drags the king forward, into checks from the knight and queen. Such sacrifices need pieces nearby: a queen that can get there in time and a second piece that helps deliver mate. Without them the sacrifice leads nowhere.
White to move, a game on lichess.org, 2014. The black king on h8 is covered by the pawns on g7 and h6. The white rook on h3 and queen on e3 look at h6, the bishop on c2 at h7. Mate in three.
Rxh6+: the rook takes the pawn with check. The pawn takes the rook, …gxh6, and the king's shelter is gone. Qxh6+: the queen checks along the h-file. The king cannot go to g8, its own rook stands there, so Black blocks with the knight, …Nh7. Qxh7#: the queen takes the knight and is protected by the bishop on c2. Full game.
But a sacrifice on h7 does not always work. If you have no pieces to carry on the attack after it, you simply give up a bishop for a pawn. Here is what that looks like.
…Kxh7. White can check with Qh5+, but the king simply goes back to g8. There is no knight to check from g5 and no rook that could reach the h-file in time. The attack is over before it began, and Black is a bishop up.Before sacrificing on h7, count the pieces that can reach the king within two or three moves. The classic bishop sacrifice on h7 needs a knight ready to jump to g5 and a queen ready to come to h5. Without them the sacrifice is a wasted piece.
There is a second check too: the opponent's defenders. Even if your pieces are close, the opponent may have a knight that goes to f6 and covers h7, or a bishop that takes your piece on g5. Before sacrificing, look at the position through the opponent's eyes: which of their pieces can come to the king's aid in one move? If there are none, the attack most likely works. If there are, they first have to be removed or deflected, as in the chapter on overload.
Back-rank combinations
A king shut in by its own pawns is an easy target for a combination. You saw the back-rank mate in the previous chapter. The combination here usually consists of removing the back rank's defender: luring it away with a queen sacrifice or trading it off. Sometimes there are two defenders, and then you need two sacrifices.
White to move, a game on lichess.org, 2014. The black king is still in the centre, on e8. The white queen on d3 and the rook on d1 stand on the open d-file. Mate in three.
Nc7+: the knight checks the king. The queen on d3 covers d7 and d8, so the king goes to f8. Qd8+: the queen sacrifices itself on the back rank. Only the knight can take, …Nxd8. Rxd8#: the rook arrives on d8. The rook covers e8 and g8 along the rank, e7 is occupied by Black's own knight, f7 and g7 by pawns. Full game.
White to move, a game on lichess.org, 2014. The white queen and rook look down the d-file at the black king. Mate in four.
Qd7+: the queen checks at close range, and the king goes to f8. Bc5+: the bishop checks along the diagonal, and Black blocks with the knight, …Ne7. Qd8+: the queen sacrifices itself. The rook takes, …Rxd8. Rxd8#: the rook covers e8 and g8 along the rank, e7 is occupied by the knight, which is pinned by the bishop on c5, and f7 and g7 are Black's own pawns. Full game.
Compare these two combinations. In both the queen gives itself up on d8, and in both the rook mates from the same square. The only difference is the preparation. In the first the king went to f8 after a knight check, in the second the queen drove it there, and the bishop on c5 forced the black knight with check to stand on e7 and take that square away from its own king. The mating pattern is the same, but the road to it differs. That is why the patterns from the previous chapter are so useful: when you recognise a familiar final position, you start looking for the way to it.
A combination does not have to end in mate. Often its result is a material win: a queen for a rook, a rook for a bishop. The principle is the same: forcing moves, a sacrifice, and at the end a position where you are ahead.
White to move, a game on lichess.org, 2014. The black king is on b7. The white rook on h8 stands on the back rank.
Qd5+: the queen checks along the d5–b7 diagonal. Black blocks with the queen, …Qc6, and the queen on c6 is defended only by the king. Rb8+: the rook sacrifices itself with check. The king takes, …Kxb8, and if it goes to a7 or a6 instead, the queen on c6 is left undefended just the same. Qxc6: White gave up a rook and took the queen. Full game.
How to calculate a combination
A long combination is hard to see all at once, and you do not need to. You calculate it step by step, checking the same thing each time: what replies does the opponent have, and what do you play after each of them? If there is one reply, the step is easy. If there are several, you have to check them all. A missed reply is the most common reason a combination fails.
Let us go step by step through a combination in which Black sacrifices a bishop and a rook and mates with the queen.
…Bxh2+. The king cannot take the bishop, the rook on h8 defends it. All that is left is to step into the corner.…Rh1+. The rook gives itself up so that the king lands on h1 and the queen can come to h4 with check.…Qh2#. The queen is protected by the bishop on g3. The square f1 is occupied by White's own rook, f2 and g2 by White's own pawns. Black gave up a bishop and a rook and mated.Notice how much choice White had along the way: almost none (full game). Every Black move was a check, and each time the king had one or two squares. That is why a combination made of checks can be calculated five moves ahead, while a quiet plan cannot. The fewer replies the opponent has, the deeper you can look.
When you calculate, keep the final position in mind, not only the moves. At the end of the combination ask yourself the same question as at the start: what checks and captures does the opponent have? Sometimes, after you win the queen, the opponent still has a mate of their own or a perpetual check. A combination counts only when the final position really is better for you.
White to move, a game on lichess.org, 2014. The black rook on d1 is attacking the rook on f1. Find the combination that wins material, and calculate it to the end.
Qf4+: the queen checks along the f4–b8 diagonal. Black blocks with the queen, …Qc7, and it is defended only by the king. Ra8+: the rook sacrifices itself, and the king must take, …Kxa8, because c7 is occupied by its own queen. Qxc7: a queen for a rook. But the calculation does not end there. Black has …Rxf1+ Kxf1 Rd1+: the rooks are traded, and the remaining black rook gives check. In the final position White has a queen against a rook, and that is winning. Full game.
In this position it is easy to stop at Qxc7 and be happy with the extra queen. But Black had a counterblow: the rook on d1 took on f1 with check. White still kept a big advantage, because a queen is stronger than a rook. If Black had a mate after losing the queen, the whole combination would have turned into a loss. So the last step of the calculation is to look at the final position through the opponent's eyes.
It helps to keep a short checking order in your head. It works for any sacrifice, from the simplest to the longest.
- List your checks, captures and threats. These are the candidates.
- For each candidate, find all of the opponent's replies, not only the one you expect.
- After each reply, look for forcing moves again. A branch without them usually ends there.
- When you reach the end, compare the material and check the opponent's checks and captures in the final position.
You have found a queen sacrifice after which the opponent has three different replies. Two of them lose, and you have not checked the third yet. What do you do?
A combination works only if every reply of the opponent loses. The opponent will choose the best reply if there is one. So an unchecked reply is a hole in your calculation, and it has to be closed before you give up the queen.
One last thing. Combinations rarely appear out of nowhere. Almost always they are preceded by a good position: the opponent's pieces stand badly, their king lacks protection, your pieces are active and point the same way. A combination is a way to turn such an advantage into mate or material. The opening and strategy parts of the course will show how to create such positions. For now, learn to notice the moment when the position is ripe.
What's next
This is the end of the tactics part of the course. You know double attacks, pins, deflections and mating patterns, and you can put them together into combinations. The next part is about the opening: how to start a game so that by the middlegame your pieces stand well and the combinations are yours, not your opponent's. The first chapter of that part is about opening principles and typical mistakes.