Susan Polgar - Learn Chess the Right Way: Book 4: Sacrifice to Win!

Learn Chess
the
Right Way Book 4 Sacrifice to Win! by
Susan Polgarwith Paul Truong Learn Chess the Right Way Book 4: Sacrifice to Win! Copyright 2017 Susan Polgar ISBN: 978-1-941270-64-6 ISBN (eBook): 978-1-941270-65-3 All Rights Reserved No part of this book maybe used, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any manner or form whatsoever or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Published by: Russell Enterprises, Inc. PO Box 3131 Milford, CT 06460 USA http://www.russell-enterprises.com Cover design by Janel Lowrance Front cover Image by Christine Flores Back cover photo by Timea Jaksa Contributor: Tom Polgar-Shutzman Table of ContentsIntroduction Ever since I was four years old, I remember the joy of solving chess puzzles. I wrote my first puzzle book when I was just 15, and have published a number of other best-sellers since, such as A World Champions Guide to Chess, Chess Tactics for Champions, and Breaking Through, etc. With over 40 years of experience as a world-class player and trainer, I have developed the most effective way to help young players and beginners Learn Chess the Right Way. By understanding the most common and critical patterns, it will help you improve much quicker.

In this Learn Chess the Right Way series, I will show you the most effective way to learn and improve through pattern recognition. Volume 4 is all about exercises where you have to make a sacrifice for a material gain or even checkmate. In each of the first five chapters, a certain piece is being sacrificed to checkmate the enemy King (in chapter 1 The Queen, in chapter 2 The Rook, and so on). In chapters 6-10, you will get no hint about which piece should be sacrificed. However, you will know what the target is, to win a Queen, or Rook etc. In chapter 11, there will be no hints whatsoever.

The goal is simple: sacrifice one of your pieces to either checkmate or gain material. Many of the examples are built on skills (such as forks, discoveries or pins) learned in volumes 1 and 2 of this series. In most of the puzzles, you will need to think 2-3 pairs of moves ahead in order to find the correct solution. In some examples, it will be White to move, while in others you will have to try to find the winning move for Black. Those will alternate from page to page. Also please note that under each diagram you will be able to record the amount of time it took you to solve each puzzle.

As you go through and solve the puzzles again, your speed recognizing the winning material patterns should improve. In chess, pattern recognition is a very important part of playing better chess. Therefore, my suggestion is to try to solve the puzzles multiple times, or until you feel that you can recognize the correct solutions within a couple minutes per page (four puzzles). Initially you may want to set up the pieces on the chess board as shown in the diagrams (make sure every piece is exactly as shown!). But by the second time around, I would surely recommend to try to solve the puzzles just from the diagram. I hope you will have a lot of enjoyment on embarking on the road Learning Chess the Right Way! Susan Polgar February 2017 Chapters 1-5:
Sacrifice to Mate!Chapter 1Queen Sacrifice to Checkmate! As we know, the queen is the most valuable piece of all on the chessboard.

Yet, there are some situations in which, in order to achieve the ultimate goal (to checkmate the opponents king), it is necessary to sacrifice it. Naturally, whenever one takes such drastic action, giving up the most valuable piece, one has to be 100% sure that the sacrifice works, and to have checkmate following up regardless how the opponent responds. A common mistake people often make is that they do not look at the opponents best responses, but instead only at the most obvious choice. Now let us see a few basic examples about what you will practice in this chapter. White to move Looking at this position, it is important to notice that Black has a serious checkmating threat, Qa3-a1. White could play defensively with 1.Qd4, protecting the a1 square, but that would lead to a lengthy endgame with an unclear outcome after 1Qa2+ 2.Kc1 Qa1+.

Therefore, it is important to always search for better alternatives. It is wise to first look for any potential checkmate patterns. In this case, it is noteworthy that if Blacks pawn on e6 were to be removed, White could checkmate with Rb6-g6. But how to get rid of that pawn which is obstructing checkmate? Clearly, we can consider only forceful moves (checks), otherwise Black will checkmate first. The solution is: 1.Qxf5+. This pretty queen sacrifice leaves Black with only one option, to capture with 1exf5, and then our goal is accomplished with 2.Rg6 checkmate.

In our next example, Black will have multiple possible responses to our first move, but will get checkmated after any of them. White to move Analogous to the previous example, Black also threatens to checkmate with 1Qa1. Therefore, in order to win, White must search for forceful moves, not giving Black the time to accomplish his goal first. The answer is: 1.Qxe5+. The basic idea is that after 1dxe5 white checkmates with 2.Bc5#. Black to move It seems that Black is in trouble here. Black to move It seems that Black is in trouble here.

White has an extra knight and additionally has just played Ne5xg4, forking the black queen and rook. But Black has a powerful counterpunch! Obviously, if Black just makes a quiet move like 1Qd2, White would capture the rook on e3, and Black would be in a pretty hopeless situation. So, as in the above two examples, here too, Black needs to look for forceful alternatives. Black actually has two such options, 1Qxg2+ as well as 1Qxg1+. The former almost works, but not quite. This is a good example to always look out for your opponents various responses and not just the first one that comes to mind.

After 1Qxg2+?, if White re-captures with 2.Rxg2, Black indeed checkmates after 2Re1+. However, after 2.Kxg2, there would be no good follow up to the sacrifice and Black would find himself in a totally lost position. Consequently, the correct answer is 1Qxg1+ 2.Kxg1 Re1 checkmate. As Blacks second move is a double check, White cannot block the attack on the king. Now you will find 40 examples to practice this theme. In each one, you will need to look for the correct queen sacrifice, which will be followed by checkmate on the second move.

The pages will alternate between White to move and Black to move puzzles, as in all upcoming chapters. And now, have fun, and good luck solving the next 40 puzzles! Black to move