Pawn sacrifices - small price, big effect!

by ChessBase
3/17/2025 – Pawn sacrifices occur in chess in all phases of the game, and the intentions associated with the sacrifice can be of the most diverse nature. In his latest CBM article, Oliver Reeh sheds light on pawn sacrifices in a tactical context and states even here: ‘Pawn sacrifices can be motivated in very different ways.’ In his column, you can expect 40 games peppered with a total of 170 (!) training questions! The tactics expert has also recorded his four favourite combinations in interactive video format. Take advantage of this week's reading sample and solve the problems move by move - together with the IM from Hamburg. Have fun!

ChessBase Magazine 224 ChessBase Magazine 224

Tata Steel 2025 with game analyses by Praggnanandhaa, Abdusattorov, Giri and many others. Opening videos by Ganguly, Blohberger and King. 10 opening articles with new ideas for your repertoire. Special on Korttschnoj and much more!

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Free sample from CBM #224: Pawn sacrifices - small price, big effect!

Excerpt from Oliver Reeh's tactics column

Click on one of the following images to load the full article in the ChessBase Books format with your web browser! You will also find the solutions to the following tasks there.

"Pawn sacrifices can be motivated in very different ways, as the first seven diagrams show!

Opposite castling - whether the attacker Richard Rapport played his move a tempo in Rapport,R - Short,N?

Rossolimo-Sicilian - how did Black become active in Orlov,O - Kamalidenova,M?

Reti trap - in Assaubayeva,B - Haimovich,T things went downhill
for Black after the inaccurate 8...e6?!.

King's Indian motif - in Collin,M - Razafindratsima,T White can't take twice on d4 after 8...Nd4! and on 9.Be3 Black plays dynamically what?

In Xue,H - Harsha Bharathakoti White begun a typical act of liberation against the black Maroczy bind.

White's opening move in Vakhidov,J - Keymer,V is obvious (queenside pieces!) - the continuation?

Finally, the most difficult case: White to play and win (Sokolovsky,Y - Emmenecker,P)."

Highlights of ChessBase Magazine #224

From the Tata Steel Masters & Challengers 2025 to Robert Ris' training column ‘Move by Move’ and Felix Blohberger's opening video on 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 h6 to Dorian Rogozenco's ‘The Fortress’ to ‘Fundamental Endgame Knowledge’ with Dr Karsten Mueller.

Over 7 hours of video playing time with Felix Blohberger, Surya Ganguly, Daniel King, Jan Markos, Karsten Mueller, Michael Prusikin, Oliver Reeh, Robert Ris and Dorian Rogozenco. 

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7/22/2024 – “Finishing off the opponent's king is, and remains, the ultimate goal of a chess game, and in order to memorise the checkmating patterns and know how to use them successfully in your own games, only one thing helps: practise again and again!”. Oliver Reeh introduces his tactics column in the new ChessBase Magazine #220 with these words. Is there anything to add? Let's go! Take advantage of the CBM reading sample of the week and go king hunting with Oliver Reeh. Here and now and directly via your web browser!
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Video

60m How to fight Queen's Pawn Openigns

After 1.d4 d5 many players with White avoid the great amount of theory in the Slav, Semi-Slav, QGA and Orthodox Queen's Gambit and do not therefore play 2.c4. This is not very ambitious, but the painful experience of many chess players has been that the Colle System, the Trompowsky Attack, the Torre Attack and the London System are nevertheless extremely dangerous. Black has to be prepared for each of these openings and IM Valeri Lilov offers you some help with his six instructive videos, in which he demonstrates for each single opening a relevant plan for Black. In addition to the openings mentioned, the Bulgarian trainer also delves into the Catalan, the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit and the Richter-Veresov Opening.
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