by Oliver Reeh
All combinations of this articlePawn 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).
The following deserves special mention:
In Shirov,A - Bachmann,A White uncorked the 'Shirov killer' (Efstratios Grivas on 22.11.2024 on the English ChessBase site) - 28.Re8??, which to be honest was your author's first idea...
"My favourites" - interactive training videos
We come to my four favourites, presented as usual in the interactive Fritztrainer format.
In Aitbayev,A - Sychev,K Black, after strong play from the opening, won prosaically with 18...Qe2, but he could also have been brilliant with 18...Rxf1+!
Video 1: "Beautifully spectacular"
'After 10...Na5 Black exchanges the dangerous white Spanish bishop on b3 and is thus free of all worries' - find the mistake! (De Silva,L - Subelj,J,
Video 2: "Sudden raid"
In Fromm,M - Grebnev,A Black's motto was 'first provocation, then combination'
Video 3: "Return motif"
And in finally in Agibileg,U - Praggnanandhaa,R you have the opportunity to outplay White seemingly effortlessly from the opening alongside a top grandmaster.
Video 4: "Pragg's Nimzoindian"
As always, I wish you every success with the exercises!