Clearance sacrifice
A clearance sacrifice gives up material to remove a piece from a square, file, rank or diagonal, so that another of your pieces can use that line or square for a winning or mating move.
Sometimes your own pieces, or an enemy piece, are standing in the way of your attack. A clearance sacrifice pays material to get rid of the blocker. The move is not the point. The point is the line or square it frees, which lets another piece deliver mate or win more than was given up.
The sacrificed piece can be your own, moved off a key line, or an enemy piece that you capture or force to leave. It often comes with a check or a capture, because a forcing move gives the opponent no time to fix the problem. Typical targets are a diagonal for a bishop, a file for a queen or rook, or a square for a knight.
To find one, first picture the finished position. Ask which of your pieces would give mate or win material if only one square or line were free, then ask what is blocking it and whether you can move that piece with tempo. A clearance sacrifice is closely related to a vacating sacrifice, where a piece moves away to make a square available for another piece.
To defend, watch for your own pieces that block your key defensive lines, and be careful when your king is covered only by a single bishop or rook.
In the diagram White's rook on e5 blocks the bishop on b2 from the long diagonal to g7, while the queen on h6 is ready to mate. White plays Re8+. Black must take with Rxe8, since every king move is covered. The diagonal is now open, and Qg7 is checkmate, with the bishop supporting the queen.
Compare it with Underpromotion. Underpromotion is promoting a pawn to a rook, bishop or knight instead of a queen, chosen because the lesser piece wins or draws more in the position at hand.
It sits close to Queen sacrifice. A queen sacrifice gives up the strongest piece on the board, usually with a check or a capture, to win through a forced checkmate or to gain enough other material to be clearly ahead.
To see how often "Clearance sacrifice" or a pattern like it decides your own games, book a first lesson: George Li reviews your games and writes a study plan around what he finds.
Related terms
A vacating sacrifice gives up a piece so that it leaves, or is captured on, a square or line that another of your pieces needs, usually to deliver mate or win material.
Deflection is the tactic of dragging an enemy defender off its post, often by a threat or an offered capture, so that what it was holding together falls apart.
A decoy is a tactic that lures an enemy piece onto a chosen square, usually with a sacrifice it has to accept, so that the piece can be forked, blocks one of its own lines or loses its old job.
A combination is a forcing sequence of moves, usually built from sacrifices and checks, in which every move leaves the opponent few or no choices and the sequence ends in a concrete gain such as mate or material.
Guides that go further
What to decide first, the questions to ask, what a first lesson should show and the red flags to avoid.
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