Desperado piece
A desperado is a doomed piece that cashes in before it dies: it captures or gives check, taking the most it can from the position instead of being lost for nothing.
Also called: desperado
When a piece cannot be saved, the question changes. Instead of asking how to save it, you ask what is the most it can win before it goes. That is the desperado idea: the doomed piece captures something, gives check, or forces a trade, and turns a total loss into a partial one.
There are two common settings. In the first, a piece is trapped or attacked by something cheaper and has no escape, so it takes a pawn or a piece on its way out. In the second, both sides have pieces hanging at the same moment; the side to move should take first and take the best thing, because the captured piece might otherwise have captured too.
Practical advice: before giving a piece up for nothing, list every capture and check it has, including those that look protected. A single pawn grabbed with check can decide an endgame. And when your opponent's piece looks doomed, do not relax: count its last captures before you conclude you are winning it for free.
To keep the idea honest, compare each option with simply losing the piece, and make sure it really is trapped before deciding to sell it.
In the diagram White's bishop on a7 is attacked by the rook on a8 and has no safe retreat, since b8 is covered by both rook and king. Bxb6+ takes a pawn with check. If Black captures with Kxb6, White has still turned a lost piece into a pawn.
To see how often "Desperado piece" 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
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 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.
A double attack is one move that creates two threats at once, whether they come from a single piece or from two, and whether they aim at pieces or at checkmate.
A fork is a move that leaves one of your pieces threatening two enemy pieces together. Because the opponent gets only one turn to respond, something usually falls.
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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