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.
Giving up a queen sounds absurd, yet some of the most famous games contain one. The sacrifice works because the queen is worth nine points while a checkmate is worth the whole game. The point is to force the enemy to take the queen, or to remove a key defender, so that your remaining pieces finish the job.
Look for the idea when the enemy king is short of squares, when a defender is overloaded, or when a capture on the queen drags a piece to the wrong square. Forcing moves matter most. A check or a capture that leaves only one legal reply lets you calculate to the end.
Before sacrificing, find the full line, not just the first move. Ask what Black can play instead of taking, whether you have a check that leads to the same mate, and whether any other defense changes the result. If you cannot find every reply, the sacrifice is a gamble.
To defend, do not always grab the queen. First check what the capturing piece leaves undefended and whether the king can be mated afterwards. Often the correct reply is to decline, so count the forcing lines before you take.
In the diagram White plays Qc6+. The pawn on b7 must capture, because every king move is covered and nothing can block. After bxc6 the bishop goes to a6, giving check along the diagonal while the other bishop covers b8 and c7. It is checkmate.
A neighboring idea is Boden's mate. Boden's mate is a checkmate in which two bishops attack along diagonals that cross, one giving check and the other cutting off flight squares, while the king's own pieces block the rest.
It sits close to Damiano's mate. Damiano's mate is a checkmate in which a queen gives check on h7 next to a king on g8, guarded by a pawn on g6, while the king's own pieces block its remaining flight squares.
Also worth reading is Decoy. 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.
To see how often "Queen 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 smothered mate is a knight checkmate against a king hemmed in by its own men: every square the king could use holds its own pieces, and a knight check cannot be blocked.
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 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.
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 back rank mate is a checkmate on a player's first or eighth rank, typically by a rook or queen, delivered when the king's own pawns leave it no square to step to.
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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