- Not exchanges in general: The Exchange. The Exchange is when a Bishop or Knight is swapped for a Rook. By normal chess accounting, that's a swap of 3 pawns for 5, so one player has lost the Exchange, we say, and is then an Exchange behind in material.
- Losing the Exchange is enough to lose the game, as the more powerful Rook can usually create more problems than a minor piece can solve.
- Usually. In an endgame without Pawns, K+R vs K+B or K+N should be a draw.
- Lost or sacrificed?
- The device of an Exchange sacrifice can lead to a quick mate (Grigoriants-Prasanna)
- In a position with no open files, a sacrifice of the Exchange can be a good long-term idea, either for defensive reasons (Reshevsky-Petrosian) or attacking reasons (Bronstein-Boleslavsky, ). Lu-Kanter shows both sides sacrificing the Exchange!
Click [...] to see list of games
[Event "Gibraltar Masters 2018"]
[Site "Caleta ENG"]
[Date "2018.02.01"]
[Round "10.33"]
[White "Grigoriants, Sergey"]
[Black "Prasanna, Raghuram Rao"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B48"]
[WhiteElo "2568"]
[BlackElo "2458"]
[PlyCount "60"]
[EventDate "2018.01.23"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "10"]
[EventCountry "ENG"]
[SourceTitle "ChessPub 2019"]
[Source "ChessPublishing"]
[SourceDate "2020.01.10"]
[SourceVersion "9"]
[SourceVersionDate "2020.01.10"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. a3 Be7 8.
Be2 O-O 9. f4 d6 10. Qd2 a6 11. O-O-O Nxd4 12. Qxd4 b5 13. g4 Bb7 14. g5 Nd7
15. h4 Rfc8 16. Kb1 Nc5 17. Bf3 Na4 18. Bd2 Nb6 19. Bg4 d5 20. exd5 Nxd5 21.
Bf3 Bf8 22. Rhf1 b4 23. axb4 Nxb4 24. Bxb7 Qxb7 25. Bc1 Rab8 26. h5 Nxc2 27.
Kxc2 Qb3+ 28. Kb1 Rxc3 29. Rd2 Rb4 30. Qe5 Rc5 0-1
[Event "Zurich"]
[Site "defence: exchange sacrifice t"]
[Date "1953.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Reshevsky, Samuel"]
[Black "Petrosian, Tigran Vartanovich"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E58"]
[Annotator "defence: exchange sacrifice to"]
[PlyCount "81"]
[EventDate "1953.??.??"]
{[%mdl 256]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Bd3 d5 6. Nf3 c5 7. O-O
Nc6 8. a3 Bxc3 9. bxc3 b6 10. cxd5 exd5 11. Bb2 c4 12. Bc2 Bg4 13. Qe1 Ne4 14.
Nd2 Nxd2 15. Qxd2 Bh5 16. f3 Bg6 17. e4 Qd7 18. Rae1 dxe4 19. fxe4 Rfe8 20. Qf4
b5 21. Bd1 Re7 22. Bg4 Qe8 23. e5 a5 24. Re3 Rd8 25. Rfe1 {[#] Black is under
pressure. He conceives a defensive blockade with a strong knight on d5
supported by a pawn on e6. What pawn on e6? Watch...} Re6 (25... b4 26. Bf3)
26. a4 Ne7 27. Bxe6 fxe6 28. Qf1 Nd5 29. Rf3 Bd3 {[#] You could almost fancy
Black here.} 30. Rxd3 cxd3 31. Qxd3 b4 32. cxb4 (32. c4) 32... axb4 33. a5 Ra8
34. Ra1 Qc6 35. Bc1 Qc7 36. a6 Qb6 37. Bd2 b3 38. Qc4 h6 39. h3 b2 40. Rb1 Kh8
41. Be1 (41. Be1 Rxa6 42. Qc8+ Kh7 43. Qc2+ g6 44. Qxb2 Qxb2 45. Rxb2 Ra1 46.
Kf2) 1/2-1/2
[Event "Candidates playoff 1pl"]
[Site "Moscow"]
[Date "1950.??.??"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Bronstein, David I"]
[Black "Boleslavsky, Isaak"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D89"]
[PlyCount "63"]
[EventDate "1950.??.??"]
[EventType "match"]
[SourceTitle "Candidates"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "1999.07.01"]
[SourceVersion "2"]
[SourceVersionDate "1999.07.01"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 c5 7. Bc4 Bg7 8.
Ne2 O-O 9. O-O cxd4 10. cxd4 Nc6 11. Be3 Bg4 12. f3 Na5 13. Bd3 Be6 14. d5 Bxa1
15. Qxa1 f6 16. Bh6 Qb6+ 17. Kh1 Rfd8 18. Rb1 Qc5 19. Bd2 b6 20. Bb4 Qc7 21.
Rc1 Qb7 22. Qb1 Rab8 23. dxe6 Nc6 24. Bc3 Ne5 25. Bb5 Rbc8 26. Bxe5 Rxc1+ 27.
Qxc1 fxe5 28. Bd7 Qa6 29. Ng3 Qxa2 30. h4 Rf8 31. Qg5 Rf6 32. Qxf6 1-0
[Event "Aeroflot Open B"]
[Site "Moscow RUS"]
[Date "2011.02.16"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Lu Yijie"]
[Black "Kanter, Leonid"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B78"]
[WhiteElo "2311"]
[BlackElo "2429"]
[PlyCount "57"]
[EventDate "2011.02.08"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "RUS"]
[SourceTitle "ChessPub 2019"]
[Source "ChessPublishing"]
[SourceDate "2020.01.10"]
[SourceVersion "9"]
[SourceVersionDate "2020.01.10"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2
Nc6 9. Bc4 Bd7 10. h4 Ne5 11. Bb3 h5 12. O-O-O Rc8 13. Bh6 Bxh6 14. Qxh6 {[#]}
Rxc3 15. bxc3 Qc7 16. Kb1 a5 17. f4 Nc4 18. f5 a4 19. Bxc4 Qxc4 20. fxg6 Rc8
21. Rhf1 fxg6 22. Qxg6+ Kf8 23. e5 dxe5 {[#]} 24. Rxf6+ exf6 25. Qxf6+ Qf7 26.
Qh8+ Ke7 27. Qxe5+ Kf8 28. Qh8+ Qg8 29. Rf1+ 1-0