Give something up, or do nothing at all, and win anyway

Five patterns that all break the same beginner instinct: that a good move must attack something, and that material is the point.

• 5 motifs
• 600 positions
• Section Sacrifices and Quiet Moves

Sacrifices, quiet moves, in-between moves and zugzwang look like four unrelated ideas and are really one idea seen from four sides. In each of them the strongest move is not the one that grabs, checks or threatens. It is the one that changes what the opponent is allowed to do next.

Defence is in the same section deliberately. Finding the only move that holds a lost position is the same act of imagination as finding the sacrifice that breaks one, and improvers who only ever train attacking motifs get very good at winning won games and no better at saving bad ones.

Every motif in Sacrifices and Quiet Moves

• SacrificesGive material, get more back
• Quiet MovesThe winning move that threatens nothing
• In-Between MovesInsert a move before recapturing
• Running Out of MovesWhen having to move is the problem
• DefendingFinding the only move that holds

Other sections

• First MovesMate in one, free pieces
• TacticsForks, pins, skewers, traps
• Checkmate PatternsBack rank, smothered, mate in two
• Sharper TacticsDiscovered attacks, deflection, x-ray
• EndgamesPawn, rook, queen, minor piece
• AttackingKingside, queenside, mating attacks
• OpeningsTactics from real openings
• Blind SpotsNo hint, and the rule nobody sees
• The Ladder1200 to 2400, four rungs
• Open Games1.e4 e5, and the argument over f7
• Ruy Lopez LinesMorphy, Exchange, Berlin
• Sicilian SystemsAnti-Sicilians and main lines
• French VariationsAdvance, Exchange, Tarrasch, Winawer
• Caro-Kann VariationsExchange, Advance, Classical
• Sidelines and SurprisesGambits that should not work