Sacrifice puzzles
84 free sacrifice puzzles from real games, rated 828 to 2369. Solve them on the board below; your accuracy feeds your weakness map.
What is a sacrifice?
A sacrifice gives up material on purpose to get something bigger: mate, a winning attack, or more material back. These puzzles are where most players' search breaks down, because sacrifices look wrong at first glance.
Training sacrifices is really training the habit of considering moves you'd normally dismiss.
Common mistake
Sacrificing on hope. Calculate the forced line to a clear win before you give the material.
How to spot it
Consider every capture and check, even ones that lose material on the spot.
Ask what the opponent's position looks like after the forced recapture.
Sacrifices near the king (h7, f7, g7) often work when two or more of your pieces are aimed there.
Related themes
- ForkOne piece attacks two targets at once.
- PinA piece that can't move without exposing something bigger.
- SkewerA reverse pin: the big piece moves, the one behind falls.
- Discovered attackMove one piece, unleash another.
- Double checkTwo checks at once. The king must move.
Let the adaptive drill find your weakest pattern
Puzzles: Lichess puzzle database (CC0), filtered for popularity and play count. See how Weakspot works.