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Desperado

Tactics
Queen level · ages 8–11
topic 20 of 100

A piece that is going to be captured whatever happens, so it takes something on the way out rather than being lost for nothing.

Why it matters

A desperado is a piece that is already lost and knows it. Instead of being taken for nothing, it takes something on the way out, so the loss costs the opponent as well.

The habit worth building is the question itself: before conceding a piece, ask what it can still capture, check, or destroy. A doomed piece has nothing left to lose, which makes it the freest piece on the board.

See it on a board

start · 0/2

The knight on a8 is trapped: b6 is covered and c7 is a pawn. Doing nothing loses it for free, so it takes the pawn with it — a knight for a pawn instead of a knight for nothing.

Checked: this line costs at most 2 pawns of material.

How to play it

  1. Confirm the piece really is lost — no safe square, no defence worth making.
  2. List everything it can capture, and every check it can give, in that order.
  3. Take the most valuable thing it can reach, and prefer captures that come with check or that wreck the pawns in front of the king.

At each level

The same idea, said the way it is taught at each age.

Rook · ages 6–9

If a piece is going to be captured whatever you do, do not just leave it. See what it can take first.

Queen · ages 8–11

Desperado situations often come in pairs: both sides have a piece that is lost, and the one who grabs first comes out ahead. Count the whole sequence, not just your own capture.

What goes wrong

  • Giving up on a piece that was not actually trapped and could have been saved.
  • Grabbing the nearest pawn when a better capture, or a check, was available with the same piece.

Questions people ask

Is a desperado a sacrifice?
Not really. A sacrifice gives up something you could have kept; a desperado has already been lost, and is only choosing what to take down with it.

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