Another important figure of the classical chess is former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik. He was born in the Soviet Union, in a region of what is now Saint Petersburg. He learned chess at the age of twelve, from a school friend of his older brother’s and fell in love with the game immediately. The first success came one year later, in 1924, when he won his school’s championship. In 1925 he beat the World Champion Jose Raul Capablanca in a simultaneous exhibition that was held during the Moscow tournament.

A good sacrifice is something that can completely change the evaluation of the position. It can save the game when you're in trouble, or it can help you win when the positions are nearly equal. Most amateur chess players are afraid to sacrifice pieces because they don't feel confident and don't want to take any risks. Today we will discuss seven most common and important sacrifices that a player of any level should keep in mind.

One of the main strategies in chess is not only to achieve a goal through a plan but also to prevent your opponent from achieving his goal, whatever it might be. The same goes when it comes to the pieces on the board; we should always try to drive our opponent's pieces into bad squares or limit their activity to the minimum.