Published 5/30/2024
Hello everyone! Today I will be discussing one of the most prominent motives in the Sicilian with the black pieces which is the Rxc3 sacrifice where black sacrifices a rook for a knight and counterplay. This sacrifice is most commonly played when white has already castled long in order to weaken the white king. Oftentimes, black also collects the e4 pawn as part of the sacrifice since the knight on c3 is the main defender of the e4 pawn.
Here is a visual example of what the sacrifice might look like (this is in no way meant to symbolize an actual position because there is a piece imbalance, it’s simply meant for visual purposes) :
In the sample position above, this could be a good time to sacrifice on c3 because white has already castled long and the e4 pawn would also be hanging after taking on c3. In other words, black would have a good amount of compensation for the exchange sacrifice.
Let’s take a look at a couple of games where the player with the black pieces executed the sacrifice correctly:
As seen, Ivanchuk executed the sacrifice at the right moment when his opponent had already castled queenside, creating many weaknesses around the king such as the c3 and a3 pawns. The e4 pawn was also left hanging since the knight was the primary defender of the pawn, although Ivanchuk continued with the attack instead of wasting time picking the pawn. Overall, this was a very instructive example of when the Rxc3 sacrifice is a strong option to consider.
Let’s take a look at another example of the exchange sacrifice. This time, however, the sacrifice is played positionally unlike Ivanchuk’s example where he was completely winning before move 20.
All in all, this is a very interesting motif in the Sicilian and you should always be on the lookout for sacrifices like Rxc3. Sacrifices like this aren’t always aggressive and can often be used for positional gain as well, as seen in the last example where Radjabov outplayed his opponent in an endgame.
I hope you enjoyed the article, and thanks for reading! If you have any suggestions on topics for future articles, let me know in the comments.
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Have a great rest of your day 🙂