Exchange Sacrifice
Deliberately giving up a rook for a bishop or knight to gain positional, structural, or attacking compensation.
Because a rook is generally worth more than a minor piece, an exchange sacrifice trades material for activity, structure, or attacking chances that outweigh the difference in raw piece value.
Etymology
The compound depends on the peculiar chess noun “the exchange,” meaning specifically the rook-for-minor-piece differential. Steinitz's 1889 glossary defines the specialised noun — “winning or losing a Rook for a minor piece is called winning or losing the exchange” — and in the same volume's annotations uses the verbal phrase for the sacrifice: “with the view of sacrificing the exchange.” Capablanca uses the fully nominal English form in Chess Fundamentals (1921): “the sacrifice of the exchange, without even a Pawn for it, could not succeed against sound defensive play.” No source consulted names a coiner of the compound term itself.
First documented: 1889 — Steinitz, The Modern Chess Instructor (New York, 1889)
Translations
Translations for this term haven't been added yet.