Combination
The Desperado
A desperado is a piece that is doomed — it is attacked and every square it can reach is covered — so instead of dying for nothing it grabs the most valuable material it can on the way out. Being attacked is not enough on its own: a piece that can simply step to safety should just retreat. In the diagram Black has hit White's knight on d5 with the pawn on c6, and the bishop on d6 together with the pawns on a7 and g7 covers every flight square. Since the knight is lost whatever White does, it takes the rook on e7 and sells itself for the biggest price on the board.
24. Nxe7 Bxe7
What a Desperado Is
A desperado is a piece that is going to be captured no matter what its owner does, so instead of dying quietly it sells itself as dearly as possible. The test is not simply whether the piece is attacked — an attacked piece that can step to a safe square should usually just step there. The test is whether every square it can reach is covered. Once that is true the piece is doomed, it has nothing left to lose, and its final move should take the most valuable thing within its reach.
That change of status turns a hopeless move into a profitable one. A doomed knight is only nominally worth three points to its owner, because it is already on its way off the board; the real question is what it collects on the way. Capture nothing and the piece is a pure loss. Capture a rook and the same loss becomes a trade — and a knight traded for a rook is a gain of the exchange.
The Line Move by Move
The pawn on c6 attacks the knight on d5, so White counts the flight squares and finds none at all. The bishop on d6 rakes across b4, c7, e7 and f4; the pawn on a7 guards b6; the pawn on g7 guards f6. Every knight move drops the piece, and leaving it where it stands simply allows cxd5. The knight is already dead, so the only question left is what it can take with it.
Nxe7 answers that question: the knight helps itself to the rook, the most valuable target it can touch. Bxe7 recaptures, and the accounting is clear. White has handed over a knight that was lost anyway and collected a rook for it, emerging a clean exchange ahead with two rooks against a rook and bishop. Compare that with Nb6 or Nf4, where the knight is taken for nothing at all and White is simply a piece down.
How to Use the Desperado
Whenever one of your pieces is attacked, count its escape squares before you reach for a retreat. If even one square is genuinely safe, retreating is usually right and there is no desperado to be found. If no square is safe, stop trying to save the piece and start thinking about how to spend it: run through every capture it can make and pick the most expensive one. Grabbing material costs you nothing extra, because the piece was already gone.
The same count protects you. When you trap an enemy piece, remember that it will not go quietly, and check that nothing valuable of yours stands within its reach. The sharpest version is the mutual desperado, where both sides have a doomed piece at the same moment: whoever moves first grabs the better prize, so the side to move should snatch material rather than recapture out of habit. Counting beats reflex in every one of these positions.
Key ideas
- A desperado is a doomed piece — attacked with no safe square left — that grabs the most material it can before it falls.
- Being attacked is not enough: a piece with a safe retreat is not doomed and should simply move there.
- Here the c6 pawn hits the d5 knight while the d6 bishop and the a7 and g7 pawns cover every flight square.
- Nxe7 takes the rook and Bxe7 recaptures, so White trades a knight that was lost anyway for a rook and wins the exchange.
- Count an attacked piece's escape squares first; if none is safe, look for its most expensive capture.