The term sacrifice comes up quite often in chess. The question is whether it is a sacrifice when you have seen ahead to force a checkmate and win the game. A true sacrifice is one when you can’t see ahead. When you can see that there are chances but you are unsure of the outcome. I find myself often tempted into these.
Sometimes they work out and sometimes they don’t! I think the key for me is to try and see further ahead in these variations and make sure whenever possible that the sacrifice isn’t actually a sacrifice after all. Sometimes this means that I have to pass on the tempting opportunity to sacrifice a piece. But then again sometimes you just have to dive into the deep end and see what the outcome will be.
The following example is a fun one I noticed online where White sacrifices his Queen in the early stages of the game to gain a quick win.