How best to learn tactics? In my teaching, I follow a straight-forward approach. I show off the basic positions and then make small changes to observe how the combinations change. That’s the idea of this e-book. In 10 positions, we will see how small changes can have a large impact on the verdict.

The first ten numbered positions in this e-book are the building blocks of the sacrifice. I rely here on the same pedagogic technique, making minor changes to the position to observe the impact of each change. I follow that with twenty carefully annotated examples.

Review these simple examples and then review the games in this collection. You will discover, by the end of this collection, that you will be seeing deeply and accurately into the positions.

It was Amos Burn (with the black pieces!) and a young Emanuel Lasker (playing White) who first uncorked the double bishop sacrifice.

The sacrifice is lovely, and indeed quite instructive. In my 2010 Russell Enterprises book on the Greco sacrifice, Sacking the Citadel: The History, Theory, and Practice of the Classic Bishop Sacrifice, I promised a similar look later at other sacrifices. So here's my effort on the double bishop sac. As you will see, it looks easy but contains a number of fascinating surprises.

The sacrifice is less often played than the Greco Sacrifice. My chess database exploration of the Greco sacrifice on h7 for my book, I located more than 3,000 games. By contrast, searches for the double bishop sacrifice yield only about 500.

Unlike many other inexpensive chess e-books, the Chess is Fun e-book series are all fully annotated in understandable, simple language. The profuse use of diagrams make these among the first chess books that you can read WITHOUT A BOARD at your side.

Jon Edwards won the 10th United States Correspondence Championship in 1997 and the 8th North American Invitational Correspondence Chess Championship in 1999.