whilst if both sides have succeeded by careful play to preserve
equality of material, a draw will generally ensue.

It will be found a little later that a single pawn may suffice,
with some few exceptions, to achieve a victory, and we shall
adopt the following leading principle for all combinations, viz.
loss of material must be avoided, even if only a pawn. It is a
good habit to look upon every pawn as a prospective Queen. This
has a sobering influence on premature and impetuous plans of
attack.

On the other hand, victory is often brought about by a timely
sacrifice of material.

But in such cases the sacrificing of material has its
compensation in some particular advantage of position. As
principles of position are difficult for beginners to grasp, I
propose to defer their consideration for the present and to
devote my attention first to such combinations as involve
questions of material. Let us master a simple device that makes
most combinations easy both for attack and defence. It amounts
merely to a matter of elementary arithmetic, and if the beginner
neglects it, he will soon be at a material disadvantage.

Diagram 4 may serve as an example:

---------------------------------------
8 | | | | | #R | | | #K |
|---------------------------------------|
7 | #P | #P | #Q | #Kt| #R | | #P | |