One of my personal chess weaknesses has been an overly materialistic assessment of situations, which means I have inappropriately valued material over positional factors. This is a common phenomenon at the Class level. For example, players may hang onto a pawn for dear life, even if defending it cramps their position and gives their opponent a winning initiative, rather than deliberately jettisoning the pawn in return for freer and more active play for their pieces.
Another situation illustrated below is ignoring candidate moves that "lose" a pawn, without taking into consideration the benefits for the player's overall game. In some cases, these can even be very temporary sacrifices, or the pawn itself is "poisoned" due to a tactical response, which means ignoring the possibility - consciously or unconsciously - is a definite blind spot in the thinking process.
Finally, I'll make the observation that none of these pawn sacrifices lead to forced wins; these are not puzzles to be solved and the game is over. Rather, they are superior to other candidate moves, even if they only end up in a level position. This fact may also contribute to a Class player not considering them, if there is no obvious win or advantage that results.
Firstly from my own play, here are some clear examples. They are followed by a few master-level ones; if you go through any collections of annotated master games, you should be able to easily find more.
Annotated Game #296: The recurring idea of c4-c5, opening diagonals and the c4 square for pieces. I eventually play it, but under less favorable circumstances than I could have earlier in the game - this is also a recurring theme.
Annotated Game #295: The f-pawn sacrifice I should have played comes early enough to be considered a gambit, but the principle is the same - in return for the pawn, the rest of my pieces gain activity that provides full compensation.
Annotated Game #293: The move 15 possibility of playing c4 opens up activity for the dark-square bishop and queen, and works due to tactics (the hanging b-pawn is poisoned) that I should have further considered.
Annotated Game #291: Here's another freeing c4-c5 pawn sac idea on move 15.
Annotated Game #272: This shows the power of the e3-e4 pawn lever in Colle / Stonewall type positions, even when it is a (temporary) sacrifice.
A few Master-level examples, including from analysis:
Tarjan-Kosteniuk (2017) - 15. b4!?
From Bologan's Caro-Kann: A Modern Repertoire for Black (New In Chess, 2018) - analysis, King's Indian Attack; the d-pawn is given up by Black for piece activity, and it is also instructive to look at what happens if White tries to seize the d-pawn earlier.
[Event "?"]
[White "Enter New Game"]
[Black "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Round "?"]
[Result "*"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[PlyCount "32"]
[GameId "2128221663227972"]
1. e4 c6 2. d3 d5 3. Nd2 e5 4. Ngf3 Bd6 5. d4 exd4 6. exd5 Nf6 7. dxc6 Nxc6 8. Nb3 O-O 9. Be2 Qb6 10. Nbxd4 Bc5 11. c3 Bg4 12. O-O Rad8 13. Qb3 Bxd4 14. cxd4 Qxb3 15. axb3 Rfe8 16. Bd1 a6 *
From John Nunn's Best Games 1985-1993, Batsford Chess Library, 1995; games 20 (move 19) and 22 (sequence starting with move 21)
[Event "World Cup"]
[White "Nunn, John DM"]
[Black "Portisch, Lajos"]
[Site "Reykjavik"]
[Round "8"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Date "1988.10.??"]
[ECO "C73"]
[WhiteElo "2625"]
[BlackElo "2635"]
[PlyCount "65"]
[Beauty "8179769202696"]
[GameId "1166636377100288"]
[EventDate "1988.10.??"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[EventRounds "17"]
[EventCountry "ISL"]
[EventCategory "15"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 010"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "1989.06.01"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "1989.06.01"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 d6 5. Bxc6+ bxc6 6. d4 exd4 7. Qxd4 Nf6 8. O-O Be7 9. Nc3 O-O 10. Re1 Bg4 11. Qd3 Bxf3 12. Qxf3 Nd7 13. b3 Bf6 14. Bb2 Re8 15. Rad1 Re6 16. Qh3 Qe8 17. f4 Rd8 18. Qe3 Nb6 19. e5 dxe5 20. f5 Rxd1 21. Rxd1 Re7 22. Ne4 Rd7 23. Nxf6+ gxf6 24. Re1 Qd8 25. Qe4 Nd5 26. Qg4+ Kh8 27. Bc1 Qf8 28. c4 Nb4 29. Qh4 Qd6 30. Qh6 Rd8 31. h3 c5 32. Re4 Rg8 33. Qxh7+ 1-0
[Event "Olympiad-28"]
[White "Pinter, Jozsef"]
[Black "Nunn, John DM"]
[Site "Thessaloniki"]
[Round "12"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Date "1988.11.26"]
[ECO "E99"]
[WhiteElo "2535"]
[BlackElo "2435"]
[PlyCount "92"]
[Beauty "7220913783326"]
[GameId "1166636396122112"]
[EventDate "1988.11.13"]
[EventType "team-swiss"]
[EventRounds "14"]
[EventCountry "GRE"]
[SourceTitle "TD"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "1994.03.01"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "1994.03.01"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
[WhiteTeam "Hungary"]
[BlackTeam "England"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "HUN"]
[BlackTeamCountry "ENG"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Be2 O-O 6. Nf3 e5 7. O-O Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. Ne1 Nd7 10. f3 f5 11. g4 Kh8 12. Ng2 a5 13. h4 Nc5 14. Be3 Ng8 15. Rb1 Bd7 16. b3 b6 17. a3 a4 18. b4 Nb3 19. Nb5 Nf6 20. exf5 gxf5 21. Nc3 e4 22. g5 Nh5 23. fxe4 f4 24. Bd2 Nxd2 25. Qxd2 Qe8 26. Bf3 Ng3 27. Rfe1 Be5 28. Ne2 Nxe4 29. Bxe4 f3 30. Nef4 fxg2 31. Nxg2 Qh5 32. Qd3 Bg4 33. Re3 Qf7 34. Qd2 Qg7 35. Rd3 Rf7 36. Re1 Raf8 37. Ne3 Rf4 38. Ng2 R4f7 39. Ne3 Bh5 40. Rf1 Rxf1+ 41. Nxf1 Rf4 42. Qe1 Bd4+ 43. Kg2 Qe5 44. Ng3 Bg4 45. b5 Bf2 46. Qxf2 Bh3+ 0-1
From Journey to NM - Lightning Strikes Back blog, the round 4 game; technically this isn't master-level play, but it's close and White's sacrifice of the d-pawn for piece activity and an attack is an excellent example.
Don't Just Memorize, Understand! Two Key Moves in the London System - the full video (from Dr. Can's Chess Clinic) is worth watching for its principles, also containing a great pawn sacrifice idea in the central variation presented against the London System, which has a concrete tactical reason behind it.
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