Breakdown of De haber sacrificado la reina, el campeonato habría sido nuestro.
ser
to be
nuestro
our
haber
(auxiliary) have
el campeonato
championship
la reina
the queen
de
if (+ infinitive)
sacrificar
to sacrifice
Questions & Answers about De haber sacrificado la reina, el campeonato habría sido nuestro.
Why does the sentence start with De haber sacrificado instead of Si hubiéramos sacrificado?
Using De followed by an infinitive is an alternative, slightly more formal way to express an "if" clause in Spanish. Here, De haber sacrificado means exactly the same thing as Si hubiéramos sacrificado (If we had sacrificed). It is a stylistic choice that makes the sentence sound a bit more elegant without changing the meaning.
How do we know who sacrificed the queen since haber is not conjugated?
Because an infinitive like haber does not show who is doing the action, we have to rely on context. We figure it out from the word nuestro (ours) in the second half of the sentence. Since the championship would have been "ours," it is strongly implied that "we" are the ones who failed to sacrifice the queen.
Why is habría sido used in the second half of the sentence?
The phrase habría sido is the conditional perfect (would have been). It is used here to talk about a hypothetical result in the past, meaning a result that did not actually happen. It is the standard grammar match for the unfulfilled past condition set up by De haber sacrificado.
Is sacrificado la reina a general idiom, or is this about a specific game?
This is literal chess terminology! In Spanish, just like in English, intentionally giving up a valuable piece like la reina (the queen) to gain a strategic advantage is called a sacrifice. The speaker is lamenting a missed tactical move that would have won them the championship.
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