Greco's classic bishop sacrifice

The earliest recorded chess game that features the classic bishop sacrifice was published by Gioacchino Greco in his handbook of chess in 1619. As the mating pattern has been known for chess players for four centuries, it certainly deserves to be classic bishop sacrifice, even if it is probably more commonly known as the Greek Gift sacrifice.

The position for Greco's sacrifice is born after six rather passive moves by the black. Vuković goes as far as calling the black opening play "not particularly intelligent."

1.e4 e6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Bd3 Nc6 4.Nf3 Be7 5.h4 O-O 6.e5 Nd5 

Now every chess player should immediately recognize that the position is ripe for a successful bishop sacrifice on h7: pawn e5 has forced the black knight away from f6 where it could provide protection for the black king, h4 and Bc1 (over)protect the square g5 for the white knight, and after Ng5+ the diagonal d1-h5 is made clear for the white queen.

7.Bxh7+ Kxh7 8.Ng5+

Now there are two possible continuations which both lead into white victory:


a)  8. .... Bxg5 9.hxg5+ Kg8 10.Qh5 f5 11.g6 Re8 12.Qh8# 


b) 8. .... Kg8 9. Qh5 Re8 10. Qh7+ Kf8 11. Qh8#

Be sure to play through this game a couple of times until you are sure to understand the most basic pattern of the classic bishop sacrifice!