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! 

Greek Gift Sacrifice

The Greek Gift is probably the most important and very elementary attacking pattern every chess player should be familiar with. In the very simplest form, the white player sacrifices his bishop on the pawn in h7. In the next move white checks with the queen from h5, which is followed by knight g5 and a mate in h7.

This sacrificial attack can occur in many different forms and, of course, in the middle games resulting from many different openings. Traditionally, the classical bishop sacrifice is most often presented in positions from the French defense, where white often advances his pawn to e5. This pawn weakens the black defense of the castled king as f6 is not anymore available for the knight. As a consequence of this, the square h7 is weakened.

In addition to the French defense, this attacking idea is very familiar to anyone playing the white side of the Colle opening. In fact, one of the most famous games featuring the Greek gift sacrifice was played by Edgar Colle in 1930.

The exotic name of this tactical weapon has been given two different explanations. Some authors explain the  "Greek" as a translation for the name of Gioachino Greco who was the world's best chess player in the early seventeenth century and has been known to play this sacrifice. Mikhail Botvinnik has even called Greco the first professional chess player in the history of the game.

Other authors have not been convinced by this explanation. They have found another possible explanation for the name of the sacrifice in even earlier history, the epic attack lead by Ulysses in Troy as related by Homer and other ancient greek authors. It was his idea to build a wooden horse which allowed the Greek army to sneak into the city they had besieged for ten years without being able to conquer the city.

But let us leave the historical and mythological explanations for the name of the Greek Gift sacrifice. After all, as chess players we are more interested in winning the next game than in explaining the name of this attacking idea that every chess player should be able to recognize on the board. After looking at a few interesting games with this bishop sacrifice, even an ordinary club player should be able to sacrifice the bishop on h7 with confidence!