The Greek Gift
Hi everyone! This is @IAMDAGOAT123456789 and Im here with a new blog!! Today, I'll be typing about Greek Gifts in chess!! And by the way, if you liked this blog, I can GUARANTEE that you will like my others so please check them out the link will be down below at the end of this blog. Enjoy!!
Overview:
The Greek Gift is a type of Sacrifice (usually with your bishop) where you take the h7 as white (this can also be played as black) after your king has castled. Now you can ONLY play this if your knight is in position to play a certain check to the king where he has to retreat and you play Queen h5 which will force a checkmate in a maximum amount of 2 moves. Now lets go closer to detail from when white plays this sacrifice.
Lets say this is the position;
This seems like a rather normal position with maybe no excitement involved, you know, your typical 1.e4, e5 game.....But there lies a PRETTY great sacrifice which can lead to a possible mate or 3 or 2. If you cant find a good sacrifice that gives the king a check forces it to go beyond it's pawn structure, here it is....
This is a pretty good sacrifice as it gives the king a nice check and forces the king to come out of its safety and comfort zone so obviously the king has to capture....
After this, you play this most obvious check,Ng5 or Knight to g5 check. This is a very controlling check and its even more controlling when you realize that on the next move, the queen can give a spirit crushing check. And so while black maybe up, they may have realized that their king is a VERY open and dangerous spot. So usually, black will retreat back to g8 behind its pawn's and in a rather comfy spot.
Now that you see this visually, you may notice that this is a rather dangerous situation for black and the h file is COMPLETELY open. Now if you look closely, you can see that in the next move you can move a piece that will be taking full control of it....and if you haven't found it, its Queen to h5 or Qh5. As you can see, white is threatening mate in 1 and if black doesn't see the move to save their self or doesn't see the checkmate this happens;
This your typical knight, queen checkmate that will finish black...but if black DOES see how to defend himself, he can play this;
Black could just save their self by basically moving their rook anywhere....But there is still a nasty trick that you can play here which goes....Qh5, Re8, QXf7+, Ke8, Qh5+,Kg8, Qh7+, Kf8, Qh8+, Ke7, and QXg7+ and from here this would be an easy win for you. And if you are confused about all the moves, let me explain them....So after Re8, you play this nice move, Queen takes pawn on f7 check. This forces the king to go to h8 which obviously leads to Queen h5 check. Black is definitely being harassed by the queen at this point and their forced to now go to g8 or play king to g8. Next you play another obvious check, Queen h7 check or Qh7+. And now black plays Kf8, now again in the open and black is probably thinking that they shouldn't have taken that bishop. But anyway, to proceed, white should play Qh8 check....after this move, black has one place to go which is Ke7 or king to e7. And after (as white) play QxG7+ making this a nice check and slowly cornering the king...and after you develop the knight, its only a matter of moves before this game is finished...but if you're more of a visual learner....here are the moves for what I was saying....
So lastly, I hope you enjoyed this blog because It took about 2 hours which is a lot and if you did, please comment if you have any concerns, questions, criticism or just plain liked it, PLEASE leave a comment down below it really helps and if you liked this one Im sure you'll like my other ones and so here is the link Click This
Thank you,
@IAMDAGOAT123456789
