Greco's Bishop Sacrifice--Grabs

This is an oldie but still goodie Bishop Sacrifice from "Greco's Handbook." It is also known as "The Greek Gift," because the gift of the Bishop is similar to the gift of the wooden horse the Greeks gave to the Trojans. According to the old story there were soldiers secreted within the horse who then came out at night and burned down Troy--hence the motto: "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. People still fall for these old traps, not just patzers but masters and grandmasters. This particular trap arises very often in the Colle System. It also appears in other openings such as French Defense, Ruy Lopez, King's Gambit and Black can get in on the fun in the Semi-Slav. It is always a good idea keep an eye out for it.

These are the factors that enable this sacrifice to work. Keep in mind that it may work with one or more of these factors missing. Experimentation and practice are needed in order to perfect this sacrifice technique. We also suggest you go through the full game examples to perfect your technique.

1. There must be a White Bishop on the b1-h7 diagonal.
2. A White Knight--"Flying Dragon"-- must be available to fly from f3 to g5.
3. A White Queen--"Leaping Lady"-- must be available to leap to g4 or h5.
4. The other Bishop should be on c1 to "Hook" the Knight and guard h6.
5. White should have a pawn at e5 to guard f6.
6. White should have a Rook at e1.

This sacrifice will not work if Black has either a Knight available to safely jump to f6 or f8 or Black's Bishop or Queen has access to the b1-h7 diagonal.

Video Example 1--Queen's Gambit

Video Example 2--French Defense, Closed Variation

Example 1--Colle System Video.
Example 2--King's Gambit Accepted Video

Example 2--Colle System PGN.

Click here for full game examples.

For more information click here.
Another interesting web page on closed French Greek Gift.

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