The Greek Gift - Take It or Leave It.
As requested by our very own club owner/ founder @myteachersam, here's a brief article on the infamous Greek's Gift which usually starts with 1. Bxh7! We'll start with its basic form and gradually move on to other advance variants of this tactical motif.
Note in this basic form how the bishop on c1 and pawn on e5 assisted white's queen and knight to deliver the winning blow.
The next example is between the ex-world champion GM Borris Spassky and GM Efim Geller:
It's a good example of having an extra pawn on g5 and yet the Greek's gift sacrifice can still succeed.
A common motif usually arising from advance french defense:
It's interesting to note that there are h4, h5 followed by g4 motiffs in this kind of situation. Also noteworthy is the pawn on e5 backed up by a rook on e1 with e6 - e7 motiffs.
The thing is with chess, if you haven't seen a particular pattern/ strategic motif before, chances are you won't see it in the actual game where you are experiencing pressure due to clock and other psychological stuffs. So it's good that you've seen these; now go and practice them on the field!! #boooom!
