The Greek Gift Sacrifice!

If you have never heard of the Trojan Horse, then you should definitely learn it. So, let me begin with a "short" history lesson . 

There was a city in Turkey called Troy, and across Aegean Sea lied the city of Sparta, Greece. Both cities had been fighting a war for 10 years, known as the Trojan War, and the Greek army could not breach the well-protected wall of Troy. The King of Sparta ordered his troops to build a giant and beautiful wooden horse and left it as a "gift" to Troy. The Greek army pretended to leave, but instead, the wooden horse was hollow and 30 soldiers were hiding inside it. At night, the soldiers inside the horse opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, and that was the end of Troy. 

What does this have to do with chess though? 

Well, there is a tactic named after this, called the "Greek Gift". The idea of the Greek Gift is to sacrifice a bishop (strangely not a knight!), usually on the h2 or h7 square, to denude the King of his defensive cover. The important thing is, it's usually only successful where one side has a development lead. 

In high levels, the players are evenly matched and the result of the game will often come down to who has the initiative in a given position - or who is dictating the flow of the game. 

Sacrificing a bishop on h7 (or h2) does a few things: 

1. It removes a defensive pawn from covering the King. 
2. It brings the King out in the open, giving it unwanted attention from the attacking pieces. 
3. The victim of the sacrifice MUST defend and spend time calculating defensive resources - which gives the attacker the initiative.

Here is an ideal scenario for the attacker: 

So, remember: 

• The Greek Gift idea works best when you have a development advantage and your pieces are ready to join the attack. 
• h7 is only defended by the King in the above position so any weakening of this is likely to draw the King out. 
• Keep the initiative by involving all your attacking pieces.  

Now here's an example of when NOT to play the Greek Gift: 

The sacrifice is very tempting in that position, but it would be a very bad move! Black is developing fine and White only has 3 possible pieces - N@f3, Q@d1, and B@c1 - can get involved in the attack, and not quickly enough. 

Two other reasons why the sacrifice does not work are: 

1. Black's bishop and Queen cover the d8-h4 diagonal, so any ideas of Ng5 are not possible. 
2. Both of Black's knights are ready to go to the optimal defensive square, f6, and covers h5. 

The main idea is that Greek Gifts don't work if the defender's pieces are well-developed and has no serious weaknesses. If the attacker can't coordinate a follow-up of the sacrificing, then it's just a bishop sacrifice with no compensation. Remember to coordinate your pieces before the sacrifice.