Deep Delve Into Tactics : The Greek Gift Sacrifice

Hello my friends and welcome to my blog! This blog is going to be about tactics and more accurately, the Greek Gift. I will include its history, examples, pointers to look out for, etc. Sit back, relax and enjoy the blog!

History and aim of the Greek Gift Sacrifice.

The Greek Gift sacrifice is a typical sacrifice of a bishop by White playing Bxh7+ or Black playing Bxh2+ at some point after the opponent has castled kingside. The Point of the sacrifice is to open up the opponent's king use the weakened h2/h7 square to our advantage. The Greek Gift is not an obscurity in openings like the French Defense, The Sicilian Defense and other dubious opening such as 1...b6. More can be understood after consulting the example below

I displayed this game primarily to show that Greek Gifts can pop up from anywhere and we should always be on the lookout. Lets move to the next section which can help you in creating beautiful masterpieces of your own!

The Golden Rule 

Always have control of f6/f3 - This is very necessary for a successful greek gift sacrifice. Look at the diagram below to understand more.

Well now that all has been understood, lets end with a few puzzles for you guys to solve! Leave your answers in the comments below!

Puzzle 1 - White to play and win

Puzzle 2 - White to play and win 

Now for our 3rd and final puzzle, here is something a little tricky! This one is White To Play as well.

Well thats it for today and I hope you enjoyed the blog! Write your answers in the comments and let me know what you want to see next!