Classic Bishop Sacrifice on B7 -Greek Gift

It appears that it would take some excessive noodling to figure out all the ins and outs of the classic bishop sacrifice on h7. I'll blogg on some aspects of it but I will steer you to more complete and accurate sources for additional research. There is an involved chapter in the Art of Attack which has an excellent look at what conditions this sac is sound. Each position has to be analyzed in depth.

The classic bishop sacrifice on h7 takes the h pawn in front to the kingside castled position. In these positions you need to calculate 3 different responses after the King takes. They are Kg8, Kg6 and Kh6. If any of these variations stand better for black then white should not sac the bishop.

Here is an example of a classic bishop sacrifice where the king moves back to g8.

In the position above Black has played Rook e8 preparing for an escape route. White must play

Queen x f7 pawn + first in order to remove the f7 pawn to open up the lane for a future checkmate and to move the king back toward the corner. It would be a mistake to play Queen x h7 first.

Also notice how the pawn on e5 prevents escape for the king as well.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1284181

Here Susan shows that the bishop in the c8-h3 diagonal can refute the greek gift.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1109963

More to come on this topic....

Sat -300 L20 circle 2 ct-art