The earliest example of the sacrifice occurred in 1619 in Greco's handbook, but the first systematic examination of the sacrifice was by Voellmy in an article in a German chess magazine in 1911. Some the sacrifice is referred to as Greco's Sacrifice and it has erroneously referred to as Colle's Sacrifice although there are no known examples of him ever playing it.
Certain basic criteria must be present for the sacrifice to work.
White:
1) White must have a Q, light-squared B.
2) The B must be able to reach h7.
3) The N should be able to safely reach g5.
4) The Q should be able to reach the h-file.
Black:
1) There should be Ps on f7 and g7.
2) The h-pawn should be on h7.
3) Black's Q on d8 and a R on f8.
Even then the correctness of the sacrifice is not guaranteed. What is important is that black's N should not be able to reach f6 and
neither his Q or B should be able to occupy the h7-bl diagonal.
In the following game Capablanca takes on an amateur in an exhibition game and played the Classic Bishop Sacrifice against him. In this game the sacrifice was neither good nor dad...it only resulted in a equal position. However, the role of the defender is often much more difficult than that of the attacker and black ended up making losing mistakes. Capa, himself, made a couple, too, but they were not fatal...they should have only allowed black to equalize.
Jose Capablanca–Lizardo Molina Carranza1–0D51Exhibition Game, Buenos Aires1911Srockfish 16
D53: Queen's Gambit Declined 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.c3 f6 4.g5 bd7 5.e3 c6 6.f3 e7 7.cxd5 xd5 Almost always seen here is 7...exd5, but black's
move is hardly a bad one. 8.xe7 xe7 This, however, is hardly good. The
N's retreat leaves him cramped. so taking with the Q was better. 9.d3 c5 10.0-0 0-0 11.dxc5 An interesting position. Vladimir Vukovic analyzed this game
in his excellent book, The Art of Attack in Chess, and correctly observed that
the point of this move is to draw the N away from f6, but the move only makes
since if the sacrifice Bxh7+ is sound which he stated that it is not. Actually,
there is nothing wrong with the sacrifice; it does not win, but it also incurs
nbo disadvantage. xc5 12.xh7+ The quiet 12.Bc2 is not to Capablanca's
liking, so he plays the sacrifice. Vukovic wrote that the sacrifice is
"unsound'" which it is not. Stockfish evaluates the position at 0.00.
Vulovic's observation that black soon spoils his position is spot on though...
defending is always a tough assignment. xh7 The is no other choice. 12...h8 13.c2 g8 13...xd1 14.fxd1 b6 15.e5 b7 16.b4 a6 17.d7
and white is winning. 14.g5 xd1 15.fxd1 b6 16.b4 and white has a
decisive advantage. 13.g5+ Black is faced with three squares to retreat
to; which one is correct? g6 The only correct move, but now white's chances
of conducting a winning attack are slim, but that's assuming black can
cintinue to find the best defense. 13...g8 14.h5 e8 15.xf7+ h8 16.h5+ g8 17.b4 a6 17...d7 18.f7+ h8 19.xe6 is winning. 18.fd1 d5 18...c7 19.xe8# 19.h7+ f8 20.h8+ e7 21.xg7+ d6 22.f7+ 13...h8 14.h5+ g8 15.h7# 14.g4 White has compensation
for the B, but not more. f5 Perfect! 14...e5 loses as was pointed out by
Capablanca. 15.e6+ f6 The thing is that here white has only a clight
advantage unless he finds the clever... 16.f4 c6 16...xe6 17.g5# 16...fxe6 17.fxe5+ xe5 18.g3+ 17.ad1 d3 18.h4+ xe6 19.f5+ d6 20.xd3+ and wins. A beautiful refutation of 14...e5 15.g3 As mentioned,
defending is harder than attacking and black's next move illustrates the point.
It's perfectly natural that he wants to get his K out of the line of fire, but
his next move is also completely wrong. h6 It's interesting
that prior to Vukovic's book, annotators did not comment on this move which
leads to a lost position. He correctly condemns the move, but incorrectly
claimed that 15...f4 would have shown that the Bishop sacrifice was unsound.
He wrote that, "White can then still exert some pressure...but he has not got
the time to strengthen his attack decisively, since black threatens to
consolidate his position...White must therefore take the exchange with the
result that his attack comes to a halt, leaving him without sufficient
compensation for Black's material advantage." 15...f4 White has two main
choices neither of which give him more than equality. 16.exf4 16.xe6+
leaves white two pieces down. fxg3 17.xd8 gxh2+ 18.xh2 xd8 16.g4 e5 17.e6+ f6 18.xg7+ xe6 19.ad1 d7 20.exf4 xf4 21.fe1 c7 with head
whirling complications! In Shootouts white scored _0 -2 =3. 16...f5 17.g4 h6 This also is a highly complicated position, but one in which neither side
can demonstrate an advantage, but in Shootouts white scored +1 -0 =4 16.h4+ g6 17.h7+ f6 17...xg5 is a self mate. 18.xg7+ h5 19.f4 g8 20.f3 h4 21.h3 e4 22.xe4 mate next move. 18.e4 g6 Again he gets mated if
he takes the N. Now it's Capablanca's turn to err! 19.exf5 This throws away
the advantage and makes it easier for black to defend himself. 19.f4
as recommended by Capablanca is better, but it's still not the best move. After
xe4 20.cxe4+ fxe4 21.xe4+ f7 22.g5+ f6 White is better, but there
is nothing decisive so black still has defensive chances. 19.ad1 As
recommended by Vukovic and Stockfish keeps the win in hand. d3 20.xd3 xd3 21.d1 c2 22.exf5 xf5 23.ge4 h8 24.xg7 Facing mate black can only try
xd1+ 24...xb2 25.f6+ g4 26.g5# 25.xd1 xe4 26.xg6+ d5 27.d3+ c6 28.c3+ and wins. 19...exf5 20.ad1 d3 Now white is threatened
with ...Rh8 and has to withdraw his Q and it's clear that black has survived
the attack! 21.h3 Black needs to defend precisely, but as
mentioned, that's not so easy. In fact, there is only one line that avoids
defeat. df4 And this isn't it! It's the right square, but the
wrong N. After this he doesn't get another chance. 21...gf4 22.g3 e6
If white wants a draw he can get it by repeating moves with 23.Nh7+ Kf7 24.Nh7+
23.fe1 e8 24.h4 d4 25.e3 22.g3 c7 23.fe1 If only the N on g6
was on d3! e2+ This loses a piece, but he was lost anyway. 23...d8 24.xd8 xd8 25.h4 c7 26.f3 e6 27.g5+ f7 28.h5 f8 29.e5+ g8 30.xf4 White only has an extra P, but his attack is decisive. h7 31.g5 d8 32.f3 f6 32...xg5 33.xg5+ wins a piece. 33.e3 d7 34.f4 e6 35.d6 f8 36.xf6 gxf6 37.e7+ 24.xe2 White is clearly winning. xg3 25.h7+ A zwischenzug (intermediate move), a tactic where instead of playing the
expected move (here taking the Q), a player interposes another move posing an
immediate threat that his opponent must answer. Black missed it when playing
his 23rd move. f7 26.hxg3 h8 27.g5+ f6 28.f4 Black resigned. There is
no way to meet the threat of Rd6# 1–0
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