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.
[Event "Exhibition Game, Buenos Aires"]
[Site ""]
[Date "1911.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Jose Capablanca"]
[Black "Lizardo Molina Carranza"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D51"]
[Annotator "Srockfish 16"]
[PlyCount "55"]
[EventDate "1911.??.??"]
{D53: Queen's Gambit Declined} 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Nbd7 5. e3
c6 6. Nf3 Be7 7. cxd5 Nxd5 {Almost always seen here is 7...exd5, but black's
move is hardly a bad one.} 8. Bxe7 Nxe7 {This, however, is hardly good. The
N's retreat leaves him cramped. so taking with the Q was better.} 9. Bd3 c5 10.
O-O O-O 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.} Nxc5 12. Bxh7+ {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.} Kxh7 {The is no other choice.} (12...
Kh8 13. Bc2 Kg8 (13... Qxd1 14. Rfxd1 b6 15. Ne5 Bb7 16. b4 Na6 17. Rd7 {
and white is winning.}) 14. Ng5 Qxd1 15. Rfxd1 b6 16. b4 {and white has a
decisive advantage.}) 13. Ng5+ {Black is faced with three squares to retreat
to; which one is correct?} Kg6 {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... Kg8 14. Qh5 Re8 15. Qxf7+ Kh8 16.
Qh5+ Kg8 17. b4 Na6 (17... Nd7 18. Qf7+ Kh8 19. Nxe6 {is winning.}) 18. Rfd1
Nd5 (18... Qc7 19. Qxe8#) 19. Qh7+ Kf8 20. Qh8+ Ke7 21. Qxg7+ Kd6 22. Nf7+) (
13... Kh8 14. Qh5+ Kg8 15. Qh7#) 14. Qg4 {[%mdl 1024] White has compensation
for the B, but not more.} f5 {Perfect!} (14... e5 {loses as was pointed out by
Capablanca.} 15. Ne6+ Kf6 {The thing is that here white has only a clight
advantage unless he finds the clever...} 16. f4 Nc6 (16... Bxe6 17. Qg5#) (
16... fxe6 17. fxe5+ Kxe5 18. Qg3+) 17. Rad1 Nd3 18. Qh4+ Kxe6 19. f5+ Kd6 20.
Rxd3+ {and wins. A beautiful refutation of 14...e5}) 15. Qg3 {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.} Kh6 {[%mdl 8192] 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. Nxe6+ {
leaves white two pieces down.} fxg3 17. Nxd8 gxh2+ 18. Kxh2 Rxd8) (16. Qg4 e5
17. Ne6+ Kf6 18. Qxg7+ Kxe6 19. Rad1 Bd7 20. exf4 Rxf4 21. Rfe1 Qc7 {with head
whirling complications! In Shootouts white scored _0 -2 =3.}) 16... Nf5 17. Qg4
Nh6 {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. Qh4+
Kg6 17. Qh7+ Kf6 (17... Kxg5 {is a self mate.} 18. Qxg7+ Kh5 19. f4 Ng8 20. Rf3
Qh4 21. Rh3 Ne4 22. Nxe4 {mate next move.}) 18. e4 Ng6 {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
} Nxe4 20. Ncxe4+ fxe4 21. Nxe4+ Kf7 22. Ng5+ Kf6 {White is better, but there
is nothing decisive so black still has defensive chances.}) (19. Rad1 {As
recommended by Vukovic and Stockfish keeps the win in hand.} Nd3 20. Rxd3 Qxd3
21. Rd1 Qc2 22. exf5 Kxf5 23. Nge4 Rh8 24. Qxg7 {Facing mate black can only try
} Qxd1+ (24... Qxb2 25. Qf6+ Kg4 26. Qg5#) 25. Nxd1 Kxe4 26. Qxg6+ Kd5 27. Qd3+
Kc6 28. Qc3+ {and wins.}) 19... exf5 20. Rad1 Nd3 {Now white is threatened
with ...Rh8 and has to withdraw his Q and it's clear that black has survived
the attack!} 21. Qh3 {[%mdl 128] Black needs to defend precisely, but as
mentioned, that's not so easy. In fact, there is only one line that avoids
defeat.} Ndf4 {[%mdl 8192] And this isn't it! It's the right square, but the
wrong N. After this he doesn't get another chance.} (21... Ngf4 22. Qg3 Be6 {
If white wants a draw he can get it by repeating moves with 23.Nh7+ Kf7 24.Nh7+
} 23. Rfe1 Re8 24. h4 Qd4 25. Re3) 22. Qg3 Qc7 23. Rfe1 {If only the N on g6
was on d3!} Ne2+ {This loses a piece, but he was lost anyway.} (23... Rd8 24.
Rxd8 Qxd8 25. h4 Qc7 26. Nf3 Be6 27. Qg5+ Kf7 28. h5 Nf8 29. Ne5+ Kg8 30. Qxf4
{White only has an extra P, but his attack is decisive.} Kh7 31. Qg5 Qd8 32.
Nf3 Qf6 (32... Qxg5 33. Nxg5+ {wins a piece.}) 33. Re3 Bd7 34. Qf4 Ne6 35. Qd6
Nf8 36. Qxf6 gxf6 37. Re7+) 24. Rxe2 {White is clearly winning.} Qxg3 25. Nh7+
{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.} Kf7 26. hxg3 Rh8 27. Ng5+ Kf6 28. f4 {Black resigned. There is
no way to meet the threat of Rd6#} 1-0
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