The Classic Bishop Sacrifice is the oldest of all the sacrifices involved in the attack on the castled King and it’s aso a good illustration of h7 and f7 as focal points foer delivering mate.
The earliest instance of the sacrifice Bxh7+ followed by Ng5+ dates back to Greco's handbook in 1619, but ot wasn’t systematically categorized until the Swiss master Erwin Voellmy did so in a magazine article in 1911.
For the conditions to be ripe for the sacrifice white needs to have a Queen, light squared Bishop and Knight. The Bishp has to be able to sacrifice itself on h7, he Knight should be able to reach g5 and the Queen must be able to reach h5, or in some cases another square on the h-file. From black’s perspective the most important point is that either is Bishop or Queen should be able to safely occupy the b1-h7 diagonal.
[Event "Chess Hotelm G/10"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2025.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Tartajubow"]
[Black "Anonymous"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B00"]
[Annotator "Stickfish 17.1"]
[PlyCount "39"]
[EventDate "2025.??.??"]
{B00: Nimzovich Defense} 1. e4 Nc6 {The Nimzovich defense which allows white
to occupy the center after whicj black will try to block or restrain white's
centralPs and eventually undermine it. Kasparov and Keene wrote that 2hile not
popular, it is sound.} 2. d4 e6 {Black usually plays either 2...d5 or 2...e5,
vut this flexible move lools reasonable.} 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. f4 {Perhaps a bit
risky, but I played it with the intention of launching a K-side attack as
quickly as possible.} Bxc3+ {Black should delay this until provoked by a3.} (
4... Nf6 5. e5 Ne4 6. Qd3 d5 7. Nf3 {Olsen,C (2064)-Kragh,N Copenhagen 1999
with equal chances. Here as in the game black played the inprovoked 7...Bxc3
and soon ended up with an inferior position. Suggested moves are 7...b6, 7...
f5 and 7...f6}) 5. bxc3 d6 {This too passive and not in the spirit of this
Hypermodern defense. He should play 5,,,Nf6} (5... Nf6 6. e5 {can get crazy!
The safe mobe is 6.Bd3} Ne4 7. Nf3 Nxc3 8. Qd3 Nd5 9. c4 Nde7 10. d5 exd5 11.
cxd5 Nb4 12. Qd2 Nbxd5 13. f5 c6 14. f6 gxf6 15. exf6 Ng6) 6. Nf3 Nf6 7. Bd3
O-O 8. O-O {White is clearly better and the Classic Bishop Sacrifice is
looming as a possibility.} Re8 {This should have lost immediately, but nothing
was entirely satisfactiry.} (8... h6 {preventing Bxh7+ is best. Engines prefer
9.Qe1 for some reason, but I would hane played the nearly as good} 9. e5 {
after which white has a great position after 9...Nh7 10.Qe2, 9...Nd5 q0.c4 or
9...Ne8 10.g7}) 9. Bd2 {While not bad this misses an immediate win!} (9. e5 Nd5
10. Bxh7+ Kxh7 11. Ng5+ Kg6 12. Rf3 f6 13. Qd3+ f5 14. Rg3 {White is clearly
winning according to the engine, but figuring out exactly how to do it in a 10
minute game is beyond my skill level!}) 9... d5 {I was happy to see this
because now the Classic Bishop Sacrifice is possible.} (9... e5 {This prevents
the sacrifice and whike white gets a significant advantage, black is far from
lost.} 10. d5 Nb8 11. fxe5 dxe5 {White has a multitude of reasonable moves,
but can only claim an advantage in space.}) 10. e5 Nd7 {Apparebtly lkack is
unfamiliar with the sacrifice.} (10... Ne4 {This bkocks the sacrifice and is
the only plausible move.} 11. Ng5 h6 12. Bxe4 dxe4 13. Nxe4 {followed by
either 14.Qh4 or 13.Qh5 with an excellent position.}) 11. Bxh7+ {[%mdl 512]
Unlike the position noted in the note to move 9 this results in a pretty clear
sequence; white is clearly winning.} Kxh7 {There is no other option.} (11...
Kh8 12. Ng5 Re7 (12... Rf8 13. Qh5 {mates}) 13. Qh5 {mates} Nf6 14. exf6 gxf6
15. Bd3+ Kg8 16. Qh7+ Kf8 17. Qh8#) 12. Ng5+ Kg6 {In some positions this is
the best defense, but here it makes no difference.} (12... Kg8 13. Qh5 f6 14.
Qh7+ Kf8 15. Qh8+ Ke7 16. Qxg7#) 13. Rf3 Rh8 14. Rg3 {The threat (which I did
not see) is 15.f5+ leading to mate.} f6 (14... a6 {A pass to demonstrate the
threat.} 15. f5+ exf5 16. Ne6+ Qg5 17. Rxg5+ Kh7 18. Qh5+ Kg8 19. Rxg7#) 15.
Nxe6+ {Ending the gane. Black's remaining move were the result of inertia.} Kf7
16. Rxg7+ Ke8 (16... Kxe6 17. f5+ Kxf5 18. Qg4#) 17. Nxd8 Nxd8 18. Qg4 Nf8 19.
exf6 Bxg4 20. Re7# 1-0
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