Combination
The Greek Gift Sacrifice
Also known as: The Classical Bishop Sacrifice, Bxh7+
The Greek Gift is the most famous sacrifice in chess: a bishop offered on h7 to shatter the shelter of a castled king. Named for the Trojan horse, it is a present the defender should think twice before accepting. When the pieces align, the bishop, a knight, and the queen combine to hunt the exposed monarch to mate.
1. Bxh7+ Kxh7 2. Ng5+ Kg8 3. Qh5 Re8 4. Qh7+ Kf8 5. Qh8#
The Idea
The classical bishop sacrifice targets a king castled on the kingside behind pawns on f7, g7, and h7. White gives up the light-squared bishop on h7 to strip away the h-pawn and drag the king into the open. The attack then relies on the knight reaching g5 with tempo and the queen swinging to the h-file.
Accepting the gift is what invites disaster. The typical follow-up is a knight check that herds the king back home, then a queen arriving on h5 with the deadly threat of mate on h7. Declining is sometimes the wiser course, but this page walks through the acceptance line, where the attack crashes through.
The Line
White strikes with 1.Bxh7+, and Black accepts by 1...Kxh7. The knight springs to 2.Ng5+, checking and driving the king back with 2...Kg8. Now 3.Qh5 arrives, threatening Qh7 mate, since the knight on g5 guards the h7 square and the queen would be immune. Black is already in mortal danger.
Black tries 3...Re8, freeing f8 as an escape hatch for the king. But the attack is too fast: 4.Qh7+ forces 4...Kf8, and 5.Qh8# delivers checkmate, the queen supported so the king cannot capture and has no flight. The sacrifice that opened the h-file has carried the queen all the way to the final blow.
How To Spot It
The preconditions matter more than the pattern. You want a bishop bearing on h7, a knight able to leap to g5 with tempo, a queen with a clear path to the h-file, and a black king lacking easy defenders like a knight on f6 covering h5. When those boxes are checked, calculate the sacrifice concretely.
Never play the Greek Gift on faith. Each position turns on small details: whether Black has Kg6 resources, whether a defender reaches f6 or h6 in time, whether luft on f8 lets the king run. Here the pieces cooperate perfectly and the acceptance line ends in mate, but always verify the follow-up move by move.
Key ideas
- The Greek Gift sacrifices a bishop on h7 to expose the castled king.
- The name recalls the Trojan horse: a gift best refused.
- After 1.Bxh7+ Kxh7, the knight checks with 2.Ng5+.
- The queen arrives via 3.Qh5, threatening mate on h7.
- The defensive try 3...Re8 fails to 4.Qh7+ Kf8 5.Qh8#.
- Always calculate the sacrifice concretely before committing to it.