The Greek Gift! avid Rudel’s debut book, Zuke ‘Em —the Colle- Zukertort Revolutionized, brought a fresh voice to chess in the summer of 2008. His clarity wooed class players while stronger readers applauded his creativity and determination in finding new tries for an advantage in lines long thought dead. & Rudel now presents a work aimed at all chess players. Bxh7+ is not so much a book but a training kit demystifying Greco's sacrifice. Any serious player can now attain a fluency with this tactic exceeding that held by most masters. Five easy lessons present essential guidelines, tools, and tips for both attackers and defenders. Note: Bxh7+ and The Moment of Zuke share a great deal of material, and Colle System players are urged to buy the latter instead. master both sides of chess’ most useful piece sacrifice in five easy lessons with 116 exercises. | GAMES > CHESS > TACTICSBxh7+ and you'r dead. Girls rulenBxh7+ (The Greek Gift) Master both sides of chess’ most useful piece sacrifice in 5 easy lessons with 116 exercises by David Rudel Thinkers’ Press, Inc. Books 2010 Davenport, IA©2009 David Rudel All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. This also includes e-Books (and associated publishing) and information stored or used on or by internet services. ISBN: 1-888710-37-3 October 2009 Contact the author David Rudel at: david@zukertort.com Requests for permissions and republication rights should be directed to: Thinkers’ Press, Inc. Books 1524 LeClaire St. Davenport, IA 52803 bob@thinkerspressinc.comTo Edgar Colle, the pride and sorrow of the Queen’s Pawn Game, who so loved the Greek Gift sacrifice that it now bears his name.Table of Confenfs Introduction ..... Part! Module 1: Early Colle Blundersaults .... Module 2: French Advance Blundersaults Module 3: The Double-Bishop Sac Part il Module 4: Bxh7+ with a Knight on e5.. Module 5: The Classic Bishop Sacrifice .... Colophon...Infroducfion athering material for the last chapter of my second chess book, The Moment G of Zuke: Critical Positions and Pivotal Decisions for Colle System Players was a rather eye-opening experience. I wasn’t surprised by the number of times Bxh7+ occurred in high-level games — it is not for nothing that the Greek Gift is well known. Rather, it was the play afterward that I had not expected. You were surprised strong players screwed up the sacrifice? I wouldn’t put it that way. Titled chess players do not get those shiny letters before their names based on poor calculation skills or a lack of danger sense. It isn’t that somehow strong players lost their ability to analyze once the Trojan horse was munching on h7-grass. Rather, the material, drawn almost exclusively from expert level or higher games, suggested the players were using their raw (generally good) analysis skills without having spent much focused training on the sacrifice. There are a bundle of tips and tricks that are useful to know (on both sides of the board), and it seems that kit bag is not widely assimilated among chess players. But is it worth spending a bunch of energy on a sacrifice that you might only face or use in one game out of a hundred? That's a fair question. Of course, if you play the Colle, French, or some other opening given to frequent Bishop sacs, it's obvious that special study of Bxh7+ is valuable. However, | would claim that knowledge of the sacrifice is worth the necessary effort for the broader chess-playing community. Even if the number of times the actual sacrifice hits the board is small, theBxh7+ number of times it is an option is significantly larger. Considering the frequency one has to consider the sacrifice (on both offense and defense) and the value in terms of peace-of-mind and confidence in practical play, devoting some time to the sacrifice is a legitimate way of increasing one’s overall chess preparation. Of course, if one had to go to the effort of coordinating and studying all the ins and outs of these sacrifices without assistance, it would represent a rather large (but rewarding) endeavor. That's where this book comes in. By studying about 32 Pages, you can see pretty much every important trick, trap, and idea there is to know about the Greek Gift. The rest of the book contains exercises and solutions (with commentary), so you can test and reinforce the material in the lesson sections. Organization There are two main parts to the book. The first part of the book features for- mulaic attacks, mostly in the late-opening phase, that allow White a powerful assault due to Black’s blunder: a blundersault (a fitting term, for White's pieces often appear to dance acrobatically about Black’s King while cutting his position to ribbons). The second part of the book treats the sacrifice in broader terms where the proper attack is less scripted. Put another way, the first part describes reliable rules that work in the opening phase assuming semi-normal piece development, etc. These rules are mostly meant to save Black from being the losing party of a miniature. The second part makes no such assumptions but equips both attackers and defenders with a variety of ideas, tools, and weapons. The material is divided into modules, each of which starts with a lesson fol- lowed by a collection of exercises drawn from actual games (presented with huge diagrams, the reason behind the rather squarish page dimensions). After the exer- cises, solutions are presented which contain general commentary, specific analysis, and a complete game score. Because the modules in the first part cover more formulaic combinations, strong players will likely want to simply read the lesson to inoculate themselves from fall- ing prey to the tactics shown while intermediate players may want to work out the exercises to warm up for the more difficult analysis to be found in the second part. Weaker players should take two passes through the early modules — first simplyBxh7+ determining which positions are safe for Black based on the criteria given in the les- sons, and then taking a second pass to get the proper attacks and defenses down. Working the Exercises This book is meant as a self-contained training kit and contains 116 exercises drawn from real games. The more you put into solving the exercises, the more you'll gain from them. If you do not already do so, I recommend keeping a train- ing/analysis journal. When solving the exercises, write down everything you see. ‘There is something psychologically meaningful in committing to an idea enough to actually write it down. Sometimes what you write down will be wrong... and that's okay. Fear of making mistakes is one of the greatest stumbling blocks to personal growth in general (and chess training in particular). While the exercises in the first few modules, the blundersault modules, may seem pretty simple after reading the lessons, there is something to be gained by working through them nonetheless. Many of the tactics in the second part are re- lated to the more scripted attacks found in the first. Working through the easier, formulaic attacks will make the later modules feel less like a standing jump onto a moving train. Note to Colle Players If a Colle-System reader happens to have bought this book by accident, I rec- ommend he immediately put it on e-bay and grab a copy of The Moment of Zuke instead. Much of the material here can be found in TMoZ, and the presentation there is much more directed at Colle System players. TMoZ also contains several Colle-centered lessons that have nothing to do with the Bishop sacrifice. Contact the Author I enjoy hearing from readers. Feel free to tell me what you think of the book or how it could be improved: David@Zukertort.com David Rudel David@zukertort.com Charlottesvile, VAModule 1 — Early Colle Blundersaulfs his module will be dedicated to avoiding a few non-standard sac- rifices in the early phase of the game. These come up most often when White plays a quiet Queen's Pawn Game, and are particularly important to know when facing the Colle System. The thing that makes these sacri- fices “non-standard” is that White has a Knight on e5. We normally expect a pawn there (or the e-file to be open with a Rook on e1). As we will see, having a Knight on e5 rather than a pawn re- moves several defensive options, allow- ing for more scripted follow-ups. Then why is the “standard” sacrifice one with a pawn on e5 if having a Knight there is better? The simple answer is that a pawn on e5 does a better job of allowing for the possibility of the sac by shooing away the Knight that was likely on f6. If White has a Knight on e5, Black has to volun- tarily move that Knight away. Hypno- tizing your opponent into moving this Knight works great if you can do it, but this is sometimes hard to pull off in a tournament setting. A more common reason is for Black to retreat the Knight on f6 because he is trying to challenge White's Knight on e5 (either by exchang- ing it or getting it out of the way of the f-pawn to allow for ...f6). In this module we will describe when Black can make this retreat safely. We will start with the most commonly occurring opportunities for blunder and move to less common ones. We won't be * giving special attention to fork tricks. Fork Tricks? I'm using the term rather loosely here. Colle players can often use the Bishop sac to set up a fork. Normally when the term fork trick is used, it refers to a pawn fork, but in the case of the Colle, it is the Queen that is used. For example, after 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 c5 5.b3 Nc6 6.0-0 Bd6 7.Bb2 0-0 8.Nbd2 Qc7?! 9.dxc5 Bxc5 10.c4 e5? we have reached a position seen in Crespo-Duran, 2001. 11