13 February 2019

Greek Gift?

As far as I have been able to determine, the so-called Greek Gift (a Bxh7 sacrifice) earned its name because some chess writer confused the Italian chess player Gioachino Greco (c.1600-c.1634) with the artist Doménikos Theotokópoulos (1541-1614). The latter was Greek, but lived in Spain where he was generally known as El Greco (the Greek). In any case, the name stuck. The thematic sacrifice is present in several games recorded by G. Greco.

But, Greco is from a part of Italy, Calabria, where a large number of people are ethnically Greek. Italy was not a unified nation before 1871, except under the Romans. Calabria at the time of Greco's birth was ruled by the Kingdom of Aragon, which had a hand in uniting Spain in the fifteenth century. Some historical works speculate that Greco's parents were Greek, although the sourcing for Greco's early life appear non-existent. He was a young man in the 1620s is about all that is known. The place of his birth is known from manuscripts believed to be in his own hand: Celico, a village near Cosenza.

Is the sacrifice sound in this position?

White to move

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