Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Greco’s Legacy. King’s Gambit -V-
Gioacchino Greco (1600-1634), frequently known as ‘Il Calabrese’, was an Italian strong chess player who recorded some of the oldest known chess games in their entirety. He played chess for money against anyone who challenged him. Because of that, Greco is considered the first professional player in the history of chess.
In his games never appears the opponent’s name, which led historians to conclude that they are in fact his constructs to demonstrate opening traps and mating patterns.
All we know about ‘Il Calabrese’ comes comes only from his manuscripts.
To his legacy belong to have discovered various tactical concepts and traps, which Greco recorded and sold in small manuscripts. After his death some of them appeared published in books like “The Royall Game of Chesse-Play (1656)” or “Le Jeu des Echets (1669)”. Those books contain short games, each of them demonstrating an important tactical pattern. Thanks to those books, Greco’s work reached a large audience of chess fans.
After Greco’s death the King’s Gambit became very popular. It was the most common opening in that period known as the Romantic Era of chess and games featured strong attacks against the opponent’s king and beautiful combinations.
The oldest record of the King’s Gambit is from a game played between Ruy Lopez de Segura and Giovani Leonardo Da Cutri in 1560.
In this post we continue learning Greco’s patterns in the King’s Gambit Accepted, Variation of Knight’s Gambit. In this variation White opts for playing first his king’s knight (3.Nf3) instead of developing the bishop (3.Bc4). With 3.Nf3, White prevents early checks with Qh4+. Black’s main response in the early years of the king’s gambit was 3…g5, which clearly aims to stick to the extra pawn.
Today’s post shows tactical patterns for the player with the Black pieces.
Successfully playing the variation with 3…g5 requires a deep knowledge of many sharp lines that experts have analyzed over the years. Sometimes a slight slip is enough to lose the game.
If you enjoyed these examples about the King’s Gambit, stay tuned because this series will follow in future posts.
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