Mate in Eight; Why Greco was Great!

Mate in Eight; Why Greco was Great!  by, Mrs Jessica E Prescott (aka BoundingOwl)

 

Hi friends!  Have any of you heard of the chess player named GRECO?  He's very cool.  You should look him up.  

 

He was an Italian who was born around 1600 and thoughtfully wrote his moves down!  Do you know how to notate?  When you write your moves down and review them afterward, you can learn from your mistakes.  Or, maybe your games are so amazing your family will prize them for generations to come.  Here is a page from the book that Greco wrote.

  It almost looks like he wrote "cheese" right?

 

People held onto his notated games because he played some amazing super quick checkmates.  In this game, Greco has white and gets to use a discovered check and a queen sacrifice to win!  You will need to watch the devious discovery videos and the square of doom video.

 

 

 

 

Black plays an opening called Owen's Defense which is not my first recommendation for you.  (If some one plays e4, you can just play e5 right back!)  The bishop landing in the cave on b7 is called: "fianchetto".  And pronounce it like FEE-an-KETTO.  No cheddar cheese here!

 

 

 

 

 

Black saw a pin and exploited it.  What does black capture for free?  But then, do you see a check here?  Which square is open?  Uh-oh, square of doooooom! 

 

 

 

 

White plays fxg6 and now, another pin!  If black captures back with hxg6, the white queen could capture the rook on h8.  Did you see that?  

Here comes that crazy discovered check.  What is black's only move?  Why would Greco sacrifice his queen??

 

 

 

 

 

 

This checkmate is similar to Fool's Mate and Scholar's Mate.  All of these tricks focus on the weakness on f7.  Watch that square!!