Greco's Italian Job

by Milica Knezevic on January 14, 2022

The Chess Game: Gioachino Greco - NN, 1620

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Gioachino Greco with the game that you get to explore above is one of the finest moments in chess history.
The game starts with the King's Gambit, which is then accepted.
Carefully observe this game and do some analysis regarding the moves and tell us what you can see happening.

Gioachino Greco (c. 1600 – c. 1634) (ελληνικά/greek: Τζοακίνο Γκρέκο), surnamed Cusentino and more frequently il Calabrese was an Italian chess player and writer.
He recorded some of the earliest chess games known in their entirety. His games, which never indicated players, were quite possibly constructs, but served as examples of brilliant combinations.
Greco was very likely the strongest player of his time, having played (and defeated) the best players of Rome, Paris, London, and Madrid.
Greco's writing was in the form of manuscripts for his patrons, in which he outlined the rules of chess, gave playing advice, and presented instructive games.
These manuscripts were later published to a wide audience and became massively influential after his death.

Gioachino Greco (c. 1600 – c. 1634) (ελληνικά/greek: Τζοακίνο Γκρέκο), surnamed Cusentino and more frequently il Calabrese was an Italian chess player and writer.
He recorded some of the earliest chess games known in their entirety. His games, which never indicated players, were quite possibly constructs, but served as examples of brilliant combinations.
Greco was very likely the strongest player of his time, having played (and defeated) the best players of Rome, Paris, London, and Madrid.
Greco's writing was in the form of manuscripts for his patrons, in which he outlined the rules of chess, gave playing advice, and presented instructive games.
These manuscripts were later published to a wide audience and became massively influential after his death.

Gioachino Greco (c. 1600 – c. 1634) (ελληνικά/greek: Τζοακίνο Γκρέκο), surnamed Cusentino and more frequently il Calabrese was an Italian chess player and writer.
He recorded some of the earliest chess games known in their entirety. His games, which never indicated players, were quite possibly constructs, but served as examples of brilliant combinations.
Greco was very likely the strongest player of his time, having played (and defeated) the best players of Rome, Paris, London, and Madrid.
Greco's writing was in the form of manuscripts for his patrons, in which he outlined the rules of chess, gave playing advice, and presented instructive games.
These manuscripts were later published to a wide audience and became massively influential after his death.

Greco was a remarkable chess player who lived during the era between Ruy López de Segura and François-André Danican Philidor.
At that early date, no great corpus of chess knowledge had yet been amassed. It is for this reason that Greco's games should be understood as those of a brilliant inventor and pioneer rather than as guides to sound play.
They are also valuable examples of the Italian Romantic school of chess, in which development and material are eschewed in favour of aggressive attacks on the opponent's king.
Greco paved the way for many of the attacking legends of the Romantic era, such as Philidor, Adolf Anderssen, and Paul Morphy.
Mikhail Botvinnik considered Greco to be the first professional chess player.

If you feel passionate about chess player's backgrounds, we highly recommend you check out some biographies of the greatest below !

The idea behind the King’s Gambit is: White sacrifices a pawn to get counterplay and an advantage in development.
Black may or may not accept the pawn sacrifice, and this changes the character of the game.
The King’s Gambit can be divided into four major variations, depending on Black’s options.
The first decision that Black has to make is whether to take the pawn on f4 or not.
Taking it leads to the King’s Gambit Accepted, the main line, while not taking it leads to the King’s Gambit declined.

The four major variations are:

In the King’s Gambit Accepted: Classical Variation, Black plays g5 to protect the pawn on f4.

This opening runs into a lot of issues for Black since White can get his Knight to e5 and force Black’s pawns to over advance.

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Tag: chess, Gioachino Greco, history, King's Gambit