Italian Game: the strike on f7

f7 is the weakest square on the board, and the bishop sacrifice against it is the most copied idea in chess. Here it does not work — and seeing why is worth more than another example where it does.

Lesson

White to move. Main line: 1. Bxf7+ Rxf7 2. Ng5 Rf8

The pattern looks right: bishop aiming at f7, knight ready for g5, king castled behind three pawns. But Black simply recaptures with the rook, drops it back to f8, and White has given a bishop for one pawn with no follow-up. An engine puts Black more than three pawns ahead.

The prerequisites for a sound f7 sacrifice are concrete, not decorative: the king must be forced into the open, and every check that follows must gain material or tempo. Here Black’s king never leaves g8, the knight on g5 attacks a rook that just steps aside, and the d7 bishop covers the entry squares.

A brilliancy is a move that survives the opponent’s best answer. This one does not, which is exactly why it belongs next to the ones that do — the exclamation mark has to be earned.