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I would like to make a collection of chess games that feature the 'Greek gift' sacrifice. There are few games on chessgames.com annotated with this sacrifice. I could find blogs with individual examples of games with this type of sacrifice (example: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6); however they are not in a readily downloadable format.

Is there a collection of games that feature this sacrifice? If not, is there any way I can search for and get collections of games featuring this sacrifice using a chess database like SCID?

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Something which might help here is Chess Query Language. Just like SQL does for relational databases, CQL can search in a database of chess games for positions/games which match certain criteria.

I must say I have never used it myself, but it seems to be capable of amazing things, far more complex than what you're looking for. Here is an old article showing a few beautiful studies Tim Krabbé was able to find with the help of CQL.

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Thank you @Glorfindel . I didn't know about Chess Querry Language. It is indeed a wonderful tool. Going through basic syntax of CQL from their website, I came up with the following script and method that can pick out "Greek gift sacrifice" by either black or white from any pgn database. I provide an example below using a UNIX system.

First, download a pgn database of your interest (example.pgn).

Second, using a text editor save the following script as a text file greek_gift.cql with the extension .cql.

cql (input example.pgn)
flipcolor flip 
next (Bh7
      kh7)

Keep the executable cql program (downloaded from the CQL website), the cql file greek_gift.cql and the input pgn file example.pgn in the same folder.

Open the terminal and navigate to the folder.

Execute the command ./cql greek_gift.cql.

A new pgn file greek_gift-out.pgn will be generated in the same directory. Note that this will contain games with Bh7 sacrifice by white as well as Bh2 sacrifice by black, followed by capture by the opponent king.

I am not a programmer; please edit the script if anybody thinks there is an error.

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  1. in chesstempo's recent tag update (2021Oct), you can find greek gift in their tags
  2. in lichess you can try kingside attack or queenside attack
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