Black sizes up his offensive options and finds two main resources: his knight can reach e2, and he has connected rooks on the eighth rank that can be brought to the h-file in succession (Damiano’s queue, as we have been naming it)—with a queen nearby as well. So here, as in the previous case, he starts with 1. …Ne2+, forcing 2. Kh1. Next comes a standard sacrifice to open h2 and then the follow-up with another heavy piece: 2. …Rxh2+; 3. KxR, Rh8+; and now Black’s only concern is White’s interpositions. White can play Qh6 or Bh6, and either way the interposed piece has protection—but either way it doesn’t matter since Black’s queen attacks h6 as well. One possibility is 4. Qh6, RxQ+; 5. BxR, QxB#. Another is 4. Bh6, which leads even more quickly to Qh4#.

The resemblance to Greco’s pattern is that mate gets administered by a heavy piece on the h-file because the king can’t move to g8 (or g1). But if you imagine the f2 pawn off the board and a Black bishop on d4 instead of a knight, you can see that the knight actually has some advantages over a bishop here. After the third pair of moves listed above (White’s recapture KxR, which opens the h-file, followed by a fresh check from Black’s rook on h8), White’s king is prevented from escaping to g3 only by the knight on e2, which seals off the square. And you never have to worry that anything will be interposed between your knight and the king.