Friday, August 29, 2014

A Small Return - Or A Larger One?


Black defends well in the following game against Philidor 1792, until he has to make the decision to return a pawn. He declines - but the result is that he loses a piece.

Philidor 1792 - guest132
3 0 blitz, www.bereg.ru, 2014

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6


What, no Jerome Gambit?

4.Bxf7+ 

Anyway!

4...Kxf7 5.Qe2 h6 6.c3 d6 7.d4 exd4 8.cxd4 Bg4 9.Qc4+ Ke8 10.Nc3 Qe7 11.Qd3 a6 12.a3 d5 13.e5 Rd8 14.Be3


Prudent now for the defender would be 14...Ne4, when, after 15.Nxe4 dxe4 16.Qxe4 Qe6 he would maintain his advantage. Instead, he retreats his attacked piece.

14...Nd7 15.Qg6+ Black resigned



True, Black is only down a pawn after White collects the piece at g4, but his King remains trapped in the middle of the board, while White will castle his own monarch to safety and begin the attack.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

An Email Discussion


Earlier this month I received two emails from chessfriend Yury Bukayev. The first, with the subject "Your post of July 18 has a large error‏" and contained the following
Your post of July 18 has a large error. Thus, you have published your appraisal of the position: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6? 4.b4?! Bxb4? 5.c3 Ba5 as winning for Black. It isn't true! Look, please, Paragraph 2, part III of my article! Yury 
http://chessproblem.my-free-games.com/chess/games/ChessArticle.php?art=C51 
The second email, with the subject "Else about your error in the post of July 18‏" continued
The position 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6? 4.b4?! Bxb4? (4...d6 =) 5.c3! leads to Evans-Bukayev gambit in all cases: http://chessproblem.my-free-games.com/chess/games/ChessArticle.php?art=C51 . It isn't important, is White's pawn on d2 or on d3. Dear Rick, I suggest you to write a new post in August about it. I think, my 2 Evans-Bukayev gambits have done the Evans idea immortal for strong theory.
My response was pretty straight-forward
I will take another look at my July 18th post, at your two emails, and your article, and post about it all on my blog.
At this point I can say that I wrote that after 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Nf3 h6 4.b4 Bxb4, Houdini 3, at 22 ply, gives Black an advantage of about 1/3 of a pawn. That much is factual - and neither Houdini 3 nor I consider "1/3 of a pawn" as "winning" for Black.
The game wardcleophus - Kiera, blitz, FICS, 2013, which I gave in the notes in the blog post, continued 5.c3 Ba5 and Black did win - but only after White immediately blundered with the Jerome-ish 6.Bxf7+? If, instead, White plays 6.0-0 the situation would be completely different from the game. Likewise, if Black plays 6...Nf6 (instead of 6...d6, similar to your article) the second player does not look lost, either.
Readers are encouraged to review the offending post, "Creative Exercise" and decide for themselves.

Monday, August 25, 2014

Another RHP Jerome Gambit Tournament - Game 2


If there is a theme song for the Jerome Gambit, it would have to be "I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends Opponents". One way of looking at the following game is that White did not get enough support to win.

musirapha (1874) - jankrb (2055) 
Giuoco Piano Jerome Gambit tournament, 2013

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 




4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.d4 



White goes all in. For an extra pawn he gets more open, attacking lines. I was surprised to find only 10 games with this move in The Database.

7...Bxd4 8.f4

Instead, 8.Qf5+ was tried in Philidor 1792 - guest2187, www.bereg.ru 2013 (1-0,17); 8.c3 was seen in stampyshortlegs - GladtoMateYou, JGTourney4, ChessWorld 2009 (1-0, 12); 
8.Bg5 was played in bhargavs - ehvmc, FICS, 2009 (0-1, 30); and
8.0-0 appeared in santaklaus - Wesson, FICS, 2006 (0-1, 33). 

8...Nc6 9.c3 Bb6 

Although Black's King looks ill at ease, he has an extra two pieces to comfort himself with. White is not able to make progress.

10.Qd5+ Ke7 11.f5 Ke8 12.h4 Nf6 13.Qc4 Qe7 14.Nd2 d5 15.Qb5 Bxf5 16.c4 Nxe4 White resigned.