Playing At Odds

Although I always play the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) for fun, sometimes I use the opening as a way of giving "odds" to a lower-rated player. Little did I realize that this strategy was over 150 years old!

The following excerpt should be of historical interest to those who play the Chicago Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nxe5) – see The Myers Opening Bulletin, New MOB No. 4, October - December, 1993 – as it is over 25 years earlier than examples generally known.

From the "Chess" column in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, July 12, 1856

We give place to the following communication from Mr. D.W. Fiske, of the Astor Library, inasmuch as it may interest those who are in the habit of giving odds. For our single self, we can only say that we do not delight in any games at odds, and – while we admit the necessity of thus equalizing the game by removing the disparity in force between different players – we never like to encounter "rook" or "pawn and two" men, when we can find an antagonist of the first rank. The toughest match we ever played was with our friend Hamilton, of St. Louis, giving the queen's knight and receiving the pawn and move in return. To those, however, who practice playing at odds, the suggestion of our young friend "Shabiludius" will prove curious and instructive.

SOMETHING NEW IN CHESS

I have been playing latterly some games at a new and curious kind of odds, namely: The odds of giving the Knight in the King's Knight's opening for the King's Pawn. Although my experience in giving these odds has been too brief to enable me to determine their precise value, yet I should hardly be surprised if, upon analysis, they should prove to be little greater than the odds of giving pawn and move – at least I have tried them successfully with players to whom I could only afford to give pawn and move. The following are the opening moves:
WHITE_____________ BLACK
1 P to K 4___________ 1 P to K4
2 Kt to KB3__________2 Kt to QB3
3 Kt takes KP ________3 Kt takes Kt
4 P to Q4
and Black must withdraw his Knight either to King's Knight's third or to Queen's Bishop third. In the former case, White appears to embarass Black's game materially by playing Pawn to King's Bishop's fourth. If he place his Knight at Queen's Bishop's third, perhaps White's best move is Pawn to Queen's fifth, compelling black either to carry his Knight home or to place it on the Queen's Rook's fourth.

CARRERA, who enumerates many curious methods of giving odds, does not, if my memory serves me right, even hint at this. PHILIDOR has left us some games in which he gave the Knight for the Pawn and move, but in that case the Queen's Knight was given by one party and the King's Bishop's Pawn by the other. I have been persuaded to communicate this very brief notice of these novel odds to the ILLUSTRATED NEWSPAPER, in the hope that, if they are of no value, some chess analyst will at once demonstrate their unworthiness. But I also hope that, should they be found to contain any elements of interest, they may be added to the list of the many beautiful and ingenious contrivances by which the devotees of Caissa seek to equalize their disparity at chess skill.
Shabiludius