A Flurry of Punches

Years ago I read a first person account by a small time boxer who managed to wrangle some sparring time with Muhammad Ali. After some warm up exchanges, The Champ was momentarily distracted by a loud noise - a slamming door, a falling chair - and the author landed a solid punch on him. I hit Ali! I hit Ali! the writer enthused. Of course, that was all he remembered, as Ali almost immediately returned a knockout punch...

Imagine my excitement when the Chess.com app on my phone indicated that Philidor1792 wanted to play a game. Sure! I thought. We took more time on our moves than some of the 3 0 games of his that I have posted here, but the result was still the same: a flurry of punches and a KO.

perrypawnpusher - Philidor1792
Chess.com, 2015

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Bc5

The Busch-Gass Gambit, which can turn out similar to a reversed Jerome Gambit, a move down.

3.Nxe5 Nc6 

Chiodini's Gambit.

4.Nc3

I don't know if this move is good or not, but there was no way that I was going to follow along with Black's offer of 4.Nxc6. which would lead to a kind of reversed Boden Kieseritzky Gambit.

Instead, I would prefer to see something calm now like 4...Nxe5 5.d4 Bd6 6.dxe5 Bxe5 7.Bd3 Nf6, a reversed Italian Four Knights.

No such luck. Philidor1792 came to complicate.

4...Nf6 5.Nf3 Nd4 6.e5 

This risky pawn move is good, but I did not appreciate why.

6...Ng4 7.Bc4

I had anticipated Black's upcoming sacrifice, but I would have done better to prevent - not provoke - it with 7.Ne4, protecting f2.

7...Nxf2 8.Kxf2 d5 

9.Bxd5 Nxf3+ 10.d4 Nxd4 11.Be3 O-O

Here it looked for a moment like the game might settle down, after exchanges on d4 and a pin-and-win on d5, to a positional advantage for Black.

Ha!

12.Bxd4 Qh4+ 13.g3

After the game Stockfish "reassured" me that 13.Ke3 would have led to an even game, or one where Black had only a slight advantage. I don't think it would have helped me much, though.

13...Bxd4+ 14.Kg2 Qh3+ 

White resigned