Saturday, November 30, 2019

BSJG: Sacrifice and More Sacrifice

Image result for free clip art chess players


In the "good old days" of chess, it was considered valiant to offer sacrifices, and craven to refuse them. These attitudes produced some very entertaining games - and a plethora of virtual tut tuts from the computers that came after, and supplied skeptical analysis.

The world of "bullet chess" - in this case, a time limit of one minute with no increment - has brought back wild play, and, a person can win the game, even if he loses the annotations. The following game is an enjoyable example.

angelcamina - shahramkhoshseffat
1 0 bullet, lichess.org, 2019

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 



The Blackburne Shilling Gambit - a practical choice in bullet chess. It is one of those openings that an opponent can be expected to disarm and defeat, if he has enough time; of course there often is not enough time in bullet chess.

4.Bxf7+ 

However, angelcamina has come prepared! This is the infamous Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit. 

(You are right, Reader: there are no game examples of Joseph Henry Blackburne ever playing 3...Nd4. And, you are right again: there are no game examples of Alonzo Wheeler Jerome playing 4.Bxf7+ as a response. However, the opening calls out for the name, and I have supplied it.)  

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke6 6.Qh5 



White's "strongest" move is 6.c3, leading to an even game, but angelcamina is planning to sacrifice his way to victory.

 6...Nf6 7.Qf7+ Kxe5 8.f4+ Kxe4 9.Nc3+ Kxf4 



What if Black plays 9...Kf5 instead? It turns out that White has already answered that question (more sacrifice), in angelcamina - rabirabi, 1 0 bullet, lichess.org, 2019 (1-0, 13).

10.d3+ 

Warning: if you follow this line of play in the future, angelcamina will improve with 10.0-0+.

10...Ke5 11.O-O Nxc2 

One last grab of material.

12.Bf4+ Kd4 13.Qc4 checkmate

No comments: