Thursday, April 2, 2020

Sarrat Attack: No Way A World Champion...

In my never-ending search to uncover not only Jerome Gambit and Jerome-ish games, but also possible precursors that might have inspired Alonzo Wheeler Jerome to create his gambit, I have run across a number of interesting, if old, openings. 

For example, in "No Way A GM Plays the Jerome Gambit! (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3)" I looked at a couple modern examples of the Sarratt Attack (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4 Bc5 5.Ng5 Nh6 6.Nxf7 Nxf7 7.Bxf7+ Kxf7 8.Qh5+): Grischuk, A. - Karjakin, Sergey, St. Louis Blitz, St. Louis, 2018 (1/2-1/2 69) and Grischuk, A. - Dominguez Perez, L., St. Louis Blitz, St. Louis, 2018 (1-0, 43).


This was all very interesting, as I had noted in my post "The Sarratt Attack"
Of the Sarrat / Vitzthum Attack (see the recent "Another Distant Relative" as well as "A Bridge To... Somewhere" and "Abridged"), The City of London Chess Magazine wrote in 1875
This attack, invented by Count Vitzthum, was very much practised about twenty years ago. [Here, Readers may recall Meek - Morphy, Mobile, Alabama, 1855Meek - Morphy, New Orleans, 1855; and Kennicott - Morphy, New York, 1857 as examples; although Lowenthal, in Morphy's Games (1860), had already opined "This {5.Ng5}is far from an effective mode of proceeding with the attack, and is decidedly inferior to castling" and "This mode of proceeding with the attack is comparatively obsolete, as with the correct play the defense is perfectly satisfactory." ] It is now abandoned in contests of strong players, as the analysis proved that Black can maintain his Pawn with a good position.
Recently, however, I ran across the following game:

Carlsen, Magnus - Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi
Tata Steel Rapid and Blitz, 2019

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d4 exd4 5.Ng5
  drawn




GM Vidit was rated 2722, but, when a World Champion offers you a draw...

From ChessBomb.com: "The commentators confirm that Magnus is feeling unwell today"  

Wrote SportsStar.thehindu.com "Troubled by an upset stomach" 


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