I emailed Dr. Timothy Harding, a Senior International Master of Correspondence Chess and author of over 30 chess books, including the classic Bishop's Opening, the still-referred-to Italian Game (with George Botterill), and Vienna Opening.
His interest in unorthodox openings, as well, is reflected in such titles as Counter Gambits, Irregular Openings for the 1990s, Dynamic White Openings and Dynamic Black Defenses.
By the way, Dr. Harding has written extensively on correspondence chess, having been editor of the Chess Mail magazine and compiler of the MegaCorr CD-ROM database series of correspondence games (for many years a "secret weapon" used by stronger players).
His newest book title is Correspondence Chess in Britain and Ireland, 1824-1987 (see picture above) and it is really quite a great read. I will be reviewing it for Chessville.com.
Anyhow, to my dismay, but not to my surprise, Dr. Harding was not familiar with the reversed Blackburne Shilling Gambit, and the one game he sent me shows that White, who initiated the gambit, was not, either.
Stormtrooper - Tofik
HCL-C1126 PlayChess.de, 2002
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Bc5 4.Nd5
4...Nxe4 5.Ne3
A lackluster reply.
A BSGer would fire out 5.Qg4 immediately. As Tim McGrew has written about the regular BSG: Only [the Queen] move gives Black’s idea any punch.
Sadly, the rest of the game is not very exciting, either, until the second player engineers a breakthrough and advances a pair of connected passed pawns...
5...d6 6.d3 Nf6 7.Nf3 Nc6 8.Ng5 d5 9.Bb5 Bd7 10.Nf3 Bd6 11.0-0 0-0 12.a4 a6 13.Bxc6 Bxc6 14.d4 e4 15.Ne5 Bxe5 16.dxe5 Ne8 17.c3 f5 18.f4 g6 19.b3 Ng7 20.Ba3 Re8 21.Qd2 b5 22.a5 Bb7 23.Rfd1 c6 24.b4 Ne6 25.g3 Rc8 26.Bb2 Re7 27.Kg2 Rd7 28.Ra3 c5 29.h4 cxb4 30.cxb4 d4 31.Kg1 Rcc7 32.Ng2 d3 33.Rc3 Nd4 34.Ne1 Ne2+ White resigned
That's how it goes: sometimes the beginning of a research project moves along slowly... Tomorrow's post shows how quickly the pace can pick up!
