By comparison, the following game is a bit of a snack. Yet, it is still filling.
CarlosFonseca - gianbagia
blitz, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Na5
Instead of entering the paths of the Giuoco Piano with 3...Bc5 or the Two Knights Defense with 3...Nf6, Black decides to pick on White's light-squared Bishop.
White does well enough, now, with 4.Nxe5, but he chooses an exciting alternative.
4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke7 6.d4 Nf6
White has two pawns for his sacrificed piece, plus one of Black's Knights is offside, and Black's King is in danger and in the way of his pieces.
The game is about even, which means, at the club level in blitz play, that the second player has to be careful.
7.Nd3
Curiously, of the 50 games in The Database with the position given in the above diagram, only one has this very reasonable move.
White's reasoning is impeccible: with the enemy King and Queen lined up on the same diagonal, Bc1-g5+ would be a deadly skewer, if it were not for Black's protective Knight on f6, so why not try to drive the Knight away?
7...d5
What would be a useful move at another time and in another place merely furthers White's plan in the here-and-now.
8.e5 Ne4 9.f3
Black could have left his Knight at f6 and allowed it to be captured with 8...Qe8. Instead, he moved it to a place where it covered the dangerous checking square g5.
Unfortunately, as White's move shows, the Knight is just as vulnerable at e4.
Sadly, Black's best move now is to retreat the Knight to f6, give the piece up, and resign himself to being a pawn down with a still-unsafe King.
Instead, Black resigned
Yum!
(This is my 1,250th post to this blog. I have been posting daily since the first one. I do not know how much longer I will be able to post daily, but even if I "slow down" I will continue to post multiple times per week. - Rick)
