Monday, March 14, 2022

Perez – Alekhine Game & WCC’s Main Mistake: The New View (Part 1)

 


Perez – Alekhine Game & WCC’s Main Mistake: The New View (Part 1) 

  

(by Yury V. Bukayev) 

 

This my new analytical research has a goal to try to explain Blacks very large mistake and to find the best way (or ways) for Black instead. 

Probably, Rick Kennedy is right when he says that the great maestro Alexandre Alekhine (Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Alekhin) couldn’t lose as Black as a result of his possible play against the Jerome gambit, and such game isn’t found. But the world of Jerome-ish true gambits and pseudogambits is very large and includes very strong ones too, so it isn’t easy to find such games and to suppose before it, what were possible maestri’s results here 

Now we’ll consider World Champion Alexandre Alekhine’s tournament blitz game (Madrid, 1943, October 22) against a future enough famous player Francisco Jose Perez Perez. We can see here Jerome-ish very strong blow in the Pierce gambit of the Vienna game. This blow isn’t a true gambit, in fact. Most probably, it was the shortest A.Alekhine’s lost game since he has become a chess maestro. 

 

Perez, F. J. WCC Alekhine, A.  

 

Madrid, 1943, blitz  

 

1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 exf4 4.Nf3 g5 5.d4 g4 6.Bc4 gxf3 7.Bxf4 fxg2?? [It’s A.Alekhine’s very large mistake in the game, which allows White to get an advantage immediately.] 8.Bxf7+!! Kxf7 9.Qh5+ Kg7 10.Rg1 Nge7 11.Bh6+! Kg8 12.Rxg2+, and Black resigned. [It would be most correct to resign after the 11th move, I think.] 

              

I think, Black’s best 7th moves are 7…d5, 7…f2+ and 7…Bb4.  

If I know it right, all commentators have one version only, so their conclusion is that A.Alekhine have made 7…fxg2??, because he hasn’t seen the blow 8.Bxf7+!!. I’m ready to accept this version, but I have created some following alternative versions. 

The first of them is that A.Alekhine tried to play 7…f2+, but the abrupt blitz movement of his fingers knocked the pawn f3 and the pawn g2 down. He lifted them back without his comment and made his move 7…f2+, but his opponent has started to require the move 7…fxg2 instead and has had all rights to do it. 

The second of them is that A.Alekhine thought about 7…d5 and about his choice after 8.Nxd5 8…Bd6 or 8…fxg2. He solved, probably, to play 8…fxg2 9.Rg1 Qh4+ 10.Bg3 Qxe4+ 11.Kf2 Qf5+ with the win. But he has made the move …fxg2 immediately after looking at their chess clock, because he has forgotten that moves 7…d5 8.Nxd5 haven’t made yet. Earlier – in my research ‘Anatoly Karpov & Jerome Gambit (Part 2)’ (the post of January 27, 2022) – I have created my almost analogous version about why WCC A.Karpov’s opponent Mr. Delgado hasn’t made the easy winning move …Qxe5. 

The third of them is that A.Alekhine has played 7…fxg2 intentionally, because he has seen no White’s winning blows on the 11th move after 10…Nge7 (?). 

In any case, I say: “Bravo, Francisco Jose Perez Perez! Thank you a lot!” And, yes, it is not very glad and easy to analyse chess during a war... 

 

Note 1: Author’s theoretical novelties-moves are not marked by a special symbol. 

 

Contact the author:  istinayubukayev@yandex.ru  

 

© 2022 Yury V. Bukayev (Copyright © Bukayev Yury Vyacheslavovich 2022). All rights reserved.  

[A legal using of this investigation with a reference to it is permitted  

and doesn’t require author’s consent.] 

Sunday, March 13, 2022

How Strong A Player Was Giovanni Tonetti?


Following up on the discussions (see "Jerome Gambit: How We Got Here" and "Jerome Gambit: Giovanni Tonetti") of the 19th - 20th century Italian chess player Giovanni Tonetti (for the link between Alonzo Wheeler Jerome and Tonetti see "Jerome Gambit: Startling Discovery") I visited the EDO Historical Chess Ratings site, by Rod Edwards. 

(Alas, Jeff Sonas' Chessmetrics site does not include data on Tonetti.)

Edwards has constructed a system (similar to Elo or Glicko) to help evaluate the strength of historical chess players.

For Tonetti, he focuses on the First Italian National Tournament in Rome, from April 26, 1875 to May 26, 1875.

He gives
Results
 
Crosstable scores
Name  Edo   Dev.  Score / Games   
Seni, Pietro   2404(93)13/16 
Maluta, Giovanni   2414(89)12.5/16 
Tonetti, Giovanni   2405(102)12.5/16 
d'Aumiller, Alessandro   2218(82)8/16 
Marchetti, Carlo   2172(96)7/16 
Sprega, Luigi   2191(83)6/16 
Tormene, L.   2060(99)4.5/16 
Cassoli, Ferdinando   2060(99)4.5/16 
Cantoni, Filippo   2084(89)4/16 


Based on that tournament, a snapshot of Tonetti's play, it looks like his skill was at the master level. Impressive.

(The EDO Historical Ratings Site does not list Alonzo WheelerJerome. I checked.)

 

Saturday, March 12, 2022

Jerome Gambit: Giovanni Tonetti

 


Readers familiar with the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) might understandably mistake the above photograph as one of an aging British chess player, Joseph Henry Blackburne, whose notorious treatment of an Amateur's Jerome Gambit is probably the best known game with that line.

However, it is Giovanni Tonetti, of Italy, mentioned in yesterday's blog post "Jerome Gambit: How We Got Here", whom we see above.

The picture headlines the blog post "Giovanni Tonetti, the Nestor of the Italian chess players" by Riccardo Moneta - a far more extensive coverage of the man than I originally gave.

Since the earliest Jerome Gambit game that I have uncovered was played by Tonetti in 1863 (when Jerome was about 30 years old, but still about a decade before the Dubuque Chess Journal published Jerome's analysis of the opening), it is relevant to learn more about this early chess argonaut. Especially since Tonetti has nearly been forgotten, as Moneta laments

Giovanni Tonetti, President of the Roman Chess Academy and co-founder (Turin, 1898) of the Italian Chess Union (forerunner of the FSI) together with the secretary of the Academy Prof. Augusto Guglielmetti, would deserve a nice little book dedicated to him, more detailed than these a few lines that I prepared today.

Instead Tonetti was unfortunately almost forgotten. Among the first responsible for the oblivion into which our Nestor fell there is what is perhaps the best known Italian historical text, or the " History of chess in Italy” by Chicco and Rosino, which I do not think has dedicated a single line among his more than 600 pages, apart from the ranking of that first Italian tournament I mentioned above.

I suspect that Alonzo Wheeler Jerome would be sympathetic. As early as 1884, the American Supplement to the "Synopsis," containing American Inventions In the Chess Openings Together With Fresh Analysis in the Openings Since 1882; also a list of Chess Clubs in the United States and Canada, edited by J.W. Miller, covered the Jerome Gambit, noting

We give the fullest analysis of this American invention that has yet been in print. The author is Mr. S. A. Charles, Cincinnati, O.

In any event, I have emailed Riccardo Moneta and asked him if he knows of other Tonetti games with the gambit. I will let you know about his reply.