Not only Chernev, but a lot of other writers as well, have given only the first seven moves of this game, as though that had been all there was to it. One writer (just now it escapes me who it was) did say, after giving these seven moves only, that Black struggled on for a few moves but then resigned. That is borne out in the game score as given here.

I can understand these writers' thinking here: The idea is to show the essence of this game-become-opening-trap, and to omit the "mopping up" portion. Unfortunately, this thinking is erroneous here, since it suggests to the student that White will simply pick off one Black Knight or the other on move 8, regardless of what Black does, thus winning easily. This just isn't true.

Andy Soltis comes to our aid here, with his 1978 book <Chess to Enjoy>. Soltis tells us that Black should not resign at move 7, since he has a potentially strong counterattack with 7...e6. Note well that this is <exactly> the move Black makes in the game shown on this page. Further, we see that in response to this, White does not play 8.fxe5 right off, but rather Qd4. Suppose he takes the Knight immediately?

Soltis gives us the answer: If 8.fxe5 Qh4+! If now 9.g3, then 9...Qe4+ wins White's King Rook, leaving Black the Exchange to the good. So we continue 9.Ke2 Bxc5, and now Soltis gives two possibilities:

A)10.Qd3 Qf2+ 11.Kd1 Nxb2+ 12.Bxb2 Qxb2 13.Qc3 Bd4, and here the White Queen Rook falls.

B)10.Nc3 Qf2+ 11.Kd3 Nxe5+ 12.Ke4 Qf5#.

So we can reasonably conclude that those writers who end the game at move 7 unwittingly mislead the student by doing so, since we have seen that White would either lose material or be mated as a result of capturing the Knight at e5 immediately after Black's 7...e6.

It will be seen that White's 8.Qd4 is prudent, since he now threatens to play 9...fxe5 without having to face any penalty from 9...Qh4+. Black therefore has no choice but to go ahead and try his counterattack as planned: 8...Qh4+ 9.g3 Qh6 (still trying to save the Knight via a pin) 10.Nc3 (pin released!) 10...exd5 11.fxe5, and now Black sees that White has not been taken in by his trappy counterplay, and can resign in good conscience. But he did at least make an honest try to save his game.

I think it is that sort of thinking that led black astray. Simply because at some pt in the game a certain move or strategy is what is needed does not mean that it stays that way. In fact how many times have I made that mistake? By fixating on a certain move combination for a moment too long not realizing that reason it was viable no longer exists.

Is that what happened here? Black almost had to play 7...e6 in order to create the possibility of checks should the N be lost. He was not worried at that pt. because he knew he had an immediate counterattack.

But he did not lose the N on move 8, did he? THus, there was no reason to attack the K at that pt. since he was not at a material disadvantage.

THus it appears that he might have been fixated on attacking the K; when that strategy was not viable. At least not for that moment.

okay so on black's 8th he is still ahead in material, he should attempt to exchange. Is there anyway to do this? Well, exd5 would grab a pawn and double his own. Hmmm.

Maybe 8...exd5 9 fxe5

Now black is down in material. Can he attack?

Instead, 9.Ke2 Qd4+! 10.Kf2 Bxc5+ is better - so much so that 9.g3 is preferred over 9.Ke2.

Koster/FSR give the best play for White (with 7.Qd4m which avoids allowing 8...Qh4+ etc.)

But as I said, 10.Bxc4 is inferior. Best, says Houdini, is 10.f4! (10.b3 is an important alternative) Nxb2 11.fxe5 (the best of the captures) Na4 12.Qd2 Qb4 13.Nf3 g5 (what?!) 14.Qxb4 cxb4 15.Bxg5 Bb7 16.Bb5 Nb6 17.d6 Bxf3 18.gxf3 Bg7 19.f4 exd6 20.Nd2 dxe5 21.Rb1 h6 22.Bh4 Kf8 23.fxe5 Bxe5 24.Rxb4 Rg8 25.Re4 Re8 26.Kf1 and White has a winning advantage (+1.80). Easy as pie, right?

As for Borochow's 7.f4, Houdini gives 7...e6! 8.Qd4! d6! (rather than Fine's 8...Qh4+?) 8.fxe5 Nxe5 9.Bf4 f6 10.dxe6 Bxe6 11.Nc3 Be7 12.Nf3 0-0 13.0-0-0 Qc8 14.cxd6 cxd6 15.Kb1, again with a winning advantage (+1.67). So White actually ends up with slightly less of an advantage here than he does with the supposedly stronger 7.Qd4. Of course, there were various other possibilities for both sides along the way, which, had I followed them further, would have led to different results.