Sep-19-22
 | | FSR: For me, this game has a lot of history behind it. In 1974, the book "How to Play the Opening in Chess" by Raymond Keene and David Levy was published. In it, Keene mentioned his game J H Donner vs Keene, 1971, which was identical to the present game through 7.Bf4. Keene played 7...Nd7, and noted that Donner would have met the natural 7...Ng6 with the stunning 8.Bxc4!! This made a deep impression on me. Three years later, I tried the same sacrifice a tempo down in a blitz game E Sollano vs F Rhine, 1977. It turns out that even with a tempo less, it's very strong! I won a stunning game, which Mato Jelic with some hyperbole called "The Greatest Ever Blitz Game Played in Chicago." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl8... Incidentally, engine analysis proves that my 7...Bxc5!! in that game is much stronger than the flaccid 7...Bg6, which Boris Avrukh recommended in his book "Beating 1.d4 Sidelines" (2012). So 7...Bxc5!!, which I blitzed out the year before Avrukh was born, turns out to be much better than the move he analyzed in his book 35 years later! In the present blitz game, I was able to play the original version of the sacrifice. I had the choice of winning with 9.Qa4+! or 9.Bb5+! I chose the former, probably because in my game against Sollano, with a tempo less, only the queen check worked. In the present position, both are completely crushing. To assess their relative strength, I ran Stockfish 15 for around 24 hours. At depth 50, it rates 9.Bb5+ +10.03, and my choice 9.Qa4+ "only" +9.56. Surprisingly, ChessBase Online indicates that only 9.Bb5+ has been played before (nine times; in four of those, played in 1999-2012, an 800-something player named J. Feng was Black!). This makes my 9.Qa4+ a theoretical novelty. But I think I played it before in a blitz game on FICS sometime in the previous millennium, in a game that was very similar or even identical to this one. |
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Sep-19-22
 | | Sally Simpson: Great Post FSR.
That is the kind of post that Danny set this site up for. Here we see the game and the hook source. The link from author, to reader to the board. Those inspirational games, one line sentences or variations in books that seem to stick and guide. I too have many (all players will have a stock of games that shook them or a note that they never forget.) The thrill of capturing someone in a trick you got from a book is brilliant. Those enjoyable hours of study paid off. (and you must enjoy the study...it's not work, it's fun.) Here is a 'why not' that just had to be tried.
I played 5.b5 in G Chandler vs R Ratcliff, 1983 because I remembered George Botterill saying 'Don't do this' in his 'Open Gambits.' I thought 'why not?' I'm getting an uncastled King and two pawns for a piece...then I castled (a lemon that worked out quite well.) Thank You. |
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Sep-19-22
| | FSR: <Sally Simpson> Fun game. Made me think of G Chandler vs NN, 1983, another game in which you played into a "refuted" line. |
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Sep-19-22
| | FSR: <FSR: ... This makes my 9.Qa4+ a theoretical novelty. But I think I played it before in a blitz game on FICS sometime in the previous millennium, in a game that was very similar or even identical to this one.> I see that on March 5, 2013 I made this comment to H Murphy vs A Kinsman, 1981 : <I've won some very crunchy blitz games after 8.Bxc4.> |
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| Sep-20-22 | | dehanne: Interesting line. Ward recommends the 3.cxd5 line in his Queen's gambit book. |
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Kibitzing
sac: 8.Bxc4