05 Feb '15 07:18>4 edits
My One Day Return To Chess ... Or When The Chess Bug Bites
I used to be a real chess junky (playing/studying/posting all the time), but I kind of dropped out of it.
I still play speed chess (mostly unrated rubbish) daily, but for the most part, I am off the chess scene.
Today, I took a little quest back into the world of chess, and I must say I really enjoyed myself.
The day started with this blitz game:
In the first game, I had played rather foolishly, and managed to get myself mated.
I decided to try my luck with this opponent one more time.
.........................................................................................
My "Quest" next took me to look for information on the author of my old and out of print book on- The Belgrade Gambit.
I could not find his site, so I looked for some games on Chessgames.com.
After a few looks at the Four Knights, a few odd and interesting things came up.
................................................................................................
First of all, you may be familiar with the Halloween Gambit.
And Madness Ensues !!!
Some of the die hards have found a way to play it with black!
!!? - inspired madness
The idea is that white has lost the g3 square for a knight!
I'll leave it to the die hards to try it, but now, I am one step closer to seeing everything!
............................................................................................
My look at odd knight sacrifices didn't stop there.
The next little "gem" or "germ" maybe, is an inspiring sacrifice against the likes of Pillsbury.
It's not really instructive, but it's a good little scrap.
3.Nxe5 is called the Chicago Gambit, but others have suggested it be called the I didn't know it was defended variation.
I say we call it the New Years Gambit. It's similiar to the Halloween, but it came out a lot earlier in time.
Back To The Four Knights ...
................................................................................................
If white isn't brave enough to try 4.g3, he can always play 4.h3.
This just looks tame, and you'd never even think to look at it.
Until you find out that Kramnik lost to it!!!
Here's the game, but be warned ... White's play is very odd-looking (to me at least).
Note = It is Rapid Play.
.......................................................................................
Not being in the loop, I had never heard of Giri before.
This led me to two more gems.
The next game is Carlsen-Giri.
It starts out with a tame fianchetto opening and morphs into a wild tactical brawl.
Again, Qd2/Qd7 ideas need a further discussion.
.............................................................................................
Next is Nakamura-Giri.
You can flick through most of this one.
White got saddled with a position without much dynamics, and black just took control.
The interesting part starts after white's 34th move.
I don't think I have ever seen an exchange sacrifice quite like that before!
...........................................................................................
I'd love to say that my Quest ended there.
There is certainly enough for a full blog already, but somehow I ended up on one more tangent.
(When the chess bug bites, it bites!)
In one of the threads, there was mention of Lasker's wonderful performance at Maehrisch - Ostrau (1923).
He did not lose a game and did very well against the hypermoderns.
I played through all 13 rounds of Lasker's games.
It was ...
I used to be a real chess junky (playing/studying/posting all the time), but I kind of dropped out of it.
I still play speed chess (mostly unrated rubbish) daily, but for the most part, I am off the chess scene.
Today, I took a little quest back into the world of chess, and I must say I really enjoyed myself.
The day started with this blitz game:
In the first game, I had played rather foolishly, and managed to get myself mated.
I decided to try my luck with this opponent one more time.
.........................................................................................
My "Quest" next took me to look for information on the author of my old and out of print book on- The Belgrade Gambit.
I could not find his site, so I looked for some games on Chessgames.com.
After a few looks at the Four Knights, a few odd and interesting things came up.
................................................................................................
First of all, you may be familiar with the Halloween Gambit.
And Madness Ensues !!!
Some of the die hards have found a way to play it with black!
!!? - inspired madness
The idea is that white has lost the g3 square for a knight!
I'll leave it to the die hards to try it, but now, I am one step closer to seeing everything!
............................................................................................
My look at odd knight sacrifices didn't stop there.
The next little "gem" or "germ" maybe, is an inspiring sacrifice against the likes of Pillsbury.
It's not really instructive, but it's a good little scrap.
3.Nxe5 is called the Chicago Gambit, but others have suggested it be called the I didn't know it was defended variation.
I say we call it the New Years Gambit. It's similiar to the Halloween, but it came out a lot earlier in time.
Back To The Four Knights ...
................................................................................................
If white isn't brave enough to try 4.g3, he can always play 4.h3.
This just looks tame, and you'd never even think to look at it.
Until you find out that Kramnik lost to it!!!
Here's the game, but be warned ... White's play is very odd-looking (to me at least).
Note = It is Rapid Play.
.......................................................................................
Not being in the loop, I had never heard of Giri before.
This led me to two more gems.
The next game is Carlsen-Giri.
It starts out with a tame fianchetto opening and morphs into a wild tactical brawl.
Again, Qd2/Qd7 ideas need a further discussion.
.............................................................................................
Next is Nakamura-Giri.
You can flick through most of this one.
White got saddled with a position without much dynamics, and black just took control.
The interesting part starts after white's 34th move.
I don't think I have ever seen an exchange sacrifice quite like that before!
...........................................................................................
I'd love to say that my Quest ended there.
There is certainly enough for a full blog already, but somehow I ended up on one more tangent.
(When the chess bug bites, it bites!)
In one of the threads, there was mention of Lasker's wonderful performance at Maehrisch - Ostrau (1923).
He did not lose a game and did very well against the hypermoderns.
I played through all 13 rounds of Lasker's games.
It was ...