1. Joined
    24 Aug '07
    Moves
    48477
    05 Feb '15 07:184 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 ...
  2. Joined
    24 Aug '07
    Moves
    48477
    05 Feb '15 07:33
    It was a ...

    I lost my ending!

    Some of the games were really good, but not all of them were up to today's standards. I really enjoyed them.

    He did really well against the Hypermodern players, but quite a bit of the openings were classical.

    If you like old games or excellent tournament perfomances (no losses), you can check them out.

    http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=79202&pid=19149

    .................................................................................................

    Well, that's quite enough for now!

    Until The Bug Bites Again ...
  3. Joined
    18 Jan '07
    Moves
    12352
    05 Feb '15 15:321 edit
    Originally posted by paulbuchmanfromfics
    My One Day Return To Chess ... Or When The Chess Bug Bites

    I decided to try my luck with this opponent one more time.

    [Event "ICS Unrated blitz match"]
    [Site "freechess.org"]
    [Date "2015.02.04"]
    [Round "-"]
    [White "paulbuchman"]
    [Black "GuestXKYL"]
    [Result "*"]
    [WhiteElo "2107"]
    [BlackElo "0"]
    [TimeControl "180"]

    1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 N ...[text shortened]... o monson, the wrong knight} 7.exd5
    Qe7+ 8.Kf1 Qc5 9.Qe2+ { 9 Qxd4 is a computer suggestion} ...
    Hooray, a game with annotations! People post interesting games all the time without annotations - or at least, they're said to be interesting, but without an explanation all some of us get from many of them is that there was some spectacle going on on the board, but we won't understand why. This way, we can not only enjoy the pretty moves, but also - maybe! - pick up a thought or idea.
    So, please, everybody who posts games: take your cue from Paul and Greenpawn, and post your games with annotations. Us woodpushers will love you for it.

    First of all, you may be familiar with the Halloween Gambit.

    1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nxe5 Nxe5 5.d4

    Yes, but I know it as the Müller-Schultze.
  4. Joined
    24 Aug '07
    Moves
    48477
    05 Feb '15 20:30


    The Lasker game I mentioned is Reti-Lasker Maehrisch - Ostrau (1923).

    MEETING A FORK WITH A COUNTER FORK ON THE KNIGHT!



    Position after Reti's 31st move ...

    Reti has just forked black's rooks.

    Lasker plays a nice counter.

    After 31. ...Nd2+ 32.Kg1 ... 32. ...Nc4!



    Black saved the exchange!

    I saw that yesterday and managed to use it later that night.
    What were the odds?

    Chess is a wonderful game.
  5. Joined
    24 Aug '07
    Moves
    48477
    05 Feb '15 20:35
    Originally posted by Shallow Blue
    Hooray, a game with annotations! People post interesting games all the time without annotations - or at least, they're said to be interesting, but without an explanation all some of us get from many of them is that there was some spectacle going on on the board, but we won't understand why. This way, we can not only enjoy the pretty moves, but al ...[text shortened]... 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nxe5 Nxe5 5.d4[/quote]
    Yes, but I know it as the Müller-Schultze.
    Thanks!
    I went ahead and posted another blitz game from yesterday (with annotations/thoughts).
  6. Donation!~TONY~!
    1...c5!
    Your Kingside
    Joined
    28 Sep '01
    Moves
    40665
    05 Feb '15 21:02
    I dig the Kalashnikov game, well played!

    In my book I think I make good cases for the sharper 8...f5!? or 8...Be6 9.Nd5 Rc8, renewing the idea of ...Bg5. As you said, Black's Nd4 looks good for a while, but it's easy for White to fight against it, and perhaps the extra space and the two bishops will leave White a bit better with some solid play.
  7. Joined
    24 Aug '07
    Moves
    48477
    05 Feb '15 21:36
    Originally posted by !~TONY~!
    I dig the Kalashnikov game, well played!

    In my book I think I make good cases for the sharper 8...f5!? or 8...Be6 9.Nd5 Rc8, renewing the idea of ...Bg5. As you said, Black's Nd4 looks good for a while, but it's easy for White to fight against it, and perhaps the extra space and the two bishops will leave White a bit better with some solid play.
    I think the book I own has the Rc8 move there, but I will always remember 8. ...f5 for Nunn-Nataf 1999.

    It won the best game prize in the only Informant I own (Informant 76)!

    8. ... f5 seems like a good fighting move.
  8. Donation!~TONY~!
    1...c5!
    Your Kingside
    Joined
    28 Sep '01
    Moves
    40665
    05 Feb '15 22:06
    Yes, one of my favorite games of all time! Would love it if it held up completely, but that damn 14.f4! calls the fun police.

    😀
  9. Joined
    08 Apr '12
    Moves
    68553
    05 Feb '15 22:24
    Tangentially related to this thread: An interesting 5-minute Halloween Gambit I played. It requires a good amount of skill on both sides.

  10. Joined
    24 Aug '07
    Moves
    48477
    05 Feb '15 22:52
    Originally posted by HikaruShindo
    Tangentially related to this thread: An interesting 5-minute Halloween Gambit I played. It requires a good amount of skill on both sides.

    [pgn][Event "ChessCube Game"]
    [Site "www.chesscube.com"]
    [Date "2015.02.05"]
    [Round "-"]
    [White "tetsuokaga@chesscube.com"]
    [Black "bradiagagm@chesscube.com"]
    [Result "1-0"]
    [WhiteElo "1801"]
    [BlackElo "180 ...[text shortened]... 4 51. Qd5+ Kc3 52. Qc5+ Kb2 53. Rxb4+ Kxa2 54. Qc4+ Ka3 55. Qc3+ Ka2 56. Qb2# 1-0
    [/pgn]
    Nice Game 🙂
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