Hallowe'en

Hello, I'm back!!!

While I've been on holiday, I was thrashed by this guy playing the Hallowe'en. Can anyone give me any insight into this bizarre openning.

Originally posted by sshek
Hello, I'm back!!!

While I've been on holiday, I was thrashed by this guy playing the Hallowe'en. Can anyone give me any insight into this bizarre openning.

Ok, I'll try. It goes something like this

1) e4 e5 2) Nf3 Nc6 3) Nc3 Nf6 4) Nxe5 Nxe5

You can easily refute this opening. A knight sac on the 4-5 move for a pawn and the center is bogus. 😀 Play it against a very good opponent or Fritz or something, it would help out alot!

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

Google for "Halloween Attack" or "Müller-Schulze Gambit" finds a little info, c.f. http://www.jakob.at/steffen/halloween.html. This page says zero about the strategy behind the attack.

The thing is I've never seen this opening before and I took the knight as black and got into trouble

Originally posted by sshek
The thing is I've never seen this opening before and I took the knight as black and got into trouble

No offense but it looks like a poorly played Four Knights Defense. The Nxe5 I think was a mistake.

Just my humble opinion. 😉

i remember reading an article by a gm on this opening

he saw it for the first time playing in a blitz match and talked about how he first thought the opponent was insulting him and he tried to keep the knight and lost in 14 moves. he said that keeping the knight leads to white having a massive attack.

he advised to sac the knight back to get a better position which should win easier for black then.

if i find the article i'll post it

I found these games on the web using this opening. I believe that Fritz5 is one of the players though, so it might not be typical of how the game would go if both players were human.

[Event "fics rated blitz game"]
> [Site "fics, Oklahoma City, OK USA"]
> [Date "1997.08.13"]
> [Time "20:30:06"]
> [Round "-"]
> [White "Lonnie"]
> [Black "crafty"]
> [WhiteElo "2501"]
> [BlackElo "2532"]
> [TimeControl "120+12"]
> [Mode "ICS"]
> [Result "0-1"]
>
> 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nxe5 Nxe5 5. d4 Nc6 6. d5 Nb8 7. e5
> Ng8 8. d6 cxd6 9. exd6 Qa5 10. Qe2+ Kd8 11. Qb5 Qxb5 12. Nxb5 Nc6 13.
> Bg5+ f6 14. Be3 g6 15. Bd3 Nh6 16. O-O Nf7 17. Rfe1 Nxd6 18. Nxa7 Ke7 19.

[... -+]

> I call this line the "Back-To-The-Roots"-line :-) Exchanging the queen
> is surely not good for white. I have analyzed 10. Bf4 instead of
> 10. Qe2+. I really would like to see Brause play this line with
> Crafty. Can we arrange this? Can you force Crafty to play the same
> with white till move #9?

I just saw that Crafty is still logged in at FICS with a very friendly
formula. Therefore I was able to test my line. In the first match
Brause ran out of book very soon because I only had a look at 10. Bf4
Nc6 at home. Crafty played 10... Bb4 instead. After this white was
lost very soon:

[Event "fics rated blitz game"]
[Site "fics, Oklahoma City, OK USA"]
[Date "1997.08.14"]
[Time "09:14:39"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Brause"]
[Black "crafty"]
[WhiteElo "2376"]
[BlackElo "2476"]
[TimeControl "120+12"]
[Mode "ICS"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. Nxe5 Nxe5 5. d4 Nc6 6. d5 Nb8 7. e5
Ng8 8. d6 cxd6 9. exd6 Qa5 10. Bf4 Qb4 11. Qe2+ Kd8 12. Qd2 g6 13. Be2
Nc6 14. O-O Qd4 15. Qc1 Bxd6 16. Bxd6 Qxd6 17. Bc4 Ne5 18. Rd1 Qc5 19.
Bb3 Kc7 20. Qf4 g5 21. Qe4 Ng6 22. Bxf7 Nf6 23. Nd5+ Qxd5 24. Qxd5 Nxd5
25. Rxd5 g4 26. Bxg6 hxg6 27. Rc5+ Kb6 28. Rg5 d5 29. Rxg6+ Kc5 30. Rg7
Re8 31. Rc1 Rb8 32. Rf1 Re2 33. f3 Bf5 34. fxg4 Bxc2 35. h4 d4 36. Rd7
Be4 37. Rf2 d3 38. Rc7+ Kb6 39. Rc1 d2 40. Rd1 Re1+ 41. Rf1
{White resigned} 0-1

Then I made a quick change in my start.pgn and forced Brause to play
11. Qd2. White must try to keep his pawn d6!! Black took at b2 (which
is always bad as we all know, and especially in positions like this
;-). In the endgame white hat some technical problems but nevertheless
it was 1-0.

[Event "fics rated blitz game"]
[Site "fics, Oklahoma City, OK USA"]
[Date "1997.08.14"]
[Time "09:29:43"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Brause"]
[Black "crafty"]
[WhiteElo "2370"]
[BlackElo "2484"]
[TimeControl "120+12"]
[Mode "ICS"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. Nxe5 Nxe5 5. d4 Nc6 6. d5 Nb8 7. e5
Ng8 8. d6 cxd6 9. exd6 Qa5 10. Bf4 Qb4 11. Qd2 Qxb2 12. Rb1 Qa3 13. Nb5
Qxa2 14. Nc7+ Kd8 15. Rd1 Nf6 16. f3 Nh5 17. Qe2 Nf6 18. Nxa8 Nc6 19. Kf2
Qa5 20. Qb5 Qxb5 21. Bxb5 g6 22. Rhe1 Bg7 23. Be3 Re8 24. Bxc6 dxc6 25.
Bxa7 Rxe1 26. Bb6+ Kd7 27. Kxe1 Nd5 28. c4 Nc3 29. Rd3 Na4 30. c5 Bc3+ 31.
Ke2 Bg7 32. Rb3 Nc3+ 33. Kd3 Nd5 34. g3 h6 35. Kc4 Be5 36. f4 Bf6 37. Ba5
Ke8 38. Kd3 Kf8 39. Nb6 Nxb6 40. Bxb6 Ke8 41. Rb4 Bh3 42. Ke2 Bc8 43.
Re4+ Be6 44. Ra4 Bc8 45. Kd3 Bg7 46. Re4+ Be6 47. Kd2 h5 48. Ke3 Bf6 49.
Ra4 Bc8 50. Ra7 Kd7 51. Kd3 Bg7 52. Ba5 Bf8 53. Bb4 Bg7 54. Bc3 Bf8 55.
Be5 Bh6 56. Ke4 f5+ 57. Kd4 g5 58. Ra3 Ke6 59. fxg5 Bxg5 60. Ra8 Kd7 61.
Ra2 h4 62. gxh4 Bxh4 63. Rg2 Ke6 64. Bh8 Bd7 65. Re2+ Kf7 66. Ke5 Bg5 67.
Rb2 Bc8 68. Rg2 Bh6 69. Bf6 f4 70. Rb2 Ke8 71. Rb3 Bf8 72. Kxf4 Kd7 73.
Ke5 b5 74. Ra3 b4 75. Ra7+ Ke8 76. Ra8 Kd7 77. Rxc8 Kxc8 78. Ke6 Kb7 79.
d7 Bxc5 80. d8=Q Bb6 81. Qd7+ Ka6 82. Qxc6 Ka5 83. Bd4 Bxd4 84. Qd5+ Ka4
85. Qxd4 Ka3 86. Kd5 Kb3 87. Qd2 Ka4 88. Qc2+ Ka5 89. Qc6 b3 90. Kc4 b2
91. Qb5+
{Black checkmated} 1-0

Here's some more info on the Halloween opening. I find it to be a fascinating variation on the typical four knights games.

http://www.jakob.at/steffen/halloween.html

Actually this second link is even better, and has better analysis and some different lines:

http://www.chessville.com/instruction/Openings/Halloween_Gambit/Part_1.htm

-mike

Originally posted by legionnaire
I found these games on the web using this opening. I believe that Fritz5 is one of the players though, so it might not be typical of how the game would go if both players were human.

[Event "fics rated blitz game"]
> [Site "fics, Oklahoma City, OK USA"]
> [Date "1997.08.13"]
> [Time "20:30:06"]
> [Round "-"]
> [White "Lonnie"]
> [B ...[text shortened]... 3 86. Kd5 Kb3 87. Qd2 Ka4 88. Qc2+ Ka5 89. Qc6 b3 90. Kc4 b2
91. Qb5+
{Black checkmated} 1-0