Sacrifice of the Season!?
Peter Tart
Welcome to the unsound!? world of Camberley Chess Club’s most infamous gambiteer. Those readers looking for an interesting
positional game involving long term strategic plans,
stop now. It’s tactics all the way, who cares about long term structural pawn
weaknesses when the game will be finished within 30 moves!
In keeping with my style, lets get stuck into the game.
White: Tart, P (131)
Black: Foster, J (158)
Berks Div 2, Camberley C v Newbury, 2nd Nov 04
1. e4 e6
2. d4 d5
3. c4!?
White goes all out with the Diemer-Duhm gambit, not recommended for those of a nervous
disposition, just another day at the office for me! Whilst this may appear to
be a crazy idea, a score of 7.5/9 with this opening tells its own story, and
the loss wasn’t down to the opening either! Don’t get me wrong it is crazy, but
it also puts two fingers up at the French Defence player and drags them kicking
and screaming out of the comfort of their opening theory. On one occasion my
opponent was so shocked they took 30 minutes to make another move!
3. ... dxe4
4. Nc3 Bb4
5. f3?!
Interesting, but not whites best continuation, usually white plays Qa4+. It had
been a while since I’d played this variation since most players opt for Nf6
instead. White is now hoping for Bxc3, exf3 or Nf6 to transpose back into the
main line.
5. … c5!
Black doesn’t oblige, and
correctly strikes at the centre.
6. a3 cxd4 =
This is not the best way of swapping
the minor pieces, exchanging with Bxc3+ instead leaves black with an edge. With
the chosen move black obviously envisages an advantage once the queens come off
due to an extra pawn and superior pawn structure.
7. axb4 dxc3
8. Qxd8+ Kxd8
9. bxc3 exf3
10. Nxf3
10. ... f6
Maybe Nd7 is marginally
better, but this temporarily blocks in the bishop. It comes down to what
development plan black chooses to execute. Black may also be worried about the
potential of the white knight attacking f7.
11. Be3
White develops another piece
while threatening to regain the pawn, which would leave white at a slight
advantage due to his greater development and space. This fact forces black into
yet another pawn move.
11. ... a6
12. Bd3
Yet more development, this
along with whites greater space give just enough
compensation for the pawn according to Fritz. Question is which colour would
you rather have over the board?
12. ... e5
Yet another pawn move!
Paradoxically this is the best move, according to Fritz, and is consistent with
black's development plan when playing f6. By now most average club players
would probably be getting a bit nervous about blacks lack of development.
13. O-O Be6
Black stays consistent with the
plan of developing the bishop before the queen's knight. White now pulls the
rabbit from the hat!
14. Ng5!!
Black is forced into a choice
he doesn't want to make; move the bishop to safety and drop a rook after Nf7+, defend
the bishop with Kd7 (15. Be4 Bxc4 16. Bxb7 fxg5 17. Rfd1+ Kc7 18. Bxa8
Nf6 [+1.9]), or accept the sacrifice.
The only other alternative
that leaves white better is Nxe5, but this doesn't force black into accepting
the sacrifice (14… Kc8 15. Rae1 Ne7
16. Bb6 [+1.2]). While white is better, this
line allows black to develop his pieces with the hope of some play. With Ng5
this isn't the case as we shall see.
14. ... fxg5
15. Rf8+
When considering if to play
14. Ng5, you may be surprised to find that I didn't actually analyse specific
lines here, but instead tried to answer the following two questions:
1. How is black going to
develop his pieces?
2. What is blacks overall
plan?
I spent 20 minutes analysing
the position that would occur after Rf8+, trying to find half decent answers to
these questions, and since I couldn't then I thought it must be worth a try!
Take a look yourself and see if you can come up with any reasonable answers.
It’s quite tricky, isn’t it? The rook on f8 is a monster, pinning both knights
to both rooks!! It’s amazing how one piece has
immobilised the vast majority of blacks army.
15. ... Ke7
Fritz rates Kc7 (16. Bxg5 b6 17. Rd1 Bg4 18. Bd8+ Kb7 19. Be4+ Nc6 20. Rd6 Rxd8 21. Rdxd8 Kc7 22. Rxg8
[+1.5]) marginally
better than Ke7, but black still has the same development issues.
16. Bc5+ Kd7
17. b5
By playing b5 [+2.0] white
tightens the net around the black king, cutting off c6 as a flight square. Rd1 and
Be2 in either order maybe a slightly better continuation [+2.2] but there's
nothing in it. White has a plethora of good moves while black is struggling to
find any moves, good or bad!
17. ... h5?
Desperation time, black plans
to free the kingside rook via h6, but it's to late to
help the situation. Bg4 trying to prevent the rook from going to d1 is the best
of a bad bunch!
18. Be4!
White clears the d-file and
threatens Rd1+ with devastating results. 18. Rd1 is almost as good, black is
now at the praying stage. If white plays a couple of inaccurate moves then
blacks extra piece may just win through, but of course we're all to good to let
that happen!? Black is so hopeless now that the best line Fritz can suggest is
to sacrifice both rooks! (18... Nf6 19. Rd1+ Bd5 20. Bf5+ Kc7 21. Rxh8 Nbd7 22. Rxa8 Nxc5 23. bxa6 Nxa6 24. cxd5 Kd6 [+6.2])
18. ... Bxc4
The end is nigh.
19. Rd1+ 1-0
Black resigns, and as they
say all moves lead to mate, or is that roads to
Personally I like the b6#
lines, there's something about delivering mate with a pawn that's satisfying.
Every chess players ‘Top 10 things to do before I die‘ should include mating with a
pawn, not literally of course!
When your team mates ask the
eternal question 'Did you win?' and you can reply 'Yes, I mated him with a
pawn!'. Now that's something we'd all like the
opportunity to say, and I almost got the chance.
Sacrifice of the Season Challenge
To all club members, let’s
see if anyone can come up with a better sacrifice in a match this season.
The only entry criteria are:
1. It must work over the
board!
2. In hindsight it must be
sound.
Many a time I’ve heard play say ‘I played a lovely sacrifice, but I lost. I’m sure it was winning. I just couldn’t find the continuation’, well that’s a fat lot of good! Obviously, while 2 is less important than 1, it’s always better to know you played a sound sacrifice.