*********************************************************** CHESS OPENINGS FOR HEROES by Tim Does your opening repertoire leave something to be desired? Do your opponents regularly catch you unprepared even in normal openings, making you flounder while they build up commanding positions? Are you fed up with the memorization required to play variations where theoretical novelties occur at move twenty-seven? Baffled, when you look through MCO-13 or BCO-2 only to discover that any deviations from the main lines are hopelessly lame? If so, it's time to adopt the heroic approach! Somewhere between the Grob and the Najdorf Sicilian is the realm of Heroic Openings, lines which -- whatever the present theoretical assessment of their soundness -- will maximize your success without hurting your brain. It will take some work, probably even a little bit of memorization, for you to acquire these; but the return on the fairly small investment of time involved will be well worth it. Preparing an Opening: Six steps So what is involved in preparing a line? Common sense will tell you pretty much what to do, but here is some concrete advice. First, memorize the main variations to about move ten - - go further only if there are forcing tactics in the air. Your work will be simplified here if you choose only one reply to each of your opponent's options. If you've done your homework properly and selected a sensible, heroic opening, this will amount to perhaps five or six lines which require exact memorization. Second, create a short table, MCO style, of the main variations. You can use this to help you to memorize the theory and also to add notes when you learn new things about the opening. For those of you who have never seen this kind of thing, I'll give an example a little later in this article. Third, put a little thought into the positions where your memorization breaks off. Assess the position and formulate a plan. Express these ideas to yourself verbally and write them down for future reference. This is what you would do silently in a tournament game with your clock ticking: why not do it now? Fourth, look for and play over complete master games in the line, especially games where your side wins. Suddenly, you have something to do when that copy of Chess Life arrives in the mail: instead of leafing through it aimlessly, look for games in your new opening! Don't worry if the notes to the game point out the refutation: if a master can lose to your line, it's worth finding out how he lost. Master games which carry on at the point where your analysis leaves off are particularly valuable and should cause you to recheck your positional evaluations of those lines. Pick out a few "repertoire" games which illustrate the plans you hope to implement, and review them from time to time. Fifth, after you've done the above, battle test the opening a few times. Log onto the ICS under a pseudonym and play some unrated games with it, keeping your table of variations and your notes by your elbow if you're not confident of your memorization yet. If you own a chess computer, play some fast games against it in which you try to outplay it with your superior understanding of the relevant positions. If you have a trustworthy friend of roughly your own strength, play a dozen blitz games in which you alternate sides in the various lines. Finally, stick with it for a little while, even in the face of initial discouragement. The first time I tried the Schliemann Defense to the Ruy Lopez, I was outrated by well over 900 points and I lost my Queen in about a dozen moves. "Play something sound instead," my opponent advised me after the game -- friendly advice, given in a friendly manner, but most disheartening. In despair I confided my troubles to an old gentleman who was observing the games, and he suggested the contrary: "No, play it again. Give it another try." I learned later in the day that my elderly counselor was the famed New Jersey master Edgar McCormick, who had written a book on a different offbeat Lopez defense! I took his advice, and in over a decade of defending 1 e4 e5 I never lost another Schliemann and gave away only one draw, to an expert. I owe Edgar a debt of gratitude for his wise counsel. Try Something Unsound! For this month's column only, I want to address the needs of players whose regular opponents are rated under 2000. If this description fits you, then you are in a unique position to terrorize your regular chess partners by following the advice offered by chess teacher Larry D. Evans (the national master, not the GM) to his students: try something unsound. Yes, you read the preceding sentence correctly. You are going to find an opening in one of those fat books where all of the columns end with `+-'. Your job is to prepare to play it for Black! Why prepare an unsound opening? First, it helps you to lose your fear of published theory. Those += and +- signs can make you lose your sense of balance; playing the "wrong" side of a "refuted" opening helps to restore your sense of humor. I remember the time in a small, informal town championship many years ago when my opponent played Philidor's Defense. "But that's refuted!" I said naively. (Now I know better than to make such a silly claim.) Rather than contest my judgment, my opponent simply said, "It's only refuted if you know the refutation!" I took his point -- and he very nearly took mine. Second, many "refuted" openings are difficult to cope with over the board. There are reasons, after all, why masters played them for years and forced the theoreticians to work out adequate responses. If it took master level analysts thirty years to find the refutation of some tricky line of play, chances are good that an 1850 player with his clock ticking will go down quickly. Remember, in tournaments one is not permitted to consult one's copy of MCO! In many lines, a single slip will put your opponent in an objectively inferior or even lost position. The net result: by preparing an unsound opening you are very likely to collect a tidy pile of rating points. The down side of playing an unsound opening is that your regular opponents may eventually figure out what is going on, and some day you will have to play that pawn-down endgame that MCO talks about. This is, however, less of a danger if you are only an occasional tournament player. In my teens I only played one or two tournaments a year and then usually far from my home town. As a result, I was able to play an "unsound" line over and over again without anybody noticing: my rating jumped from 1505 to 2000 in the course of about a year and a half, many of those points coming from my "dubious" defense to the Ruy Lopez. A Heroic Defense to the Ruy Lopez All of this may sound like great advice, but what are some suitable openings to pick? Here are a few guidelines: the opening you choose should be active, offering you lively play in a number of lines and forcing your opponent to play precisely to avoid disadvantage. Almost as important, it must be easy to force -- not something you will only get a chance to play if your opponent is very cooperative. In this vein, the Marshall Gambit is actually a poor choice for the amateur since White has so many popular ways to avoid it. Anyone preparing to play the Marshall Gambit had better have time to study the Exchange Variation (4 Bxc6), the Delayed Exchange (5 Bxc6), the Steenwijker Exchange (6 Bxc6), the Worral Attack (6 Qe2), the Center Attack (6 d4), and various policies of central restraint (6 d3 or 6 Nc3) as well as all the lines of the Marshall itself. Don't get me wrong: the Marshall is a wonderful gambit. I play it sometimes myself. But it requires more work than most people have time to put into opening preparation. So what about unsound lines? Well, there are lots of them out there! In what follows, I offer a specimen of steps one and two of opening preparation for the Schliemann Defense, leaving you to do steps three through six on your own with the aid of a few verbal hints. The Schliemann is a good, fighting defense, and in my experience opponents rated under 2100 often go wrong against it in the early stages. Objectively it may or may not be sound, but it is certainly good enough to play for a season or two and even if you are putting together a more orthodox repertoire it will fill an important place while you prepare something "sounder" -- but hopefully still heroic! -- for later use against the Ruy Lopez. 1. Ruy Lopez: Schliemann Defense (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 f5!?) For many years this was the only defense I played against the Ruy Lopez. Many opponents are scared stiff and decline with 4 d3, a sound but passive move which often lets Black drum up a Kingside attack. I am not guaranteeing that the lines below represent best play by Black -- or by White! -- but they are typical lines which have come up often in my own games: 1 2 3 4 5 6 4 d3 Bxc6 ef d4 Nc3 fe dc e4 fe fe 5 de Nxe5 Qe2 Nxe5 Bxc6 Nxe4 Nf6 Qd4! Qe7 Nxe5 dc Nf6 6 Nc3 Qh5+ Bxc6 dxe5 Nxe5 Nxf6+ Bb4 g6 dc c6 Qh4! Qxf6!? 7 Bd2 Nxg6 Nd4 Nc3!? o-o Qe2 Bxc3 hg Qe5 cb Bd6 Be7 8 Bxc3 Qxg6+ Ne6 Nxe4 f3 Bxc6 d6 Kd8 Bxe6 d5 ef dc 9 o-o d3 fe exd6 Nxf3 Nxe5 o-o Nge7 Bd6! Nf6 Qh4 Bf5 10 Qd4 Re1+ d3 Qd7! Ne7 o-o-o In column 1, Black probably stands better already: he can pile up on the White N/f3 with ...Bg4, when the open f- file will prove quite dangerous. If White stops this with 10 h3, Black can still swing his Q over to the Kingside (Qe8-g6 is one maneuver) and has active play there. Sometimes the sacrifice Rxf3 will demolish the White King's cover. It is important for you to memorize this line and the ideas it involves since close to half of your opponents will go into it. White's play in column 1 is poor, especially Nc3? allowing the pin Bb4, but it is the way that weaker players react in the overwhelming majority of games. Consult MCO-13 for White's other (fairly harmless) options. In column 2, Black is definitely winning: White usually goes into this line expecting to take a Rook on h8 and discovers too late that, once his N leaves e5, that Rook is protected by the Black Queen on d4. Black now uses the open files to launch a devastating attack on the White King; the win is not automatic, but Black has all the fun. (Notice that essentially the same line occurs after 4 o-o?! fe 5 Bxc6 dc 6 Nxe5 Qd4!, etc.) That is why White, having got this far, has to opt out with 6 Nf3 Qxe4+ 7 Qe2 Nf6 8 Nc3 Qxe2+ 9 Nxe2 Bd6, when if anything Black is slightly better due to his Bishop pair. This is one line you wouldn't have to memorize: the moves are so natural that, once you recall that it involves exchanging Queens, you can reconstruct the line at the board. The important thing to remember about column 3 is that you must break the pin with Qe7: attempts to defend the pawn while leaving it pinned don't work. (Test this claim at home.) After that, it's clear that White has to take on c6 since otherwise his Knight will have to retreat to g1; then Black carefully sneaks up with the Queen and nips off the White pawn. The final move in the column, 9 ... Bd6!, is necessary to protect your Queen; instead 9 ... Bxe6? lets White get away with 10 d3! since your pawn is pinned on the e-file. Column 4 is a nasty piece sacrifice which doesn't quite work. This is one point at which you should look up the line and memorize further, since White still has threats and it may take some finesse to come through it with the extra material. But if you are worried about the line, you can sidestep everything earlier with 5 ... Nf6!?, the move recommended by Shamkovitch and Schiller in their book on Spanish Gambits. Their main line runs 6 o-o Be7 7 Re1 a6 8 Bf1 d6 9 Nxc6 bc 10 c4 d5 11 Nc3 Be6, which they assess as equal. One benefit of going into the line in the column is that people who are unfamiliar with the piece sacrifice line often play lamely: 5 ... Nxe5 6 dxe5 c6 7 Be2?, immediately losing the e-pawn after 7 ... Qa5+. Column 5 is a harmless deviation where White sidesteps the piece sacrifice variation. Black stops nasty checks with his surprising (but safe) Queen sortie, trades off the advanced-but-weak pawn at move 8 and has no problems thereafter. This line comes up a fair bit when stronger players take White, so even though the final position is fine for Black it is important to take a good look at it and become familiar with the resulting middlegame. Column 6 is the closest we get to a theoretical main line, but like true heroes we deviate rapidly from orthodox methods and offer a pawn sacrifice. Theoretical opinion fluctuates on this line, one year holding that Black has enough for the pawn and the next maintaining that he hasn't got quite enough compensation. What is certain is that Black's position, with the open files and the more active pieces, will be easier to play than White's for at least the majority of the middlegame. Frankly, although this is supposedly the "best" of the options at White's disposal I am always happy to see my opponents going into it, since White's game, superior or not, is rather difficult to play. Instead of 6 Nxf6+, White can try the waiting move 6 Qe2!? If he wants to, Black can enter murky theoretical waters with 6 ... d5!? when White has four options: A. After the overly bold 7 Neg5?!, Yudovich's suggestion of 7 ... Bd6! 8 Nxe5 o-o 9 Nxc6 bc 10 Bxc6 Rb8 11 Ne6 Bxe6 12 Qxe6+ Kh8 13 Qh3 Rb6 14 Ba4 Rb4 is a gambit well worth looking at; B. After the timid 7 Ng3, Ivanovic-Tatai, Stip 1979 continued 7 ... e4!? 8 Nd4 Bd7 9 Bxc6 bc 10 d3 Bc5 11 Nb3 Bd6 12 de o-o!? when Black had compensation for his material; C. If White grabs in the center with 7 Nxe5, Shamkovich and Schiller recommend 7 ... de 8 Qc4 Qd5! 9 Qxd5 Nxd5 10 Nxc6 Bd7! 11 Nd4 c6 12 Bc4 Bc5 when Black has enough play for the pawn; D. 7. Nxf6+ gf 8 d4 Bg7 9 de o-o!?, a theoretical mess that is still being sorted out. If all of this looks like too much work, Black can just grab space with 6 ... Qe7 7 o-o d5 8 Ng3 e4 9 Nd4 Bd7 10 Bxc6 bc 11 d3 c5 12 Ndf5 Bxf5 13 Nxf5 Qe6 14 de Qxe4 15 Qb5+ Kf7 16 Ng3 Qe8 (Yudovich) and Black has a playable position -- the King is not in any danger on f7. In my experience, only players in the 2200+ bracket have tried 6 Qe2, so an emergency solution is probably all you need to start with here. But if you take up the Schliemann permanently, you will want to look at the sharp lines in greater detail. Wouldn't it be just like your favorite ICS opponents to read this article and scramble for their books? Your first reaction should be, "Well, let them!" But in general you will want to know where to find more openings on the radical edge of heroism. So below I've listed a variety of openings, some officially "unsound" and some on the borders of soundness, that are worth a try. I've provided some light notes to help you do the preparing. For Black after 1 e4: 1. Philidor's Defense: Mestel Variation (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 f5!?) Worth a try if only to give your opponents a heart attack. Lots of bad analysis has been published on this line. Bent Larsen, not normally afraid of experimentation, gives 4 ef e4 5 Ng5 Bxf5 6 Nc3 d5 7 f3 and says "White has the better position. It's all so simple that it's difficult to find an improvement for Black." But Tony Kosten goes further with 7 ... e3!? 8 Bxe3 h6 9 Nh3 Bxh3 10 gh Be7 and Black has reasonable play for the extra pawn -- a doubled h- pawn, after all. According to Tony Kosten's recent book, the Mestel Gambit (a line often played by Morphy, by the way!) is perfectly playable. 2. Sicilian: Nimzovitch Variation (1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nf6!?) If you want to try this, be sure to play the right variation: 3 e5 Nd5 4 Nc3 e6 5 Nxd5 ed 6 d4 Nc6 7 dxc5 Bxc5 8 Qxd5 d6! (better than the older Qb6) 9 exd6 Qb6. Black can now block the diagonal (and the e-file) with Be6, meeting d7+ with Kxd7!? The position is very unclear and an unprepared White is likely to go down in flames. But beware! Anyone who plays the Sicilian must be ready to face 2 f4, 2 d4, 2 b4, 2 c3, 2 Nc3, and probably still other deviations. A hint: minimize your memorization by looking at 2 c3 Nf6 3 e5 Nd5 4 d4 cxd4, since this can be reached by transposition if White wants to in the main line -- 3 e5 Nd5 4 d4 cxd4 5 c3. 3. Sicilian: Lowenthal Variation (1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cd 4 Nd4 e5!? 5 Nb5 a6!?) There's an interesting, probably unsound, pawn sacrifice line in here after 6 Nd6+ Bxd6 7 Qxd6 Qf6 8 Qd1 Qg6 9 Nc3 d5!?: check any major theory book for details. In my experience, opponents up to and including master level opposition on the ICS knew the theory through about move 12 and then slipped and got avalanched. 4. Damiano Gambit (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Ne5 Ne4!? 4 Qe2 Qe7 5 Qe4 d6) Quite possibly the most underrated defense around. FM Charles Hertan wrote an interesting pair of articles on this debut in the February and March 1990 issues of Chess Life, and anyone serious about trying the Damiano should obtain these since they contain much useful analysis. (For example, Hertan busts line given in BCO-2, p. 362, note 2.) But when he finally reveals the one (and only) line that really bothers him, he overlooks a resource for Black: 6 f4 de 7 fe Nc6! (instead of his main line 7 ... f6?!) 8 d4 Bd7 9 Nc3, and now instead of Hertan's 9 ... o-o-o?! 10 Be2! with a clear plus for White Black should try 9 ... Qb4!, paralyzing White's Queenside and generating real threats against his d-pawn. Cute stuff like 10 Be3 Qxb2 11 Kd2 fails drastically to 11 ... Bb4, while in other lines White's center rapidly disintegrates. Apart from this omission, Hertan's articles are a great source of ideas. If you're thinking of taking up Petroff's defense, then the Damiano is a great way to give yourself extra time to learn the main variations after 3 Nxe5 d6 4 Nf3 Nxe4; all you need to study initially are the Damiano and White's third move avoidance lines (3 d4, 3 Nc3, 3 Bc4, 3 d3). Notice in passing that 3 Nxe5 Nxe4 4 Nxf7?? Qe7 is crushing (Hertan). For Black after 1 d4: Since heroic defenses to 1 d4 will be a topic taken up in future columns, I'll only recommend one crazy line here: Budapest Gambit: Fajarowicz Variation (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e5!? 3 de Ne4!?) This is the ultimate blitz weapon! I doubt if the Fajarowicz is sound, but it's a tremendous minefield and Black stands a great chance of winning a miniature against unprepared opposition. TheDane (1524) - Zukertort (1731), Rated blitz match 2 12, ICS Euro, July 1, 1993, continued 4 f3? Bb4+! 5 Bd2? Qh4+! 6 g3 Nxg3 7 Bxb4?? (Shucks! I was hoping for 7 Kf2!? Ne4+!? 8 Ke3 Nf2! threatening Nxd1+ and also Bc5 mate) Ne4 mate. This entire game took less than 90 seconds! "Okay," you say, "but no strong opponent is ever going to play a lemon like 4 f3." Probably right, but in this connection I have to relate a crazy story. When I first linked up with the ICS in August of 1992, I had no interface and bad lag. I challenged shotgun (USCF 2300+) and, thinking I had White, typed in "e4" for my first move. Sure enough, 1 e4 showed up on the screen, but then nothing more. As seconds ticked away, I was suddenly siezed with the fear that I was mistaken and actually had the Black pieces. In that case, better move quickly! I typed "e5," and just as I did so the lag ended and I realized that I was on the White side of 1 e4 c5 2 e5?! Shotgun, doubtless under the impression that his opponent was a total beginner, reacted instantly with 2 ... d6 3 Nf3 de?, and after 4 Nxe5! I was on the business end of the Fajarowicz without having sacrificed a pawn! Dumbfounded, shotgun responded with 4 ... f6? and went down only somewhat more slowly than TheDane: 5 Qh5+ g6 6 Nxg6 hg 7 Bb5+ Kf7 8 Qxh8 Bg7 9 Qh4 and White ground out the win in about 30 moves. Games: Illustrative, Provocative, and Just Plain Crazy Schliemann Defense Hegemon (1973) vs. Tim (2089) --- Sun Oct 17, 07:19 PM EDT, 1993 Rated blitz match, initial time: 2 minutes, increment: 12 seconds. Move Hegemon Tim ---- -------------- -------------- 1 e4 (0:03) e5 (0:05) 2 Nf3 (0:03) Nc6 (0:05) 3 Bb5 (0:02) f5 (0:07) 4 Qe2 (0:08) fxe4 (0:12) 5 Bxc6 (0:03) dxc6 (0:14) 6 Qxe4 (0:04) Nf6 (0:08) Actually, 6 ... Bd6 is better here; then if 7 Nxe5 Nf6 8 Qe2 o-o and Black is in familiar territory. But the move in the game has interest too since it illustrates how, in these pawn sacrifice lines, White's position can deteriorate even when Black plays the opening a little bit inexactly. 7 Qxe5+ (0:04) Be7 (0:02) 8 0-0 (0:02) 0-0 (0:02) 9 d3 (0:03) Bd6 (0:03) Finally getting to the right square! 10 Qe2 (0:15) Bg4 (0:03) 11 Be3 (0:11) Qd7 (0:09) 12 Nbd2 (0:06) Rae8 (0:03) Black's pieces all find active deployment in this line: that is part of his compensation for the lost pawn. 13 h3 (0:23) Bh5 (0:03) 14 d4 (0:09) Nd5 (0:07) 15 Qd3 (0:11) This move gets White in real trouble! Black was angling for Nf4, exploiting the pin on the e-file, but the cure here turns out to be much worse than the disease. 15 Rxf3! (0:25) This sacrificial idea comes up quite often in these lines where Black has an open f-file. Remember it! Here it's even better than usual since the pawn on h3 hangs at the end. 16 Nxf3 (0:17) Bxf3 (0:06) 17 gxf3 (1:54) Qxh3 (0:05) For the material invested, Black has stripped the pawn cover from the White King. The next step is to bring in the reinforcements. White struggles well, but he is already lost. 18 Rfe1 (0:35) Re6 (0:36) 19 f4 (0:39) Rh6 (0:27) Tacking around: 19 ... Rg6+ is objectively best since White can force it anyway by finding the (only) defense to Black's threat here. 20 Qe4 (0:07) Rg6+ (0:25) Okay, okay, I'll just take the Queen! 21 Qxg6 (0:03) hxg6 (0:02) 22 c4 (0:09) Nxf4 (0:16) 23 Bxf4 (0:12) Bxf4 (0:03) 24 f3 (0:32) Qh2+ (0:05) 25 Kf1 (0:06) Bg3 (0:02) 26 W resigns Budapest: Fajarowicz Gambit jst (1819) vs. Tim (2009) --- Sat Sep 18, 07:44 PM EDT, 1993 Rated blitz match, initial time: 2 minutes, increment: 19 seconds. Move jst Tim ---- -------------- -------------- 1 d4 (0:10) Nf6 (0:03) 2 c4 (0:04) e5 (0:08) 3 dxe5 (0:05) Ne4 (0:11) 4 Qc2 (0:04) d5 (0:10) This pawn sacrifice -- well known and analysed in the books -- opens lines and makes White wish he'd kept the Queen at home. 5 exd6 (0:11) Bf5 (0:06) With the nasty threat of 6 ... Ng3. White decides to get his Queen off the "hot" diagonal. 6 Qa4+ (0:08) Nc6 (0:10) 7 Bf4 (0:12) Bxd6 (0:28) 8 Bxd6 (0:04) Qxd6 (0:08) 9 Nf3 (0:03) 0-0-0 (0:13) 10 e3 (0:11) Nc5 (0:15) 11 W resigns There's nowhere to go. yesman (1793) vs. Tim (2128) --- Thu Nov 18, 09:52 PM CST, 1993 Rated blitz match, initial time: 2 minutes, increment: 18 seconds. Move yesman Tim ---- -------------- -------------- 1 d4 (0:07) Nf6 (0:02) 2 c4 (0:03) e5 (0:05) 3 dxe5 (0:05) Ne4 (0:04) 4 Bf4 (0:12) Bc5!? (0:57) The trappy 4 ... Nc6 is also playable, since if White is clever enough to see that 5 f3 Qh4+? loses a piece for Black, he may actually try in and fall into 5 f3 Bb4+! 6 Nd2 Bxd2+ 7 Bxd2, when 7 ... Qh4+ wins after all! My idea with 4 ...Bc5 was to tempt White into closing off the retreat diagonal ... 5 e3 (1:06) Bb4+ (0:04) ... and then springing this on him. Perhaps my opponent thought he was playing the "normal" Budapest when Black's Knight is on g4, but here any interposition loses material. So White's King gets displaced. 6 Ke2 (0:05) d6 (0:25) Since White's King is awkwardly stuck in the center, Black doesn't hesitate to open lines. Here, the pawn on c4 makes a tempting target for a Bishop. 7 exd6 (0:11) Be6 (0:29) 8 Qd3 (0:44) Nxd6 (0:30) Retreat from danger, capture of material, and renewed threat -- a lot for one move to do! 9 b3 (0:07) Nc6 (0:31) 10 Nf3 (0:12) Qf6 (0:08) 11 Nd4 (0:14) 0-0-0 (1:14) 12 Nc3 (1:17) Nxd4+ (0:26) 13 exd4 (0:08) Nxc4 (0:20) I just had to try this move! Unfortunately White now backs down and declines my piece sacrifice. Work out the variations after 14 bc for yourself! 14 Nb5 (0:18) Qxf4 (0:21) 15 bxc4 (0:04) Bf5 (0:10) 16 Nxa7+ (0:19) Kb8 (0:04) 17 Nc6+ (0:10) bxc6 (0:02) A phantom raid -- White doesn't have the material in the area to make a serious attack of it. Now he commits suicide: 18 Qc2 (0:13) Bxc2 (0:06) 19 W resigns Damiano Gambit Chief (2044) vs. Tim (2023) --- Sun Sep 12, 08:02 PM EDT, 1993 Rated blitz match, initial time: 2 minutes, increment: 19 seconds. Move Chief Tim ---- -------------- -------------- 1 e4 (0:02) e5 (0:02) 2 Nf3 (0:03) Nf6 (0:02) 3 Nxe5 (0:06) Nxe4 (0:02) 4 Qe2 (0:03) Qe7 (0:05) 5 Qxe4 (0:10) d6 (0:02) 6 d4 (0:02) dxe5 (0:03) 7 Qxe5? (0:09) This is the move all good Damiano practitioners pray their opponents will make. White insists on exchanging Queens, since he is up in material, but his pawns are very vulnerable and if he is foolish enough to try to hold them he can rapidly lose. 7 .... Qxe5+ (0:12) 8 dxe5 (0:03) Bf5 (0:03) 9 Bd3? (0:05) Compounding the problems mentioned in the previous note -- yet it is a strangely popular move. Black has no problems with alternatives, e.g. 9 Nc3 (White sensibly decides to return the material in order to equalise! He also threatens the slightly unpleasant Nb5, so before chopping off the pawn Black prepares against that threat ...) Nd7 10 Bf4 Bc5 11 o- o-o Bxf2 12 Nd5 Bb6 13 Nxb6 Nxb6 14 Bd3 Bxd3 15 Rxd3 and White has equalised. 9 .... Bxd3 (0:13) 10 cxd3 (0:07) Nc6 (0:04) 11 0-0 (0:27) Finally, a prudent decision. Hertan gives 11 f4? o-o-o 12 Ke2 f6! 13 ef Bc5!, presumably with the idea that 14 fg Rhe8+ yields a tremendous attack. One fantasy variation: 15 Kd2 Nb4! 16 Kc3 Rxd3+ 17 Kc4 Re4+ 18 Kxc5 Rd5 mate! Not forced, obviously, but worth a look for aesthetic appeal! 11 .... 0-0-0 (0:03) Sidestepping the obvious trap 11 ... Nxe5? 12 Re1. 12 Rd1 (0:59) This leads to a bad endgame, but as Hertan points out 12 f4 Bc5+ 13 Kh1 Rxd3 gives Black a strong initiative. 12 .... Nxe5 (0:46) 13 d4 (0:25) Nc6 (0:29) 14 Be3 (0:09) Bc5 (0:24) 15 d5 (0:22) Bxe3 (0:26) One more weakness for the Rooks to attack, one more trade ... 16 fxe3 (0:04) Nb4 (0:08) 17 Nc3 (0:31) Nc2 (0:10) Naturally, Black isn't averse to picking up the weak pawn. 18 Rac1 (0:03) Nxe3 (0:03) 19 Rd3 (0:03) Rhe8 (0:12) 20 h3 (0:06) a6 (0:17) 21 Kf2 (0:04) Nf5 (0:05) 22 Ne2 (0:38) Re7 (0:31) 23 g4 (0:08) Nd6 (0:11) 24 Ng3 (0:24) Ne4+ (0:52) Let's trade Knights! 25 Nxe4 (0:04) Rxe4 (0:02) 26 Kf3 (0:08) Re7 (0:17) 27 Rc4 (0:33) Rd6 (0:19) 28 Rf4 (1:09) c6 (0:31) 29 Re3 (0:44) Rxe3+ (0:24) 30 Kxe3 (0:07) .... The game was adjourned and eventually disappeared in the shift from one server to another, but Black is undoubtedly winning here. Next month: More Openings for Heroes -- especially those who hate the Sicilian! ***********************************************************