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Since there is a lot of interest in the Club with the King's Gambit, I thought you might find this as interesting as I did! This Article shaped the defences Black uses today. It however did not refute the King's Gambit! at least according to all Chess Engines and analysis. I predict someday a GM will come forward using the King's Gambit and save it's Legacy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Bust to the King's Gambit by Bobby Fischer, 1961 The King's Gambit has lost popularity, but not sympathy. Analysts treat it with kid gloves and seem reluctant to demonstrate an outright refutation. "The Chessplayers Manual" by Gossip and Lipschutz, published in 1874, devotes 237 pages to this gambit without arriving at a conclusion. To this day the opening has been analyzed romantically - not scientifically. Moderns seem to share the same unconscious attitude that caused the old-timers to curse stubborn Steinitz: "He took the beauty out of chess." To the public, the player of the King's Gambit exhibits courage and derring-do. The gambit has been making a comeback with the younger Soviet masters, notably Spassky (who defeated Bronstein, Averbach and myself with it). His victories rarely reflected the merits of the opening since his opponents went wrong in the mid-game. It is often the case, also, as with Santasiere and Bronstein, that the King's Gambit is played with a view to a favorable endgame. Spassky told me himself the gambit doesn't give White much, but he plays it because neither does the Ruy Lopez nor the Giuocco Piano. The refutation of any gambit begins with accepting it. In my opinion the King's Gambit is busted. It loses by force. 1 P-K4 P-K4 2 P-KB4 PxP 3 N-KB3 P-Q3! This is the key to a troublesome position, a high-class "waiting move." At Mar Del Plata, 1959, I played 3...P-KN4 against Spassky, but this is inexact because it gives White drawing chances in the ensuing ending: e.g., 4 P-KR4 P-N5 5 N-K5 N-KB3 6 P-Q4 P-Q3 7 N-Q3 NxP 8 BxP B-N2 and now 9 P-B3! (replacing Spassky's 9 N-B3) 9...Q-K2 10 Q-K2 B-B4 11 N-Q2 leads to an ending where Black's extra Pawn is neutralized by White's stranglehold on the dark squares, especially KB4. Another good try, but also inexact, is the Berlin Defense: 3...P-KR3 4 P-Q4 P-KN4 5 P-KR4 B-N2 6 P-KN3 P-N5 (also playable is 6...P-Q3 7 PxBP P-N5) 7 N-R2 PxP 8 NxP (8 QxP loses to 8...PxN 9 QxB QxP+ 10 K-Q1 Q-B3) 8...P-Q4 9 P-K5 B-B4 10 B-KB4, where Black cannot demonstrate any advantage. Of course 3...P-Q4 equalizes easily, but that's all. 4 B-B4 4 P-Q4 transposes, the only difference if White tries to force matters after 4...P-KN4 5 P-KR4 P-N5 6 N-N5 (White also gets no compensation after 6 BxP PxN 7 QxP N-QB3 or 6 N-N1 B-R3) 6...P-KB3! 7 N-KR3 PxN 8 Q-R5+ K-Q2 9 BxP Q-K1! 10 Q-B3 K-Q1 and with his King and Queen reversed, Black wins easily. 4...P-KR3! This in conjunction with Black's previous move I would like to call the Berlin Defense Deferred. By this subtle transposition Black knocks out the possibility open to White in the last note (to move 3). 5 P-Q4 P-KN4 6 0-0 B-N2 7 P-B3 Necessary to protect the QP. 7 P-KN3 is always met by P-N5. 7...N-QB3 Here there is disagreement as to Black's best move. Puc and Rabar, Euwe, Keres, and most analysts give the text as the mainline and mention 7...N-K2(!) in passing. I think 7...N-K2 is best because there is no reason why Black should not strive to castle K-side: e.g., 8 P-KN3 P-Q4! 9 PxQP PxNP 10 PxP (if 10 N-K5 PxP+! 11 K-R1 0-0 12 P-Q6 QxP wins) 10...0-0 11 Q-N3 Q-Q3 12 K-N2 N-B4 wins. There is little practical experience with this sub-variation. 8 Q-N3 If 8 P-KN3 P-N5 9 N-R4 P-B6 10 N-Q2, Euwe and other analysts betray their soft-mindedness toward this opening by giving the inferior 10...B-B3(?) 11 N(2)xP PxN 12 QxP - "unclear"!! This is yet another example of sentimental evaluation - after 12...Q-K2 followed by B-R6 and 0-0-0 Black wins easily. The Pawn on KB6 is a bone in White's throat so why force him to sacrifice when he must anyway? 10...Q-K2 is the strongest move. In this last variation (instead of 10 N-Q2) White can vary with 10 Q-N3 but then comes Nimzovitch's beautiful winning line: 10...Q-K2 11 N-B5 BxN 12 PxB (if 12 QxP R-N1 13 QxN+ Q-Q2 14 QxQ+ BxQ and Black has a winning endgame) 12...0-0-0 13 BxP Q-K7 14 Q-K6+ (if 14 R-B2 NxQP! 15 RxQ PxR wins) 14...R-Q2! 15 R-B2 Q-Q8+ 16 R-B1 Q-B7 17 N-Q2 N-B3 (threatening N-Q1) 18 B-N6(if 18 Q-N3 QxQ 19 BxQ P-Q4 with a winning endgame) 18...P-Q4 followed by N-K2 with a winning game for Black. 8...Q-K2 9 P-KR4 N-B3 Again theoretical disagreement. Perfectly good is 9...P-N5! 10 BxP (forced, not 10 KN-Q2 NxQP! 11 PxN BxP+ etc.) 10...PxN 11 RxP - given by analysts again as "unclear," but after N-B3 followed by 0-0, White has nothing for the piece. 10 PxP PxP 11 NxP NxKP A wild position, but Black is still master. 12 BxP+ The game is rife with possibilities. If 12 NxN QxN 13 RxP Q-K8+ 14 R-B1 Q-R5 15 BxP+ K-Q1 16 Q-Q5 N-K4! 17 PxN BxP (threatening B-R7 and mate) 18 R-Q1 Q-N6 wins, owing to the threat of R-R8+. 12...K-Q1 13 NxN Not 13 N-K6+ BxN 14 QxB QxQ 15 BxQ NxQP! 13...QxN 14 BxP 14 RxP also loses to 14...Q-K8+ 15 R-B1 R-R8+ 16 KxR QxR+ 17 K-R2 QxQB etc. 14...NxP And Black wins... Of course White can always play differently, in which case he merely loses differently. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Interesting to note that this Article was probably inspired by a loss to Boris Spassky in 1960. After this Article, King's Gambit virtually disappeared from Grandmaster play! Bobby did play 3 more games as White, in tournament play, and won all 3. No-one ever played it against him again tho'.

Everyone here is invited to join... Benko Gambit Click our group avatar to apply.

To Quote the great Hedley Lamarr... For group members... " I want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hedley Lamarr: Qualifications? Applicant: Rape, murder, arson, and rape. Hedley Lamarr: You said rape twice. Applicant: I like rape. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hedley Lamarr: My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hedley Lamarr: My mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I love "Blazing Saddles"! I will never understand why it didn't win all the Academy Awards...

Happy First Day of Summer Everybody!!! Since the whole planet is in a frenzy with World Cup Fever, I figured this was a good time to introduce the World Cup of Chess Openings!! To register your group, please go to this thread: http://www.chess.com/groups/forumview/wcoco---2010-registration World Cup of Chess Openings - Official Rules (Taken from the FIFA World Cup format) The current tournament features 32 teams, representing different openings, competing in Vote Chess games at 2-days per turn. There are two stages: the group stage followed by the knockout stage. In the group stage, teams compete within eight groups of four teams each. Each group plays a round-robin tournament, guaranteeing that every team will play at least three matches. A match will consist of 2 games, one from each team's prefered starting position. The top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage. Points are used to rank the teams within a group. Three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw, and none for a loss. If two or more teams end up with the same number of points, tiebreakers are used: first is goal difference, then total goals scored (this will be the in-game score found on the details tab), then head-to-head results, and finally drawing of lots (i.e., determining team positions at random). The knockout stage is a single-elimination tournament in which teams play each other in one-off matches, with extra games used to decide the winner if necessary. It begins with the "round of 16" (or the second round) in which the winner of each group plays against the runner-up of another group. This is followed by the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, the third-place match (contested by the losing semi-finalists), and the final. World Cup of Chess Openings - Proposed Schedule Aug 2010 - Match 1 begins (played Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov) Nov 2010 - Match 2 begins (played Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb) Feb 2011 - Match 3 begins (played Feb, Mar, Apr, May) Jun 2011 - Round of 16 begins (played Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep) Oct 2011 - Quarter-Finals begin (played Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan) Feb 2012 - Semi-Finals begin (played Feb, Mar, Apr, May) Jun 2012 - Finals begin (played Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep)

Our Objective in these games is to Steal the game in the Opening! Any move that saves time or gains a tempo is a winner! Gambits, Sacrifices, Deception and Trickery are our Tools! If you can develop before your adversary, then you can win a lot of games by simply getting there first with the most! Truly Gunslinging... ;-) We can beat almost all teams because we will have a plan. Most vote chess is chaotic and haphazard. I look forward to not only beating, but throttling the best Teams we can find! Sound like Fun? ... You Bet!