Super-Charged Tactical Opening

I played this game this week against a Chess.com friend who makes it out to my chess club every so often. In serious games, I usually play the Semi-Slav against 1. d4, but I recently started mixing it up with the Gruenfeld after Kamsky-Topalov 2009. So here in the King's Gambit, first time ever in my life I've accepted the gambit, I try to play Gruenfeld-style by opening up the board with 3. d5 as Black. The trouble is that White gains a huge lead in development after 6. Bc4 so the opening starts exploding with tactical possibilities.

I'm not sure about my friend's 8. 0-0?! I decide not to take the free pawn because I'm down so much tempo and start to develop. He makes what would be a nice three-move-tactical-combo starting with 9. Bxf7+, which would win a pawn, if it weren't for 10. Qxg5 backed up by the 11. Nf6.

I know I defended 9. Bxf7+ pretty good, but how was Black's opening game overall? Did White miss some early opportunities before 9. Bxf7+ that would have given him an advantage? What move(s) would you make instead of 9. Bxf7+?

Nice game, but there isn't something similar with Grunfeld in the game.

Absolutely nothing to do with the Gruenfeld.

4...Nf6 with ...Nxd5 to follow is stronger than 4...Qxd5.

Here's what i saw when i played 8.0-0(8...Bxc3 9.bxc3 Qxc3 10.Bxf7+ Kxf7 11.Ng5+ followed by 12.Bxf4.  My plan was to get your queen on c3 so that it would be blocked from the action on the kingside.) 

I think 9.Nd5 would have lead to an interesting game.

Hmm There's practically no positional relation between the grunfeld and the king's gambit. Both from the pure positional point of few and of the tactical motifs that occur in these openings.

That said, the king's gambit is an interesting opening.

I won't talk about the theory of the opening.

Your opponent's 8.0-0 was a good, logical move, and I believe your response 8...Bg4 is a very reasonable looking move. NICE.

Taking the pawn would have been suicidal: 8...Bxc3 9.bxc3 Qxc3? 10.Qe1+! It's a very instructive position. Black is lost, 2 pawns up after the queens are exchanged:) The power of such incredible piece activity against the king which is stuck in the center becomes self evident soon:

10...Qxe1 11.Rxe1+ and black is ALREADY with a serious problem on his hands.

The move he would want to play, to evacuate his king from he coming attack in the center: 11...Nge7, fails to 12.d5 Na5 (Nd8 Ba3 and black STILL can't castle in any case. The knight's position is even worse). 13.Bd3 and black can't castle without losing his knight for a while. Ba3 will come...trouble.

Black would have to try 11...Nce7 but after 12.Ng5 (Bxf4 isn't going anywhere... so it can wait for after the goodies of the attack are realized), and f7 collapses.

black can't play 12...Nh6 because white's tremendous activity destroys him after 13.Ba3 and black can't defend the e7 knight without abandoning f7 (and Be6 fails to either Nxe6 (simple) or the devestating Nxf7 (a bit more complex)). His position is collapsing.

Quite a short analysis (only considered moves 8-12), but it shows the power of piece activity can last even after the queens leave the board, if it's big enough.

By playing 8...Bg4, you introduce the pin of the f3 knight, get ready for long castle, which would add another active rook... You have quite an interesting position. I'm not sure about the position that would have appeared on the board, had white replied 9.Ne4... crazy position. I can't offer any conclusions, except that I think white should be much better, if he plays correctly, but I can't be sure.

Looking back at the position, maybe taking the c3 knight first and then just continue with the game (NOT taking the pawn) would be ok. Maybe.

Or maybe just prepare for 0-0-0 while blocking some of white's activity with 8...Be6!? Creating a weak pawn if white captures on e6 but black's 0-0-0 will let him fight for the initiative for quite a while. Not sure.

White went berserk with 9.Bxf7+, which seems like an attempt at losing the game immediately. Maybe at least he could have made things a bit complicated for you with 10.d5, trying to disconnect the queen from the defense. Still, I think black comes out winning after that too.

Game ends pretty much there.

10.Ng5 hangs the second piece and ends the game.

I think the amazing activity of white's pieces if black had dared to take the pawn on c3, even without the queens, is worth studying.

Also, the position after 8...Bg4 9.Ne4 deserves a long study. Very interesting position. Looking at it a second time, it may be a bit trickier for black than I thought, as an immediate 9...0-0-0 10.c3 Be7 looks like white has control of the position. Not sure.

Nice, short game to look at though.

Um to address the Gruenfeld comments, I know the opening revolves around a Kingside fianchetto against the QGD, but when I use the opening, I often find that I exchange my e-pawn and d-pawn, leaving me without center pawns, but pretty good outposts for my Rooks in the center.

With openings like the Sicilian, Ruy Lopez, Giuoco Piano, Semi-Slav, Nimzo Indian, etc. you often find the center clogged with pawns and pieces. But I kind of like having the center void of pawns in a way. It makes for a fairly open and interesting game.

Bulla,

At first glance, yeah 9. Nd5 over 9. Bxf7 looks pretty strong. It makes me think the right move for Black would have been 8. Bxc3 (without taking the free pawn with the Queen) instead of 8. Bg4.

grolich,

As usual, very nice analysis. Going backwards on some of the commentary, 9. Ne4 is kind of interesting, with 10. Ng5 looking pretty scary to me. I think Bulla's 9. Nd5 is also kind of good.

I'm glad I decided not to go for the free pawn, as I had a feeling that there was no way I was going to recover the tempo with so many of White's pieces in the center, and his Rook and Queen and dark Bishop were ready to jump into the picture at anytime.

It's difficult because I want to get my King out of the center, but I don't want to long castle and drop my f-pawn right away, so I don't know. 3. d5 is really aggressive and perhaps a little too premature. It might have been smarter to develop some pieces first, even if that would have led to a possibly boring opening with like 4 Knights or whatever. I like positions where I have an open center and all of my pieces developed.

I really like sharp openings and complex middle games, as I think it gives me a lot of chances to outplay my opponent, but 3. d5 might have been a little too razor sharp. But hey, I didn't make the position look pretty, and it worked out for Black, so maybe 3. d5 does have some merit, but by playing that move, moves 4-8 seem a bit forced. White's Bishop on c4, doing it's best Italian impression, is sooo good! If it wasn't for that, I would consider playing 3. d5 and opening up the center in a heart beat.

I've seen 3...d5 before played by some pretty strong players. It's a reasonable move. Not a bad one at all.

Although I believe 4...Qxd5 is playable and should be easily equal, You're not forced to take with the queen: 4.exd5 Nf6 will win that pawn back anyway and you have excelent development. If white tries to keep the pawn with c4, iot becomes a very sharp game in which I don't know who's worse.

Although, your 4...Qxd5 is ok.

Another interesting idea is to maintain the f4 pawn while developing, because it blocks white's free development. So, 6...Bd6 is just as valid as your 6...Nc6.

The first real mistake is probably 7...Bb4. Since you won't be pinning that knight and you're not planning to take the pawn after white castles, AND you can't force any weakness in the white position AND you wouldn't want to just give a bishop for knight in that position, That bishop move does look a bit strange. Not every development move is a good move.

Also, you may want that bishop on d6. So, 7...Bg4 is perhaps a more consistent developing move.

Also, white won't 8.0-0 in reply to it: 8...0-0-0, and how exactly is the d4 pawn supposed to be protected? white is not prepared to capturing on f7 either:

9.Bxf7? Nxd4, and the discovered threats will force white to except some form of weakness (probably doubled g and f pawns in front of his king). black is almost winning if white goes for that.

After 7...Bg4, the game would be very tense. I don't think white is worse, but the position is very double edged.

grolich

I didn't even consider 4. Nf6 and it is an interesting move. I don't think most masters would try to hold the pawn with 5. c4, but you know us class level players, anything goes! It looks like he can hold the pawn, which kind of makes me feel gun-shy about trying 4. Nf6 in the future.

Yeah 7. Bb4 didn't quite have the punch I expected. To be honest, I took like 1 to 1.5 minutes to make the move and then realized like 10 seconds later that it doesn't have all that much bite to it because White's Rook is guarded by the Queen.

I think I was having flashbacks of my scholastic chess days where people can tear up positions like that if the Queen isn't there. I was like, "Okay, his Knight is pinned and if he doesn't respond with something like Bd2, I'm going to win a Rook". And yeah, after a move like Bd2, I can't take the Knight and its unpinned.

Now that I look at it, I don't like the move much at all. Thanks for the great suggestion: the dark Bishop definitely looks better playing a defensive role for now.  Maybe I would have gone with something like 7. f6 followed by 8. Bg4. And yeah, if I make some slight changes to my game like that, I think I'll be moving up in ratings points very soon.