Today I'm using a VERY short miniature to illustrate how even strong players can get in over their heads when it comes to gambits and sacrifices!
I am using a game of my Uncle's (Jeff aka Zapper) fron an Open tournament he played back in 2005; I hope you enjoy!
White: Jeffery Jones (1809)
Black: Jim Rome (1995)
Petrov's Defense, Cochrane Gambit
[pgn]1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nxf7 Kxf7 5.d4 Nxe4 6.Qh5+ Ke7 7.Qe2 d5 8.Bg5+[/pgn]
1. e4, e5
2. Nf3, Nf6 The Petrov defense, a popular opening at all levels of Chess, including World Champions! It is considered a tad drawish, but is extremely hard rto crack if you want to win.
3. Nxe5 Popular now is 3. d4. 3...d6
4. Nxf7 This is the Cochrane Gambit and is a nice guest as a surprise weapon agaisnt an opponent, once you open like this the chances that you can break your opponent's comfort zone is almost assured and they worry bout your preparation. Im using notes form my Uncle which I will incase in italics when needed! I knew Jim was a very positional player, so I had planned this to catch him off guard and hopefully get him a little nervous, although he was over 150 rating points higher, I felt it was possible to shake him alittle bit.
[pgn=7]1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nxf7 Kxf7 5.d4 Nxe4 6.Qh5+ Ke7 7.Qe2 d5 8.Bg5+[/pgn]
4...Kx7 This is almost necessary, if not then White simply wins a pawn and destroys the Black Kings shelter for nothing.l
5. d4 Increasing the power in the Center. freeing my dark-squared Bishop and forcing Black to make a choice. 5...Nxe4?! Not my first choice and I was surprised that Jim played this! I had thought that 5...Qe8 was almost mandatory here. To extend that variation, it could go something like 5...Qe6; 6. Nc3, d5 and Black , I think is better.
6. Qh5+! An important check, and it forces Black to decide what to do with the position immediately. 6...Ke7 Again, I didn't like this at all, I considered 6...g6!? to be better, although then if 7. Qd5+, Kg7; 8. Qxe4, Nc6, White is much better in my opinion. Not much else I can add after that, I do think g6!? was the better move.
[pgn=12]1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nxf7 Kxf7 5.d4 Nxe4 6.Qh5 Ke7 7.Qe2 d5 8.Bg5[/pgn]
7. Qe2! White is clearly better here, and the pin on the Knight at e4 has to dealt with now. Jim had already used over 1 hour of our 2 hours in 40 moves time in the game, he was all over the board and obviously not very happy about what was going on.
7...d5?? A HUGE blunder after 25 minutes of thought! I believe that this blunder was caused by simply thinking to long and believing he had been outsmarted and outplayed on the opening off his choice, Many times, you get a pessimistic feeling after a badly played opening, and nothing you do seems to make anything right; I think that is what happened here. A better variation, tho with White sill slighty better was:...7 Kf7 8. Qxe4, d5; 9. Qf3+, Kg8 White has a definite pull here but it is better than what happened in the game!
Can you spot the move the causes Black to resign immediately? Take your time and LOOK:
[pgn=14]1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nxf7 Kxf7 5.d4 Nxe4 6.Qh5+ Ke7 7.Qe2 d5 8.Bg5+[/pgn]
15. Bg5! CHECK This wins the Queen and since the material advantage is so great BLACK RESIGNS!!
I hope you enjoyed this fast little game, although the times used were White: 12 minutes; Black: 1 hour 10 minutes!
WOW
I wil be adding games throughout the week, as it does takes sometime but I shall not disappooint!
I hope you all had a good time playing thru the game and I will have more for you soon
Joshua
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