The move goes back to at least 1878, but it was English master Amos Burn who popularised it in the late 1880s and the 1890s.
Carl Schlechter - Amos Burn
Berliner SG 70th Anniversary (Berlin) 1897
French Burn
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Nbd7
Today 5...Be7 is considered the main move, but Burn scored much better with the text.
6.Nf3 Be7 7.Nxf6+ Nxf6 8.Bd3 c5!?
Burn castled in a round-four win over Rudolf Charousek, as indeed he had done nine years earlier in a win over Charles Locock. But in round five of this tournament, against Richard Teichmann, he switched to the text and lost. This game against Schlecter was in round eight.
9.dxc5!?
Tecihmann preferred 9.c3.
9...Qa5+ 10.c3 Qxc5 11.Qe2
Magnus Carlsen played 11.0-0 in a 2006 win over Ulf Andersson, but the text scores very well in ChessBase's 2020 Mega database.
11...Bd7
Both players are being cagey about their castling intentions, reminding me of the dictum attributed to Pillsbury: "Castle because you will or because you must, but not because you can."
12.Ne5 Rd8
Petrosian played 12...Bc6 in a draw with Spassky in their 1966 world championship match.
13.0-0
Somewhat speculative-looking is 13.0-0-0!? but it seems playable.
13...0-0?
The analysis engines Stockfish11 and Komodo11.01 suggest 13...h6 or 13...Bd6!? The text loses material, but can you see how?
 |
| Position after 13...0-0? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
14.Rad1?
The position after 13...0-0? appears 12 times in Mega20 but only Ludwig Rellstab - Kurt Richter, Berlin Championship 1932, saw 14.Bxf6 Bxf6 15.Bxh7+ Kxh7 16.Qd3+ Kg8 17.Nxd7 and 18.Nxf6+. If 16...Kh8, White still emerges a pawn up after 17.Nxd7 thanks to having a queen check at h3.
14...Bc6 15.c4 Qb6 16.Qc2 h6 17.Bh4 Rd4 18.Bg3 Rfd8 19.Qe2?!
Black gets something of an initiative after this. Safer was 19.Nxc6.
19...Be4 20.Bxe4 Nxe4 21.Rxd4 Qxd4 22.Qh5 Rf8
Black has been obliged to go passive with his rook, but he commands the centre of the board.
23.b3 Bc5 24.Qe2
The engines suggest 24.Ng4 Nxg3 25.hxg3, but prefer Black after 25...f5 or 25...g6!?
24...Rd8 25.Qh5
Schlechter makes a tacit draw offer, but Burn wants more.
25...f6?
Better is 25...g6, one point being that 26.Qxh6?? loses to 26...Nxg3 and 27...Qxe5.
26.Ng4?!
Schlechter presumably saw he had a draw with 26.Qf7+ Kh7 27.Qg6+, but must have thought Burn's last move left him with winning chances.
26...e5?!
It is hard to know what both players missed as Black seems comfortably better after the simple 26..Nxg3.
27.Qg6?!
Here the engines give 27.Bh4 Ng5 25.Bxg5 hxg5 26.Ne3 with what they reckon is just a small edge for Black.
27...Kf8 28.Ne3 Nc3
Very good for Black, according to the engines, is 28...Qd3, eg 29.Nf5 Rd7 30.Qg4 Nc3, when White can hardly defend his queenside.
29.Qh7?
Correct is 29.Nf5, threatening mate and attacking the black queen at the same time. After 29...Qd7 30.Qh7 Black has no time to go after the white queenside pawns with 30...Nxa2?? as 31.Qh8+ Kf7 32.Qxg7+ Ke6 33.Qg4 leaves him busted. Best, according to the engines, is 30...Ne2+ 31.Kh1 Qf7 with what they reckon is dead-equality.
29...Ne2+ 30.Kh1 Qd3! 31.Qxd3 Rxd3
With queens off the board, there is no longer any danger to the black king, and Black's pieces are much better coordinated than White's.
32.Rd1 Rxd1+ 33.Nxd1 Bd4 34.f3
Or 34.Ne3 Nc1 etc.
34...Nxg3+ 35.hxg3 f5 36.g4 e4 0-1
Schlechter resigned as the black e pawn will cost White his knight.
No comments:
Post a Comment