Spanton (1912) - Marcel Marentini (2053)
Senioren Cup
Petrov
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nxf7?!
This gambit has been tried by very strong players, including Carlsen, Short, Topalov, Ivanchuk and Morozevich, but is probably just bad.
4...Kxf7 5.d4
The 'obvious' 5.Bc4 seems to be excellently answered by 5...d5!?
5...c5!?
Not 5...Nxe4?? as 6.Qh5+ wins back the piece.
6.Bc4+
More popular is 6.dxc5, when Black should probably reply 6...d5!? or 6...Qa5.
6...d5!? 7.exd5 Bd6
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| Black has given up a third pawn but White probably does not have enough compensation for a piece, although the position is not clear |
The main line, albeit from a small sample of games, runs 8.0-0 cxd4 9.Qxd4, when Stockfish14 reckons Black is winning but Komodo12.1.1 gives Black only a slight edge.
8...Qa5+!?
This was probably a good time for ...Re8+, ensuring the black king can fall back to g8 without blocking in the king's rook, but the text is also fine.
9.Nc3 Qxa5 10.Be2 a6 11.Be3 Qc7 12.Qd2 Nbd7 13.0-0-0 b5 14.g4
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| How would you assess this position? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
Middlegame positions with kings on opposite sides of the board are often hard to evaluate. Here White has the safer king and has more scope for pawn-play. But Black is a knight up, albeit for three pawns, so in effect has two possible ways of winning: a) direct attack, b) simplification. The engines much prefer Black.
14...b4 15.Na4 Ne4 16.Qd3 Ndc5 17.Nxc5 Nxc5 18.Bxc5!? Qxc5 19.Qf3+
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| How should Black proceed? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
19...Ke7!?
Brave! Komodo12.1.1 - but not Stockfish14 - prefers 19...Kg8, but then Black for quite some time will be effectively playing the exchange down in that his king's rook will struggle to get into the game.
20.Rhe1 Kd8 21.Qf7?
The engines prefer 21.Bd3 or 21.Kb1. The text wastes valuable time.
21...Ra7 22.Qh5 Re7
Black is undoubtedly winning.
23.Bd3 Rxe1 24.Rxe1 Qxf2 25.Qg5+ Qf6 26.Qh5
Objectively better, according to the engines, is 26.Qxf6+, but best is probably Resigns.
The game finished:
26...g6 27.Qh3 h5 28.Rf1 Qe5 29.Qh4+ g5 30.Qf2 Qf4+ 31.Qd2 Qxf1+!? 0-1
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