Gem Of A Game

FROM time to time I go through Tartakower & du Mont's 500 Master Games Of Chess.

Here is an especially sparkling game that caught my attention.

Notes in italics are algebraicised from the book.

Julius Perlis - Joseph Blackburne

Ostend Masters 1907

Danish Gambit

1.e4 e5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3!?

There are almost 5,000 examples of this move in ChessBase's 2022 Mega database, with White scoring a respectable 55%.

3...d5!?

This reply reduces White's score to 48%, whereas accepting the gambit with 3...dxc3, which has been played by Magnus Carlsen, results in White scoring 58%.

4.exd5 Qxd5 5.cxd4 Nc6 6.Nf3 Bg4!?

This game was played in round 22(!), whereas 18 rounds earlier Jacques Mieses - Blackburne saw 6...Nf6 7.Nc3 Bb4 8.Be2 Ne4 9.Bd2 Bxc3 10.bxc3 0-0 11.0-0 Bg4 12.Be1!?, when Black's lead in development probably neutralises White's bishop-pair (but 1-0, 37 moves).

7.Be2

How should Black proceed?

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7...Nf6

Here the novice should avoid the frightful blunder 7...Bxf3 8.Bxf3 Qxd4 9.Bxc6+, and Black loses the queen.

8.0-0

Better is 8.Nc3, and if either 8...Bb4 or even 8....Qa5 [then] 9.0-0. If 8...Qh5 [then] 9.h3.

My main analysis engines Stockfish14.1 and Komodo12.1.1 reckon 8...Qd7 is an adequate response to 8.Nc3.

8...Bd6!?

Black preserves the option of castling on either wing.

The engines strongly dislike the text, preferring 8...Qd7 or 8...0-0-0.

9.Nc3 Qh5!?

This is also doubtful, according to the engines, which prefer 9...Qf5 or 9...Qa5.

10.Re1

This is enough for an advantage, but even stronger, according to the engines, is 10.h3, which had been played the previous year by Paul Leonhardt, albeit in a loss to Rudolf Spielmann.

10...0-0 11.h3

Now that White is definitely threatened with 11...Bxf3 followed by ...Qxh2[+] it is for him a choice of evils, namely either the text move or 11.g3, which equally weakens the king's position, or 11.Ne5, which loses material by reason of 11...Nxe5 12.dxe5 Bxe5 13.h3 (or 13.Bxg4 Bxh2+, followed by ...Nxg4 , with an advantage of two pawns) Bxe2 14.Qxe2 Qxe2 etc, and Black has the better game.

The engines agree with much of this analysis, but disagree that the text is weakening.

What should Black play?

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11...Rad8?!

The beginning of a grand combination.

Unfortunately the combination is almost certainly faulty. Best, according to the engines, is 11...Bxf3 12.Bxf3 Qf5, when White seems to have a good IQP position.

12.hxg4 Nxg4

How should White proceed?

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13.Bg5?

Correct, according to the engines, is 13.g3, eg 13...Nxd4 14.Nh4! Nxe2+ 15.Qxe2 Bc5 16.Be3 or 13...Rfe8 14.Nh4! Nxd4 15.Kg2 Nxe2 16.Rxe2. Less clear is 13.Be3, although both 13...Bh2+ 14.Kf1 Be5! 15.Bd3 and 13...Rfe8 14.Bd3 Bh2+ 15.Kf1 seem good for White.

13...Bh2+ 14.Kf1 Be5! 15.Bd3?!

If 15.Bxd8 there is the beautiful combination 15...Qh1+ 16.Ng1 Nh2#.

But probably better than the text is the engines' 15.Kg1, when 15...Bxd4 16.Ne4 f5 17.Bf4 fxe4 18.Nxd4 leads to complicated play, eg 18...Rxf4 19.Qb3+ Rd5 20.Bxg4 (20.Qg3+!?) Nxd4 21.Bxh5 Nxb3 22.axb3 Rxh5 23.g3! Rg4 24.Rxa7, which results in a double-rook-and-pawn ending that is clearly good for Black but not necessarily winning.

15...Rxd4?

Missing a win by 15...Qh1+ 16.Ke2 Qxg2, eg 17.Kd2 Nxf2 or 17.Rf1 Nxd4+ 18.Nxd4 Rxd4 19.Qd2 Re8 20.Kd1 Rxd3! 21.Qxd3 Bxc3 22.bxc3 Nxf2+.

16.Nxe5?

If 16.Nxd4 [then] 16...Nxd4, cutting off the king's retreat, but clearly not 16...Qh1+ 17.Ke2 Nxd4+ 18.Kd2 etc.

The engines give 16.Bh4, eg 16...Nh2+ 17.Nxh2 Qxh2 18.Re3!

16...Re8?

Another quiet move, but how powerful! It needs, however, a great deal of self-possession to make such a move when, temporarily, two pieces down. Of far less value would be the plausible continuation 16...Ncxe5 17.Rxe5 Rxd3 18.Qxd3 Bxe5 19.Qg3 Qh1+ 20.Ke2 Qxa1 21.Qxe5 Qxb2+ 22.Kf3 and the fight would still be an open one.

The engines reckon the above line greatly favours Black after 22...Qb6 or 22...f6. But even better, according to them, is 16...Qh1+ 17.Ke2 Qxg2, eg 18.Be3 Ngxe5 19.Bxh7+ Kxh7 20.Bxd4 Qg4+, as 21.Kf1 runs into 21...Nf3 22.Re4 Qg1+ 23.Ke2 Ncxd4+.

17.Re4 Rxe4 18.Bxe4 Ncxe5 19.Bf4 Ng6 20.Bg3 Qh1+ 21.Ke2 Qxg2

What should White play?

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22.Qh1?

The strongest resistance would result from 22.Qd4 Nf6 23.Kd3.

The engines continue the above line with 23...Nxe4 24.Nxe4 c5! 25.Nxc5 Qf3+, which seems good for Black but is not completely clear. They reckon White needs to find 22.Qa4!, when Black needs to find 22...b5! 23.Qxb5 Rxe4+ 24.Nxe4 Qxe4+, which they agree is dead-equal after 25.Kd2 Qd4+ 26.Kc2 Qe4+.

22...Qxh1 23.Rxh1 f5 24.Kf3 N4e5+ 25.Kg2 fxe4

Black regains his piece and will emerge two pawns up.

26.Nxe4 Nf7 27.Re1

With the threat of 28.Nf6+.

27...Re7 28.f3 Nd6 29.Bxd6 cxd6 30.Rd1 d5

Very pretty! Not only would it be unsafe to take the pawn (31.Rxd5 Nf4+), but the pawn itself is to play the biggest part in the final struggle.

31.Nc3 Rd7 32.Kf2 Ne7 33.Ke3 d4+ 34.Ke4

Not 34.Rxd4 Nf5+, but he could have held out longer with 34.Ke2. Now a fresh 'finesse' puts an end to the fight.

34...dxc3! 0-1

[White resigns] because of 35.Rxd7 c2 36.Rc7 Nc6.

The Power Of Two Checks

"NEVER miss a check - it might be mate" is attributed to Joseph 'Black Death' Blackburne.
Chess historian Edward Winter traces the aphorism back to a simultaneous display given by Blackburne in Birmingham in 1890.
What could be more powerful than giving check? Well, giving checkmate is certainly up there, and giving double-check is usually not bad either (but then both of these are also examples of giving check).
My database of my games has 26 examples of games containing a double-check.
Perhaps surprisingly, the double-checker only won 14 of the games, losing seven and drawing five. That is a score of 63.5%.
Here is the second-oldest example among my games.
Anthony D Brown (143) - Spanton (156)
Highbury (rapidplay) 1991
Evans' Gambit
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.0-0 Nf6 5.b4!?
Captain Evans first played his gambit in a similar way in 1836, except that in that game Black played 4...d6 rather than 4...Nf6.
5...d5?!
The move ...d5!? is an interesting try against 4.b4, but here it is almost certainly inferior to 5...Bxb4.
6.exd5 Nxb4 7.Nxe5 Nbxd5 8.d4 Bb6?
Harry Pillsbury played the better 8...Bd6?! in a loss to Emanuel Schiffers in 1896.
Stockfish10 and Komodo10 reckon Black keeps his disadvantage to a minimum with 8...Be7 or 8...Bb4.
9.Ba3 Be6 10.Re1 Nf4?
Better is 10...c6.
11.Bb5+?
11.Qf3 is strong, as is the consolidating 11.c3. In both cases the black king makes a miserable impression.
11...c6

How should White proceed?

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12.Nxc6?
Unclear is 12.Bxc6+!? bxc6 13.Qf3, but the engines' 13...Qd5!? (13...Nd5 14.c4) 14.Qxf4 Bxd4 15.c3 Bxe5 16.Qxe5 Qxe5 17.Rxe5 0-0-0 seems to be at least fine for Black.
Also far from clear is 12.Nc3!?
12...bxc6?
The engines' 12...Qd5! 13.Nxa7+ Kd8 looks good for Black.
13.Bxc6+ Nd7 14.Qf3 Rc8 15.Qxf4 Rxc6 16.d5 Rxc2 17.dxe6 Nf6?
Better is 17...Qf6, but Black still succumbs to a double-check, eg 18.exd7+ Kxd7 19.Qa4+ Qc6 20.Qg4+ Kc7 21.Nd2!?
18.Qa4+ Nd7
Now comes double-check and mate.
19.exd7#

My most-recent game featuring a double-check came against a junior in August.
Spanton (1881) - Boris Stoyanov (1592)
Northumbria Masters 2019
Scandinavian Tiviakov
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd6 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 g6!?
Kramnik, Caruana, Nakamura and Tiviakov are among grandmasters who have tried this, but the main move is 5...a6.
6.Bc4 a6 7.Ne5!?
The engines reckon 7.Ng5 is even stronger.
7...e6 8.Bg5 Bg7 9.Qf3

Black to make his ninth move

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9...Nbd7
An improvement on 9...Nc6?? 10.Ne4 Qb4+ 11.c3 Nxe5 12.Nxf6+ Kf8 13.dxe5 Bxf6 1-0 in  Davide di Trapani (2090) - Sergio Garofalo (1826), Modena (Italy) Championship 2012.
10.Ne4 Qb4+?
The engines give 10...Qxd4 11.Bxf6 Nxe5 12.Qf4 0-0 13.0-0 Qxc4 14.Qxe5 Bh6 15.Rfd1 with a strong attack for White.
11.c3 Nxe5
The game has transposed to di Trapani - Garofalo.
12.Nxf6+ Kf8 13.dxe5 Qxc4
Marginally better than 13...Bxf6, but still hopeless.
14.0-0-0 Ke7
Now comes double-check …
15.Ng8+ 1-0
… and it would have been mate, after 15..Kf8 or 15...Ke8, by 16.Rd8#.

Old Chessnut

GOING through an old copy of Chess magazine from July 2007, I came across an article more than a page long - and remember that Chess uses an a4 format - on the famous game in which Paul Morphy beat an aristocratic consulting team at the Paris Opera House.
I find it hard to believe there are many, if any, regular readers of Chess who have not seen the game before. It would be difficult to prove, but I suspect it may be the most-published game of all time.
The main rival to such a claim must be the 1851 Immortal Game between Anderssen and Kieseritzky.
It may well be there are better games than these two, although quality in such cases is subjective, but none that has been published so often.
Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to take (yet) another look at Morphy's gem, but this time with the help of the analysis engines Stockfish10 and Komodo10.
Morphy - Duke of Brunswick/Count Isouard
Philidor Defence
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Bg4?!
This move goes back to at least 1795, but by the time of this game had been superseded by 3...f5 and (today's favourite) 3...exd4.
4.dxe5 Bxf3
The engines reckon it is better to give up a pawn by 4...Nd7!?, which has been played by many strong players including Albin, Lasker, Mieses, Blackburne, Nimzowitsch and, in more modern times, by at least six players rated over 2400.
Is ...Nd7 any good? Well, according to ChessBase's 2019 Mega database, Albin won both his outings with it, and Blackburne scored +3=1-0.
5.Qxf3 dxe5 6.Bc4 Nf6?
The most popular move in Mega19, but the superior 6...Qd7 had been played in George Atwood - Jonathan Wilson, London 1795. Atwood continued, as Morphy was to do, with 7.Qb3, when 7...c6 meant that at least Black was not losing material (but 1-0, 22 moves).
7.Qb3 Qe7!?
Fischer called this "a clever move," his point being that 8.Qxb7 would allow the aristos to get queens off the board with 8...Qb4+. They would in all likelihood have still lost, but would have had the satisfaction of the game lasting a lot longer than it did (and Morphy would have spent a lot longer sitting in the duke's luxury box with his back to the opera).
Later in 1858, in Morphy's match against the Prussian Daniel Harrwitz, the weaker 7...Bd6? was played. Morphy won in 59 moves.
8.Nc3
The engines prefer the prosaic 8.Qxb7 but Morphy, at least metaphorically, may have had one eye on the opera.
8...c6 9.Bg5
Fischer reckoned this puts Black in zugzwang: "He can't develop his knight because his (b) pawn is hanging (and) the bishop is blocked by the queen."
9...b5?!
It is easy to condemn this move, but in 15 subsequent games to reach the position after 9.Bg5, the text was played in 12 of them.
The engines reckon best play is 9...Na6 10.Bxf6 gaf6 11.Bxa6 bxa6 12.0-0, with a miserable game for Black.
10.Nxb5! cxb5 11.Bxb5+ Nbd7 12.0-0-0 Rd8
Fischer points out that breaking the pin on the queen's knight with 12...0-0-0? loses instantly to 13.Ba6+ Kc7 14.Qb7#
13.Rxd7 Rxd7 14.Rd1 Qe6 15.Bxd7+ Nxd7 16.Qb8+! Nxb8 17.Rd8+
The exact same game last occurred in Mega19 in Edmundo Luz (2059) - Jose Correa (1686), Maranhão (Brazil) 2018.

Puzzling Ending

HERE is the ending of a game that has not made its way into ChessBase's Mega database.

White to make his 38th move in Joseph Blackburne - Louis van Vliet & James Manlove, London 1893

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Black is a pawn up and, in my opinion, has the better minor piece (the pawns have little flexibility of movement, and two white pawns are fixed on dark squares - the same colour as the bishop). But the presence of rooks favours White, as he has the bishop, and it is far from obvious, at least to me, how Black is to make progress. For example, an exchange of minor pieces to remove the blockader of Black's passed pawn would result in a rook-and-pawn ending, with definite drawing chances for White.
Stockfish10 reckons Black's advantage is worth just under half a pawn. Komodo9 rates Black's chances as higher than this, but only by about a fifth of a pawn.
Notes in italics (algebraicised where appropriate) are by Tartakower & du Mont from 500 Master Games Of Chess.
They introduced the game thusly: The salient feature of this fine game is the clever manner in which the consultants gradually succeed in wresting more and more territory from their great opponent, the endgame in particular being of classic beauty.
38.Rc2?
This move passes unremarked, but allowing the rooks to come off virtually guarantees White's defeat. Perhaps there is some feature of the position I am missing, but I find it almost impossible to understand why Blackburne would play in this way, and why Tartakower would not call him on it.
The engines suggest 38.Re1, which stops Black's rook from invading.
38...Kd7
Accepting the challenge of a duel between knight and bishop.
Without actually saying so, Tartakower implies that allowing rooks to come off is a brave decision by Black (presumably on the ground that a bishop is often better than a knight in an ending with pawns on both sides of the board). However, Black did not have much choice, eg 38...Ra6? 39.Rc7 allows White right back into the game.
39.Rxc6
If White had changed his mind about exchanging with, say, 39.Re2, White's rook would have invaded with 39...Rc1.
39...Kxc6 40.Bg7 Nc5+ 41.Ke3
White's king would be nearer his vulnerable queenside pawns with 41.Kd2, but then Black's king would invade with 41...Ne6 42.Be5 d4 43.Kd3 Kd5 with ...Nc5+ to come.
41...Ne6
Good enough, but even stronger is 41...a4, when White will eventually lose both his queenside pawns for just one of Black's.
42.Be5 Kc5 43.Bf6
Or 43.Kd3 d4 44.Bb8 Kd5 etc.
43...d4+ 44.Kf3
The king prefers to remain the guardian of the f4 pawn.
44...Kb5 45.Be5 Kc5 46.Bb8 Kd5 47.Ba7
The bishop has to leave the useful diagonal. If 47.Be5, 47...Nxg5+ etc.
47...d3 48.Ke3 Nxf4!
The beginning of the end.
49.Bb6 a4 50.Bd8
Not 50.bxa4 Kc4 etc, nor 50.Kxf4 d2.
50...axb3 51.axb3 Ne6 52.Bb6 Nc5
Well thought out, for in the king's endgame Black's passed pawn ensures victory.
53.Bxc5 Kxc5 54.Kxd3 Kd5 55.Ke3 Ke5 56.h3 f4+
And Black wins.