Short But Sweet

FACED a junior from Singapore this afternoon in the first round of the Malta international open, which is being held in the Topaz hotel in the seaside resort of Bugibba.
Spanton (1934) - Xiu Ning Charlene Mak (1465)
Sicilian Bb5(+)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.c3 Bg7 5.d4 cxd4 6.cxd4 Qb6?!
Easily the most popular move in ChessBase's 2020 Mega database, but it may be a mistake.

White to make his seventh move

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7.Nc3
At least one grandmaster has bottled out here with 7.Bxc6?!, but the text is a very promising pawn sac.*
7...Nxd4?
Again the most popular move, but this time definitely a mistake.
Stockfish10 suggests 7...e6 8.e5 (other moves are also good) Nge7 9.0-0 with a clear advantage to White. Komodo10 gives 7...Nf6 8.Qe2 0-0 (8...Nxd4 9.Nxd4 Qxd4 10.Be3 gives White good compensation for a pawn) 9.d5 with a slight edge to White.
Another possibility is to take the d4 pawn immediately, but with the bishop. However, after 7...Bxd4 8.Nxd4 Qxd4 9.Qe2, White again has obvious compensation for the pawn.
8.Nd5 Nxf3+ 9.Qxf3 Qd8?!
Probably better is 9...Qd6, when the engines reckon 10.0-0 gives White the upper hand, although a junior rated 2000+ was happy enough to reach this position twice last year.
10.Bf4 e5 11.Qc3
Much stronger than 11.Rc1?
11...Kf8
There seems to be nothing better.
12.Bxe5 Bxe5 13.Qxe5 f6
Or 13...Qa5+ 14.b4!
14.Qd6+ Kg7 15.Nc7 Rb8? 16.Ne6+
The game is effectively over. XM played on to the bitter end (1-0, 45 moves), but for once it is no exaggeration to say the result was never in doubt.
Addendum: having just checked my databases, I see that when I previously reached the position after 6...Qb6?!, against a 2296 at Hradec Kralove (Czech Rep) in 2013, I too bottled out with 7.Bxc6?! (0-1, 30 moves).

Morphy v The Petrov (part three)

PAUL Morphy's third encounter with the Petrov came, according to ChessBase's 2019 Mega database, against Johann Löwenthal.
The game shows Morphy using the Steinitz Attack to win in 25 moves.
But the game almost certainly never happened.
It is a move-by-move copy of Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa - Carl von Jaenisch from their 1842 match.
The supposed Morphy game does not appear in Löwenthal's book Morphy's Games of Chess, which was published in 1860 - two years after the game alegedly took place.
How it comes to be in the database, I have no idea, but I have informed Frederic Friedel at ChessBase, and I have appropriately amended the statistics given in the first part of this article: https://beauchess.blogspot.com/2019/09/morphy-v-petrov.html
Morphy's real third encounter with the Petrov came in one of eight games he played blindfold simultaneously at Paris's Café de la Régence in 1858.
Morphy - William Potier
Petrov Defence Boden–Kieseritzky Gambit
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bc4!?
The same variation as played against Theodor Lichtenhein in the first American Chess Congress the previous year.
3...Nxe4 4.Nc3 Nf6!?
Lichtenhein played 4...d5!? The main move, 4...Nxc3, will be covered later in the series.
5.Nxe5 d5 6.Bb3 Be7 7.d4 c6 8.0-0 Nbd7 9.f4
Löwenthal: "Playing his favourite move at an early stage of the game."
9...Nb6
9...0-0, which was played in a 1997 Spanish game, looks more natural.
10.Qf3 h5?!
A weakening move that will hurt Black, except in the unlikely event that he somehow manages to castle long.
11.f5
Löwenthal: "Black's queen's bishop is now completely hemmed in, and time must be lost in extricating it."
11...Qc7?!
Presumably trying to prepare queenside castling, which at least is consistent with his 10th move. The engines prefer 11...Nbd7!?
12.Bf4
Developing with tempo - very much a Morphy trait.
12...Bd6 13.Rae1
Again developing with a threat.
13...Kf8
This appears to be Black's best, which shows what a rotten position he had after just a dozen moves.
14.Qg3 h4
Again the engines reckon this is Black's best, but it meets with a strong reply. Even worse for Black was 14...Bxf5? 15.Nxg6+ followed by Bxd6(+).
15.Ng6+ Kg8 16.Bxd6 hxg3 17.Bxc7 fxg6 18.fxg6 gxh2+ 19.Kh1
The smoke has cleared, and material is more-or-less level (White has the bishop-pair, but his light-square bishop is restricted), However, as so often in Morphy's games, the American has a lead in development.
19...Bg4 20.Re7 Nbd7

White to make his 21st move

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21.Be5?!
This works out swimmingly in the game, but better appears to be the engines' 21.Ne4!?, eg 21...Nxe4 22.Rxe4 Nf6 23.Rxf6 gxf6 24.Rxg4, with two bishops for a rook, or 21...Re8 22.Nxf6+ Nxf6 23.Rxe8+ Nxe8 24.Rf7 (24.c4!?), with much the more-active pieces.
21...Kf8?
Black had to find 21...Rh5, when White has  a number of favourable continuations, including 22.Bxh2 and 22.Bxh6, in each case with a small edge.
22.Rf7+ Kg8 23.Nxd5!
Löwenthal: "One of those beautiful combinations for which Mr Morphy is so famous, and which occur with equal frequency in his blindfold games as in those which he conducts with the board and men before him."
23...cxd5 24.Bxd5 Nb6 25.Bb3 1-0