In my last November 2024 quad I decided to play in a gambit style, almost like the famous gambit guy Lev Zilbermintz. However, some of these gambits are well-known ones in chess society. Thus two of them, the Budapest Gambit and From’s Gambit have occurred in my first and third games with Harlan Kim and Augusto Gutierrez respectively. Their specific white positions 11 and 31 are shown in the upper part of the picture (in both of them I was Black, my opponents were White).
There was also a gambit without a specific name happened in my second game with a new guy Liam Siu (probably because his photo is absent). This gambit was named by me as “3.e5 Sicilian Gambit” since it occurred after moves 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. e5 Nc6 4. Bb5 Qc7 5. O-O Nxe5 6. Nxe5 Qxe5 (I was White; Liam was Black) which resulted in the white position 21 in the picture. Here, before analyzing my third game with Augusto (see below) I want to say a little about the reason why I chose such an objectively not correct gambit with Liam. It is in the variant which I was going to play in position 21 – 7. Qh5 Nf6 8. Rxe6+! What a fantastic move!!! White uses two pins to get a black’s king… However, thinking about that a little longer (Black still had numerous decent continuations) I had decided not to execute such a variant. Now, let’s analyze the third game with Augusto.
Augusto, as White, had chosen the relatively rare opening 1. f4 and I gladly answered with the From's Gambit. This gambit is characterized by the moves 1. f4 e5 2. fxe5 d6 3. exd6 Bxd6 4. Nf3 (White must play Nf3 since Black threatens Qh4) g5 (it is recommended by Em. Lasker is the most aggressive move since I had to win). Now Augusto had two options – 5. g3 (that happened in our game) and 5. d4 (which I was afraid of during the game – see further).
In my opinion, a move 5. g3 is bad since it condemns the king’s side knight to be only a blocker of the future Black’s pawn attack (by h7-h5 and h5-h4) against the White’s king. This attack is supported by a powerful d6-bishop along the diagonal h2-b8. And even this task (the blocking) is unattainable since h4-knight can simply be chased away by the simple Bd6-e7. All of that had actually occurred in our game and resulted in the critical position C3 (in the left lower part of the picture). I call this position the critical one because it clearly shows two important things – a full Black’s compensation for the sacrificed pawn (with good chances to create a mate attack) and the extremely difficult task for White to resist such a Black’s plan (since he does not have two bishops; his pieces are still undeveloped on a queen side and etc.).
In this moment (while thinking of position C3) Augusto had decided to give up his extra pawn and played 11. Qd1-e2 (it took for him almost 10 minutes!). Of course he had to indirectly protect his g3-pawn (by, for example, 11. Rh1-g1). It is interesting that after Rg1 some computer programs rate the position as equal one, but I think that it is a wrong evaluation (and I hope that the future programs will be more adequate ones…).
After a weak 11. Qd1-e2 a fight continued less than 10 moves. Look at the black position C4 in the lower right part of the picture. Can you find the winning (and final for this game) move which I had made in it? It is a beautiful shoot 18… Bf5-h3+, after which Augusto had immediately resigned.
And now I am finishing my report with some advices. Concerning the game with Augusto - as I said above, my two bishops and a queen were much stronger than the white two knights and a queen. I can state my personal opinion about a whole variant of 5. g3 (in comparison with 5. d4-possibility mentioned in the last sentence of the third paragraph devoted to this game). It is in fact that White had to neutralize d6-bishop in the variant 5. d4 g4 6. Ne5 Bxe5 7. d4xe5 Qxd1 8. Kxd1 giving back his extra pawn but achieving a decent stable position.
It looks like Augusto chose his rare opening (and/or a main variant in it) without much thinking about it, because when this opening had occurred he started to make the clear inconsistent decisions. That is a little strange since this guy is of a middle age… So there is my advice to young students of ICA – try to be consistent in both your preparation and the actual game execution. Hesitation will be almost always punished!
Congratulations to Yefim Treger for winning our report contest, and a free entry to the tournament. If you want a chance to win a free entry into our Saturday Quads, email a report to icanewjersey@gmail.com, following these guidelines. We will not have a quad next week, so enjoy you Thanksgiving Break and we hope to see you at our next Quad which is December 7.
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