Sunday 15 August 2010

Cochrane's Gambit

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nxf7 is the Cochrane's Gambit, a rarely played but still venomous line against the Petroff's. It was named after John Cochrane, who was a contemporary of Howard Staunton, and was a well know chronicler of Indian chess in the mid 19th Century.
In fact a couple of well known games came to 'western' attention via Cochrane, including the classic 'Steele v Amateur' and the first recorded instance of the Gruenfeld Defence. However for such a well sourced player, I don't have a huge amount of games by Cochrane (mostly his match against Staunton) and only seem to have one game from his time in India. However it is a significant game as it is indeed the Cochrane Gambit, resulting in a win for its creator.

Cochrane,J - Mohischunder [C42]
1848

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nxf7 Kxf7 5.Bc4+ Ke8 6.0-0 c5 7.h3 Qc7 8.f4 Nc6 9.Nc3 a6 10.a4 Qe7 11.Nd5 Qd8 12.d4 cxd4 13.e5 Nxd5 14.Bxd5 dxe5 15.Bxc6+ bxc6 16.Qh5+ Kd7 17.fxe5 Kc7 18.Rf7+ Kb8 19.e6 Bd6 20.Bg5 Qb6 21.a5 Qc5 22.b4 Qe5 (D)
23.Bf4 Qxe6 24.Qc5 Qxf7 25.Bxd6+ Qc7 26.Qb6+ Bb7 27.Qxc7+ Ka7 28.Bc5# 1-0

1 comment:

Paul said...

This old gambit can still catch someone out !