Tuesday, 3 October 2023

An old line revisited

 A few weeks ago the following game was played in the LFG Round Robin. To the spectators, Black's 8th move came as a real surprise, as it was believed that sacrificing the exchange (championed by Blackburne in the 19th century) did not give Black enough compensation. But by playing a new move (9. ... Qc7) Black set White a significant number of problems. Eventually White lost their way and Black was left with a winning position. It seems that the line actually works for Black, although trying to find other examples was difficult (only a few games against 1900 rated players). So further investigation may be required before the exchange sacrifice is totally rehabilitated.


Magrini,Fabrizio - Press,Harry [C58]
22.09.2023

Start positionPrevious MoveNext MoveEnd positionPlay movesStop playing
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Na5 6. Bb5+ c6 7. dxc6 bxc6 8. Qf3 cxb5 9. Qxa8 Qc7 10. Qf3 Nc6 11. c3 Bg4 12. Qg3 Nd4 13. Na3 Ne2 14. Qe3 Bxa3 15. bxa3 Nf4 16. O-O N6d5 17. Qe4 f5 18. Qb1 Qc6 19. f3 h6 20. Nf7 Kxf7 21. fxg4 Nxc3 22. Qxf5+ Kg8 23. Rf2 Nce2+ 24. Kh1 Nxc1 25. d4 Ncd3 26. Rd2 g6 27. d5 Qc3 0-1

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