Thursday 26 March 2015

If this is a trap ...

I had an interesting experience during my game at the local club last night. Having played the first 9 moves of Marshall Gambit theory I was surprised by my opponents 10th move. 10.d4 seemed slightly odd, but at first I could not decide whether it was good, bad or just different. After taking the pawn I was then surprised by my opponents 12th move, when he took of d5 rather than d5. For a brief moment I thought I had been tricked, as the bishop on e7 hangs after Qxd5. But then I thought to myself "If this is a trap I would have heard of it before". The Marshall is a well established opening, and I have been playing it for 30 years, so a surprise like this would have come to my attention long ago. Armed with this knowledge it did not take me long to realise that Qxd5 was more than fine, as Bb7 threatening mate on g2 holds everything together.
It even turned out the the whole idea was worse for White than I or my opponent realised. After White played 14.f3 I decided to try and trap the rook with 14. ... Ne6 and eventually I won the exchange. But 14. ... Qc5 is even stronger hitting the rook on e7 and threatening all sorts of discovered attacks. So there is a trick in this variation, but it is a trick for Black, not for White.


Cunningham,Cam - Press,Shaun [C89]
ANU Challengers, 26.03.2015



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Badiola, Danilo - MapkocX
Cabanatuan, 1984.04.24
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. c3 d5 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. d4 exd4 11. Nxd4 Nxd4 12. Bxd5 Qxd5 13. Rxe7 Bb7 14. f3 Qc5!
15. Qxd4 Qxe7 16. Nd2 Qe1+ 17. Nf1 Rad8 18. Bg5 Qxa1 19. Bxd8 Qxb2 20. h4 Qxa2 21. Be7 Qd5 22. Qg4 f5 23. Qb4 Rf7 24. Ne3 Qe5 25. Bc5 f4 26. Nc2 Qe2 27. Qb3 Qd1+ 28. Kh2 Bd5 29. Qb2 Qd2 30. Kg1 Rf6 31. Bf2 Rg6 32. Qb4 Qxc2 33. Qe7 Qd1+ 34. Kh2 Rxg2+ 0-1