A first encounter with the von Hennig-Schara Gambit... on the white side!

 I am not exclusively an 1.e4 player, and in a recent online game I tried the Queen's Gambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4). In my Exeter days I also used this occasionally and had some exciting games against a Slav player which went 2...c6 3.Nc3 e6 4.Nf3 dxc4 and then I turned it into a real gambit with 5.e4 b5. But on this occasion, the hunter became the hunted, as I met with the von Hennig-Schara Gambit: 2...e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.cxd5 cxd4!?.

I haven't played this with Black (not yet, anyway) as I have been having too much fun with the Albin Counter-Gambit, and have occasionally experimented with the Slav, but I think it's a pretty reasonable gambit. The main line then goes 5.Qa4+ Bd7 6.Qxd4 exd5 7.Qxd5 Nc6, but I allowed my opponent a couple of additional options by playing 5.Qxd4 Nc6 6.Qd1 exd5 7.Qxd5. Here most players transpose with 7...Bd7, but 7...Bd6 and 7...Be6 are both possible.

When I was growing up in the 1990s and early 2000s, usually the recommended approach for Black was to castle queenside and go for a kingside pawn storm, but with a normal edge for White. But a few recent articles (e.g. by Nigel Davies over at Chesspublishing) have been suggesting that Black is doing better by castling short and relying on piece play. I also saw a ChessPub forum post from a couple of years ago by MNb which suggested that Black's queenside castling plan is close to refuted if White plays a3 and then meets ...g7-g5-g4 with Nh4. 

The latest version of Stockfish agrees with all of this. The most critical position arises after 7...Bd7 8.Nf3 Nf6 9.Qd1 Bc5 10.e3 Qe7 11.Be2...

Here Stockfish assesses 11...0-0 as about +0.5 for White, which I reckon is pretty decent for a gambit with the black pieces. In the Lumbras GigaBase Black has played this line in a number of grandmaster level games with reasonable results, and in some of them Black still ends up building a kingside attack, while White doesn't have much in the way of attacking chances. Black tends to follow up with ...Rfd8 and ...Ne5.

But the line with 11...0-0-0 12.0-0 g5 13.a3 g4 14.Nh4 is assessed as close to +1. Looking over the games, Black still gets attacking chances here, but Black's attack is slowed down quite a bit and White's attacking chances on the queenside are as good as Black's on the kingside, hence the engine assessment of Black having very little compensation for the pawn. On the other hand, in the database, White has only got this far in seven games out of 528, and Black's results after 11...0-0-0 have been quite good overall. Thus, it looks to me that at most levels of play, the ...0-0-0 lines will be fine most of the time, but they do involve taking the risk that if one encounters a well prepared opponent, one may come out of the opening with a substantial disadvantage. Thus, since around 2005, 11...0-0 has increasingly surpassed 11...0-0-0 in popularity at high levels.

I guess I had mixed feelings when my opponent deviated with 7...Be6 8.Qxd8 Rxd8.

This is an example of where computer evaluations can only get you so far, as Stockfish reckons that this line isn't substantially inferior, assessing it as +0.6 for White, but I reckon that in practice it is substantially inferior. With the queens off, Black has to play more accurately in order to maintain some compensation for the pawn. I continued with 9.e3, preventing ...Nd4, and my opponent was a little hesitant, so I ended up trading down into a winning king and pawn endgame - probably the biggest risk associated with playing gambits, but this time I was the one defending against one.

From a practical/results point of view, this was a good outcome, but I think a far more interesting game would have ensued if my opponent had gone ...Bd7, or the less common ...Bd6, I was happy to take on the challenge of meeting one of Black's more aggressive approaches.

It's been a while... revisiting the Nxc3 lines of the Göring and Danish

I realise I haven't posted on here for three years. I have still been quite active in the chess community, playing mainly on Chess.com and more recently at Lincoln Chess Club. 

I haven't done any blogs over at Chess.com since 2013, but this week I published an extensive blog/article where I revisited the Danish and Göring Gambits, specifically the lines where White's c3 is met with ...dxc3 and then Nxc3. 

I decided to combine both gambits, as it tied in well with discussing the various transpositions and independent possibilities arising from the move order 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Nxc3. GM Daniel Naroditsky has recommended 4...Bc5 there, with the idea of following up with ...Nbd7 and ...c6 instead of ...Nc6, which takes some of the sting out of White's Bg5/Nd5 plans. I remember noting that possibility a couple of decades ago when it was briefly covered in Danish Dynamite via the move order 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Nf3 Bc5 4.c3 dxc3 5.Nxc3, where Zezulkin-Plachetka continued 5...d6 6.Bc4 Nf6 7.0-0 Nc6, transposing into the Göring, when Black could instead have tried 7...0-0 and then ...Nbd7 and ...c6. But when I looked over these lines, they don't look that bad for White to me. Black might get a tiny edge if both sides play perfectly, but that's also the case in some other lines, and White has the usual practical chances.

I was inspired to revisit those lines by FM William Graif's YouTube channel, where he has advocated the Göring in some of his videos, including the sideline that I have often used myself, 4...d5 5.Bd3. I also found that there have been quite a number of high level games played in these lines since I last examined them extensively around the mid-2010s, including two by Vasly Ivanchuk, who has been having a bit of a renaissance recently, I think he's just short of rating in the world's top 100 at the moment.

I note that my last blog discussed the Euwe Defence in the Blackmar-Diemer. I have had that line in quite a few games recently, often via transposition from the French Defence, and regardless of the theoretical assessment I have been sticking with the line (1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 e6) 6.Bg5 Be7 7.Qd2 and doing rather well.

The BDG is looking rather less sound than the Göring at the moment - when I run Stockfish 17 on my current PC, the Stockfish evaluation of the BDG is around -0.5 whereas the Göring is -0.1 to -0.2 - and if I'm honest I see little reason to doubt Stockfish's assessment - but there are still plenty of practical chances there too. Last week I had a game at the local club which reached the following position via that 7.Qd2 line of the Euwe Defence:

Here Rxh5, gxh5, Qf6# was a nice finish.

Some re-examination of the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit, Euwe Defence, Qe2 ideas

 I was recently re-reading Christoph Scheerer's chapter on the Euwe Defence with 1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 e6 and seeing that in several lines he likes the idea of Bd3 followed by Qe2.  I wondered if I could find something new involving Qe2 in positions where he doesn't mention the idea.

My first experiment was a failure.  Following 6.Bg5 Be7 7.Bd3 Nc6,

I've seen 8.a3 and 8.Qd2 suggested, and Lev Zilbermints has favoured the second pawn sacrifice 8.0-0 Nxd4 9.Kh1, but I wondered if 8.Qe2 might work, because after 8...Nxd4 9.Nxd4 Qxd4 10.0-0-0, White has a long lead in development and the black queen is facing the white rook on d1.

Unfortunately for me, Stockfish inconveniently points out 10...Qg4!, when White has to spend another tempo moving the queen, and Black is able to get time to consolidate.

Another variation where Christoph Scheerer doesn't mention the Qe2 possibility is after 7...c5 8.dxc5 (here 8.Qe2?! cxd4 doesn't work) Qa5.

Here he only gives the main line 9.0-0 Qxc5+ 10.Kh1, which, to be fair, gives White a fair amount of compensation for the pawn.  But here 9.Qe2!? looks quite good, e.g. 9...Nbd7 10.0-0-0 Nxc5 (10...0-0 11.h4 improves over the 11.Kb1 of Toussaint-Mercky, France 1999).

Now White has various options including Ne5 and Rhf1, keeping up a fair amount of pressure on the black position, and if Black plays ...Nxd3+, White can answer with Rxd3.

Generally I think these days that 7.Bd3 c5 (as recommended by Joe Gallagher and James Rizzitano some time ago) is not so challenging for White, and that the traditional main line 7...Nc6 is the most critical.  

I have most often played 7.Qd2 (instead of 7.Bd3) when I have had this line with White, but I am not sure about White's compensation after 7...c5, which is why I decided to revisit the traditional 7.Bd3.

Duck Chess gets some mainstream recognition

I haven't posted here for a while, but I haven't left the chess world.

During my long stint at Exeter Chess Club, Tim Paulden invented a new chess variant called Duck Chess, and we had quite a few informal "chess variants" tournaments that featured it.  

Recently, it has started to gain more mainstream recognition as Chess.com has added it to their list of chess variants.  Over the past week several of the most prominent chess streamers, including Eric Rosen and Jonathan Schrantz, have picked up on it and tried it out on Chess.com.  

Essentially, you make a move and then you place the yellow duck on a square, and the duck serves as a blocker (so for instance if you play 1.e4 with White, and you don't want your opponent playing the Sicilian Defence, 1...c5, you can annoy them by putting the duck on c6 so that they can't move the c-pawn).  The technique for how to checkmate opponents in Duck Chess is rather different to the standard game of chess.  You can get some nice smothered duck mates with a knight, but if you try to deliver checkmates with the queen, and there's some distance between the queen and king, your opponent can keep blocking with the duck.  I remember learning that the hard way a few times when I was down in Exeter, and Eric Rosen found it out starkly towards the end of his game.

Meanwhile, over the past year I've really got into Levy "GothamChess" Rozman's series Guess the Elo, and the latest episode was particularly amusing for the variable quality of the play.

In addition to this I've been actively involved with a Chess.com group called The Unsound Openers, who tend to dabble in a range of gambits from the blatantly unsound to ones that are near the margins of soundness, as well as some offbeat lines like the Borgcloud and the Grob.  There's plenty of unorthodox openings around on the YouTube channels of Eric Rosen and Jonathan Schrantz and to a lesser extent GothamChess, who I now follow regularly. 

Another suitably festive post for Halloween

 I remember that one of my most recent updates to my site was on Halloween and featured an article on the Halloween Gambit.  I still need to update the site to address the fact that some pages are in disarray, but so far "life" has been getting in the way of me completing that.  I hope to manage it at some point in the next few weeks.

With it being Halloween, I've completed my first complete Lichess study (I've also got a couple ongoing on the Scotch Gambit and the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit) which is on the Halloween Gambit.

My conclusion is unchanged though from last time: it's dangerous, but unsound. I recently played in a Chess.com thematic tournament where I played the 7...d5 line with Black and converted the extra piece, although my opponent missed an opportunity to complicate matters.  When I played White, my opponent went 7...Bb4 instead, and I had an opportunity to generate a strong, if not winning, attack, but I missed my chance and lost.

As I mentioned in the Introduction, Black can try to transpose to the Stafford Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nc6) with 4...Bc5.  Objectively the transposition with 5.Nxc6 dxc6 is good for White, but I'm inclined to suggest 5.Nf3 instead, which allows White to retain an extra pawn without permitting Black as many hacking chances as in the Stafford Gambit.  I'm currently playing in a Chess.com thematic tournament in the Stafford, as it happens (the first time that I've ever played it with either colour), and have so far got good positions with both colours, but it's still early days there.

A good source on the Halloween Gambit and the history of it is Tim Krabbe's site at https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/tour/breeze.htm  My investigations seem to bear out the old masters' view that the lines ending 7...d5 and 7...c6 (Chapters 9 & 11) are the biggest test for White, but White still gets some (but objectively not enough) long term attacking chances there.