Wednesday 28 May 2008

The House(man) always Wins

Depending on the size of the event at my local club, I sometimes take on the role of the "houseman". The houseman is a fill in player when there are an odd number of players, meaning that no one misses a game. Of cause it often means I do not know whether I am playing in a round or not, and sometimes I even begin a couple of different games, abandoning them when a latecomer arrives a few minutes after they begin.
I had just such an experience this evening, and it turned into a very fortunate one for me. Having done a head count and draw at 7:45pm I was in the draw, and playing Mark Scully. The game was a Budapest Gambit, and I was very surprised by his 4th move. At first glance it just dropped a piece, but as I began to think about what was wrong with the obvious 5.Qd5 an extra player walked in. The game was stopped (as Mark was aware of the arrangement), but before I got up I asked him what would happen if I played 5.Qd5. "Ah" he said, "this". (I've added some analysis to the proposed line showing that it might not have been so clear cut, although whether I would have found it during the game is an unanswered question)

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ne4 4.a3 b6 (D)
5.Qd5
[ RR 5.Nf3 Bb7 6.Nbd2 Qe7 7.Qc2 Nxd2 8.Bxd2 Nc6 9.Bc3 0-0-0 10.0-0-0 Rg8 11.Qxh7 g6 12.Qh4 Qxh4 13.Nxh4 Re8 14.Nf3 Bg7 15.e3 Nxe5 16.Nxe5 Bxe5 17.Bxe5 Rxe5 18.h4 Rh8 19.Rh2 Reh5 Hillarp Persson,T-Romero Holmes,A/Benidorm ESP 2003/The Week in Chess 473/1-0 (55)] 5...Bb7 [ 5...Nc5 6.Qxa8N ( RR 6.e6 fxe6 7.Qxa8 Bb7 8.Bg5 Qc8 9.Qxa7 Nc6 10.Qxb7 Qxb7 11.Nd2 Nd4 12.0-0-0 Ncb3+ 13.Nxb3 Nxb3+ 14.Kc2 Na5 15.Rd4 h6 16.Bd2 c5 17.Rh4 Nc6 18.Nf3 Be7 19.Rg4 0-0 20.Bxh6 Bf6 firefly-Jat/Internet Chess Serve 1993/0-1 (55)) 6...Bb7 7.Qxa7 Nc6] 6.Qxb7 Nc6 7.Qa6 [ RR 7.b4 a6 8.f3 Ra7 9.Qxa7 Nxa7 10.fxe4 Qh4+ 11.Kd1 Qxe4 12.e3 Qxe5 13.Ra2 d5 14.Nf3 Qd6 15.Rd2 Qc6 16.cxd5 Qa4+ 17.Rc2 Bd6 18.Nc3 Qd7 19.e4 b5 20.e5 Be7 21.Rd2 0-0 Pavlovic,M-Trifunovic,D/Belgrade SCG 2005/The Week in Chess 554/1-0 (33);
7.Nc3 Nc5 8.Bg5!] 7...Nc5 8.Qb5 a6-+

"The shortest game I never won" was his final comment.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wasn't this line covered in "Fajarowicz Gambit" by Gutman and in an SOS article?