| Apr-29-04 | | J.A. Topfke: This miniature is a good illustration of the weakness created on the a8-h1 diagonal when Black tries to hold the extra pawn with ...b5. In the final position, if 8...f6 to prevent mate (8...Nf6 9.Qxa8  ) then 9.Qh5+ (winning, though not as strong is 9.Qxa8 fxe5 10.dxe5) 9...g6 10.Nxg6 hxg6 11.Qxh8 . |
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| Apr-29-04 | | notsodeepthought: Fleissig, who was a decent player actually (though you couldn't tell from the way he played here), should have known better - this game is only slightly more involved than a well-known sequence: 1 d4 d5 2 c4 d:c4 3 e3 b5 4 a4 c6 (4 ... a6 5 a:b5 and black cannot recapture because he would lose the rook) 5 a:b5 c:b5 6 Qf3. |
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| Aug-11-04 | | TheGreatNN: I have never understood what the purpose was, and I assume there was one, of ..Bd7. Chessops, the one of the sites I use as an openings reference, has as a note:
"White's King's Pawn out to K3(e3) frees his KB to recoup a pawn after 6.PxP..PxP, 7.Kt-K5.
Black develops his Queen's Bishop to Q2(d7) to defend his Q-side pawns, but further blocks his QKt."
But it seems to me that after almost any move other than the one played, all blacks pawns are safe if white plays the combination above. What am I missing? |
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| Aug-12-04 | | sneaky pete: <TheGreatNN> 5... Bd7 is meant to take the sting out of 6.b3 .. which recovers the pawn with advantage after most other moves (6... cxb3 7.axb5 .. etc). Of course it's a terrible move, but in 1873 the Queen's Gambit was unexplored territory for most players. |
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| Oct-18-08 | | thebribri8: Same idea as Greco vs NN, 1620 |
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| Jul-14-09 | | YoungEd: Ouch! |
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| Apr-14-13 | | optimal play: Blackburne tried the same opening line just five days later Blackburne vs S Rosenthal, 1873 however Rosenthal played a much more sensible defence for a very good win. |
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| Apr-15-13 | | RookFile: 6. Ne5 is a thoughtful move from Blackburne, much better than something routine like 6. Nc3. |
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| Jul-21-23 | | generror: Even more thoughtful in my opinion is <3.Nf3>, which is today called the "normal line". First it prevents <...e5> which gives Black good counterplay in many QGA variations. Second it allows to wait until you commit your e-pawn to e3 or e4. The latter is usually the better, but if Black tries to cling on to its pawn, e3 allows this Qf3 trick. What's especially nasty is that many players who know the old Greco trick will probably only think of saving their rook and overlook that the main threat is <Qxf7#>. |
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Jul-21-23
 | | perfidious: <generror: Even more thoughtful in my opinion is <3.Nf3>, which is today called the "normal line". First it prevents <...e5> which gives Black good counterplay in many QGA variations....> This bit of knowledge would have been useful the very first time I faced a QGA, in Hartford 1975; my play was weak, continuing after 3.e3 (not that as a player ~1575 then, I knew anything of theory) ....e5 4.dxe5 (really asking for it) Qxd1+ 5.Kxd1 Nc6 and winding up in a putrid position against an opponent rated 400 points higher. The bizarre thing is that I <won> this last round game. |
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| Jul-21-23 | | generror: <perfidious> Yeah, "What to do against <...e5> in the QG?" was the reason I turned to engines to analyze openings. Good job winning that game :) Me playing against higher-rated opponents is usually the opposite: I get a really strong and I'd say even winning position, dominating the whole board with strong pressure on some point. But then I don't really know how to convert it because they defend well, and in the end I lose because I either stupidly blunder my queen or fall for some stupid trap :) This has happened quite regularly these past weeks, since then I have started doing tactics training (I can really recommend lichess for that, they have an infinity of puzzles auto-generated from master games, and you can solve puzzles for hours). And I begin to feel already getting better at tactics, winning some games with some nice little combos that I wouldn't have seen before. Positional play only gets you so far, with stronger players, at some point you need tactics to win. |
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Kibitzing
