| Dec-15-03 | | InspiredByMorphy: WOW! I had no idea Tarrasch could play the kings gambit. Let alone the falkbeer counter gambit, and he plays it great! I like 4.Bb5+ |
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| Dec-15-03 | | dragon40: Tarrasch, as well as most of the masters in the 19th century all had a good understanding of the King's Gambit...it was to them as the Ruy Lopez is to the double e-pawn opening in Modern Day. Some of the best Grandmasters of the late 1800's-1900's were excellent players of the top openings in that day. In this case, the King's Gambit was the "big guy on the block", so to speak, for another 5-8 years or so... |
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| Dec-15-03 | | InspiredByMorphy: Hey dragon40, you are obviously a smart guy, why do you think the Kings gambit lost popularity? Do you think the Ruy Lopez is stronger? |
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Dec-16-03
 | | Benzol: <InspiredByMorphy;dragon40> You should check out Tchigorin's and Marshall's games with the King's Gambit. Spassky and Bronstein too for more modern masters. |
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| Dec-16-03 | | dragon40: Hey Inspired and Benzol:
WEll, in my opinion the Ruy did take over as the King's Gambit was being badly "played out", and the Lopez was/is SO rich of possibilities, especially at the turn of the century and early 20th century. Benzol is correct, both Spassky and Bronstein scored major points in the 60's-80's with the King's Gambit. Its not that certain opening are "Stronger" or "weaker" than others, its just the theroy and nowadays the databases for the older lines just isnt anything like the newer "hypermodern" openings.
I mean today, look at how the Lopez has dropped, and your Sicilians, Caro- Kanns, and other openings are at the forefront of play! The Queens Gambit Declined, once the "pearl" of the Chess World, now gives way to the Nimzo, Queens indian, Gruenfeld and various KIDs...so its trendy at best! |
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| Dec-16-03 | | Benjamin Lau: I think it's more of a pendulum sort of thing. Any opening that becomes popular will eventually become unpopular as advances in theory weaken it for the (once) favorable side. The King's Gambit "died" in the early 1900s after defensive technique kept Morphy-esque victories from occurring. It was revived later by Spassky, Bronstein, and curiously Fischer among others. It was later killed again, supposedly to the "Fischer Defense." The same happened to the QGD Tarrasch. Tarrasch popularized it, and for a while, some considered it to be practically equalizing against d4 because of all the free piece play it allowed for black. The isolani that black was saddled with proved irrelevant because white could not take advantage of it easily. Then Rubinstein found theoretical advances (ECO Code = D34) which killed it (g3! [surprising to see this come from a "classical" player], Bg2, etc) with strong pressure on the isolani. Played correctly, white usually ended up with a won endgame. But then later on, advances in black's theory and also the strengths of its proponents (Spassky and Kasparov) caused it to skyrocket in popularity. The Tarrasch Defense died again after Kasparov's 1984 match with Karpov, mainly because of this Karpov masterpiece- Karpov vs Kasparov, 1984 Kasparov later found greener pastures in the KID. The KID and its cousin the Grunfeld also have experienced similar swings. Although under Nimzowitsch's guidance, the KID experienced some modest growth, it really didn't become popular until the 1950s and beyond, in a time when dynamism was becoming a more important consideration. The defense peaked under Fischer, but died down a little when Karpov, a somewhat more conservative player, reigned over the scene. Kasparov's world champion triumphs brought it back again to the forefront of play, but recent theoretical novelties (the controversial bayonet attack, g4!?, etc) as well as overanalysis have "killed" it again. We seem the same pattern repeat again and again for most of the openings. |
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| Dec-17-03 | | dragon40: Well said, and I would for ther most part, agree. Especially now, in the day and age where computers are used by every GM down to the master level and theroy changes at the drop of a hat! Openings will always be viewed in that certain way, and it takes good theroy, a stunning novelty, or a damn fine game, as you referenced in the Karpov-Kasparov game of their 1984 match to radically change people's opinion of these openings. |
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| Dec-17-03 | | jaime gallegos: The idea of castle with Bb2 or Bb7 ( fianchetto ) promoted by strong players like Y. Seirawan is popular for blacks and whites ( Pirc, Robatsch, KID , Reti, Barcza )... I think is pendulum as it said B. Lau... Kasparov has played openings like Scotch Op and Evans Gambit with excellent results and Karpov improve the Caro-Kann Defense who played at Botvinnik times... to quote some examples. Chess is marvelous for this reason ! |
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| Feb-14-04 | | dragon40: Well said! Chess is one of the most intertsting, frustating and beautiful games/forms of Art I have ever been involved in!! I have played, read, studied the game for 22 years now and I love it more than I ever did before (except for the accursed end-game, which I am trying to improve)! :) |
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| Mar-21-04 | | PAWNTOEFOUR: beautiful!!!.......quite simply.."a work of art" |
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| Mar-21-04 | | GufeldStudent: I agree with Dragon40. The role, however, Emanuel Lasker played in making these gambit games die out cannot be underestimated. He was the first to understand the value of returning the material at the proper time---thus lines like e4 e5 f4 ef Nf3 d5 eventually made the gambit less ferocious (this is just an example, this line only stated to be played much later). |
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Mar-21-04
 | | kevin86: a great finish! White showed how it is nice to have a rook in reserve! Rook (A) is set to checkmate-but is pinned;rook (B) get set up for a disc check. Rook (B) is attacked and captured;not-to worry rook (A) is released to mate! |
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sac: 20.Nef6+