Alexander McDonnell vs Louis Charles Mahe De La Bourdonnais (1834)

Alexander McDonnell vs Louis Charles Mahe De La Bourdonnais
London 1834 · Bishop's Opening: Ponziani Gambit (C24) · 1-0

[Event "London"]
[Site "London"]
[Date "1834.??.??"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "30"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Alexander McDonnell"]
[Black "La Bourdonnais"]
[ECO "C24"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "96"]

1. e4 {Notes by Morphy} e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. d4 {3.Nf3 is now
generally preferred at this point, and leads to an interesting
game. Black's reply is 3...Nxe4 or ...Nc6. If the former be
adopted, 4.Nc3 on White's part, a move first brought in vogue
by Mr Boden, undoubtedly the strongest English player of the
present, affors a scope for positions of peculiar
interest. Should Black decline the capture of the king's pawn,
and moves 3...Nc6, the opening is resolved into the "Two
Knights Game". White's rejoinder being 4.Ng5, or better,
perhaps, 4.d4.} exd4 4. e5 Qe7 {A bad move, resulting in loss
of time and position. 4...d4, Black's accepted play, would
have given him the better opening. } 5. Qe2 Ng8
{Compulsory. Had Black now played 5...d5, he would have
evidently have lost a piece, as White would have captured
knight with pawn, and on Black's exchanging queens, (his best
move), would have retaken with the bishop. } 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. c3
d6 8. cxd4 Bg4 9. Bb5 d5 10. Nc3 Qe6 11. h3 Bxf3 12. Qxf3
O-O-O 13. Bxc6 Qxc6 {Surely, 13...bxc6, would have been far
better. The uncovering of his king was a matter of small
consequence compared to the loss of his valuable f-pawn and
the "passing" of his adversar's advanced center pawn. The loss
of the game may be ascribed to the heedless move here made by
Labourdonnais. } 14. Qxf7 Bb4 15. Bd2 Ne7 16. O-O Rdf8 17. Qh5
Nf5 18. a3 Bxc3 19. Bxc3 g6 20. Qd1 h5 21. Rc1 Qe6 22. Qe1 h4
23. f4 Rfg8 24. Rf3 Kb8 25. Qd2 Rh7 26. Qd3 Rhg7 27. Bd2
{Preventing the threatened advance of the g-pawn. } a6 28. b4
Qb6 29. Bc3 {This bishop was well posted, and should not have
been withdrawn from the diagonal it occupied. 29.Rc5 as
suggested by Mr. Walker, would have done White better
service. } Ng3 30. a4 Ne4 31. b5 g5 {Black now gains an
opening on the adverse king, but his attack fails, and the
stength of White's passed center pawns becomes irresistable.}
32. f5 g4 33. hxg4 Rxg4 34. Rc2 h3 {Labourdonnais management
of the latter part of this game is very ingenious, but the
crushing force of M'Donnell's pawns tells heavily throughout
the termination. } 35. Rxh3 Rg3 36. Rxg3 Rxg3 37. a5 {Very
well played. } Qh6 {37...Rxd3 would have won a piece, but
could not have saved the game. Suppose, 37...Rxd3 38.axb6 Nxc3
39.Rxc3 Rxc3 40.f6 and will queen one of his pawns. Or
37...Rd3 38.axb6 Rxc3 39.Rxc3 Nxc3 40.e6 (best) Ne4 41.e7 Nf6
42.g4 Kc8 43.bxa6 (best) bxa6 (best) (The line of play
beginning with White's 43rd move, is the only road to
victory. Should he move 43.g5, Black would draw by 43...cxb6,
and on White's capturing the knight, moving ...Kd7. We
recommend this study to the student's attention; it will amply
replay perusal) 44.b7+ Kxb7 (Here again, should White
incautiously advance his pawn to g5, Black would secure a
drawn battle by taking ...cxb6, and moving his king to d7 on
White's capturing his knight.) 45.g5 Ne8 (The advance of the
knight's pawn now forces the game, the Black king having been
removed one square by the sacrifice of the b-pawn.) 45.f6
winning. White might also have won by 40.f6, but not as
prettily. These variations contain a number of others which we
must omit, after commending them to the patient study of
amateurs. [37...Rxd3 38.axb6 A) 38...Rxc3 39.Rxc3 Nxc3 40.e6
Ne4 41.e7 Nf6 42.g4 Kc8 43.bxa6 (43.g5 cxb6 44.gxf6 Kd7)
43...bxa6 44.b7+ (44.g5 cxb6 45.gxf6 Kd7) 44...Kxb7 45.g5 Ne8
46.f6; B) 38...Nxc3 39.Rxc3 Rxc3 40.f6] } 38. Bd2 Qh3 39. Qf1
Rg8 40. f6 Qh5 41. f7 Rf8 42. e6 Ng3 43. Qf3 Qh1+ 44. Kf2 Ne4+
45. Ke2 Qb1 46. e7 Qxb5+ 47. Qd3 Ng3+ 48. Kd1 {This game is
finely played throughout by M'Donnell. His play in these
matches, unfortunately, does not appear to have been as
uniformly sustained as that of his great competitor. } 1-0

To move:

Last move:

Annotations by Paul Morphy. [30 more games annotated by Morphy]

explore this opening	find similar games	85 more La Bourdonnais/McDonnell games
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Sep-04-04		Marius: why not 22. ...Ne3, what's wrong with this fork?

Sep-04-04		sneaky pete: <Marius> Probably because the move order given here is wrong. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Chess Games has 22.Qe1 h4 23.f4 Rfg8 24.Rf3 .. etc (gamescore taken from La Strategie, 1875).

Sep-04-04		Marius: <sneaky pete> thank you

Sep-09-04		clocked: 38...Qh5! 39.Be3 axb5

Sep-10-04		sneaky pete: <clocked> What do you mean? After 38... Qh5 39.Qf1 .. white still has 2 connected passed pawns and his King is safe.

Sep-10-04		clocked: <sneaky pete> 38...Qh5! 39.Qf1 Rg8 with the threat of Rh8. How safe is the king?

Sep-10-04		sneaky pete: <clocked> Not safe at all, white is lost! I overlooked the attack by retreat, should have looked at the actual game before making that comment. Apparently 38... Qh3? wastes a vital tempo. When I answered your first post, I shrugged 39.Be3 .. off because it invites 39... Rxe3?! On closer examination however, 40.Qxe3 Qd1+ 41.Kh2 Qxc2 42.bxa6 bxa6 43.f6 Qd1 44.Qf3 .. looks good for white. 39... axb5! is very unpleasant: 40.f6 Ng5 or 40.Qe2 Qxf5 and white can at best hope to draw. The immediate 39... Ng5 also looks strong. How discombobulating that not only La Bourdonnais, but also commentators Staunton, Morphy and Anderssen, the collected chess genius of that period, overlooked the strength of 38... Qh5! Next time I kibitz I'll just write <good game>.

Jan-04-06		Boomie: 38...Qh5 leads to a draw by repetition. 38...Qh5 39. Be3 Ng5 40. Qa3 Nh3+ 41. Kh2 Ng5+ 42. Kxg3 Ne4+ 43. Kf4 Qg5+ 44. Kf3 Qg3+ 45. Ke2 Qxg2+ 46. Ke1 Qh1+

Apr-11-06		AlexanderMorphy: i like morphys annonations, when exactly did he add the notes to these games?

Aug-22-07		Boomie: I just noticed Morphy's swipe at Staunton with his comment on move 3 that Boden was the strongest English player. Very amusing.

Feb-26-08		wolfmaster: <Boomie> Hadn't Staunton "retired" by the time Morphy was active?

Feb-02-12		Knight13: <5...Ng8: Compulsory. Had Black now played 5...d5, he would have evidently have lost a piece, as White would have captured knight with pawn, and on Black's exchanging queens, (his best move), would have retaken with the bishop.> Actually, 5...d5 6. exf6 Qxe2+ 7. Nxe2 dxc4 and black regains the piece. However, after 8. Nxd4 gxf6 Black's Kingside pawn structure is damaged.

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Annotations by Morphy - very revealing
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