| Feb-09-10 | | Helios727: Barden's favorite win according to Wikipedia. |
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| Mar-06-10 | | Cibator: Yes; according to Barden himself, White's 10th was a TN that refuted an entire line given in Adams's book "White to Play and Win". |
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Jul-22-10
 | | GrahamClayton: Barden was analsying the opening with some friends at Oxford University when P Keffler suggested 10.♕e4!, threatening 0-0, f4 & fe5 with a winning attack. The idea of 6...♗b4+ was to deny a White knight access to c3 after 7.c3. |
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| May-19-13 | | wordfunph: "At my first Hastings in 1950/51 I played Weaver Adams, the guy who believed White could play and win. In the new edition of his book he'd written about the Fried Liver Attack in the Two Knights' Defence. I followed the book against him, I got a tremendous attack, I smashed him up, then I told him I had his book." - Leonard William Barden
Source: Curse of Kirsan by Sarah Hurst |
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Jan-04-16
 | | ketchuplover: RIP Peter Keffler |
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Jan-04-16
 | | Chessical: "(Peter Keffler) made his discovery of 10 Qe4! in the Two Knights when we were analysing the defence in the train on the way back from a county match. As is known, I used Peter Keffler's innovation against the then US Open champion Weaver Adams at Hastings 1950-51. Adams's book White to Play and Win had only considered Qg4-f3+ with perpetual. When I bashed out 10 Qe4 and then immediately left the board for effect Weaver stared up at the ceiling and didn't reply for 20 minutes. Peter was a fine tactician....a gentlemanly and effervescent character who was one of the most popular members of the Oxford university and county teams in 1950." <Leonard Barden> ECF Forum. |
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| Dec-20-16 | | Retireborn: Can Mr Barden (or anybody else) confirm whether this famous 3rd round game was played in 1950 or 1951? I think it's possible that it was just the first two rounds played in the old year then. TIA for any information. |
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Dec-20-16
 | | Stonehenge: The first round was played on the 28th of December (BritBase, Dutch newspaper Algemeen Handelsblad). So the third round was definitely played in 1950, probably on the 30st. |
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| Dec-20-16 | | Paarhufer: The Times published several reports having a date within the header different from the publishing date. Header / publishing date / results of round:
Dec-28 / Dec-29 / rd 1
Dec-29 / Dec-30 / rd 2 (and 1)
Dec-31 / Jan-01 / rd 3
Jan-01 / Jan-02 / rd 4
Jan-02 / Jan-03 / rd 5
Jan-03 / Jan-04 / rd 6
Jan-04 / Jan-05 / rd 7
Jan-07 / Jan-08 / rd 9 |
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| Dec-20-16 | | Retireborn: <Paarhufer/Stonehenge> Many thanks for your help, much appreciated. |
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| Jan-01-21 | | lunchwithgina: White to Play and Grin... |
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Jan-01-21
 | | perfidious: There is one small flaw in the account given by Mr Barden: Adams was not then US Open champion, as Art Bisguier had just scored the first of his crowns. Adams had won the title in '48, featuring on the cover of <Chess Review> with the heading styled <Apostle of Aggression>. The day of this game, however, the aggro went one way only, and not from Adams' corner. |
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Apr-23-22
 | | FSR: Nice pun, <lunchwithgina>! Ironically, the Lolli Attack might actually be a forced win for White. That is surely not true of the Bishop's Opening or Vienna Game, the double king-pawn openings for which Adams made that claim. |
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| Apr-23-22 | | nalinw: Yes - a really good pun that fits the very interesting background so well - after what seems a few weeks of lacklustre ones .... |
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Apr-23-22
 | | Teyss: Going through the game I thought "White to Play and Grind" would have been a better pun but reading about the background it makes complete sense. Excellent indeed as well as the game. |
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Apr-23-22
 | | Phony Benoni: Something about Barden's story bothers me a bit.
"White to Play and Win" (starring the Bishop's Opening) originally came out in 1939. Adams apparently issued several revisions, but in 1946 he came out with an entirely new work titled "Simple Chess". I've never seen this book, but it apparently applies the WTPAW treatment to the Vienna Game, which Adams was then employing (and, it must be said, with much better results). Here's the ad from <Chess Review>: <"SIMPLE CHESS
THE GAME OF CHESS SOLVED!!!
11 pages of closely typed analysis showing more than one hundred winning variations for White against all standard Black defenses. Also best lines for Black against inaccurate opening play by White. Do not expect your friend who owns a copy of this book to tell you about it. He won't, but he'll play it against you!."> Over a hundred variations in 11 pages. Closely typed indeed. No wonder I've never seen a picture of Adams with glasses. By the way, that explains why the whole 6...Bb4+ idea was in the book. If must have been part of his refutation of the "inaccurate" Two Knight s' Game. As for the move itself, I have it in my mind that Fine, in his "Practical Chess Openings" (1948) attributed it to Pinkus, who wrote a number of theoretical articles on the opening in the early 1940s. But, alas, I no longer have a copy of PCO. (Funny story about that book The library where my mother worked withdrew it from their collection, and she brought it home for me. She knew nothing about chess, and thought that a book on "openings" would be good for a novice player!) O, it's not as funny as Barden's story. But I wmay try doing some more fact checking on that one. |
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Apr-23-22
 | | Sally Simpson: Hi P.B.
'No wonder I've never seen a picture of Adams with glasses.' Here is the cover of the Chess Review that Perfidious mentions (Weaver is unspectacled) http://uscf1-nyc1.aodhosting.com/CL... And per chance stay with that mag, slide down to page 36 and you will see an advert for Fine' PCO. (I recognise that cover, We must have a copy in the club.) Tim Harding writes.
"The story about Keffler's TN in the Two Knights was first told by Leonard Barden in his 1957 Guide to Chess Openings on which the book I later did with Leonard was based. The story made a big impression on me when I was a young player, so I didn't change it all in the new edition. Leonard won an important game thanks to White's 10th move." https://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopi... |
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| Apr-23-22 | | spingo: Leonard William Barden is still active enough to produce his even best ever game ever. In the meantime,
click for larger view
After Mr Adams had finished staring at the ceiling he had chosen 10...Bf8. ...after that he was in a right pickle. It could be that there was a reasonable move:
10....b5!
click for larger view
White would take the b-pawn: 11. Bxb5.
click for larger view
White has 7 pawns v Black's 5 pawns, but W has 3 minor pieces to Black's 4 minor pieces.
BUT the Black king is having a laugh in the middle of the board. The next few moves could be, after 10...b5,
click for larger viewHowever, Weaver chose a different defence, after 10....Bf8. Whatever he is was in deep trouble. |
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Apr-23-22
 | | roberts partner: Phony Benoni:
The book was Simple Chess, mailed to me by a friend in New York. although the Two Knights analysis was identical to that in White to Play and Win. At the end of our game I showed Weaver my copy, and asked him to autograph it. He did so, then he turned up the page with the analysis of the Bb4+ Two Knights, crossed out 3....N-B3, and replaced it by 3...B-B4. Later in the tournament ARB Thomas came to my room the evening before he played Weaver, borrowed my Simple Chess, and won as Black in the Vienna. |
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Apr-24-22
| | Sally Simpson: What a wonderful story. An autographed book with the author crossing out their own analysis.
The link to the Adams-Thomas game given above.
W Adams vs A R B Thomas, 1951 A good game. The White King finding things a bit too hot on Kingside runs all the way to a1 only to see two Black pieces suddenly pop up to threaten mate in one. |
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Oct-10-24
| | FSR: Larry Evans noted that one of Adams' problems was that he published his home preparation. That allowed his opponents to prepare for it themselves, as Barden did here to great effect. The Two Knights with 5...Nxd5 is a bad line. Both 6.Nxf7! and 6.d4! are very strong. Stockfish 17, depth 45, gives 6.Nxf7! as +0.67 and 6.d4! as +0.56. After the latter, it gives as best 6...Nxd4! 7.c3 b5! 8.Bd3 h6 9.Nxf7 Kxf7 10.cxd4 exd4 11.O-O Rb8 12.Nd2 Bd6 13.Qh5+ Kf8 14.Qf3+ Nf6 15.a4 a6 16.axb5 axb5. I am currently playing in a Fried Liver thematic tournament. Best play for both sides may be 7.Qf3+ Ke6 8.Nc3 Ncb4 9.O-O c6 10.d4 Qf6 11.Qd1 Ke7 12.Re1 Qg6 13.a3 Nxc3 14.bxc3 Nd5 15.Rxe5+ Kd8 16.Bd3 Qf7 17.c4 Nf4 18.c5 Bd7 19.Rb1 b6 20.Be4 Ng6. Now 21.Rh5 was seen in F Rhine vs M Ulenaers, 2024 ; S Valladares Caron vs F Rhine, 2024 ; and O Thau vs F Rhine, 2024. Black was much worse, but held on to draw all of these. In M Ulenaers vs F Rhine, 2024, White deviated with 21.Bg5+ and got a won game before agreeing to a draw. Instead, the normal 6...Na5 7.Bb5+ c6 is a sound gambit. The more offbeat 6...b5!? 7.Bf1! Nd4 8.c3 Nxd5 (Ulvestad/Fritz) is also playable. One would think that these lines would suit Adams, who was a practitioner of the Albin Countergambit against 1.d4. |
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Apr-17-25
| | FSR: As I mentioned, Stockfish says that best play after 6.d4!? is 6...Nxd4! 7.c3 b5! 8.Bd3 h6 9.Nxf7 Kxf7 10.cxd4 exd4 11.O-O Rb8 12.Nd2 Bd6 13.Qh5+ Kf8 14.Qf3+ Nf6 15.a4 a6 16.axb5 axb5. At depth 45, Stockfish 17.1 gives White just a +0.14 advantage. |
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Kibitzing
sac: 8.Nxf7