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George MacDonnell vs Henry Bird
"Big Mac Attack" (game of the day Mar-15-2015)
London m/1 (1872)
King's Gambit: Accepted. Double Muzio Gambit Paulsen Defense (C37)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
Apr-03-08  Knight13: This game would make for a very good tactical puzzle for beginners.
Jun-03-08  Goato: i just re-enacted this game on line. white seems to be wiining so easily but Bb5 is a beauty. I must confess to using the opening database tho. I'm buggered if I could navigate a muzio otb. Chessgames has much to aswer for when online chess is concerned (particularly openings), cannot decide if thid is good or bad?
Mar-15-15
Premium Chessgames Member
  An Englishman: Good Evening: Is the name of the opening variation correct? I thought that the Double Muzio Gambit required a second sacrifice, Bxf7+.
Mar-15-15  morfishine: Morphy vs MacDonnell would've been an interesting matchup, but apparently they never played
Mar-15-15  kamagong24: Spielmann also plays the Muzio, i think...
Mar-15-15
Premium Chessgames Member
  Once: 20. Bb5 is such a cool move. It puts the bishop en prise to make an attack that can seemingly be easily blocked.

20...Qxb5 loses to 21. Qxc7# and 20...e6 21. Qc7#.

But it's scary stuff. Fritzie says that 20. Bb5 is the only move that wins from this position. With anything else the attack fizzles out.

20. b4 looks tempting when you might think that white can play a similar trick to the game line - 20...Qc6 21. Bb5


click for larger view

Now of course 21...Qxb5 22.Qxc7#

But instead black has 22...Be6 with a complicated position:


click for larger view

Now all the mates are covered and Fritzie says that black emerges from the complications a piece up.

I suppose that it is the essence of gambits like the Muzio. You might sweep your opponent off the board or one inaccuracy in your attack and the attack fizzles to nought like a damp firework.

A little too hairy chested for me to play, but I do enjoy watching other alpha males going toe to toe like this.

Mar-15-15  Ratt Boy: I wanna see the Muzio in the next Carlsen-Anand match.
Mar-15-15  WDenayer: I played against this variation many years ago in a CC game. My god. It took my an enormous amount of time to scrape a draw together. White just gets an enormous attack after giving up the N. If you have to face this OTB and you do not know it, there is no chance of survival. It's a very scary variation.
Mar-15-15
Premium Chessgames Member
  scormus: Whenever I see a Muzio game, W wins (well, maybe not when I was playing as W). Almost inevitably, somewhere B is going to slip on the treacherous ground and in one move go from about +1 to about -2 or worse. And it's hard to see what move it was because it was always a perfectly logical move to play.

This MacDonnell gem is no exception, and readers might have fun spotting the decisive slip.

<Omce> yes, it's serious knife-edge stuff. Plenty of bottle needed. The coup de grace is a really cool move.

Mar-15-15  Mating Net: I bet Mr. Bird was having some Paul Morphy flashbacks during this game.
Mar-15-15  crazyim5: King's gambit, the opening of the Gods!
Mar-16-15
Premium Chessgames Member
  kevin86: Muzio is boss!
Mar-23-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  fredthebear: <An Englishman: Good Evening: Is the name of the opening variation correct? I thought that the Double Muzio Gambit required a second sacrifice, Bxf7+.>

I believe the same. The second minor piece sacrifice on the f-file does not occur in this game.

Let's ask the boss!

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