Sally Simpson: Abbie McClenaghan, 12 years old from the Caymen Islands. Goes to Budapest and plays the Budapest Gambit! Only 9 other players seized the opportunity to play this romantic gesture in the recent Budapest Olympiad, with the ladies sensing the occasion in six of them. Overall the Budapest Gambit produced 7 black wins and 3 losses and this game was one of the wins. In the game Abbie missed 7...Bxf2+ netting two pawns and laying bare the white king and on move
23 she should have sat on her hands before playing...  click for larger view23...Qxb1 here. 23...Qd4+ mates in a few moves but this nit-picking is the kids coach in me coming out. These things would have been pointed out her after the game and despite the hackneyed saying you can only learn from your defeats, I believe you can also learn from your missed opportunities. She avoided the blunder one of my kids made a few weeks back in a similar position.  click for larger viewShe did not play 29...Bd5+ (30.Bxe8) instead Abbie played a move introducing a tactical term I've been trying for years to get into the chess lexicon. 29....Rc8! The Harpoon!  click for larger viewIt is not a Skewer because both pieces are of the same value. It's not what you would call a Fork so what it is it...It's a Harpoon. So help me on this. When ever you note up this tactic call it a Harpoon and by all means use the diagram from Abbie' s game to explain it. Call it 'Abbie's Harpoon' if you want and why not. The 12 year girl who played the Budapest Gambit in Budapest. The next Olympiad is in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
There is a variation of the King's Gambit called the 'Tashkent Attack' it's rare. It comes from 3...Nf6 in the KGA and 5.g4. Only one game in the C.G. database so far, but it's a cracker. F Cheremisin vs Artiushikin, 1959 Hopefully we will see more in 2026 when other players rise to the occasion and pay a tribute to the host city. |