Saturday 10 May 2008

How good is the Two Knights Defence!

The Two Knights Defence is Blacks most combative response to 3.Bc4, although recently Nigel Short suggested that if Black plays 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 he just loses a pawn. Nonetheless in an online Two Knights Thematic I am playing in at the moment, a third of the games have been completed, and Black has won everyone one. There have been a number of different variations investigated, including the Modern, the Bogolyubov, the Fritz-Ulvstead and of course the Wilkes-Barre (which I scored 2/2 as Black).
Here is a quick win from the event involving a line in the Fritz variation.

Chairboy (1872) - internetpawn (2050) [C57]
www.ChessWorld.net server game www.ChessWorld.net , 29.04.2008

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 b5 6.Bf1 Nd4 7.c3 Nxd5 8.cxd4 Qxg5 9.Bxb5+ Kd8(D)
10.Bc6
Turns out to be too ambitious. [ 10.Qf3 Bb7 11.0-0 e4?! an idea of Fischers from 1964 12.Qxe4 Bd6 13.Re1 c6 14.Bc4 ( 14.Bf1) 14...Kc7 15.d3 Qh5 16.h3 Rhe8 17.Qxe8 Rxe8 0-1 was the conclusion of my game against the same opponent another opponent in this event.] 10...Qxg2 11.Rf1 Ba6 12.d3 Bb4+ 13.Nc3 exd4 14.Bxa8 While White is in trouble, this turns out to be the losing move. [ 14.a3 Bb7!! is a fantastic suggestion of Fritz. The idea is to allow the rook to check on e8. 15.Bxb7 dxc3 16.Qa4 Re8+ -+] 14...dxc3 15.Bxd5 c2+ White resigned 0-1

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