Monday, October 13, 2008

Transpositions: From the Caro-Kann to the BDG

One well-known transposition to the Blackmar-Diemer comes via the Caro-Kann. In Georg Studier's 1966 biography of E. J. Diemer he discusses the scarcity of Blackmar-Diemer Gambit games during the first three decades of this century, and fills the gap with a few such transpositions. As his earliest example he gives this game: V. Hennig - van Nüss (where?) 1929 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.f3 exf3 6.Nxf3 e6
The position reached occurs in the Euwe Defense to the BDG after 1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 e6 6.Bc4 c6. (This actually also reaches a line in the Ziegler Defense (5...c6) to the BDG a half-move earlier--the Ziegler is such a chameleon, transposing into many of the more common BDG variations.) "The game ended on the 38th move with a White victory," writes Studier, giving no more moves. His source was Rolf Schwarz in Band 22 of his Handbuch der Schacheroeffnungen, 1966 edition (Schach-Archiv, Hamburg). In my database I find an earlier example of this transposition: von Hennig - Carls Goteborg II (7), 1920 Caro-Kann to BDG Euwe Defense [B15] 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.f3 exf3 6.Nxf3 e6 7.0-0 Be7 8.Ne5 Nbd7 9.Qe2 0-0 10.Be3 Qc7 11.Bf4 Bd6 12.Rad1 Nd5 13.Bg3 N7f6 14.Bh4 Be7 15.Rd3 Ne8 16.Bg3 Qd8 17.Rdf3 f5 18.Nxd5 cxd5 19.Bd3 Nf6 20.Bh4 Nd7 21.Nxd7 Bxd7 22.Bxe7 Qxe7 23.Bxf5 Qd6 24.Bd3 g6 25.Qe5 Qxe5 26.Rxf8+ Rxf8 27.Rxf8+ Kxf8 28.dxe5 Kg7 29.h4 h6 30.Kf2 g5 31.Kg3 Be8 32.Kg4 gxh4 33.Kxh4 Bf7 34.g4 ½-½ I presume the players in this game were Heinrich von Hennig (1883-1947) and Carl Johan Margot Carls (1880-1958). (The dates are from Jeremy Gaige's invaluable Chess Personalia.) I think the same v. Hennig plays White in both games.