tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52387642875625519952024-03-06T02:14:03.826-06:00Tom's BDG PagesAbout the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit and other chess foolishness...Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comBlogger247125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-2875854310652921932012-12-21T19:05:00.000-06:002012-12-21T19:05:45.910-06:00It's the season...Well, it's that time of year again. Maybe there won't be so many presents under the tree this year. Have you been good? Maybe so, maybe not, but either way I hope we can all have the chance to do better next year. Let's hope so.
Anyway, it that time of year again, time to trot out the little piece I wrote almost a quarter of a century ago, in defense of the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit:
Many years Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-11174522782007789372012-10-10T09:30:00.000-05:002012-10-10T09:30:02.374-05:00Emil Josef Diemer, RIP
Today is the 22nd anniversary of Diemer's death on 10 October 1990. After receiving the news of his passing I wrote a short tribute, which surveyed commentary in German newspapers and chess magazines. It originally appeared in the January 1991 issue of BDG World.
You can see the article here.Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-17905045475714169622012-09-04T21:56:00.000-05:002012-09-04T21:56:11.016-05:00Running against the windBob Seger and his Silver Bullet Band. I've always liked that. Or Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years--that's another one. Might have been before your time. Last month this old bod completed 76 revolutions around the sun. I tried for a BDG on my birthday, but I didn't have much time, and this first game was the best I could do. It's a trivial game, but it's the best I could do. Tonight Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-30144012825197931142012-08-11T23:07:00.000-05:002012-08-11T23:09:59.584-05:00How many times?Tonight, while I had the Olympics telecast on in the background, I played a short BDG on the Internet. When it was over, I thought, "how many times?" How many times have I played this mating pattern at the end of a Blackmar-Diemer Gambit? The answer seems to be in the hundreds, although in actual fact it must be only in the tens. But I can't believe that anyone who plays the BDG with any Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-47088971334450768972012-08-05T19:50:00.000-05:002012-08-05T21:59:28.303-05:00Remembering Nikolajs Kampars
Today is the 40th anniversary of Nikolajs Kampars' death on 5 August 1972. Blackmar-Diemer Gambit fans of a certain age know (or certainly should know) that he did more than any other player to popularize the gambit in the United States.
This year also marked the 50th anniversary of another significant event for Kampars and the BDG. In February 1962 Kampars began his magazine Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-38803078978033940762012-08-02T22:01:00.000-05:002012-08-02T22:01:45.958-05:00Pawns just wanna have funI've always enjoyed the lines in the Vienna Defense to the BDG where White flings his kingside pawns up the board, helter-skelter. It exemplifies the sheer madness of the opening. Makes you want to shout to the white king, "get some clothes on, for god's sake!" Here's a recent example.Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-18588852696927745122012-07-29T04:02:00.000-05:002012-07-29T04:02:41.805-05:00Simplicity in the Gunderam Defense to the BDGSimplicity is the bane of the gambit player. The more Black can trade down pieces in the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit, the closer he comes to an endgame up a pawn. So it stands to reason that White usually prefers to keep the game complicated. I've lost too many BDGs to count where Black wins by that approach. So that would lead one not to play my sixth move in this game. But in this case it Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-24354365043572796652012-07-19T17:31:00.001-05:002012-07-19T17:31:09.191-05:00Winning a BDG can do thatWhen Sveinung sent me this game with an IM last month he wrote "My analysis and annotations might not be the best though (I was pretty euphoric!)."
That's understandable. It has happened to most of us, I'd guess. What chessplayer can disagree with Dr. Tarrasch's often-quoted observation that "chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy?" And so if a player finds the BDG a bit Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-74372184094282497592012-07-04T23:52:00.000-05:002012-07-04T23:52:14.511-05:00Born on the 4th of JulyBorn on the 4th of July. No, I wasn't, but my mother was. Even without that special significance, this date has always been a special holiday to me. But that's a story for another time.
This morning, before the day turned too hectic with all its celebrations, I played a little game on the net, hoping as always, to get in a special holiday BDG. It all worked out.
Tonight, after coming in from Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-9497912361450617682012-06-25T19:32:00.000-05:002012-06-25T19:32:18.678-05:00Two Teichmanns in the Blackmar-DiemerOr should I say, two Teichmen. Or two TeichMänner. Or...anyway, here are two games in the Teichmann Defense to the Blackmar Diemer Gambit, harvested from today's TWIC. White wins one, loses one. Chess imitates life, one more time.Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-45896980890381462582012-06-19T23:47:00.001-05:002012-06-20T00:57:17.533-05:00Lemberger: love it, hate itI hate the Lemberger Countergambit (I say Countergambit, you say Counter Gambit). I hate it, except I love to play it--if I have the black pieces. But I hate to play against it, and I especially hate the variation in this game. I'll even go so far as losing the game before I'd play 4.dxe5. But I'm just your run of the mill woodpusher, so what do I know. In this game White comes through.
I Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-20442488540865647562012-06-06T17:31:00.002-05:002012-06-06T17:31:47.158-05:00The Diamond Jubilee and the BDGI don't watch that much television, but I did catch a bit of the celebrations of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee over the weekend. My, my, no one does this sort of thing better than our British friends, and I love them for it. I don't think I've enjoyed an occasion on television as much since watching the night the Berliners tore down that wall. It would have been a joy to have attended either Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-4691731588500932512012-05-31T21:34:00.000-05:002012-05-31T21:34:15.790-05:00That h7-h6 thing in the Euwe again
When our friend Sveinung Økland from Byrne, Norway sent us this sharp little Blackmar-Diemer the other day, he wrote, almost apologetically that " It's blitz chess, I know, and you might have seen these attacks lots of times, but anyway..." Well, yes, that's true. So? Blitz chess is chess, too. And what was that they played the other day to decide the World Championship? What kind of chess was Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-90853609380879639112012-05-23T16:11:00.001-05:002012-05-23T19:54:20.198-05:00Swamped in Sweden: The Vienna DefenseToday we have a brutal little BDG played last week at the Deltalift Open in Tylösand, Sweden. I did not know this place, so I looked it up. According to that most reliable of sources, Wikipedia, "Tylösand is famous for its 7 km long sand beach, its golf courses and 'Hotel Tylösand', a hotel owned by Roxette star Per Gessle and Björn Nordstrand. Tylösand earlier mostly consisted of small summer Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-21051830975952207142012-05-21T16:49:00.000-05:002012-05-21T16:49:33.736-05:00Another BDG? Not Exactly
The other day I heard from Clyde Nakamura, who sent along "a recent game where I took down IM Ling-Fong (elo 2400) with the Kahiko Hula Gambit on the Internet Chess Club at game 15 minutes. Actually on the ICC you have the option of playing a computer program. IM Ling-Fong is a computer chess engine."
And Clyde added: "Playing IM Ling-Fong is equivalent to playing an actual IM." Well, I Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-63659891839491073302012-05-15T23:14:00.000-05:002012-05-15T23:14:24.190-05:00Diemer's birthday: it's today!
Drawing by Rob Rittenhousefor BDG World
Oh my. I almost forgot, even though I'd left a note on the wine cabinet to write something about it.
Today is the 104th anniversary of E. J. Diemer's birth on 15 May 1908 in Bad Radolfzell. There's been a lot written about Diemer, the good and the bad. His friend Georg Studier wrote the definitive biography. Gunter Müller wrote a little summary Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-7033809756353824472012-05-15T16:55:00.000-05:002012-05-15T16:55:22.297-05:00Kokholm Coldcocks Kallenbach in CopenhagenSorry about that title. Couldn't help myself. This game is so fresh there are no fruit flies yet. I found it in yesterday's TWIC. What a great resource that is. I tip my hat to Mark Crowther every Monday night, even when there are no BDGs in his presentation of the week's games.
This is a BDG with 5...c6, know in the BDG world as the Ziegler Defense, only because a fellow by that name lost Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-44522373784990669502012-05-11T19:03:00.001-05:002012-05-11T19:03:16.169-05:00Not so dumb Diemer-Duhm GambitThis morning Clyde Nakamura sent me a dozen "recent blitz games on the Internet," as he put it. Among them are the two quick little Diemer-Duhm Gambits which I include below with my very light notes. Okay, I admit, my notes are almost always light.
While writing this post I stopped to check what Wikipedia had to say about the Diemer-Duhm. Not so much. "The Diemer-Duhm Gambit is also a variation Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-31165126318030268182012-05-07T22:06:00.000-05:002012-05-07T22:06:32.428-05:00I never said it was easyI didn't promise you a rose garden. Diemer said the BDG would make a new man of you, put hair on your chest, whatever. I'm not sure what he thought it would do for female chess players. Anyway, the BDG really doesn't win every time. We're adults here. I can say that.
Here's the latest example, straight from today's TWIC. Diemer used to call this variation with 5...Bf5 the Tartakower Defense. He Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-2471990825260837402012-05-06T20:55:00.001-05:002012-05-06T20:55:48.695-05:00Steinitz stumbles in BDG bogIt happened near the end of the 19th century, a long time ago. The great Wilhelm Steinitz, having lost his "first undisputed" world championship to Emanuel Lasker a couple of years earlier, ran afoul of a Blackmar-Diemer Gambit in a Moscow simultaneous in February 1896. Steinitz failed miserably in a return match against Lasker in Moscow later that year, and died in New York City on 12 August Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-61187727183228783592012-04-24T17:23:00.002-05:002012-04-24T17:23:53.947-05:00Yes, yes, but was it a BDG? "Taxi drivers played chess as their cars lined a street during a strike Monday over tariffs for journeys to and from a new Berlin airport. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)"
Gotta love those Berliners. My wife and I lived a wonderful three+ years there in the 1960s. A fabulous, dynamic town. But you do have to wonder. Would this be happening if they'd not closed Tempelhof?
Just kidding, just Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-50012668696537067982012-04-24T08:16:00.001-05:002012-04-24T08:16:20.213-05:00A favorite move of the weaker amateur
Bad idea: h7-h6 in the Euwe Defense
No, no, no! I absolutely do not mean 4.f3!
Over at his entertaining blog on the Jerome Gambit, which I often read while enjoying my first cup of morning coffee, Rick Kennedy discusses an interesting observation from Max Euwe on an early h7-h6. (JeromeGambit: A Jerome Look At The Semi-Italian Opening (Part 1)):
"On this blog I refer to 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-13373307601916072142012-04-19T23:29:00.000-05:002012-04-19T23:29:26.376-05:00You call it madness...My buddy Peter Atzerpay, WKPI,SACP (well-known private investigator and strong amateur chessplayer) called me earlier tonight. "What do you call this," he said. He was in his cups, I think. "Call what," I said. "Call this," he said, and he began to spit out the moves of a game.
"I'd call that the Elephant Gambit," I said, after pushing out a few moves.
"Not Queen's pawn counter gambit?" Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-21016379068444521352012-04-11T18:37:00.000-05:002012-04-15T21:35:41.830-05:00By any means necessary: a BDGUpdated 15 Apr 2012 to add the note at move 19. Thanks, Richard.
It seems that many players--well, at least some-- who are quick to disparage the Blackmar-Diemer are at the same time prone to go to some lengths to avoid playing into one, although the late GM Larry Evans once wrote that the best way to refute a gambit is to accept it.
However, I can understand this attitude. It makes perfect Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238764287562551995.post-32737441238718683262012-04-09T19:32:00.000-05:002012-04-09T19:32:31.222-05:00Pete's ElephantMy buddy Peter Atzerpay called the other night. "Saw that old Elephant by that old man Diemer you posted the other day," he said. "I played one of those last night and thought you might get a kick out of it."
"Send it on," I said.
"It's short," he said. "I'll give it to you over the phone." And he set off before I could say anything. But I stopped him after he gave me White's second move."
"Tom Purserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280364557655195625noreply@blogger.com