Winning a BDG can do that

When 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 special, then maybe he also finds a special kind of happiness in winning one.

Here's the game, played at a time control of G/20.

Two Teichmanns in the Blackmar-Diemer

Or 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.

When the time is right

After I posted several new games without notes last week, not seeing much to stir my interest, I heard from Matt Lasley on the Le Diouron-Bugalski game. He suggested that the knight fork played at move 20 should have come at move 18. So we took a look at it.

A mixed bag

Mondays are fun days here. I look forward to the crop of games from The Week in Chess. Today’s issue brought forth more BDGs and close relatives than usual, but a mixed bag of wins, losses, and draws (how chess-like). I didn’t find anything especially of interest: no theoretical innovations, no spectacular combinations, not even an entertaining blunder of note. See if you agree.

An affection for rook sacs

While we’re on the subject... In the mid-1980s Walter Schneider invited me to play in a BDG thematic with a dozen or so old BDG hands. Several had been finalists or semi-finalists in the large BDG World Correspondence Tournament organized by Nick Kampars. It was a great opportunity to meet and compare notes with other longtime BDG fans.

One of my opponents was Karl Hanisch from Germany. Playing black I managed to draw a Lemberger; as white I had better luck with my favorite line in the Teichmann. Christoph Scheerer included this game in his recent book on the BDG.

Another rook sac...

Another bad accident at f7

Yes, now people leave cards, flowers, sympathy notes at the intersection, but maybe the authorities should post a warning.

Atzerpay Again: No Guts

Atzerpay Again: No Time

My buddy Peter Atzerpay, the well-known private investigator and strong amateur chessplayer (and a better alter ego than I ever deserved), dropped by the Blackmar Mansion beach shack last weekend, between planes. Thinking we might knock off a game or two, I hauled a couple of Becks out of the cooler, but no.

"Nope. No time," he said. "Consulting on a hot case in DC."

He chugged down his beer, clearly agitated, in a rush. "Gotta run," he said. He grabbed his ragged briefcase off the table. "By the way," he said. "Do you know anything about Twitter?"

And Pete was gone before I could answer. When I picked up the empty Becks I realized it sat on an envelope with the score of a chess game scribbled on its back. The ink was beginning to run from the condensation from the bottle but I was able to make out the moves.

Breaking News: Stronger Players Win

This week's TWIC yielded several Blackmar-Diemers, the first crop of the season, I suppose. No great surprises here--in each game the higher rated player won. In two of the three games that was black.

(Pull down the player names to select the other games).

Teichmann Defense, Oz Edition

Here's a recent BDG from the Australian Open. Black gets his queen in a bad way, and White just simplifies down.

You can get a PGN copy of the game here.

Old ideas got that way ...

Old ideas got that way because they proved useful. Who said that? I just found it on the web. But I like it. The Blackmar-Diemer is an old idea, certainly old enough to be out of fashion. Yet old ideas, especially in the hands of old chessplayers, can still prove useful. Take this BDG, Teichmann Defense, from the World Seniors:

Win One, Lose One

A couple of Blackmar-Diemers turned up in this week's TWIC. White wins an Euwe Defense transposition from the Caro Kann, but loses a Teichmann. Oh, well...

(Use the pull-down menu to get to the second game)

Another BDG from the U. S. Open

Here's another win with the Blackmar-Diemer from the recent U.S. Open. White plays up a class and wins against a Teichmann Defense. When Black castles kingside White usually stacks his rooks on the open f-file, but in this game Black lingers long in the center and White goes for the uncommon Rae1.

Yes, indeed, they love it!

My scouts are always working, on the lookout for someone saying something nice about the Blackmar-Diemer. It's hard work, but hard work has its occasional rewards. Such was the case yesterday. In a post called "The chess gods love the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit," Frisco Del Rosario tells the story of a sweet little BDG played a couple of days ago in the U. S. Open. Here's the game, with my notes. When you've played through it you should also check out Del Rosario's post.

Till You Get It Right

By Tim Sawyer

GM Lev Alburt has written that one of the best ways to improve in chess is to find a typical thematic position and try to learn everything you can about that one position. One approach is to practice chess by playing your favorite opening vs the same computer over and over again. CM Dan Heisman recommends that after every game, you look up where you could have improved. Using these principles in 2007 I began to play off and on certain BDG lines vs the computer "Rookie" on ICC, and later also vs its older brother "blik". In 2007 I lost most of those games, but gradually I learned. Post-mortem analysis with Fritz or Rybka became my pre-game preparation for a future blitz attempt. It worked well when I could remember the lines.

New Books, Real and Imagined

I've about given up hope for the long promised new book on the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit from Everyman Chess. Since I first wrote about it here almost a year and a half ago  it's been delayed again and again. Some time ago I wrote the publishers, asking about the status, but received no reply.

So much for imagined.

Now for the real. Guido De Bouver, from Belgium, has produced Attack with the Blackmar Diemer, A Computer Analysis of the Teichmann, Gunderam, O'Kelly and Vienna lines in the Blackmar Diemer gambit. The book is in English, 160 pages, with figurine algebraic notation.  From the author's description:

This is the first book in a series of volumes on the Blackmar Diemer gambit. Their purpose is to provide in-depth analysis of the various lines. Since Diemer's gambit most often leads to wild open positions, the systematic use of a silicon monster (all analysis in this book was performed using Rybka 3 32-bit using the free Arena GUI) will provide essential insight in the evaluation of the resulting unbalanced positions.

The reader will note that the book does not provide a systematic overview of all white's options. Instead, I choose a number of lines that particularly fit in with Diemer's ideas and that provide complications that will help the gambiteer in the over the board play.

The book is available now from the author, in either a hard copy or a protected PDF version. Details are available at http://www.humbeekseschaakclub.be/overzicht.pdf, where you may view a table of contents, several extracts, and ordering information.

Computer analysis, don't you just love it? More to say on that coming up.

Back on Track

Sometimes we gradually drift away from chess. Work, family, other responsibilities seem to conspire to remove the time or opportunities for the game. Life happens.

However, John Crompton got back to tournament play a few days ago in a one-day event near Charleston, South Carolina. Happily, he also got back to the Blackmar-Diemer, against an opponent who had recently won the state senior's championship.

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H

Crompton, John 1667 - Reeve, C. 1952

1-0 (Aiken 25 Quick Chess) 4/17/2010

[#] 1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 Bg4 6.Bc4 e6 7.O-O Bd6 8.Bg5 Nbd7 9.Qe1 Bxf3 10.Rxf3 O-O 11.Qh4 h5 12.Bd3 g6?

[12...Be7 ]

13.Raf1

[13.Ne4 wins a piece at once.]

13...Be7 14.Rxf6 Nxf6 15.Rxf6 Bxf6? Abandon all hope...

[Rybka, with just enough time for a quick blunder check, suggests 15...c5 here as the lesser of evils, but White stays ahead in any variation I could see.]

16.Bxf6 Qe8 17.Qg5 Kh7?? 18.Qxh5+ Always a satisfying end to a game. [1-0]

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