Simplicity in the Gunderam Defense to the BDG

Simplicity 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 worked out.

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.

Born on the 4th of July

Born 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 watching fireworks along the beach, I hurriedly put together this post. I rushed because I wanted it to be born on the 4th also.

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.

Lemberger: love it, hate it

I 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 wouldn't dare try to add any notes.

The Diamond Jubilee and the BDG

I 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 event.

As it happened, I once had the pleasure of seeing Queen Elizabeth in Berlin. It was at the end of her visit there in May of 1965. I watched the short departure ceremony from my second floor office window at Tempelhof Central Airport, overlooking the Queen's airplane parked just outside.

So, watching the London celebrations and remembering that day in Berlin warmed the old man's heart, and then I turned to Monday's TWIC and found, what else, a Blackmar-Diemer played at the Diamond Jubilee Premier. It would have been grand if the BDG had carried the day, but we take what we can.

May God save the Queen, and the BDG.

That 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 that? To each his own. We can enjoy both, or either, or none, for that matter.

Sure we've seen the mating pattern before. So? The old movies are quite often better than the new ones.

Now I think I'll load up the late great Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard again. Get the popcorn.