Expert knowledge is absolutely necessary to win

I managed to secure a draw yesterday against a Teichmann Excehnge defense. My opponent did not play the strongest move, but I was unable to benefit from it, and i left him off the hook. So my advise to every gambiteer : learn the theory lines well - it will bring you many rewards.

Guido De Bouver - Bart Van Tichelen
1.d4 Nf6 2.f3 d5 3.e4 dxe4 4.Nc3 exf3 5.Nxf3 Bg4 6.h3 Bxf3 7.Qxf3 c6 8.g4 e6 9.g5 Nd5 10.Bd3 Nd7 (diagram)

I knew that this move is not so good - but I failed to take advantage of his move. Maybe I did not think well enough as my opponent had consumed already 55 minutes in this fiurst 10 moves. I used only 2 minutes and planned to start playing quickly to put extra pressure on my opponent's clock ( game was played under standard time control : 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour knock out ).

Now playing quickly in this sort of positions might not be the best strategy...


11. Bd2 ??? (diagram)

Giving it away immediately. My plan was to castle queenside and continue play on f7.
But 11.00 would have crampled black's position ( see below ).

11...Qb6 12.Rf1 000 13.000 Bb4 14.Nxd5 Bxd2+ 15.Rxd2 exd5 16.Qxf7 Qxd4 17.Bxh7 (=) and the game was declared a draw quickly.

But let's look at the correct line after 11.00 (diagram)

a/ 11...f5 12.Nxd5
...a1/ 12...cxd5 13.Re1 (++)
...a2/ 12...exd5 13.Bxf5 (++)

b/ 11...f6 12.Re1
...b1/ 12...Nxc3 13.Rxe6+ (++)
...b2/ 12...Be7 13.Qh5+ (++)
...b3/ 12...Qe7 13.Nxd5 cxd5 14.Bf4 (+=)

c/ 11...Qe7 12.Nxd5 cxd5 13.Bf4 (diagram)

...c1/ 13...000 14.Kh1 (+=)
...c2/ 13...g6 14.Rae1 (+=)
...c3/ 13...Qb4 14.Bh2 (+=)
...c4/ 13...Rc8 14.Rae1 (+=)

So learn these theory lines and let your opponent's clock tick away these precious seconds !

Grandmaster 's feedback

I got an interesting comment from GM David Smerdon from Australian. His exact words are :
"I stumbled across this blog when searching for a refutation to the BDG for a book I'm writing on the Scandinavian Defense. The more I went through these posts, the more impressed I was with the analysis - and no refutation was to be found! Nice job :)"

I am glad to hear that this GM likes my blog. Even more that he realises that there is no refutation to be found !

So David - when do you start playing the Blackmar Diemer yourself ?

It aint that bad

In my quest to refute the refutation of the Teichmann defense, I studied the line 9.Bg2 c6 10.h4 in the Tecihmann defense 1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 Bg4 6.h3 Bh5 7.g4 Bg6 8.Ne5 e6.

It is obvious that only 10...Bb4 gives black a chance to survive. White now has both 11.00 and 11.Bg5 at his disposal.

11.00 was discussed in an earlier post as white risks all to trap an enemy piece. Analysis shows that white has nothing to fear in this line.

More enterprising is the line 11.Bg5 and I looked at the black replies 11...h6, 11...Qa5, 11...Nbd7 and 11...00

The black defense 11...h6 seemed to give white some headache, but 12.Nxg6 fxg6 13.Bxf6 Qxf6 14.Qd3 seemed to equalize.

Igor S from Russia then mailed me that black gets the better game after 14...Nbd7 15.000 000 (diagram)

I initially agreed with him, but aftre carefull analysis, it seems to me 16.Kb1 (diagram) gives white full equality :

a/ 16...Bxc3 17.Qxc3 (=)

b/ 16...Qf2 17.Be4 (=)

c/ 16...Qe7 17.Ne4 (=)

d/ 16...Nc5 17.Qc4 Bxc3 18.Qxc3 (=)

e/ 16...Nb6 17.Ne4 (=)

f/ 16...Kb8 17.Qg3+ (=)

So it seems my Russian friend was wrong and that the line 9.Bg2 c6 10.h4 in the Teichmann Defense is certainly not refuted in any way !