Further madness

The yearly speed championship started yesterday evening in my local chessclub - each player is alloted 25 minutes of time with a 10 seconds move increment. Ideal for a Blackmar Diemer. But unfortunately, my first opponent refrained from playing d5, so I had to revert to some other madness.

1.d4 Nf6 2.f3 g6
What player is so unreasonable as to refuse to enter the Blackmar Diemer ? He should be punished immediately with ...

3.g4
That got him thinking !

3...Bg7 4.h4 (diagram)
You cant say I am not consistent in my moves :-)

4...d6 5.h5 gxh5 6.g5

6...Nfd7
The other option is 6...Nd5 7.e4 Nb6 8.Ne2, which is probably better for white.

7.e4
Here my opponent choose the inferior 7...e5 and I could easily get the advantage with 8.d5.

The obvious critical line is 7...c5 and we reach the standard Paleface setup after 8.d5 (diagram)

My silicon assistant gives following line as best : 8...h6 9.gxh6 Bxh6 10.Bxh6 Rxh6 11.Qd2 with a slight advantage for white.

I cant find any games on this line in nay database, but the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.f3 g6 3.g4 certainly seem playable. Please let me know if you had any experience with this.

10.Qf2 or 10.Qf4 in Gunderam's line

As a follow up from last post on Gerhart Gunderam's line 1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 Bf5 6.Ne5 e6 7.g4 Bg6 8.Qf3 c6 9.g5 Bh5 (diagram), I am checking now whether 10.Qf2 or 10.Qf4 is the better choice.

Previoulsy, I believed 10.Qf2 was the better move  - it leads to a forced game after 10...Ng4 11.Nxg4 Bxg4 12.Bd3. But now, after analysis, I believe black is better after the simple 12...Be7 13.0-0 Bf5 14.d5 g6 and white has less than nothing for the sacrificed pawn.

So let's have a look to 10.Qf4, when black has two responses : 10...Nd5 and 10...Nd7. Let's first check out 10.Qf4 Nd5 11.Qh4 (diagram)

a/ 11...g6 12.Qf2
...a1/ 12...Qe7 13.Ne4 Nd7 14.Nxd7 Qxd7 15.c4 (+=)
...a2/ 12...Qc7 13.Nxd5 (+)
...a3/ 12...f5 13.gxf6 Qxf6 14.Qxf6 Nxf6 15.Bh3 (+=)

b/ 11...Bg6 12.Nxg6 fxg6 13.Qe4 

...b1/ 13...Be7 14.Bh3 (=)

...b2/ 13...Nxc3 14.Qxe6+ Qe7 15.Qxe7 Bxe7 16.bxc3 (+=)

...b3/ 13...Bb4 14.Qxe6+ Qe7 15.Qxe7+ (+=)

...b4/ 13...Nc7 14.Bh3 (+=)

...b5/ 13...Qd7 14.Bh3 (+=)

c/ 11...Nxc3 12.bxc3 

...c1/ 12...g6 13.Qf2 (+=)

...c2/ 12...Bg6 13.Nxg6 fxg6 14.Bh3 (+)

The second line 10.Qf4 Nfd7 11.Be2 Nxe5 12.Bxh5 Ng6 13.Qf2 (diagram) is far more complicated for the attacker ( to be noted is that white also has 13.Bxg6 hxg6 14.Rf1 with equal play )

Black's most promising defense is 13...Bb4 14.Bxg6 Bxc3+ 15.bxc3 hxg6 16.0-0 Qe7 17.Rab1 and white has to prove he has some compensation.

Summary. Both 10.Qf2 or 10.Qf4 do not win by force, but then again, didn't Gunderam predict that already ?

Hauptrecept

I have been working through Gerhart Gunderam's "Neue Eroffungswege" this week, and I have to admit, there are some great lines in it. Of course, this has to been seen in the context of the time of writing this book - 1961 - when there was no silicon assistent available...

Let's have a look at a line presneted on page 26 - Gunderam labels this as "Stammanalysen meiner Verteitigung, Hauprezept", roughly translated as the main line of his defense against the Blackmar Diemer.

Analysis Gerhart Gunderam, 1961.
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3
Gunderam does not cover the move 2.f3 - so it is obvious he has to deal with the Gubsch defense a lot.
2...d5 3.e4 dxe4 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 Bf5 6.Ne5 e6 7.g4 Bg6 (diagram)

The main position in the Gunderam defense.

In addition to to tsandard move 8.Qf3, Gunderam now also considers 8.Bg2 c6 9.h4 butblack's reply 9...Bb4 is quite strong.

8.Qf3 c6 9.g5 Bh5 ! (diagram)

The author correctly indicates 9...Nd5 as inferior and suggests 9...Bh5 as the best defense, but now Gerhart misses the best white move.

10.Qh3 ??
We all know that 10.Qf2 or Qf4 is needed here. I will come back on that difficult choice in my next post. The text move is logical, it attacks a piece whose defender is attacked. But unfortunately black is to move first.

10...Qxd4 (diagram)

Gunderam still suggests 11.Nd3 Bg4 12.Qh4 but it is obvious that black is winning.
My computer finds 11.Nxf7 Kxf7 12.gxf6 Bg4 13.Qg3 but black is ahead.

So we can only applaude the work performed by Gunderam. His analysis proved to be invaluable for the development of the Blackmar Diemer. Obvuiously he misses some moves, but the ideas in his work on defending against the Blackmar Diemer ( eg 9...Bh5 ) have contributed a lot to modern theory.