Halloween Gambit

It's 'All Hallows Eve', and for this haunting holiday I have a frightening opening to show for your delight.

The Halloween Gambit is a feared opening for its brave (or foolish) sacrifice: 

                      

                      

After the normal moves 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6, White comes up with the shocker 4. Nxe5. Now I'm going to refer to a game I played with my chess friend.

4...Nxe5, Otherwise black's just down a pawn for no compensation,  5. d4, This move ensures a large center, some compensation for the knight.(Later I realized that the far more common move is 5. d5, because after 5...Ne5 6.f4 Ng6 7.e5 Ng6 8. d6, this makes it very uncomfortable for black) 5...Nc6 6. e5 Ng8. With no other place to go the knight is forced to go backwards. 7. Bc4 d6 8. Qf3, It's do or die now, if I don't checkmate or get material advantage soon black will have a won endgame.(also playable was 8. Qh5, though it probably would have transposed)  

 8...Be6 9. Bxe6 fxe6, I am in deep trouble. Black has successfully traded one of my attacking pieces and is threatening to win a pawn. 10. Qh5+, At this moment I panicked and played a check hoping to buy some time. 10... g6 11. Qg4, Yes! I have defended my pawn while keeping up the pressure by attacking e6. 

 11...Qe7 12. Bg5 Qf7 13. O-O-O h6 14. Rhe1?! Charge!!! Who needs bishops, but seriously I had nothing to lose, so why not go down fighting? 14...hxg5 15. exd6?! at this moment I thought I had decent attacking chances. I was sorely mistaken. 15...Qf4+! This move takes away almost all chances of attack I had.  

 16. Qxf4 gxf4 17. d5 O-O-O, Apparently my opponent had little fear of losing a knight due to the fact he was already up two pieces.  18. dxc6 bxc6 19. dxc7 Rxd1+ 20. Kxd1 Bb4 21. a3 Bxc3 22. bxc3 Kb7 23. c8=B+, Right about now I have a #1 for style, but a #10 for opening choices. 23...Kxc8 24. Rxe6 Kd7 25. Rxg6 Ne7   1/2-1/2 at this point in the game, it was time for me to go to an eye doctor appointment, and my friend said that there were drawing chances later in the game.

In conclusion this was a very instructive game about the Halloween Gambit; including: crazy attacks, awe-inspiring defense, and good old fashioned draw.

For more information on the Halloween Gambit watch the video below for the refutation, deeper analysis and alternative ways of playing it.

 

October Chess Goals

For my October chess goals, I am working on the Sicilian Dragon, Classical Dutch, and King's Indian lines. The variation I am using for the King's Indian is the 7...Na6 variation, as opposed to 7...Nc6. The book I am using for Dragon lines is Andrew Martin's Starting Out: The Sicilian Dragon, starting with Chapter 1: Yugoslav Attack: Introduction.

Next, I will be working on my chess endgame. I'm planning on studying Section 1 of The Silman Endgame Manual, and at the end of the month I will take the test at the end of the section.

On the tactics trainer on chess.com, I will try to complete at least ten tactics a day. Right now, my tactics rating is about 1600. My goal will be, within a year, to get over 1700.

For my online games, I have high hopes for several tournament games with Team USA. Though I'm worried that I'm not going to reach my goal of 1700 within a year's time.

Finally, I have my blind chess study. I will be studying out of Roldofo Pardi's book on chess visualization. The first problem presented is this: start with the Knight on a1 then without touching the Knight calculate a path to b1 Then from a1 to c1, continuing until all the squares have been visited by the Knight. My goal is to do the whole tour in under three minutes.

At the end of the month, I will be taking a 'guess the move' quiz written by Bruce Pandolfini. Pandolfini writes these articles every month for Chess Life magazine, so I'm expecting to do one of these every month.

Thanks for reading!