Friday 6 July 2012

Blackburne Shilling Gambit Trap

Here is a gambit with a nice trap that Blackburne used to play ... but before this - an amusing anecdote concerning Joseph Henry Blackburne courtesy of Wikepedia:

Blackburne's fondness for drinking whisky at the board once led him to down an opponent's glass. Shortly afterwards, the opponent resigned, leading him to quip, "My opponent left a glass of whisky en prise and I took it en passant". In an interview with a liquor industry publication, Blackburne once claimed that drinking whisky cleared his brain and improved his chessplay."

Here is a line in the Blackburne Shilling Gambit. White elects to take the pawn on f7 with the Knight ... This is duly punished with a nice mate ...

As usual - any comments welcome!!












PGN Viewer courtesy of http://chesstempo.com/

1 comment:

greg_b said...

Of course - traps are fine if your opponent is caught off guard and doesn't know how to correctly respond ... Black's third move is, objectively speaking, a weak, time-wasting move. Steinitz recommended 4.0-0 or 4.Nxd4 in response ...

5.Bxf7 is also playable where White gets two pawns for the piece (Ne5)...