Belgrade Gambit - Hot or rot?

[Niall Doran]

When reading through "The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal", I came across a game Tal played as white in the following opening:

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.Nd5

I thought to myself, "Great, I'll use this in my next blitz tournament". Having played a few blitz games online, with good results, I'm left scratching my head. White doesn't really seem to get that much for the pawn, and apart from blocking the d-pawn, the knight on d5 doesn't appear to be threatening anything nasty.

1. Is this opening nonsense?

2. Nonsense or not, what is White trying to achieve in this position?

[LawrenceCooper]

I always found it very easy to equalise against (as black) but I didn't take on e4 which was considered very risky. I suspect that white players hope that black will grab the pawn and get into a complete tangle but otherwise black should have a very easy game with far less problems to solve than in other openings.

[Niall Doran]

Equality for Black? I'll take that as White. There's always the advantage of knowing the opening, if I decide to stick with it.

[Geoff Chandler]

There is some fantasic line in this with Black picking a Rook after Nc2+
and I recall an article by John Nunn showing how a computer had found
a win for Black when for years theory thought White was winning.

No. Just remembered, it was not an article.
It was in his book on the Four Knights ( I think).
I don't have the book to hand ATM.

It's rare enough to be worth a punt.
Black may have a ton of theory up his sleeve with the Rubinstein Variation.
(4.Bb5 Nd5) and you have just thrown him a curve ball.

Black should play (even if he does not know what he is doing) 5...Nxe4

r1bqkb1r/pppp1ppp/2n5/3N4/3pn3/5N2/PPP2PPP/R1BQKB1R w KQkq - 0 6
Simply because it creates a nice Knight chain from f3-c6.

White then plays 6.Nxd4 Ne5 and we have this;

r1bqkb1r/pppp1ppp/8/3Nn3/3Nn3/8/PPP2PPP/R1BQKB1R w KQkq - 0 7
And now you really are playing the Four Knights opening.
Other players will stop their clocks just to come admire your position.

[Geoff Chandler]

Stumbled upon this game with unique Knights.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Nf3 d6 7. Bc4 h6 8. O-O Bg4 9. h3 Bh5 10. Nd5 Nxe4 11. Ne3 Nd4 12. Nxe5 Bxd1 13. Bxf7+ Ke7 14. Nd5
Thanks Niall for the idea. It's in my latest Bloggy Thingy.

I never knew Yale University had a bust/plaque dedicated to Bobby Fischer.

http://www.redhotpawn.com/blog/blogread ... postid=136

I'm trying to find more information about it.

I also recently discovered that there is a bench dedicated to Bobby.

http://gambit.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07 ... bys-bench/

[John Townsend]

After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.Nd5

can't Black ignore the "funny business" of the knights and king's pawn and play simply 5...Bc5, with a good game?

On that basis, I think I would vote "rot".

John

[Roger de Coverly]

can't Black ignore the "funny business" of the knights and king's pawn and play simply 5...Bc5, with a good game?

Bg5 looks an obvious problem. The engines couldn't care less about moving pieces twice in the opening and recommend Be7 with a .. Nxd5 threat claiming at least equality.

[John Townsend]

If 6...Be7 is correct, perhaps that suggests that 5...Be7 was the move. But chess is not as simple as that!

After 5...Bc5 6.Bg5, a natural-looking move is 6...d6, but now White's game looks quite attractive. There may follow 7.Bxf6, gxf6 8.Qd2, Be6. Now White can castle long, if he wishes.

I'm having doubts about 5...Bc5 now, but I suppose Black has Roger's 6.Bg5, Be7 to fall back on, illogical as it may look.

John

[Matt Fletcher]

Stumbled upon this game with unique Knights.

Not quite so unique - searching for this configuration in Chessbase gives 18 examples (although at least one is a joke game). This game has the knights in position after just 7 moves.

[White "Campello, Leandro Fabricio"] [Black "Costa, Leonardo"] [Result "1-0"]1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 f5 4. Nc3 Nd4 5. Bc4 Nf6 6. Nxe5 d5 7. Nxd5 Nxe4