Shortest game

[NickFaulks]

1 e4 e5 2 f4 d6?!

What is wrong with that move?

[Roger de Coverly]

What is wrong with that move?

I don't think there's anything wrong with it, as long as the follow-up to 3. Nf3 is 3. .. exf4 transposing to Fischer's line. Defending the Kings Gambit as if it's a Queens Gambit doesn't usually work terribly well with the possible exception of the Adelaide Defence ( 1. e4 e5 2. f4 Nc6 3. Nf3 f5)

[Matt Mackenzie]

Actually its a fair point, however in club chess people usually follow 2...d6 up with a "strong point" type defence as in the above game.

Those who intend to play ....ef4 normally do it on move 2.

[JustinHorton]

How about switching to the Bishop's Gambit though

[Roger de Coverly]

How about switching to the Bishop's Gambit though

That's a reasonable thought. A decent plan against the Bishop's Gambit is to take on f4 at move 2 and play .. Nc6 at move 3.

There's lots of decent lines against the King's Gambit for those willing to put in a bit of studying effort.

There are opinions that the Bishop's Gambit is superior to the Knight's Gambit. But if as white, 3. Nf3 is a mistake as compared with 3. Bc4 that suggests move 2 was, if not an error, a move requiring an accurate follow up.

[Nick Burrows]

How about switching to the Bishop's Gambit though

There are opinions that the Bishop's Gambit is superior to the Knight's Gambit. But if as white, 3. Nf3 is a mistake as compared with 3. Bc4 that suggests move 2 was, if not an error, a move requiring an accurate follow up.

John Shaw offers a "refutation" in his KG Book, where he thinks all lines lead to =+

[NickFaulks]

John Shaw offers a "refutation" in his KG Book, where he thinks all lines lead to =+

A refutation of what?

[Roger de Coverly]

A refutation of what?

I think it's a refutation of the Bishop's Gambit, 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Bc4 Nc6

It gives Black decent chances, "refutation" may be an exaggeration.

[Keith Arkell]

Keith: you used to play e4, and sac pawns for fun? I look forward to seeing examples of any punts you have had with the Morra gambit (a way to win quickly with White, or lose slowly)!

I found one, Nick!

[Event "Spectrum Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2001.03.24"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Arkell, Keith"]
[Black "Cox, Tristan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B21"]


1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. Nf3 d6 4. c3 dxc3 5. Nxc3 Nc6 6. Bc4 e6 7. O-O Be7 8.
Bf4 a6 9. Qe2 b5 10. Bb3 Bb7 11. Rfd1 Qc7 12. Rac1 Nf6 13. Nd5 Nxd5 14. exd5
1-0

[Kevin Thurlow]

In answer to Alex, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGC_Ltd gives a reasonable (short) overview. JC Thompson died in 1971 and I joined LGC in 1975, so unfortunately we never met, although both of us were Head of Calibrations Division at some stage in our careers. The very good thing about LGC was that it did so many different things, you could have a wide and varied career in the same building. Leonard did several simuls at LGC, and obviously we gave him a hard time, but it has to be said I only remember him performing a pretty effective demolition job!

I didn't expect JCT to be mentioned in a "shortest game" thread!

[Nick Grey]

It was a shame that I did not see Stewart's short win. I was not strong enough to make our second team. That Wimbledon 2 won the match is some consolation to our team and I hope you both got back to see England win at football.

My quickest win as white was some 30 plus years ago at a tournament in the Barbican. We were also informed that the pubs were open from 10 am on a sunday. My opponent was nearly 30 minutes late and very wet we rushed 6 moves and he went for a coffee. He came back, I made my move and said checkmate. My game was not the first to finish. Another was already finished. Four chess players went in search of a pub open for a couple of hours but never found one.

My quickest win as black is shown below. I spent more time waiting for and drinking a coffee whilst pondering why my opponent had made a blunder. He was waiting some 25 minutes to return so he could resign. Perhaps Thompson's lose quickly...

[Event "The Four Nations Chess League Division 3s"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2014.01.12"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Thompson, Robert"]
[Black "Grey, Nicholas D"]
[ECO "A04"]
[WhiteElo "1971"]
[BlackElo "1729"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. Nf3 c5 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. g3 Bg7 5. Bg2 O-O 6. O-O d6 7. d4 Nc6 8. h3 cxd4 9. Nxd4 Bd7 10. e4 Qc8 11. g4 Nxd4 12. Qxd4 Nxg4

0-1

[LawrenceCooper]

[Event "Birmingham League v Boldmere"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2009.09.21"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Cooper, Lawrence"]
[Black "Mildenhall, J."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B23"]
[WhiteElo "2316"]
[BlackElo "1984"]
[PlyCount "13"]
[EventDate "2009.??.??"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 e5 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. f4 d6 5. fxe5 dxe5 6. Nf3 Bg4 7. Bxf7+ 1-0

[Event "Paignton Premier"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2007.09.07"]
[Round "?.6"]
[White "Webster, R."]
[Black "Cooper, Lawrence"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C71"]
[WhiteElo "1986"]
[BlackElo "2305"]
[PlyCount "16"]
[EventDate "2007.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 d6 5. d4 b5 6. Bb3 Nxd4 7. Nxd4 exd4 8.
Qxd4 c5 0-1

[Event "Stoke League"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1990.03.13"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Cooper, Lawrence"]
[Black "Page, C."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B06"]
[PlyCount "21"]
[EventDate "1990.??.??"]

1. e4 d6 2. d4 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. Nc3 a6 5. a4 Nd7 6. Bc4 Ngf6 7. e5 dxe5 8. dxe5
Ng4 9. Bxf7+ Kxf7 10. Ng5+ Ke8 11. Ne6 1-0

[Event "Cork Masters"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2009.03.27"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Cooper, Lawrence"]
[Black "Martinovic, A."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B50"]
[WhiteElo "2313"]
[BlackElo "1774"]
[PlyCount "21"]
[EventDate "2009.??.??"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. c3 Nf6 4. Be2 Nc6 5. d4 cxd4 6. cxd4 e6 7. d5 exd5 8.
exd5 Ne5 9. Nxe5 dxe5 10. Nc3 Bb4 $4 11. Qa4+ 1-0

[Event "Benasque Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1996.07.06"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Parramon, J."]
[Black "Cooper, Lawrence"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C45"]
[PlyCount "26"]
[EventDate "1996.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nxc6 bxc6 6. Bd3 d5 7. Nc3 Bb4 8.
Bd2 O-O 9. f3 dxe4 10. Nxe4 Nxe4 11. fxe4 Qd4 12. b3 Qe3+ 13. Qe2 Bxd2+ 0-1

[Event "Oxford IM"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1998.12.22"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Dunnington, Angus"]
[Black "Cooper, Lawrence"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C41"]
[BlackElo "2335"]
[PlyCount "25"]
[EventDate "1998.??.??"]

1. Nf3 d6 2. e4 Nf6 3. Nc3 e5 4. d4 exd4 5. Nxd4 g6 6. Bg5 h6 7. Bxf6 Qxf6 8.
Nd5 Qd8 9. Nb5 Na6 10. Qd4 f6 11. Nxf6+ Kf7 12. Nh5 Kg8 13. Qd5+ 1-0

[Event "British Under 16s"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1985.08.07"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Craggs, David"]
[Black "Cooper, Lawrence"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C36"]
[PlyCount "26"]
[EventDate "1985.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 d5 4. exd5 Nf6 5. d4 Nxd5 6. c4 Bb4+ 7. Kf2 Ne3 8.
Qb3 Ng4+ 9. Kg1 Nc6 10. Bxf4 Nxd4 11. Qa4+ b5 12. Qd1 Nxf3+ 13. Qxf3 Bc5+ 0-1

[Event "Sutton Premier"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1995.04.16"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Cooper, Lawrence"]
[Black "Kemp, P."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B01"]
[PlyCount "25"]
[EventDate "1995.??.??"]

1. e4 Nc6 2. Nf3 d5 3. exd5 Qxd5 4. Nc3 Qa5 5. Bb5 Bd7 6. d4 e6 7. O-O Bb4 8.
Qe2 Bxc3 9. bxc3 a6 10. Bd3 Qxc3 11. Rb1 Nxd4 12. Nxd4 Nf6 13. Nf5 1-0

[Event "Birmingham League v South Birmingham A"]
[Site "Telford, ENG ENG"]
[Date "2016.02.17"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Cooper, Lawrence"]
[Black "Besedin, Pavel"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B08"]
[WhiteElo "2350"]
[BlackElo "2232"]
[PlyCount "25"]
[EventDate "2016.02.14"]

1. d4 g6 2. e4 Bg7 3. Nc3 d6 4. Be3 c6 5. a4 Nf6 6. h3 O-O 7. Nf3 Qa5 8. Nd2
Nbd7 9. Be2 c5 10. O-O Qb4 11. Nc4 cxd4 12. Bxd4 Nc5 13. Bxf6 1-0

[Event "Stafford Blitz"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2018.08.08"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Cooper, Lawrence"]
[Black "Barker, David"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A80"]
[PlyCount "25"]
[EventDate "2018.??.??"]

1. d4 f5 2. h3 Nf6 3. g4 fxg4 4. hxg4 d5 5. g5 Ne4 6. g6 h6 7. Nf3 Bf5 8. Bf4
Bxg6 9. Ne5 Bf5 10. e3 Nd7 11. Qh5+ g6 12. Nxg6 Bxg6 13. Qxg6# 1-0

[Event "Hastings Challengersj"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1992.01.02"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Cooper, Lawrence"]
[Black "Anderson, Daniel"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C03"]
[WhiteElo "2275"]
[PlyCount "25"]
[EventDate "1992.??.??"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Be7 4. Ngf3 Nf6 5. Bd3 O-O 6. O-O a6 7. Re1 b5 8. exd5
exd5 9. Ne5 Bb7 10. Qf3 Nbd7 11. Qh3 Bc8 12. Nc6 Nb6 13. Qh4 1-0

[Event "Warwickshire Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1993.10.??"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Cooper, Lawrence"]
[Black "Cohen, Aron"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B08"]
[PlyCount "30"]
[EventDate "1993.??.??"]

1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. h3 O-O 6. Be3 d5 7. e5 Ne4 8. Nxe4
dxe4 9. Ng5 c5 10. dxc5 Qc7 11. Bc4 Nc6 12. e6 f5 13. O-O Rf6 14. Qd6 $4 exd6
15. e7+ Be6 0-1

The two losses were painful for different reasons. I needed to beat Angus for a norm and lost miserably, completely missing Qd4. In the Cohen game I recall playing Qd6 confidently, went to the toilet feeling really pleased with myself and reflecting that Qd6 was such a clever move that no one would believe it wasn't prepped at home. On returning to the board my opponent and those around were smiling and I started to suspect that my move might not have been so clever after all

[Matt Mackenzie]

Even though falling into the Noah's Ark Trap must be incredibly embarrassing, I've always thought it worth playing on given that White should get two pawns for the piece (indeed, databases give examples where they have drawn or even won)

[John Upham]

About 35 years ago I played a colleague in the Government Chemists' Championship

The what?

It was a sister organisation to the Government Dentists' who had their own championship also.

[John Clarke]

It was a sister organisation to the Government Dentists' who had their own championship also.

Don't you mean champin'ship?