King's gambit

BY: BOBBY ANG

(As published in Chess Piece, BusinessWorld, 28 June 2010)

Last week I was just discussing with BW readers various ways of meeting the Petroff Defense. White can try the Cochrane Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nxf7) which, admittedly, might not be to everyone’s taste. I then showed you Radjabov’s latest preparation which led to a good win against the supreme expert of the Petroff, Boris Gelfand.

In the King’s Tournament in Romania, the world’s highest rated player Magnus Carlsen, showed us the ultimate anti-Petroff weapon -- the King’s Gambit. "Things weren’t going so well in the tournament I thought I just try it and see how it goes," said Magnus after the game. Well, it had the desired effect. His opponent Wang Yue was completely unprepared and played badly.

Carlsen, Magnus (2813) -- Wang Yue (2752) [C36]
Kings’ Tournament/Turneul Regilor Medias Bazna/Romania (4), 17.06.2010





Begging the indulgence of our readers, I’d like to show you something which I’ve been wanting to write about for so long but never had the opportunity -- how I would meet the King’s Gambit.

There’s this executive player, Lowell Liwat (I do not know why he is not yet a national master -- his tactical skills are certainly at that level) who I used to meet a lot during my active Executive weekend tournaments in the ’90s. Every time he had white there would appear the King’s Gambit on the board and I’d lose every single one of the games.

It got to a point that I decided to devote one whole afternoon to preparing against it. Let me put you in the proper mood for this next game. Arkady Novopashin is a debutante in the Soviet Championships and is scheduled to play one of the favorites, Boris Spassky, the next day. Spassky of course wants to win the championship, and would definitely try hard to beat all the non-grandmasters in the tournament. Boris is an acknowledged expert in the King’s Gambit and there is a big chance he might use it. Novopashin prepared hard for this game, and chose the Bonch-Osmolovsky. Bonch what? Patience, just follow this game.

Spassky, Boris V. -- Novopashin, Arkady [C34]
URS-ch30 Yerevan (15), 12.12.1962





A short but very sharp fight.

This sorry had a sad ending, for soon afterwards Lowell went abroad to work and later on I also left to take up a job in Angeles City. I never got to use it against him.
Well, ... I am still waiting for that day.

Reader comments/suggestions are solicited. E-mail address is bangcpa@gmail.com