Happy Halloween Gambit

The Halloween Gambit offers social players a fun opportunity to fight back while being a piece down.  I teach it to my chess class every Halloween and then allow students to collect data on the particular opening.  Definitely not recommended for tournament play, however.

The Halloween Gambit Handout

Instructive Videos:  

Real and Jordan embrace the Halloween Gambit

Keegan

The Halloween Gambit, also known as the Müller-Schulze Gambit or Leipzig Gambit, is an aggressive gambit in chess, in which White sacrifices a knight for just one pawn.  There are many different kinds  of gambits, but the usual aim of a gambit is to obtain an advantageous position after giving up material.   It is related to the Four Knights Game. The Oskar Cordel reported in 1888 that Leipzig club players used it to dangerous effect but he did not believe it was sound.  Meaning that you should not use it. The opening is: 

1. e4 e5

2. Nf3 Nc6

3. Nc3 Nf6

4. Nxe5 Nxe5

5.  d4

The goal of the gambit is to seize the center with pawns and drive back Black's knights. After 4...Nxe5, White usually plays 5.d4, in preference to 5.f4, which does not facilitate his development.

Sami and Abby (The Halloween Bride vs. Bloody Red Riding Hood)

Openings Quiz

1. Which Opening?

2. Which Defense?

3. Which Opening?

4.  Which Defense?

5. Which Opening?

2013 England Vs. France Theme Tournament

Henry V at Agincourt, 1415

There has been nearly 22 conflicts between England and France since King Henry I first tried to invade England in 1076 and I am sure many others, as well.  Especially, over the board.  This year's theme tournament included an additional battle with the English Opening played against the French Defense.  The English Opening is a hypermodern opening (or flank opening) in which white establishes a claim on the central square d5, by 1. c4.  The French Defense solidly lays claim on the center after the second move and seeks to establish pawn chains directed at the queenside.  The French Defense plays as 1. e4 e6.

For this tournament the starting position was:  1.c4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Be7 5. 0-0. . .black to move.

Eighteen people competed at the WRHS Chess Club sponsored Theme Tournament:  England v. France last Thursday night at Wood River High School.  Jeff Roland of Boise earned 4.0 points and a perfect tournament score.  His favorite game against Andre Murphy proved most memorable with a knight sack that "scared me," said Jeff.  Jeff brought two other competitors up from Boise to join in the fun.  Drew and Alex Machin.  Drew said that this was his first trophy and his brother is the one that usually earns it.

I'm English and Andre is the French

Time sometimes flies in G/30 tournaments.  In my game against Andre, I won with only 3 seconds left on the clock.  In another against my son, Desmond, I had only 30 seconds to obtain a queen, out-maneuver his rook and pawns.  With just a queen and pawns left, Des was too smart to let his king and rook get forked, and I was destined to lose on time.  So I checked him, forking his rook and king, hoping he would move his king without noticing that his rook could take me.  Well, it didn't end well for me!

Alex Machin (French side) vs. Jeff Roland (English side)

Quentin shakes Darwin's hand for the start

The elementary students appreciated playing the "big people" and were satisfied to earn a medal for their efforts and popcorn and pizza for their mouths.  It was like a chess party.  By the end of the tournament we demonstrated that the French Defense could adequately hold off the English attacks with 16 wins for the English, and 20 wins for the French.

Crosstable

No.	Name	Pts	Rnd1	Rnd2	Rnd3	Rnd4
1	Roland, Jeff	4.0	W4	W8	W6	W2
2	Machin, Drew	3.0	W15	W14	W3	L1
3	Porth, Desmond	3.0	W9	W5	L2	W11
4	Machin, Alex	3.0	L1	-B-	W13	W7
5	Porth, Adam	3.0	W7	L3	W8	W6
6	Murphy, Andre	2.0	W12	W11	L1	L5
7	Crowson, Keegan	2.0	L5	W9	W10	L4
8	Murphy, Anna	2.0	W16	L1	L5	W13
9	Feltman, Sarah	2.0	L3	L7	W16	W12
10	Van Law, Quentin	2.0	L11	W12	L7	W16
11	Flores, Anthony	1.5	W10	L6	-H-	L3
12	Hattula, Sarah	1.0	L6	L10	W17	L9
13	Hidalgo, Jefferson	1.0	-U-	W16	L4	L8
14	Reidy, Matt	1.0	W18	L2	-U-	-U-
15	Caccia, Wyatt	1.0	L2	W17	-U-	-U-
16	Porth, Darwin	0.0	L8	L13	L9	L10
17	Vincent, Kaleb	0.0	-U-	L15	L12	-U-
18	Saldivia, Victor	0.0	L14	-U-	-U-	-U-

Tiebreaks

Place	Name/Team	Score	MMed	Solk	Cum	CumOp
1	Roland, Jeff (15)	4.0	7.5	9.5	10.0	26.0
2	Machin, Drew (8)	3.0	9.0	11.0	9.0	25.0
3	Porth, Desmond (13)	3.0	8.0	9.5	8.0	23.5
4	Machin, Alex (7)	3.0	7.5	7.5	5.0	18.0
5	Porth, Adam (11)	3.0	7.0	9.0	7.0	25.0
6	Murphy, Andre (9)	2.0	4.5	9.5	7.0	23.5
7	Crowson, Keegan (2)	2.0	4.5	9.5	5.0	19.0
8	Murphy, Anna (10)	2.0	4.5	8.5	5.0	20.0
9	Feltman, Sarah (3)	2.0	3.0	6.0	3.0	15.0
10	Van Law, Quentin (17)	2.0	2.5	4.5	4.0	11.5
11	Flores, Anthony (4)	1.5	4.0	7.0	4.5	19.0
12	Hattula, Sarah (5)	1.0	5.0	7.0	2.0	14.0
13	Hidalgo, Jefferson (6)	1.0	2.0	4.5	3.0	10.0
14	Reidy, Matt (14)	1.0	1.5	4.5	4.0	9.0
15	Caccia, Wyatt (1)	1.0	1.0	4.0	3.0	9.0
16	Porth, Darwin (12)	0.0	5.5	7.5	0.0	15.0
17	Vincent, Kaleb (18)	0.0	1.0	3.0	0.0	5.0
18	Saldivia, Victor (16)	0.0	0.0	2.0	0.0	4.0

  

ICA  Story and Photos