I take Sam's silence to mean he's chicken to accept the Damiano Knight from
someone who's studied the opening for 10 minutes.
Cluck.
"Sam Sloan" wrote in message
...
Damiano's Defense Declined
Opponents are becoming afraid of my Damiano's Defense. I played it
twice in the Viking 4 County Open in Hackettstown NJ yesterday and
both of my opponents declined to take the pawn. I won the first game
easily. In the second game I played it against a rated master. I
achieved a winning position and I was thinking that I was going to
score my first victory over a master with the Damiano's Defense.
However, he came up with a fantastic queen sacrifice followed by a
bishop sacrifice which worked because my pieces happened to be in
exactly the right spot for a knight fork winning the game.
I cannot take any credit away from my opponent. He came up with
something really good. This should go in one of those White to play
and win problem collections.
After the game, I asked him why he did not take the pawn when I played
Damianos Defense. He said that he has overheard me mention Damianos
Defense in one of my conversations so he knew that I knew what I was
doing. Also, I had won my previous round game with Damianos Defense.
He said that he wanted to win the game, so he decided that he has
better not take that pawn.
He also said that he has see my picture in Chess Life magazine but he
had thought that I was just a chess politico. He had not realized that
I actually play the game too!
Here is the game: The first point of the game is that after 1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 f6 3. Nc3 Bc5 he can no longer take the pawn because when he
checks with the queen I have the f8 square for my king. So, if he
wants to take the pawn he must do it on move three. Otherwise, the
opportunity will be lost forever.
Because of his passive play, I quickly built up an overwhelming
position and won a pawn. I would appreciate it if somebody could run
this game through Fritz because I believe that I had several wins.
I felt that my 35. . . . d4 was a good move because it set up knight
forks. One of the spectators, a master, felt that that was the losing
move however.
For sure, if he had not sacrificed his queen he had a bad position,
possibly losing, because of 38. Kg2 Ne5+ 39. Kh2 Bxb7. Although
material is equal, my threats of knight forks and discovered checks
against his exposed king gives me the advantage.
During the game, I though he could win with a rook sacrifice with 36.
Rxb5. However, after the game he pointed out that he had seen that and
instead I win by responding with a queen sacrifice with 36. Rxb5 Qxb5
!!
Sam Sloan
[Event "Viking 4 County Open"]
[Site "Hackettstown NJ"]
[Date "2005.08.20"]
[Round "04"]
[White "West, James R."]
[Black "Sloan, Sam"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C40"]
[WhiteElo "2206"]
[BlackElo "1941"]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6 3.Nc3 Bc5 4.Bc4 Ne7 5.d3 c6 6.a4 d5 7.Bb3 Bg4
8.h3 Bh5 9.Qe2 Qd6 10.a5 Nd7 11.Na4 Bb4+ 12.Bd2 b5 13.axb6 axb6
14.g4 Bg6 15.c3 Ba5 16.exd5 cxd5 17.Bc2 b5 18.Nc5 Qxc5 19.b4 Qc7
20.O-O O-O 21.bxa5 Rxa5 22.Rxa5 Qxa5 23.c4 Qc7 24.Bb4 Re8 25.cxb5
Qb6 26.Bxe7 Rxe7 27.Rb1 Nc5 28.Nh4 Be8 29.d4 Ne6 30.Nf5 Rb7
31.dxe5 Bxb5 32.Qd2 Qc5 33.exf6 gxf6 34.Bd3 Ng5 35.Qe3 d4 36.Qg3
Bc6 37.Rxb7 Nf3+ 38.Qxf3 (38. Kg2 Ne5+ 39. Kh2 Bxb7) 38...Bxf3
39.Bc4+ {Black resigns because of Qxc4 40. Rb8+ Kf7 41. Nd6# or 39.
... Kf8 40. Rb8+ Qc8 41. Qxc8#) 1-0
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