(Sam Sloan) wrote in message ...
On 7 Jul 2003 11:30:15 -0700, (Nick) wrote:


Sam Sloan was fortunate that his opponent did not play 8 h4 h5 9 Bxb7.

--Nick

We have been through this before. In response to 8. h4 I play h6, not
h5. I am confident that I can survive with a playable game.

Sam Sloan

Yes, we have been through this before. Sloan's original analysis of 8...h6 was:


However, Black does better with 8. ... h6. Now, if 9. Bxb7 Bd6 10. Qa5
Nc6 11. Bxc6 Rb8 and Black has compensation for the four pawns. For
example, the game could continue 12. Nc3 Nf6 13. e5 Bb4 14. Qa4 Ng4
and now I think Black has good winning chances.

Worse for White is 9. h5+ because after 9. ... Kh7 10. Bxb7 Bd6 11.
Qa5 Nc6 12. Bxc6 Rb8 13. Nc3 Nf6 and Black's king is safe while
White's king is stranded in the center.

I must admit that I have never actually played Damiano's Defense, but
I think it could be played with some success.

Sam Sloan

To which I replied:

In the line with 8...h6, instead of the pedestrian 12.Nc3, 12.e5!
creates immediate problems because Be4+ would be embarrassing. Black
can try to deal with this tactically by 12...Qg5 (using the pin on the
opposite queen), but after the relatively straightforward sequence of
13.Be4+ Bf5 14.exd6 Bxe4 15.Qxg5 hxg5 16.dxc7 Rc8 17.d3 Bxg2 18.Rg1
Bb7 19.Rxg5 Rxc7 20.Nc3 white emerges 4 pawns up. While I will
concede that black will probably win the h5 pawn, the extra three
should still suffice.

Sam conveniently dropped the discussion at that point.

Randy Bauer