Damiano's Defense Srikes !!

They laughed when I sat down with my Damiano's Defense. Then, I kicked
sand in my opponent's face. They said that I could not win with the
Damiano's Defense, unless my opponent was a 1400 player.

They were wrong. I believe that I can win with this defense against
anybody rated less than 2100.

Here is the game. My opponent is a rapidfly improving young player who
is rated number 3 in the USA for his age group. He started to smirk
when he first saw my Damiano's Defense, but then he went into a deep
think before finally deciding to grab the pawn. Then, I knew I had
him. He played slowly and carefully, almost running out of time on his
clock, until he resigned just before he was going to be checkmated.

Sam Sloan

[Event "World Open"]
[Site "Philadelphia USA"]
[Date "2003.07.06"]
[Round "08"]
[White "Thaler, Michael"]
[Black "Sloan, Sam"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1985"]
[BlackElo "1925"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6 3.Nxe5 fxe5 4.Qh5+ Ke7 5.Qxe5+ Kf7 6.Bc4+ d5
7.Bxd5+ Kg6 8.Bxb7 Bd6 9.Qd5 Nf6 10.Qb3 Bxb7 11.Qxb7 Nbd7 12.d3
Ng4 13.f4 Qh4+ 14.g3 Qh3 15.e5 Rhe8 16.f5+ Kf7 17.d4 N7xe5
18.dxe5 Rxe5+ 19.Kd2 Rae8 20.Qf3 Nxh2 21.Kd3 Rxf5 22.Bf4 Bxf4
23.Rxh2 Qxh2 24.gxf4 Rxf4 25.Qd5+ Kf8 26.Qc5+ Kg8 27.Nc3 Qg3+
28.Kd2 Rf2+ 0-1

Sam,

Wow that was a great game.

It's great that you played it in tournament play. Your comment of
anybody less than 2100 is valid and a rational few amateur players use
today. It's amazing how many under 2100s are completely booked up on GM
lines today. Your opening proves its effective to shock these people out
of their books where their middlegame prowess is put to the test.

I am going to look further into your Damiano's Defense. Do you have any
resources?

http://www.academicchess.com
Best Learning Chess Site on the Planet

Did you tell him there was no Santa Claus too? and take away his candy?

(Sam Sloan) wrote in message ...
Damiano's Defense Srikes !!

They laughed when I sat down with my Damiano's Defense. Then, I kicked
sand in my opponent's face. They said that I could not win with the
Damiano's Defense, unless my opponent was a 1400 player.

They were wrong. I believe that I can win with this defense against
anybody rated less than 2100.

Here is the game. My opponent is a rapidfly improving young player who
is rated number 3 in the USA for his age group. He started to smirk
when he first saw my Damiano's Defense, but then he went into a deep
think before finally deciding to grab the pawn. Then, I knew I had
him. He played slowly and carefully, almost running out of time on his
clock, until he resigned just before he was going to be checkmated.

Sam Sloan

[Event "World Open"]
[Site "Philadelphia USA"]
[Date "2003.07.06"]
[Round "08"]
[White "Thaler, Michael"]
[Black "Sloan, Sam"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1985"]
[BlackElo "1925"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6 3.Nxe5 fxe5 4.Qh5+ Ke7 5.Qxe5+ Kf7 6.Bc4+ d5
7.Bxd5+ Kg6 8.Bxb7 Bd6 9.Qd5 Nf6 10.Qb3 Bxb7 11.Qxb7 Nbd7 12.d3
Ng4 13.f4 Qh4+ 14.g3 Qh3 15.e5 Rhe8 16.f5+ Kf7 17.d4 N7xe5
18.dxe5 Rxe5+ 19.Kd2 Rae8 20.Qf3 Nxh2 21.Kd3 Rxf5 22.Bf4 Bxf4
23.Rxh2 Qxh2 24.gxf4 Rxf4 25.Qd5+ Kf8 26.Qc5+ Kg8 27.Nc3 Qg3+
28.Kd2 Rf2+ 0-1

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

--Nick

Good for you Sam! Congratulations on your win!

"Sam Sloan" wrote in message
...
Damiano's Defense Srikes !!

They laughed when I sat down with my Damiano's Defense. Then, I kicked
sand in my opponent's face. They said that I could not win with the
Damiano's Defense, unless my opponent was a 1400 player.

They were wrong. I believe that I can win with this defense against
anybody rated less than 2100.

Here is the game. My opponent is a rapidfly improving young player who
is rated number 3 in the USA for his age group. He started to smirk
when he first saw my Damiano's Defense, but then he went into a deep
think before finally deciding to grab the pawn. Then, I knew I had
him. He played slowly and carefully, almost running out of time on his
clock, until he resigned just before he was going to be checkmated.

Sam Sloan

[Event "World Open"]
[Site "Philadelphia USA"]
[Date "2003.07.06"]
[Round "08"]
[White "Thaler, Michael"]
[Black "Sloan, Sam"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1985"]
[BlackElo "1925"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6 3.Nxe5 fxe5 4.Qh5+ Ke7 5.Qxe5+ Kf7 6.Bc4+ d5
7.Bxd5+ Kg6 8.Bxb7 Bd6 9.Qd5 Nf6 10.Qb3 Bxb7 11.Qxb7 Nbd7 12.d3
Ng4 13.f4 Qh4+ 14.g3 Qh3 15.e5 Rhe8 16.f5+ Kf7 17.d4 N7xe5
18.dxe5 Rxe5+ 19.Kd2 Rae8 20.Qf3 Nxh2 21.Kd3 Rxf5 22.Bf4 Bxf4
23.Rxh2 Qxh2 24.gxf4 Rxf4 25.Qd5+ Kf8 26.Qc5+ Kg8 27.Nc3 Qg3+
28.Kd2 Rf2+ 0-1

(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

(Nick) wrote in message . com...

Dear Mr. Bauer,

I have enjoyed visiting your website, particularly reading your book reviews.

Always nice to hear! As you may know, my reviews are now found on IM
Jeremy Silman's website. Jeremy is in the middle of revamping his
site, and when complete, I think it will be the premier location for
chess book reviews, instructional and other chess material on the
Internet.

Sam Sloan is not the only person to have played the popular "You must have
forgotten by now about my confuted post(s)" opening in discussions here.
His error this time was in attempting his rhetorical line again before
allowing many more tempi to have elapsed.

LOL! Sam posts so much on so many topiocs that it's conceivable he
just "missed" my post, but that may be giving too much benefit of the
doubt.

By the way, when I wrote that Sam Sloan was "fortunate" in his Damiano's
Defense game at the World Open, I did not intend to imply that he was
undeserving of his victory. To his credit, Sam Sloan played the opening
that he was advocating here, and he played it better than his opponent and
won the game. But if Sam Sloan's still happy with playing Damiano's Defense,
then some of his future opponents probably will be even happier about it.

--Nick

You're right that one should be applauded for the courage of their
convictions. However, I'd absolutely love to have white in either of
the ...h6 or ...h5 lines that I analyzed.

Randy Bauer