The Gambit Player

                          by Lee Edwards


     The King's Gambit, like the Evans, was regularly seen at the highest
levels of 19th century chess and has been played by the living world
champions Fischer and Spassky.  Think about it -- with his second move White
avoids the Ruy Lopez, the Giucco Piano, the Two Knights Defense, Petroff's
Defense, the Philidor, or the Latvian Gambit.  The King's Gambit is risky for
both players.  Some White attacks, such as the Rice Gambit, the Allgaier
Gambit, and the Ghulam Kassim Gambit are of doubtful soundness, but how many
of you out there know the refutations?
    The most notorious KGA line of the all is the Muzio Gambit (1. e4, e5; 2.
f4, exf4; 3. Nf3, g5; 4. Bc4, g4; 5. 0-0, gxf3).  The Muzio is one of those
openings which is named for the wrong player. It ought to be named for
Polerio, who analyzed it long before it was attributed by a blunder in
translation to Sr. Mutio of Alessandro, "a third class player of the Naples
Academy."                                                                    
  Of course, Black could avoid the Muzio by playing a host of sound third
move alternatives, or he could avoid 4. . ., g4 and play the closely related
Fischer Defense (3. . ., d6) or the Hanstein Gambit (4. . ., d6, Bg7, or h6).
Black could decline the gambit with the Falkbeer (1. e4, e5; 2. f4, d5),
which hardly avoids complications, with 2. . ., Qh4+ when White must reply 3.
g3, or by the more usual 2. . ., Bc5, after which 3. Qh5 is an amusing and
unbooked reply.
    After 1. e4, e5; 2. f4, exf4; 3. Nf3, g5; 4. Bc4, g4; 5. 0-0, gxf3; the
Historic Wild Muzio 6. Bxf7+ is not recommended, although it looks like a fun
try in an occasional speed game.  Play usually proceeds with 6. Qxf3, Qf6; 7.
e5, Qxe5; 8. d3. This line looks like it ought to be decisive for somebody,
but it actually has a drawish reputation. White must kill or be killed, but
he doesn't quite have enough to mate and so settles for a perpetual check.
The German analyst Buecker claims that White gets the best of it by not
trying 7. e5, but by playing Tchigorin's line   7. d3, Bh6; 8. Nc3, Ne7; 9.
Bxf4, Bxf4; 10. Qxf4, Qxf4; 11. Rxf4, f5; 12. exf5, c6; 13. Rae1, Kd8; 14.
Bf7, d5;   15. f6, Ng6; 16. Bxg6, hxg6; 17. Ne2.
    Current attention has focused on the Bishop sacrifice after 5. 0-0, gxf3;
6. Qxf3, Qf6; 7. e5, Qxe5; 8. Bxf7+, Kxf7; 9. d4, Qxd4+; 10. Be3, Qf6. White
could continue with Keres' suggestion 11. Nc3, as in the correspondence game
Haag-Metz (11. . ., Ne7 [. . .d6, 12. Qh5+]; 12. Nd5, Nxd5; 13. Qxd5+, Qe6;
14. Rxf4+, Kg8; 15. Qg5+, Qg6; 16. Rxf8+, Kxf8; 17. Rf1+, 1-0).              
  If you look the Bishop sacrifice line up in your opening manual, however,
you will probably find the line 11. Bxf4, Ne7; 12. Nc3, Nf5; 13. Ne4 with
citations to the analysts Glazkov and Berglund and to the game
Schussler-Akvist, 1976, but White has two better thirteenth moves.  Sapi and
Schneider suggest 13. Nd5, followed by Qg6; 14. Rad1, Bc5+; 15. Be3, Re8; 16.
Bxc5, Rxe1; 17. Rxe1, d6; 18. Ne7, dxc5; 19. Nxg6.  But better still seems to
be 13. Be5, Qxe5; 14. Qh5+, Ke6 (. . . Kf6, 15. Rxf5+, Qxf5; 16. Nd5+, Qxd5;
17. Qxd5) 15. Rae1, Bc5+; 16. Kh1, Ne3; 17. Qf7+, Kd6; 18. Rf6+.
    In view of this, is White's Bishop sacrifice on move eight sound?
According to Buecker, it is not.  Black's way out is not to take the second
pawn, but to play 8. Bxf7+, Kxf7; 9. d4, Qf5! as in Showalter-Taubenhaus, New
York, 1889 and Nugent-Smith, Brooklyn, 1909 [but see Keene, Complete Book of Gambits, page 159, giving 10. g4, Qg6; 11. Bxf4, Nf6; 12. Be5, d6; 13. Bxf6, Bxg4; 14. Qg2, Rg8; 15. Qg2, Rg8; 15. Kh1, Bf5; 16. Qd5! as a slight plus for White; however the analysis in BCO2 and Keene's book may be in error, see GM Joel Benjamin's analysis in Chess Life, December, 1992, page 20.]

Showalter - Taubenhaus
New York, 1889

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.Bc4 g4 5.O-O gxf3 
6.Qxf3 Qf6 7.e5 Qxe5 8.Bxf7+ Kxf7 9.d4 Qf5 10.g4 Qg6 
11.Bxf4 Nf6 12.Nc3 d6 13.Bg3 Kg7 14.Nd5 Nxd5 15.Qxd5 Nc6 
16.Qc4 d5 17.Qxd5 Be6 18.Qb5 Be7 19.Qxb7 Qe4 20.Rae1 Qxd4+ 
21.Rf2 Bd7 22.Qxc7 Bc5 23.Kg2 Qe4+ 24.Rf3 Rhf8 25.Bf4 Rac8 
26.c4 Qxf3+ (0-1)

Rudy Vance - K. Lawson
King's Gambit Accepted
Muzio-Polerio Gambit
APCT, 1990-91

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.Bc4 g4 5.O-O gxf3 
6.Qxf3 Qf6 7.e5 Qxe5 8.Bxf7+ Kxf7 9.d4 Qxd4+ 10.Be3 Qf6 
11.Nc3 Ne7 12.Nd5 Qe5 13.Nxf4 Ke8 14.Rae1 Qf5 15.Bd4 Rg8 
16.Qb3 Qf7 17.Nd5 Rxg2+ 18.Kxg2 Qg6+ 19.Kh1 b6 20.Qf3 (1-0)

Russ Haag - Frank Metz
ICCF Anglo-Pacific Tournament, 1985
King's Gambit Accepted
Muzio-Polerio Variation

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.Bc4 g4 5.O-O gxf3 
6.Qxf3 Qf6 7.e5 Qxe5 8.Bxf7+ Kxf7 9.d4 Qxd4+ 10.Be3 Qf6 
11.Nc3 Ne7 12.Nd5 Nxd5 13.Qxd5+ Qe6 14.Rxf4+ Kg8 15.Qg5+ Qg6 
16.Rxf8+ Kxf8 17.Rf1+ (1-0)