What everyone at Salem CHESS CLUB thought was impossible has happened: the Gabridoodle has claimed his first grandmaster
scalp ! GM
Larry Christiansen was giving a simultaneous
exhibition at Boston's South Station when he suffered this shocking and scarcely believable defeat at the
sweaty hands of the Gabridoodle.
Once again, we thank the
Boylston Chess Club for organizing the event.
Bonus: someone on the Twitter
caught me in direct confrontation with the GM.
We aren't in the habit of publishing entire games, perhaps due to
Piratical shyness, but we're making an exception for this one.
Christiansen, Larry - Gabridoodle, 0-1
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e5 5. Bb5 Bd7 6. Bxd7 Nxd7 7. Ne2 Ngf6 8. Nbc3 Be7 9. Ng3 O-O 10. O-O h6 11. Qf3 a6 12. Nf5 Ne8 13. Nd5 Bf6 14. Rd1 b5 15. Qg3 Bg5 16. h4 Bxc1 17. Raxc1 Kh7 18. c4 Ndf6 19. Nxf6 Qxf6 20. Rxd6 Nxd6 21. Nxd6 Qxd6 22. c5 Qe6 23. c6 Rac8 24. c7 Qd6 25. Qc3 Rfe8
After a
sharp Sicilian opening, Christiansen developed some
concrete threats by move 14. Severe danger is lurking on the g7 and e7 squares (highlighted in yellow). The bishop is eyeing the pawn at h6 and the queen is ready to scoot over to the g file. It's going to take some fancy defensive footwork for the Gabridoodle to survive this
onslaught.
Sometimes a counter-attack is the best way to meet an attack. Here the Gabridoodle concluded it was time to
pull the trigger and went a bit
berzerk, moving his bishop to g5. Christiansen, a famous pawn-pusher, responded with h4 (green arrow). The Gabridoodle continued the counter-attack, grabbing the bishop at c1. After Christiansen recpatured with the rook, the Gabridoodle moved his king to h7 (yellow arrows). This was perhaps
the key defensive move, getting his king off the
horrendous g file.
Some more fancy defensive footwork came at moves 18 and 19. Our friend the pawn pusher pushed his c-pawn; the Gabridoodle ignored this and
thrust his knight to f6 (yellow arrows). Christiansen took (green arrow) and the Gabridoodle recaptured with his queen (red arrow). Note that the black knight at e8 absolutely could not be moved because it was defending the
critical g7 square. After all this, the Gabridoodle's position remained
precarious, but two attackers (the dangerous bishop and a pesky knight) were eliminated and a lot of pressure taken off the e7 square.
At move 20, Christiansen made a
hideous blunder, capturing the d6 pawn with his rook (green arrow). At first the Gabridoodle thought his queen was trapped but then saw the obvious: he could simply capture the
offending rook with his knight (red arrow) ! Note that this knight, previously unmovable, was free to move now that the queen was defending g7. Christiansen, expressing
frustration non-verbally, recaptured with his knight, which the Gabridoodle in turn captured with the queen (yellow arrows). With the second knight out of the way, that critical g7 square could now be defended by the king !
With Christiansen down a rook, the Gabridoodle now had a winning position. Perhaps the grandmaster could have tried to soldier on, playing for
tricks, but with the scheduled end of the simul approaching, he decided to throw in the towel at move 25 and give the Gabridoodle his prize: a free tournament entry at the Boylston Chess Club.
The Gabridoodle's triumph on the actual board:
And the scoresheet:
The other game:
The Gabridoodle's triumph came in the day's second game. Here in the first game, GM Christiansen
waltzed to victory, although it took 31 moves. In a downright
instructional moment, Christiansen has used his bishop, along with the f and h pawns to toss the Gabridoodle's king in
jail and throw away the key
No comments:
Post a Comment