Annotated chess game

This has also been called the Greco Counter Gambit. It is both an extremely rare opening, and gives at the same time in my view a huge opening advantage to white. BUT!!! White has to be VERY careful, which is why this is a very interesting choice by Bigpeta, and a most useful contribution to our Club!

There is in my view, more romance to the name Greco Counter-gambit, but I think Latvian is more well known. It turns out that the opening advantage White gets isn't so large, and both sides are walking a tightrope.

Ooh, I do so love this opening.

3. Nxe5 Nf6 4. Bc4 Qe7 5. D4 +/-

Probably 3.Nxe5 is marginally the best for White, but also playable are 3.exf5 - King's Gambit Reversed; or 3.Bc4. That last line, popularised by Paul Keres, leads to some of the most ferocious play you will ever see on a chessboard. Check this out: game

3.Bc4 is my personal favorite as White, though I think 3.d4! is the one I fear the most as Black. If I see 3.d3 or 3.Nc3, I generally feel pretty confident--they are, in my opinion, too slow.

Why trade (fair and square) when having a significant advantage? In my view, 4. Nxe4 pretty much loses that advantage, whereas 4. Nxe5 would have maintained it! In chess you must be aggressive......

Indeed! Aggressive attack and control of the centre. Black has at this point achieved all the benefits of the unusual opening!

What more can black ask for! he trades a wing pawn for a center pawn and dominates the center.

Having got to thins point (and I agree 4.Nxe5 was the better choice for White), I would now seriously consider getting right in Black's face here: 5.Nxe5!? dxe4 6.Qh5ch g6 7.Nxg6! hxg6 8.Qxh8 Nf6 9.Bc4 Qd4 and now choose between 10.d3 and 10.0-0. The game become asymmetrical but probably about even - White has rook and 2 for the two knights given up - playable for both sides, methinks.

I agree with Ion--this opening is a firefight; White does best to treat it as such.

5. Nc3 is another unnecessary retreat. 5. Nxe5 was also possible. (5....dxe4; 6. Qh5+) 6. Ne5 had been somewhat better!

6.Ne5 brought up the possibility of 7.Qh5ch once more. Black would have had to play 6...Nf6 whereat 7.d4 gives White a safe position and his own knights safely corralled.

Black is certainly playing a harrassing sort of game. The question becomes one of just how secure is the large centre he is building. Black might have a bit of an edge, here, but intimidating though his position looks, it is by no means crushing... not yet!

...c4 was indeed important to watch for--You couldn't have played 9.Bxd3, for instance, because then 9...c4 wins a piece.

At this point I think the game was pretty equal even though white had lost the potential advantage from the opening. 10. Qe2 is a bad mistake and it is difficult to understand the basis of it

The problem of 10.Qe2 is that it interrupts the development of White's Game. 10.Be2 was indicated. It looks as though White wanted to pin the Bishop to threaten 11.Nxc5. Black ducks the pin, but he need not have...

Ducking the pin. But 10...Nc6 would have been interesting. Would White have taken the pawn? 10...Nc6! 11.Nxc5?? Nd4! 12.Qe5 Nc2ch 13.Kd1 Nxa1. If 12.Nxb7 in this line, Black has to content himself with a mere extra knight: 12...Bxb7 13.Qd1. In response to 10...Nc6 White was probably best developing his moveable bishop to f4 or g5.

Losing the plot. But that is all too easy to do when things have taken an unpleasant turn right out of the opening. In a less nervous state of mind, perhaps White would have played 11.Bg5 and then 12.0-0-0 with a playable game. True, Black's advantage is now quite marked, but a resolute White could still defend.

Do you know? I was expecting 14...Bb4! here. A possible line goes 14...Bb4 15.Nc3 Ne4!? (15...Re8 is possible, too) 16.Nxe4 ... (seems to be the best White has) 16... Bxd2ch 17.Bxd2. With two minor pieces and one pawn for the Queen, White would have had a mountain to climb, but if he could get his pieces into useful action might still have made a fight of it. It is a measure of how strong Black's position has become that he had more than one strong move at his disposal. 14...Ne4 is very powerful, and all.

16. Nd2? Indeed, I'm afraid it is not a good idea to put your pieces into an absolute pin if you can possibly avoid it. If you had moved your bishop to d2 then black must either move his bishop off the e1-a5 diagonal or trade and you could have then moved that knight to d2. This move deserves at least one question mark, possibly two because you retreated a knight unnecessarily into a pin which blocked in your dsb which could have gone to that square. Unfortunately black now lines up a deadly discovery on your queen which you can only get out of by playing Bd3 but then that leaves the e column open to a check from a white rook and your king will be really stuck in the centre and you will have a heck of a job to get the h1 rook out. All in all, I feel that sadly your game went irretrievably south from here. I will now seek verification from the Inquest Jury.

Not only do positional considerations indicate 16.Bd2, there are tactical objection to the Knight move as well. I am anticipating here 16...Nxf2 with 17....d3 in mind after 17.Rf1 or 17.0-0.