NEW Silver Gambit Suite

[Albert Silver]

The following is an openings suite based entirely on gambits. Opening theory has many times many gambits, some more playable than others. This is a selection of 20 positions, covering the most famous, such as the Blackmar-Diemer, the Smith-Morra, and even the Marshall Gambit (Ruy Lopez), and some less so.

The suite also includes 3 positions involving early piece sacrifices. These are the Cochrane, the Blackburne-Schilling (unplayable move), and the timeless Muzio. Note that in all cases, engines were consulted to be certain they chose varied continuations, nor did they start thinking they were dead lost, which would have been dreadfully unfair. No evals started at 0.7 down or worse. Hopefully they will lead to fun and dynamic matches. Enjoy.

[Albert Silver]

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "From's Gambit"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "A02"]

1. f4 e5 2. fxe5 *

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "Lisitsin Gambit"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "A04"]

1. Nf3 f5 2. e4 *

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "Englund Gambit"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "A40"]

1. d4 e5 2. dxe5 Nc6 3. Nf3 Qe7 *

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "Staunton Gambit"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "A82"]

1. d4 f5 2. e4 fxe4 3. Nc3 Nf6 *

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "Sicilian, Wing Gambit"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "B20"]

1. e4 c5 2. b4 cxb4 *

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "Smith-Morra Gambit"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "B21"]

1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 dxc3 4. Nxc3 *

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "Danish Gambit, Alekhine var."]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "C21"]

1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. c3 dxc3 4. Nxc3 *

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "Urusov Gambit"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "C24"]

1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nf3 *

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "King's Gambit, Falkbeer Countergam"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "C31"]

1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 3. exd5 *

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "King's Gambit, Classical"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "C37"]

1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 g5 4. Bc4 *

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "King's Gambit, Muzio Gambit"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "C37"]

1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 g5 4. Bc4 g4 5. O-O gxf3 6. Qxf3 *

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "Latvian Gambit"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "C40"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f5 *

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "Cochrane Gambit"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "C42"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nxf7 Kxf7 *

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "Goring Gambit"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "C44"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. c3 dxc3 5. Nxc3 *

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "Blackburne-Shilling Gambit"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "C50"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nd4 4. Nxe5 Qg5 5. Bxf7+ *

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "Evans Gambit"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "C51"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. b4 Bxb4 5. c3 *

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "Schliemann Defence"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "C63"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 f5 *

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "Ruy Lopez, Marshall Gambit"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "C89"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. c3
d5 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. Rxe5 c6 *

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "Blackmar-Diemer Gambit"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "D00"]

1. d4 d5 2. e4 dxe4 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. f3 *

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Silver Gambit Suite"]
[Black "Albin Countergambit"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "D08"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 d4 *

[yanquis1972]

sounds like a fun one to put my crazy junior personality to the test with. although it might be too sound, really -- in these positions where top engines believe they are down, he's likely to think it's game, set, & match - for him.

it was quite fun watching the games against fritz 5.32, which i have discovered, is quite a tactical monster in his own right, though probably inferior at the rapid early pruning that modern engines do, so a decent sparring partner. in 1+1 though junior with 2 cores had about 100 elo advantage. the evals were like mirror images in many of the games, & more often than not junior's prevailed. fun stuff.

i hope to do another match with a slower, 'knowledge based' engine of roughly fritz 5.32's strength; say an old hiarcs or shredder or perhaps delfi. maybe i'll use this suite.

[Albert Silver]

sounds like a fun one to put my crazy junior personality to the test with. although it might be too sound, really -- in these positions where top engines believe they are down, he's likely to think it's game, set, & match - for him.

it was quite fun watching the games against fritz 5.32, which i have discovered, is quite a tactical monster in his own right, though probably inferior at the rapid early pruning that modern engines do, so a decent sparring partner. in 1+1 though junior with 2 cores had about 100 elo advantage. the evals were like mirror images in many of the games, & more often than not junior's prevailed. fun stuff.

i hope to do another match with a slower, 'knowledge based' engine of roughly fritz 5.32's strength; say an old hiarcs or shredder or perhaps delfi. maybe i'll use this suite.

Toss in a couple of other hyper-aggressive engines such as Stockfish and Spark, and it should be a regular bloodbath.

[Dann Corbit]

Code: Select all

rnbqkbnr/pppp1ppp/8/4P3/8/8/PPPPP1PP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq - id "Silver-Gambit.01";
rnbqkbnr/ppppp1pp/8/5p2/4P3/5N2/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKB1R b KQkq - id "Silver-Gambit.02";
r1b1kbnr/ppppqppp/2n5/4P3/8/5N2/PPP1PPPP/RNBQKB1R w KQkq - id "Silver-Gambit.03";
rnbqkb1r/ppppp1pp/5n2/8/3Pp3/2N5/PPP2PPP/R1BQKBNR w KQkq - id "Silver-Gambit.04";
rnbqkbnr/pp1ppppp/8/8/1p2P3/8/P1PP1PPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - id "Silver-Gambit.05";
rnbqkbnr/pp1ppppp/8/8/4P3/2N5/PP3PPP/R1BQKBNR b KQkq - id "Silver-Gambit.06";
rnbqkbnr/pppp1ppp/8/8/4P3/2N5/PP3PPP/R1BQKBNR b KQkq - id "Silver-Gambit.07";
rnbqkb1r/pppp1ppp/5n2/8/2BpP3/5N2/PPP2PPP/RNBQK2R b KQkq - id "Silver-Gambit.08";
rnbqkbnr/ppp2ppp/8/3Pp3/5P2/8/PPPP2PP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq - id "Silver-Gambit.09";
rnbqkbnr/pppp1p1p/8/6p1/2B1Pp2/5N2/PPPP2PP/RNBQK2R b KQkq - id "Silver-Gambit.10";
rnbqkbnr/pppp1p1p/8/8/2B1Pp2/5Q2/PPPP2PP/RNB2RK1 b kq - id "Silver-Gambit.11";
rnbqkbnr/pppp2pp/8/4pp2/4P3/5N2/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKB1R w KQkq - id "Silver-Gambit.12";
rnbq1b1r/ppp2kpp/3p1n2/8/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKB1R w KQ - id "Silver-Gambit.13";
r1bqkbnr/pppp1ppp/2n5/8/4P3/2N2N2/PP3PPP/R1BQKB1R b KQkq - id "Silver-Gambit.14";
r1b1kbnr/pppp1Bpp/8/4N1q1/3nP3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQK2R b KQkq - id "Silver-Gambit.15";
r1bqk1nr/pppp1ppp/2n5/4p3/1bB1P3/2P2N2/P2P1PPP/RNBQK2R b KQkq - id "Silver-Gambit.16";
r1bqkbnr/pppp2pp/2n5/1B2pp2/4P3/5N2/PPPP1PPP/RNBQK2R w KQkq - id "Silver-Gambit.17";
r1bq1rk1/4bppp/p1p5/1p1nR3/8/1BP5/PP1P1PPP/RNBQ2K1 w - - id "Silver-Gambit.18";
rnbqkb1r/ppp1pppp/5n2/8/3Pp3/2N2P2/PPP3PP/R1BQKBNR b KQkq - id "Silver-Gambit.19";
rnbqkbnr/ppp2ppp/8/4P3/2Pp4/8/PP2PPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - id "Silver-Gambit.20";

[M ANSARI]

Thanks for this great piece of work!

[yanquis1972]

overnight i ran an 80 game 1+1 match between my psycho junior (this time on just one core) and fritz 5.32, & junior won +46 =6 -28 -- so unless fritz 5.32 is sub-2500 and/or the personality is a particular nemesis for him, it seems my goal of creating a GM strength coffeehouse player is achieved, at least at fast chess, though i am honestly scared to run the junior personality at long time controls, much less blitz instead of bullet. i fear he will spontaneously combust with long calculation of his lines.

[jwes]

I just saw this game going on at Linares. It might be a good addition.

[Event "XXVII SuperGM"]
[Site "Linares ESP"]
[Date "2010.02.16"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Grischuk, Alexander"]
[Black "Vallejo Pons, Francisco"]
[Result "*"]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 e6 7.f3 Bb4 8.e4 Bxe4

[Dann Corbit]

The terminal position:
[d]rn1qk2r/pp3ppp/2p1pn2/4N3/PbpPb3/2N2P2/1P4PP/R1BQKB1R w KQkq -

[jwes]

The game ended in a draw. I believe that this one of a very few positions where a piece sacrifice is played regularly in master chess.