Misplaced Pages

Damiano Defence: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 14:21, 26 January 2006 editTom harrison (talk | contribs)Administrators47,534 editsm Reverted edits by Samscone (talk) to last version by 68.167.65.99← Previous edit Revision as of 10:15, 7 February 2006 edit undo62.40.76.253 (talk) +diagramNext edit →
Line 27: Line 27:
The ] code for the Damiano Defence is C40 (King's knight Opening). The ] code for the Damiano Defence is C40 (King's knight Opening).


This opening is never seen in top-level play today. Perhaps the only chess expert to play the black side of it is ]. Sloan has no significant improvement on the main line, however, and plays into it hoping that White doesn't know the line. After 3.Nxe5!, Sloan plays 3...fxe5? 4.Qh5+ Ke7 5.Qxe5+ Kf7 6.Bc4+ d5! 7.Bxd5+ Kg6 8.h4 h6 (8...h5, with similar play, is "book"), when 9.Bxb7! Bd6 10.Qa5! Nc6 11.Bxc6 leaves White with a won position. The greatest player to play it in serious master competition was ], who played it in a match with ] in ] ], lost his queen on move 10, but Schiffers played so weakly that Chigorin later missed a brilliant forced mate and only drew. This opening is never seen in top-level play today. Perhaps the only chess expert to play the black side of it is ]. Sloan has no significant improvement on the main line, however, and plays into it hoping that White doesn't know the line. After 3.Nxe5!, Sloan plays 3...fxe5? 4.Qh5+ Ke7 5.Qxe5+ Kf7 6.Bc4+ d5! 7.Bxd5+ Kg6 8.h4 h6 (8...h5, with similar play, is "book"),
{{Chess diagram|=
| tright
|
|=
8 |rd|nd|bd|qd|__|bd|nd|rd|=
7 |pd|pd|pd|__|__|__|pd|__|=
6 |__|__|__|__|__|__|kd|pd|=
5 |__|__|__|bl|ql|__|__|__|=
4 |__|__|__|__|pl|__|__|pl|=
3 |__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|=
2 |pl|pl|pl|pl|__|pl|pl|__|=
1 |rl|nl|bl|ql|kl|__|__|rl|=
a b c d e f g h
| Sloane's line after 8. ... h6. Now after 9.Bxb7! Black cannot recapture the Bishop 9. ... Bxb7 because of the mate threat on f5.
}}

when 9.Bxb7! Bd6 10.Qa5! Nc6 11.Bxc6 leaves White with a won position. The greatest player to play it in serious master competition was ], who played it in a match with ] in ] ], lost his queen on move 10, but Schiffers played so weakly that Chigorin later missed a brilliant forced mate and only drew.


] ]

Revision as of 10:15, 7 February 2006

abcdefgh
8a8 black rookb8 black knightc8 black bishopd8 black queene8 black kingf8 black bishopg8 black knighth8 black rooka7 black pawnb7 black pawnc7 black pawnd7 black pawng7 black pawnh7 black pawnf6 black pawne5 black pawne4 white pawnf3 white knighta2 white pawnb2 white pawnc2 white pawnd2 white pawnf2 white pawng2 white pawnh2 white pawna1 white rookb1 white knightc1 white bishopd1 white queene1 white kingf1 white bishoph1 white rook8
77
66
55
44
33
22
11
abcdefgh
The Damiano defense

The Damiano Defense is an inferior chess opening characterized by the opening moves

1.e4 e5
2.Nf3 f6?

Black's 2...f6? is a poor move that exposes Black's king, weakens Black's king-side and takes away his knight's best square. 3.d4 and 3.Bc4 are strong replies, but most forceful is the knight sacrifice 3.Nxe5! Taking the knight with 3...fxe5 exposes Black to a deadly attack after 4.Qh5+ Ke7 (4...g6 loses to 5.Qxe5+, forking king and rook) 5.Qxe5+ Kf7 6.Bc4+. (See Sample chess game). Since taking the knight is fatal, after 3.Nxe5 Black should instead play 3...Qe7! 4.Nf3 (4.Qh5+? g6 5.Nxg6 Qxe4+ 6.Be2 Qxg6) Qxe4+ 5.Be2. Black has regained the pawn but has lost time and weakened his kingside, and will lose more time when White chases the queen with Nc3, or with 0-0 and Re1.

The name of the opening comes from the Portuguese master Pedro Damiano (1480-1544), who correctly condemned it as weak.

The ECO code for the Damiano Defence is C40 (King's knight Opening).

This opening is never seen in top-level play today. Perhaps the only chess expert to play the black side of it is Sam Sloan. Sloan has no significant improvement on the main line, however, and plays into it hoping that White doesn't know the line. After 3.Nxe5!, Sloan plays 3...fxe5? 4.Qh5+ Ke7 5.Qxe5+ Kf7 6.Bc4+ d5! 7.Bxd5+ Kg6 8.h4 h6 (8...h5, with similar play, is "book"),

abcdefgh
8a8 black rookb8 black knightc8 black bishopd8 black queenf8 black bishopg8 black knighth8 black rooka7 black pawnb7 black pawnc7 black pawng7 black pawng6 black kingh6 black pawnd5 white bishope5 white queene4 white pawnh4 white pawna2 white pawnb2 white pawnc2 white pawnd2 white pawnf2 white pawng2 white pawna1 white rookb1 white knightc1 white bishopd1 white queene1 white kingh1 white rook8
77
66
55
44
33
22
11
abcdefgh
Sloane's line after 8. ... h6. Now after 9.Bxb7! Black cannot recapture the Bishop 9. ... Bxb7 because of the mate threat on f5.

when 9.Bxb7! Bd6 10.Qa5! Nc6 11.Bxc6 leaves White with a won position. The greatest player to play it in serious master competition was Mikhail Chigorin, who played it in a match with Emmanuel Schiffers in Saint Petersburg 1897, lost his queen on move 10, but Schiffers played so weakly that Chigorin later missed a brilliant forced mate and only drew.

Category: