Misplaced Pages

Damiano Defence

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.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Krakatoa (talk | contribs) at 17:37, 9 October 2005 (add material on Sloan's treatment; delete stub notation -- coverage is generous for such a weak, obscure opening). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 17:37, 9 October 2005 by Krakatoa (talk | contribs) (add material on Sloan's treatment; delete stub notation -- coverage is generous for such a weak, obscure opening)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
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 a chess opening characterized by the opening moves

1.e4 e5
2.Nf3 f6?

Black's 2...f6? is a poor move that 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).

Perhaps the only chess expert to play the black side of this opening is Sam Sloan. Sloan has no significant improvement on the main line, however. After 3.Nex5!, he plays 3...fxe5? hoping that White is unfamiliar with the line. After 4.Qh5+, Sloan continues 4...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.

Category: