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Damiano Defence

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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 - see the diagram below (8...h5, with similar play, is "book");

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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 bishope1 white kingh1 white rook8
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Sloan's line after 8. ... h6. Now after 9.Bxb7! Black cannot recapture the Bishop 9. ... Bxb7 because of the mate threat on f5.

now when 9.Bxb7! Bd6 10.Qa5! Nc6 11.Bxc6 leaves White with a won position.

The greatest player to play the Damiano in serious master competition was Mikhail Chigorin, who played the 3...Qe7 line in a match with Emmanuel Schiffers in Saint Petersburg 1897. Chigorin lost his queen on move 10, but Schiffers played so weakly that Chigorin later missed a brilliant forced mate and only drew. Robert McGregor played the Damiano in a 1964 simultaneous exhibition against Bobby Fischer, essaying 3...Qe7 4.Nf3 d5 5.d3 dxe4 6.dxe4 Qxe4+ 7.Be2 Bf5 and drew, although Fischer did not play the best moves.

References

  1. "The Richter riddle". OPEN CHESS DIARY (scroll down to No. 222). Retrieved 2006-03-20.
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