My first game of the recent 4NCL weekend was more notable for the trouble I had getting to it than the game itself. Because of a major accident on the M1, traffic was slow, and because of another problem on the M40, there was no obvious alternative route. I arrived over an hour late for the game, but as there were many players in the same position, the 4NCL organisers had by then taken the decision to ignore the usual default time (one hour). This meant that as long as you arrived with some time on the clock, you were allowed to play. The thirty second increments after each move were a definite help as no-one was left with an impossible number of moves to make in the time available.
My game started well enough, with me gaining a typical advantage as White in the Budapest Gambit. Unfortunately, I then rashly decided to opt for a murky queen sacrifice, and my opponent played rather better in the resulting complications. I lost on time three moves before the time control, although my position was in any case completely lost.
I give the game below with some notes.
James,
Ah!….12…Ra3 & 13…Rd6…..is ‘Drimmers Rook’ (only possible after 4 Nf3 with Bc5 forcing 5 e3 and the need to fianchetto the dark squared Bishop). You correctly, in my opinion, played 4 Bf4 in our Rook Budapest game last year..and beat me fair and square. I can only dream a Drimmers Rook attack will come my way eventually !
Regards, Mick
Hi Mick!
While 4 Bf4 is undoubtably the critical move, 4 Nf3 should give White an edge. As stated in the notes, Qc2 rather than the queen sacrifice looked good for White, as Black’s pieces would then be in a mess. The fundamental difficulty for Black is that his knight on e5 is forced back after f4. Black needs too many move before the rook manouevre becomes dangerous.
Best wishes,
James