Hard Chess With USCF Senior Master Mark Morss: The Campbell Report
Hard Chess With USCF Senior Master Mark Morss: The Campbell Report
Hard Chess With USCF Senior Master Mark Morss: The Campbell Report
Hard Chess
with USCF Senior Master Mark Morss
August 1999
The Max Lange Once More; the Staunton Gambit
The subject of last month's column was Rubinstein's defense to the Max
Lange, 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d4 exd4 5. O-O Bc5 6. e5 d5 7.
exf6 dxc4 8. Re1+ Be6 9. Ng5 Qd5 10. Nc3 Qf5 11. Nce4 Bf8!, an idea for
which I have a high regard. A principal point of theoretical contention in this
defense is the relative chances after 12. Nxf7 Kxf7 13. Ng5+ Kg8 14. g4 Qg6
15. Rxe6 gxf6 16. Qf3 Kg7 17. Bf4 Bd6, as played in Baffo-Morss, USCF93RT21 and considered last month. But in the notes to that game, as pointed out
by Owen D. Lyne, a statistician at the University of Nottingham, England, I did not
consider some key ideas for White that have been advocated in the theoretical
literature.
has 20. Nxd6 h5 21. Nxb7 Ne5 22. Re7+ Kh8 23. Qf4 (23. Qg3 hxg4 looks
good for Black) 23... Qxg4+ 24. Qg3 Rae8 and Black has the more active
pieces.
The second and perhaps more important idea to which Mr. Lyne calls attention
(from the position in the previous diagram) is 18. h4, a move advocated by
Keene and Levy in the 1984 edition of theirOpening Repertoire for the Attacking
Player. This creates some problems for Black. For example, 18... h5 19. Bxd6
cxd6 20. Rxd6 and the threat of 21. Rd7+ is very difficult to meet. Instead of
18h5, Keene and Levy quote an analysis of Estrin's which goes 18Bxf4!? 19.
Qxf4 Rhe8! (I very much doubt that Black has time for 19Rac8) 20. Qxc7+
Kg8.
position from the Black side. My opponent was Jeff Wilson, another good player
from the Chicago area. I chose 13h6, supposing that the opening of the g-file
would be very good for me. My opponent agreed and chose to retreat, and I used
my initiative to force exchanges into a very comfortable ending that I was able to
win.
Faithless fellow that I am, I think that my once-beloved Staunton Gambit is
reaching the end of its days in serious chess competitions. I'll keep a picture of it
on my desk to remind me of our former happy times together.