| Gaylord is a small town in the northern part of Michigan’s lower peninsula,
about a three hour drive north from Detroit on I-75. It is the most active
town in the upper L.P. for chess, being the place where the energetic chess
promoter David Kreger resides. Last December I drove up there to play in
a one-day tournament, managing to go 4-0 and win it. I found the turnout
small, but the people very pleasant and friendly. |
| In the third round I had black against the aforementioned TD, Dave
Kreger. He essayed a gambit against me, going into a line of the Marshall
Gambit in the Slav where white gives up a pawn for good black-square play.
Only Dave did not give up the pawn. At the point where white normally gives
up the pawn, he held onto it! So I am using the term Gaylord Gambit for
a line which is usually used as a gambit, but the “gambiteer” does not
give anything up. Note that this differs from a pseudo-gambit, which is
where the gambiteer is actually offering a gambit, but the acceptance yields
an inferior position for the player taking the material. In Gaylord, they
make sure you do not get any material when they “offer a gambit.” I will
annotate the game so you can see what I am talking about, since this sounds
a bit illogical. |
| Kreger-Ciaffone started out 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3. The most natural
move here for black is 3…Nf6. But white can meet 3…Nf6 with 4.Bg5 and steer
the game into the Queens Gambit Declined. I did not want to play the QGD.
It is a very solid opening for black, and suitable for defending against
a strong opponent when a draw would be a satisfactory result. But it is
not so good a weapon when paired down, as here. |
| My preferred move in this position for black is 3…c6. By setting
up the pawn triangle of e6-d5-c6, black is aiming for the Semi-Slav
Defense, a blend of the e6 of the QGD and the c6 of the Slav. The idea
is to set up the possibility of grabbing white’s c-pawn, which can then
be held by playing b5 (now that b5 is supported by the pawn c6). Of course,
setting up this pawn chain is somewhat risky, since black is grabbing a
pawn at the expense of development, but life at the chessboard with black
is not supposed to be easy. If you want to unbalance the position to create
winning chances, you usually are forced to create losing chances as well. |
| After 3…c6, I intended to meet 4.Bg5 by White with 4…h6, the Duras
variation. White will now be faced with making a concession of some sort.
He has to either play 5.Bxf6 giving up the bishop-pair, or 5.Bh4 giving
black a chance to grab the c4 pawn, since the unpin g5 now comes into the
picture. In either line of the Duras, white has full compensation for his
concession, but black has achieved his aim of unbalancing the position.
Another move white sometimes plays here is 4.cxd5, an innocuous line in
the QGD Exchange Variation, but simplifying the position. |
| There is an independent line in the position after 3…c6 that black
must be prepared to face in this move-order. That is the move 4.e4, the
Marshall Gambit in the Semi-Slav. This line is named after Frank Marshall,
a strong and aggressive American player from early in the last century
(do not forget the 1900’s are now the last century). Marshall is best-known
for his famous gambit in the Ruy Lopez, but he offered material in many
opening lines. The usual idea for white here is to give up a pawn with
the further continuation 4…dxe4 5.Nxe4 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Qxd4 7.Bxb4 Qxe4+, where
white has serious attacking chances for his pawn minus I have only one
defeat in all my games in this line, losing to GM Smbat Lputian of Armenia
in a 1994 game where I got hit with a great theoretical novelty, which
was published in IM Jack Peters’ column in the L.A. Times. |
| Kreger played the Marshall Gambit 4.e4 against me. Frankly, I was happy
to see Dave go into this line, because it sets up an unbalanced position
that I have played many times and know well. Our game went 4…dxe4 5.Nxe4
Bb4+, but white did not give up a pawn with 6.Bd2. Instead, he simply played
6.Nc3, leaving nothing en prise. Kreger’s 6.Nc3 is a known move, having
been used in a GM game Seirawan-Ribli among others. It is okay for white,
but contrary to the spirit of the line––at least, contrary to the spirit
of the great gambit player Frank Marshall. |
| Black has equal development here, but he needs to attack white’s d4
pawn, so he usually plays 6…c5, which I did. Kreger replied 7.Be3, a move
that Russell Chauvenet had beaten me with many years ago when I now took
the pawn on d4. This time I played the correct 7…Nf6. The game went 8.dxc5
Qa5 9.Qc2, bringing about the following position: |
Position after 9.Qc2
|
| Black has a good position, since he is well-developed and can get his
pawn back anytime he wants. I played 9…Ng4 here, an error, as the reply
10.Bd2 is fine for white. (Correct would have been 9…Nc6 for black.) But
my opponent found a bad answer, 10.Bd4? I should have played 10…e5! here
with a terrific position. Instead, I gambited a pawn with 10…Nc6? After
the further 11.Bxg7 Rg8 I thought black was in command, but Dave played
a strong move that I had not foreseen, 12.Qxh7––and offered me a draw!
Here is the position: |
Position after 12.Qxh7
|
| Should black accept a draw offer? |
| There is no doubt that white has the advantage here. On the other hand,
black can sacrifice the exchange by 12…Rxg7 13.Qxg7 e5 and get some play
for his pawn-and-exchange deficit in material. I thought a while, then
decided to gamble by continuing the game with this line. I said, “I didn’t
drive up here all the way to Gaylord to play a twelve-move draw,” and sacked
the exchange. The further course of the game was very complicated and interesting.
Kreger played quite well for a while, and I got into a losing position.
But my opponent missed a killer move, and I was able to win the game and
the tournament, justifying my decision. (As this is an openings article,
I will not show how all of this happened.) |
| Folks, if you are not a romantic gambiteer who is willing to bravely
sacrifice material for an attack, you can play a Gaylord Gambit instead.
Enter a line that is normally a gambit variation––but don’t give up anything.
It is easier to get a free meal in Gaylord than a free pawn. They are much
more generous away from the chessboard up there. Come to think of it, the
Gaylord Gambit is played quite often in real life. Someone acts like they
are going to give something away, but you never actually get it. |
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