Chess Improvement

Lovely game, greatly enjoyed it and the commentary but I am puzzled by one point. Isn’t 27. …Nxa1# (or 27…Na5#) better than 27…Nd4+? Not trying to nitpick, did I miss something?
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Never mind, finally found it. Queen takes the bishop. Knew I was missing something, now where was that coffee cup?
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5. d4 seems a bit anti-positional here.

There is opening theory on an early … Nc6, of course. In his excellent work “The King’s Gambit for the Creative Aggressor”, against an early … Nc6 Stefan Johansson recommends instead 5.b3 (the actual score of the variation incorporates his recommendation of 4 … h6 for Black and only then 5 … Nc6, but I don’t believe that this move order affects the result, as long as White gets in b3 before Black takes on c4).

Then, when Black takes the B/c4, White can recapture (as he does here on his 11th) with bxc4, increasing his control of the central d5 square (although giving up the light B relieves the pressure on f7, which is insufficient anyway).

In other words, White doesn’t need to move the light B at all; he can let Black waste 2 development tempi capturing it, and strengthen his own game in the process. And in a gambit opening, of course, speed is everything – Black should, in principle, lose on the basis of White’s development advantage alone, even if it takes further sacs by White to demonstrate this.

Here’s Johansson’s recommendation for this line:

1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 d6 4. Bc4 h6 5. b3 Nc6 6. Bb2 Nf6 7. Nc3 Be7
8. Qe2 O-O 9. O-O-O Ne5 10. d4 Nxc4 11. bxc4

[For completeness, the rest of Johansson's analysis of the main line of
this variation goes: 11 ... Ng4 12. Rdg1 f5 13. g3 fxe4 14. Nxe4 Bf5
15. gxf4 Bxe4 16. Qxe4 Qd7 17. Rg2 Rae8 18. Rhg1 h5 19. h3 Bg5 20. Qd5+ Kh8 21. Qxg5 *]

I believe the position after White’s 11th is already greatly in White’s favor. Unlike other KGA variations, White has been able to castle safely and will bring his other Rook to the Kingside next. The resulting
pressure on the black King’s position is crushing, and Black has no compensation to speak of.

You might find improvements after 11. bxc4; I’d be interested to see them. In general, I would consider computer play in gambit positions of dubious quality; masters routinely offer computers a positional pawn sac to throw off their evaluation routines, and it works. So, pitching two computers against each other becomes doubly suspect under such conditions.

A more valid approach to employing a computer for analysis might be for an IM-level player to take both sides of the same position against a
computer over several games, and net out the results. This was the
approach used (to supplement the analysis of master games) in the
Powerplay! series of opening books, and it resulted in effective
demonstrations of themes that the computer (Fritz) was not able to
“see”.

For an example of the intersection of this approach with a gambit
opening, I recommend the Powerplay! book on the Benko Gambit (no longer in print, but available occasionally via used book merchants), which was written with analysis by future US Correspondence Champion (then a Senior Postal Master) Jon Edwards. In the sample games, the computer routinely botched handling the positional problems that this gambit poses.

So, I wouldn’t really expect a PC to find the correct strategies for either side of the KGA against a strong (and booked-up) player, let alone to win. Tactically speaking, this PC vs PC game (from move 5) may be instructive, but for opening theory, I wouldn’t rely on it.

Of course, when I play the KG, I avoid all of this analysis completely
with 3. Bc4. That way, there’s nothing for a later … g4 to hit, and
the solid Hanstein can’t even get started. I’m also amazed at the
number of times Black will throw out … Qh4+?, which here just loses 2
tempi, since the Q’s best square after the natural reply sequence Kf1!/Nf3 is d8 again.

For example, … Qe7 just walks into Nc3-d5. Of course, trying … Nf6 to prevent this in turn walks into e5, when Black’s development starts to get badly gummed up.
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Let my add here that I sent this to Chess-Improvement knowing full well that most of you are way above the level of these comments, but hoping you may find some use for this material as you teach the game to others, such as children of the elderly.

KGAFM-Lesson.pgn

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