I'd like to have some fun examining Karsten Mueller & Martin Vogt's DANISH DYNAMITE. Their book actually covers the Danish Gambit, the Goering Gambit, some Scotch Gambits, and the Urusov Gambit. It is exceedingly dense and has more information in one place than any other book that I have seen on most of this material. At first DANISH DYNAMITE reads mostly like a well-researched recital of games and others' analysis with little commentary. Indeed, the authors have given us almost no verbal explanation, but a close look reveals very many precise notes and suggestions for both sides as well as assessments that show how very carefully the material has been examined. GM Mueller's name alone lends DANISH DYNAMITE the high credibility that is often lacking in books by lesser-used openings. Having said that, the book is very hard to navigate in and could have been laid out in a much friendlier manner just by expanding the number of sections and having a better index.

I have gone over this book rather thoroughly because I had the opportunity to make direct comparisons between SURVIVING AND BEATING ANNOYING OPENINGS, a book that I wrote with Eric Schiller and published in 2003. It deals with a selection of variations after 1.e4 e5, giving recommendations for both sides. Normally I don't compare analysis in any of my own books with books that are on the same subject. That's because I have a forum on TWIC in which to make my own work look good relative to those under review. Here, however, I don't think there's serious competition between these books about such obscure variations (furthermore, Mueller and Voight's is encyclopedic). I also can't imagine that any adherent of these gambits won't want to have a copy of DANISH DYNAMITE regardless of such details

Mueller and Vogt (henceforth “M&V”) did have a copy of our book (“SBACO”) but perhaps it came late, because I see only one mention of it. They quote and cite our book in the line 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 Ne7. This is an extremely short section (less than a column) in M&V, especially considering that the line seems to equalize fairly easily and quickly (and that co-author Voigt got a horrible position with it in the only game they or we cite). Perhaps the authors aren't too happy with such a solution when they have devoted so much fine analysis to the well-known Capablanca Defense. 3.c3 d5 4.exd5 Qxd5 5.cxd4 Nc6 6.Nf3 Bb4+ 7.Nc3 Bg4 8.Be2 Bxf3 9.Bxf3 Qc4!. The section's assessments seem fair, however, and don't claim any advantage for White. Speaking of which, The Introduction quotes 3 strong players who suggest that the Danish Gambit is not refuted. That's not saying too much about an opening that is defined by moves 3 and 4 and in which White has the advantage of moving first! To me, the real test of these openings is not whether White is worse by force after move 4, but whether one comes out of them with interesting and equal play.

I systematically compared SBACO with M&V's and came up with these lines that seemed to be the most interesting and that I had most of the responsibility for (thus the use of “I” a lot). Remember that Eric and I tried to cover about 42 openings and many more variations, so our time and space for the three openings below was necessarily limited. In all modesty, however, I think that we did a pretty good job of covering them.

Now for more theory than most of you will ever examine:

I Danish Accepted A

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.c3 dxc3 5.Bc4 cxb2 6.Bxb2 d6 and:

7.Qb3 and:

1) 7...Qd7 8.Bc3 Nh6 9.0–0 f6 10.Nbd2 Nf7 11.Rad1 Ncd8

A poor move; I gave the obvious improvement 11...Nce5! 12.Be2 (12.Nxe5 Nxe5 13.Be2 Qf7) 12...Nxf3+ 13.Nxf3 Be7 and Black is better.

12.Nd4 Be7 and 13.Nf5 was unclear – M&V.  

2) 7...Nh6 isn't very common but threatens ...Na5, for example, 8.Bc3

8.Na3 Na5 9.Qa4+ c6 and I give 10.Bd3 b5! etc. while K&M cite a game with 10.Be2 b5!, both good.

8...Qe7 9.0–0 and M&V's suggestion 9...Ng4! looks good, e.g., 10.Nbd2 Nge5 11.Bd5 Nd8. We gave 9...a6?! 10.a4 Ng4! etc. which gives White more options on move 10.

B. 7.0–0 Be6 8.Bxe6 fxe6 9.Qb3 Qd7 10.Ng5 Nd8 11.f4 Nf6

Here M&V don't give our suggested alternative 11...Ne7!?, which looks fine: 12.Nd2 (12.f5 exf5 [12...e5] 13.exf5 Qc6 14.Kh1 h6) 12...Nec6 "which avoids having a knight on f6 getting hit with tempo after e5." Then we quote a game that should have led to a nice advantage for Black.

12.Nd2

12.f5!? e5 13.Nc3 and both SBACO and M+V suggest 13...c6! which I feel is very strong.

12...Be7 13.e5

After 13.f5?!, I suggested 13...d5! 14.fxe6 (14.e5 Ng4) 14...Nxe6 15.e5 (15.Qxb7 0–0) 15...Nxg5 16.exf6 gxf6 17.Qxb7 0–0 and wins. And 13.Rad1 0–0 leads to -/+ according to M+V.

13...dxe5 14.fxe5 Nd5 with two extra pawns and the better position.

So is the whole 7.0–0 Be6 line good for Black?

C 7.Nc3 Be7 8.Qb3 Nh6

9.Nd5

At this point M+V say "Astonishingly, we found no games with 9...0-0”. Likewise I had said: “What could be an interesting and straightforward solution is 9...0–0(!) Then the move 10.Qc3, which was probably thought to be the problem, looks quite satisfactory for Black”, giving 10...Bf6 11.Nxf6+ Qxf6 12.Qxf6 gxf6 13.Bxf6 Be6. M&V give exactly the same line and suggest 13...Ng4; both are great for Black.

Therefore M&V suggest 10.h3, but instead of their 10...Kh8, 10...Be6! looks very strong: 11.Qxb7 Na5 12.Qa6 Nxc4 13.Qxc4 Bxd5 14.exd5 (14.Qxd5 Rb8) 14...Bf6.

So 8...Nh6 apparently poses real problems for the viability of 7.Nc3 and 8.Qb3.

II Goering Gambit Accepted

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.c3 dxc3 5.Nxc3 Bb4 6.Bc4 d6 7.0–0 

On 7.Qb3, I recommend the order 7...Bxc3+! , and if 8.bxc3, 8...Qd7 follows, when the idea of ...Na5 costs White time, e.g., 9.Ng5 Nh6! again threatens ...Na5.

M+V correctly prefer the other recapture 8.Qxc3. Then after 8...Qf6 M+V give 9.Qb3 Nge7 10.0–0 0–0 11.Bg5 Qg6 12.Rae1 unclear /=+. I think White has something, but not enough after 12...Bg4, e.g., 13.Bxe7 Nxe7 14.e5 Nc6! =+. This doesn't say much for the 7.Qb3 line!.

7...Bxc3 8.bxc3 Bg4 9.Qb3 Bxf3 10.Bxf7+ Kf8

Surely this is one of the richest positions of the Goering Gambit, leading to fascinating complications.

11.gxf3

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