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It was an honor
to be part of the Streatham and Brixton chess
scene back in the late 1970's. Led by Nigel Povah,
the club rose to become one of the strongest
in Great Britain and built up a fearsome reputation.
With such a mighty gathering of minds, a remarkable
number of new opening ideas were formulated;
some good, some brilliant, some bad, some horrible,
most based on outright, violent attack. Heaven
knows whether you have seen the upcoming idea
before. I doubt it. Please put on your sunglasses
to avoid the glare.
R Haldane – H Happel
(2310) [C11]
Guernsey, 1987
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Qh5!?
Robin Haldane always
was a very ingenious attacking player and here
is one of his more outrageous ideas. A Queen
on Rook Five always intimidates and even if Black
wins a pawn, as he frequently does in this line,
he has to watch out for the tricks. Happel goes
straight for the gain of material.
5...c5 6.Nf3
cxd4 7.Nxd4 g6 8.Qg4 Nxe5 9.Qg3
That's the compensation.
The White Queen takes up a dangerous kingside
position.
9...Bg7 10.Bf4
f6?!
White
has to act quickly now before Black takes over
the entire center of the board. 10...Nbc6 would
be my choice, but Andrew Smith shows how to play
against that: 11.Nxc6! Nxc6 12.Bc7 Qf6 13.Bd6
White has to keep the Black King in the middle.
13...a6 (13...Nd4 14.Bd3 Bd7 15.0–0–0 Nf5 16.Bxf5
Qxf5 17.Rhe1 Rc8 18.Rd3 d4 19.Rf3 Qa5 20.Qh4
g5 21.Qh5
Back,
and with interest. It's been very difficult to
believe in White's play for some time but look
at the end result! 21...Rf8 22.Bxf8 dxc3 23.Qxf7+
Kd8 24.Qe7+ Kc7 25.Qd6+ Kd8 26.Rd1 cxb2+ 27.Kb1
Rc7 28.Bxg7, 1–0, A Smith - H Richards, Torquay
1998) 14.0–0–0 Ne7 15.Bc5 Bh6+ 16.Kb1 Bf4 17.Qg4
Be5 18.Qa4+ Bd7 19.Qa3 b6 20.Bd6 Bxd6 21.Qxd6
with the same type of dark-squared compensation
that we have already seen. By keeping the King
in the middle he takes all the fluency out of
Black's game. Players begin to feel very unsettled
when they have to think carefully over every
single move, here due to the out-of-play Rook
on h8. 21...Nf5 22.Qxb6 Qd8 23.Qb4 Qe7 24.Qf4
0–0 25.g4 Nh4 26.Qe5 Bc6 27.Bd3 f6 28.Qg3 g5
29.f4 h6 30.Rhe1 Rfd8 31.Bf5 Nxf5 32.gxf5 Rd6
33.fxg5 hxg5 34.h4 d4 35.hxg5 fxg5 36.f6 Qf8,
1–0, A Smith - P Benson, St Helier 1997. I cannot
vouch for the soundness of White's approach,
just point out that it is difficult to counter.
11.Bb5+! Kf7
There will always
be chances now (11...Bd7 12.Nxe6).
12.0–0–0 Bd7
13.Bxe5
I think I prefer
centralization: 13.Rhe1 Nbc6 14.Bxc6 bxc6 (14...Bxc6
15.Bxe5 fxe5 16.Nf3 e4 17.Nxe4; 14...Nxc6 15.Ndb5)
15.Bxe5 fxe5 16.Nf3 e4 17.Ne5+ Bxe5 18.Qxe5 Rf8
19.f3 with an unclear position.
13...fxe5 14.Nf3
Bxb5
14...Qf6 was a much
tougher defense: 15.Ng5+ Kg8 16.Kb1 Nc6 17.Rhe1
a6.
15.Nxb5 Bf6 16.Nxe5+
Kg7 17.Ng4 Na6 18.Rhe1
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