MNb wrote on 12/29/10 at 17:24:06:



Not quite.  Robin (Haldane) is a club mate and occasional team mate of mine.  His hack goes,

1 e4 e6, 2 d4 d5, 3 Nc3 Nf6, 4 e5 Nfd7, 5 Qh5

I don't think he'd consider anything that didn't include the queen move as a Hack.


The piece that you linked to was just intended as joke by me as a way to avoid the pure Hack.


As for resources, I don't know of any, but there was a chapter in John Watson's Dangerous Weapons that was based on something very similar.

Are there any resources from white's point of view about the Haldane Hack?  Most books seem to ignore it. Maybe chesspub itself?
It looks like a nice weapon for the 1700-2000 ELO range.

Is this the last word on the Haldane Hack? 

Have there been any developments? Are there any straightforward defences for Black or does he have to bite the bullet and play Alan Walton's complex line?

Ben and all, 

I only took a glance at the position you mentioned, and I agree that Black seems to be having all the fun after 17...e4.  But it still is messy.  My troglodytic mind just can't accept that 5.Qh5 should even yield equality for White.  I wonder if there   aren't major improvements for Black even earlier.

Hi, 

thanks Susan- you are right I was confused between your games with Robin Haldane. 

Ben, what about 

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Qh5 g6 6.Qg4 c5 7.Nf3 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Nxe5 9.Qg3 Nbc6 10.Nxc6 Nxc6 11.Bf4 Bg7 12.Bc7 Qf6 13.Bd6 e5 14.Nb5 Bf5 15.c4 Nd4 

and now go for the attack with 16.Nc7+ Kd7 17.c5 Nc2+ 18.Kd2. 

It looks strange to go here rather than d1, but it's handy to have the king on d2 so that Rxa1 is possible in the future. If Black now checks on h6, then Bxe5 becomes an option for White, e.g. 18...Bh6+ 19.Kd1 Nxa1 20.Bb5+ Kc8 21.Nxa8 with Bxe5 available, or maybe taking on e5 earlier. Also Black's e5-e4 move is a killer in somelines with the bishop still on g7, but here Be5 is possible in reply. 

Well, assuming Bh6+ isn't a strong reply, then 18...Nxa1 19.Nxd5 Qe6- Qd8 loses to Bb5+ and Ne7+] 
19...Qe6 20.Bc4 looks very dangerous for Black. If instead 19...Bh6+ 20.Kc3 is a weird place for the white king, but 20...Qg7 21.Bb5+ Kc8 22.Bxe5 looks very good for White. 

So maybe Black should go for 18...Bh6+ after all. At least if then Nxd5 he has the reply Qg5. 

Quote:


In that line 19.Nxd5 saves the knight and looks to be winning.

15...Nd4 looks interesting. The following line seems more or less forced. 16.Nxd4 exd4 17.cxd5 d3 18.Ba3, and now a couple of possibilities, 18...d2+ 19.Kxd2 Bh6+ 20.Ke1 0-0-0 21.Bc4 Rhe8+ 22.Kf1 when Black looks to have more than enough compensation for the pawn, and 18...Qd4 19.Rd1 Qe4+ 20.Qe3 0-0-0 when I reckon the endgame must be at least slightly better for Black.

Hi Ben, 

thanks for the game. I looked at it for some time and normal moves don't seem to work for White, but maybe 

14.Nb5 Bf5 15.c4!? then if 15...a6 16.Nc7+ Kd7 17.Nxa8 and the knight gets out via b6 if Black takes on d6. So 15...d4 16.Nc7+ Kd7 17.c5 defends the bishop, with Bb5 to follow- or if 17...Rac8, Nd5 and Bc4 or whatever. 

Or 15...dxc4 16.Bxc4 and you get to develop and attack. Much more fun than taking the exchange. 

It wouldn't surprise me if there was a flaw in this, but what do you think? 

Hi,

thanks for the game- I think I might have been in the room as well when it was played! I was thinking that maybe the Bg7 move, even though it looks so obvious, might be a mistake: how about 

5.Qh5 c5 6.Nf3 cxd4 7.Nxd4 g6 8.Qg4 Nxe5 9.Qg3 Nbc6!? 10.Nxc6 Nxc6 11.Bf4 and now 11...Bb4. 

Btw, the Haldane scores 3/3 for White in the games on ChessPub!