ReneDescartes wrote on 08/07/10 at 17:56:21:


Very courageous because it's not easy to play with the king in the airstream and in your final position withe's knight seem to take out again and then withe is clearly better

I have been examining this (Gennochio-Foisor) sacrifice for about three hours on my own and with the aid of various engines.

It does look like White has sufficient compensation for the piece after all, but I don't think this is the sort of attack that plays itself. I usually play the Winawer or ...Nf6 Tarrasch, but I would be glad to defend this.  As chk pointed out, good defensive players flourish when they, well, defend.

After 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3/d2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bd7 5.Nf3 Bc6 6.Neg5 Bd6 7.Nxf7 Kxf7 8.Ng5+ Ke8 9.Nxe6 Qf6 10.Bc4 b5(this move is useful in the line below since it makes room for the Bc6 to retreat and forces White to give up the f1-a6 diagonal) 11 Bb3, I would be strongly tempted to play, in place of the (probably objectively best) move 11...Qg6, the interesting line 11...Bxg2!? 12 Rg1 Qf3! (the point) when most White players would be shocked at such a rapid forced queen trade (13.Be2 is no longer possible because of ...b5, and 13.Qd2 is met by Qe4+). Many would develop the Bc1 or take the pawn on g6 with check. But these cede Black an advantage. The only good move is psychologically harder to find than the easy tactic it is based on would suggest, because White retreats a piece and actually forces the queen trade to happen on the very next move: 13.Ng5! which after 13...Qxd1 14.Kxd1 Bb7 (14...Nf6 Rxg2 gives White too much activity, e.g. 15.Nc6 Nf7 16.Rf8 Rxg7) 15.Nf7 Bxh2  16.Re1 Kf8 wins back a rook to go up the exchange in a mutually awkward "fourth stage" position.  Different engines evaluate this differently (Rybka is the kindest to Black, giving White less than a +.75-pawn advantage), but I think all engines underestimate the importance that Black's protected passed wing pawn will take on as the endgame coalesces. Honestly, I must admit I don't think Black has full compensation for the exchange, but OTB I would probably venture it. Even if White finds 13.Ng5, Black certainly won't be mated quickly.

dmp4373 wrote on 08/07/10 at 00:35:02:

McDonald states in the note on the next page (89) that he thinks 9. Bc4! (his !) is better, because it gives white a strong initiative. But he doesn't follow that up with any specific moves or analysis, since his point is to focus on a better line for black, not give the details for white to attack the line that he's telling black players to avoid.

--Fromper

By the way, I would like to ask:

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 d:e4 4.N:e4 Bd7 5.Nf3 Bc6 6.Neg5

and now some books give 6...Nd7 as weak move (?)
but does anybody know a clear way to white advantage after:

7.N:f7 K:f7 8.Ng5+ Ke8?

Paddy wrote on 08/05/10 at 10:07:03:


Good question. White has a good score with 7.Bd3 but it seems black has resources too, e.g:

6. Neg5 Be7 7. Bd3 Nd7 8. Qe2 h6!? has scored well in two games, point being that 9. Nxe6?! doesn't impress due to 9...fxe6 10. Bg6+? (10. Qxe6 Nf8) 10... Kf8 11. Qxe6 Bb4+ 12. c3 Qe7

It's probably just that this is a quite unusual continuation and McDonald writing from the Black side and having little belief in a hack sac like Nxf7 probably just chose one line he liked for black and then went on to more popular lines.

MNb wrote on 08/04/10 at 20:18:43:


After 7... Kxf7 8.Ng5+ Ke8 9.Nxe6 Qh4 10.Bd3 Bxg2, instead of 11.Nxg7+ I'd like to suggest 11.Bg5 Qh3 12.Qe2 with some serious threats to Black's king.

Thanks, DMP. I am not completely convinced, but 7.Nxf7 looks interesting. It has been played in Genocchio-Foisor, Milan 2009: Kxf7 8.Ng5+ Ke8 9.Nxe6 Qh4 10.Nxg7+ iso 10.Bd3, which can be met with ....Bxg2 11.Nxg7+ Kf7 12.Nf5 Qh3 13.Rg1 Nc6.

After 9... Qe7 10.Bc4 b5 11.Bb3 Nf6, I think 12.0-0 is much stronger than 12.Bg5. It contains the threat of 13.Re1 whereas 12.Bg5 merely looks to restrain by pin.

One more item to note is that McDonald says there are no games with 7.Nxf7 in his datebase and I can't find any in mine also. So the move may never have been played. Perhaps there is a good reason for that, but I can't see one yet.

In his book 'how to play against 1.e4' McDonald says Neg5 attacking f7 is what scares Ft. Knox players the most. And gives this reason, "... black not only delays his kingside development for two moves whilst he puts the bishop on c6, but also because the bishop is moving away from the defense of the e6-square."

The Goldfinger Variation   
(seemed an appropriate name)

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3/d2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bd7 5.Nf3 Bc6 6.Neg5 Bd6 (McDonald says this is best) 7.Nxf7 Kxf7 8.Ng5+ Ke8 (McDonald says here that White doesn't have enough for the piece. I'm not so sure about that.) 9.Nxe6

1) 9... Qh4 10.Bd3 Qf6 11.0-0 Ne7 12.Re1 h6 13.c4 Bd7 14.d5 Na6

2) 9... Qf6 10.Bc4 Qg6 11.Ng5 Nh6 12.0-0 Kd8 13.Bd3 Qf6 14.c4

3) 9... Qe7 10.Bc4 b5 11.Bb3 Qh4 12.Nxg7+ Kd7 13.Qd3 Qe4+ 14.Qxe4 Bxe4

4) 9... Qd7 10.Bc4 Bxg2 11.Rg1 Qc6 12.Qe2 Bf3 13.d5 Bxe2 14.dxc6 Bxc4 15.cxb7 Bd5 16.bxa8Q Bxa8 17.Rxg7

White seems to be doing well in all variations. Another consideration is the nature of play, the Ft. Knox is played for a reason and a wild melee with black having a long desperate defense isn't one of them!

On ICC I once played the Ft. Knox in a blitz game. My opponent (white) resigned after 9 moves and said, "Why play chess? Just take a sleeping pill!"

The Goldfinger Variation gives the white player an opportunity to make life miserable for a black player looking for a safe and solid position.