Annotated Chess Game 10150194

Ignoring the attack on the e pawn in favour of opening the centre for development. This is now called the Elephant Gambit, a favourite of Dr Philip Corbin, FIDE master and Barbadian Olympiad player who has championed the Elephant Gambit since the 1970s.

White develops and hits f7.

Black forks the knight and the pawn on g2.

The check forces the Black King into the open.

Protecting the knight with tempo by attacking the Queen.

Grabbing the pawn back and forcing a rook move by which White castling Kingside is prevented. Black argues that this compensates for his open king and loss of castling rights.

A move the gambit theorists believe best threatening to take the knight and after dxe5 take the bishop.

White tries to keep the initiative but my understanding is the theorists believe this move is faulty. Retreating the bishop is probably safer. To be fair if white is playing without knowledge of theory this looks very strong, especially in a one day time out game. More time was probably required to see how Black can unpick this attack and gain advantage.

Attacking the Queen.

Pinning the knight but blocking the queen's protection on the knight on e5.

Black offers a piece but gains a strong counter attack. I had taken some time here to check the tricks and traps with the help of notes to an Elephant Gambit correspondence tournament played 20 years ago.

Looks strong as Black is set to lose the pinned knight.

Following the rule that if your opponent is threatening something then you should threaten something bigger in this case the Queen. In addition this prepares Qf3 with mate to be threatened on e2.

The exchanges have forced black's king further into the open but have cost white two of his developed attacking pieces. His others are stuck on the back rank and the bishop of f7 is now vulnerable. This is why a bishop retreat on move 8 was preferable.

This holds the bishop but falls into a combination utilising the open d file. But first the d8 square has to be supported.

Supporting the d8 square with tempo.

Looks reasonable as the Bishop is attacked.

Once again attacking something bigger and with a "Morphy" mate on d1 looming...

No choice...

Finally the killer blow threatening mate in one on e2 and mate in two on d8. There is no defence.

Covering e2 and saving the unprotected bishop.

Forcing the Morphy mate after QxQ Rxd1.

White plays the move then realised the threat, resigning before the opponent logged back on. Whilst I can claim very little of this as my own work it is still a delight to land a win in romantic style.