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Atkins Diet - A Danish with Smothered Mate

Submitted by billwall on Sun, 07/29/2007 at 5:28pm.

Henry Atkins was a British International Master who liked playing the Danish Gambit.  He won the British Championship 9 times between 1905 and 1925 (7 in a row starting in 1905).  Here is a game in which he won by playing a Danish Gambit and swindling his way to a smothered mate.  By the way, he sacrificed some pawns, both is bishops, a knight, both his rooks and his queen!  He finally mated with a lone knight.

 

» posted in Amazing Games
 

Comments:

by MagnusM - 4 months ago
Vilnius Lithuania
Member Since: Jul 2011
Member Points: 533

Home preparation I think. If you prepare such a line for a blitz game your opponent won't be able to defend.

by chessgr8 - 19 months ago
tehran Iran
Member Since: Jul 2010
Member Points: 3

really beautiful.how did they calculate all of the moves.every black moves is forced

by cberman - 2 years ago
Maryland United States
Member Since: Jun 2009
Member Points: 385

This is a crazy game, though I've a feeling such an ambitious attack, with sacrifices and all, would be easily parried by someone like Karpov. Still. That's pretty.

by legodood - 2 years ago
Alta Vista Belize
Member Since: Apr 2008
Member Points: 974

nice game

by dwaxe - 3 years ago
Thousand Oaks, California United States
Member Since: May 2008
Member Points: 1049

Stumble +1.

by staggerlee - 3 years ago
United States
Member Since: Mar 2008
Member Points: 891

You don't see games like this anymore.

by figrock - 3 years ago
United States
Member Since: Jul 2008
Member Points: 1438

One might wonder if Atkins saw the mate on move 12..? Anyway, complicating amazing!

by stefsias - 3 years ago
Jægerspris Denmark
Member Since: Jul 2008
Member Points: 10
This is a brilliant example of what rapid development, sound reasoning and good intuition can attain for you. I dont think Atkins calculated it all out, but he was confident in his attack, and experienced at sacrificing material for positional and tactical gains/opportunities. May this be a lesson to us all, - play gambits more! Being from Denmark, ofcourse I can always advocate the danish gambit :-)
by kenytiger - 4 years ago
United States
Member Since: Aug 2007
Member Points: 1066
This is the most amazing game that I've ever seen. Atkins sacrificed all his pieces except his lone knight and still won. That's insane, I don't know about nobody else who did anything like that before or after this game; not even Capablanca or Fisher or the great sacrificial artist Mikhail Tal. If someone knows about another similar game please let me know. This is an addition to my collection of gems.
by digdugdiggy - 4 years ago
Dayton, TX United States
Member Since: Jul 2007
Member Points: 14
Smothered mates look real interesting.
by vinodagnihotri - 4 years ago
MP India
Member Since: Jun 2007
Member Points: 171
Amazing game! In the beginning it looked like White is loosing material for nothing... sometimes I just wonder how people can think so many moves in advance.
by bendcat - 4 years ago
Marikina, PH Philippines
Member Since: Jun 2007
Member Points: 1299
wow, this was GM thing.
by farbror - 4 years ago
Uppsala Sweden
Member Since: May 2007
Member Points: 2762
Wow, Funny Game!
by Timour - 4 years ago
Canada
Member Since: Jul 2007
Member Points: 3

Nice game; at the beginning I thought white was taking a lot of risks by moving his pieces into attack. Good use of the rook on e1 too! Smothered mate must be really satisfying... ^_^

 

by chessiq - 4 years ago
Malawi
Member Since: Jun 2007
Member Points: 659
What a title for the article! LOL! and What a game!
 

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