La Bourdonnais vs. Jouy (Paris, 1838)
See my introduction to La Bourdonnais in my previous blog post here.
See my analysis, annotations, and commentary on another game these two played here.
The maestro of Romantic era chess strikes again.
Here is a variation of this game which I came up with for your edification.
And now for my analysis, annotations, and commentary on this game:
- e4 e5
- Nf3 Nc6
- Bc4 Bc5
- b4 Bxb4
This is the Giuoco Piano (the Italian Game) with the Evans Gambit thrown in. Very popular back in the old days, with sharply played games resulting.
- c3 Ba5
- O-O Nf6
- d4 Nxe4
These have been all book moves up until Jouy’s aggressive capture here to threaten to win the white c pawn, which is attacked twice, but defended only once.
- dxe5 Nxc3
La Bourdonnais ignores the threat. Jouy carries out his plan.
- Nxc3 Bxc3
Black attacks the white rook at a1.
- Qb3 Bxa1
La Bourdonnais ignores this threat as well, and forms a battery of white queen and white light-squared bishop to threaten bxf7+.
- Bxf7+ Kf8
- Bg8 Rxg8
Having sacrificed a rook to get an attack on the black king going, white now makes a wild bishop sacrifice to set up a checkmating threat.
- Ng5 Nxe5
La Bourdonnais, after a series of daring sacrifices, is a rook, a bishop, and two pawns down in material. He also had the potential for a forced checkmate at this point. Astonishing.
Jouy takes the black pawn to cover the threat of Qf7#. The only way to stop this attack is to give up his queen with the hard to find move Qxg5.
Next, La Bourdonnais missed the natural-looking move Nxh7+. Instead, he wore down his opponent as follows: 14. f4 d5 15. fxe5+ Ke8 16. Qd3 Rf8 17. Rxf8+ Kxf8 18. Qxh7 Bd4+ 19. Kh1 Qe8 20. Qh8+ Ke7 21. Qxg7+ Kd8 22. Nf7+ Kd7 23. Nd8+ Qe7 24. e6+ Ke8 25. Qg6+ Kf8 26. Bh6+ Bg7 27. Qh7 Bxe6 28. Qh8+ Bg8 29. Bxg7+ Ke8 30. Qxg8+ Kd7 31. Qxd5+ Ke8 32. Ne6 1-0.
But for our purposes, we are going to concentrate on this king-hunt variation:
- Nxh7+ Ke8
- Qxg8+ Ke7
White wins back a rook, and now the black king will have no peace.
- Bg5+ Kd6
This skewers the black king and black queen, but there’s no need to stop and take the black queen. Let’s bring the black king out in the open, and chase him around for a little while for our amusement.
- Rd1+ Kc6
Always bring as many pieces into an attack against the enemy king as possible, unless you find a quicker checkmate.
Black can delay checkmate for two more moves by blocking checks with his knight and bishop, giving them up to captures with check by the white rook, but I left those out.
- Qd5+ Kb6
- Rb1+ Ka6
- Qb5#
La Bourdonnais was able to create spectacular and entertaining possibilities in this game with his wild sacrifices. Don’t you agree? How do you think he did it? I don’t know what made him so good. He was like a pinball wizard.
Actually, we have this takeaway pattern, time after time. In the final position above, all of white’s pieces are engaged in the assault on the black king, and three black pieces are remaining on their beginning squares, including the black queen.
If you enjoyed this, take a look at my first self-published chess book by going here.
