Leonhardt Gambit | WILD MAD CHESS!
#scandinavian #leonhardtgambit #brilliant
If you've been playing chess for a little bit, you might have recognised a couple of different styles of chess. One is the style we might see from computer vs computer games - accurate, careful, positional. The other style is very "human" - romantic, wild, and unsound! This is the style of gambits, bluffs, and sacrifices!
There is clearly a role for both styles, but I would make the case that the romantic style is extraordinarily fun. Furthermore, at the beginner-intermediate level, it can be much more effective than what computer game evaluation would suggest!
In this game, I make aggressive attacks and unsound sacrifices. By making use of the threat of tricks and traps, I somehow have the initiative for almost the entire game and ultimately win, even though I was objectively worse evaluation-wise according to Stockfish for almost the entire game, and down on material from move 4 to the end!
My opponent played the Scandinavian Main Line (Qa5) and so I responded with the Leonhardt Gambit (1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. b4)! I recently created a video and article on the Leonhardt Queen Trap (https://adventuresofachessnoob.com/2023/05/24/leonhardt-gambit-scandinavian-queen-trap/) and I used the same opening in this game. Black noticed the impending trap and after thinking for two minutes on move 6, played (6... e6) to block the trap. Drats!
However, this move slows down Black's development and blocks in their light square bishop. I note that the trap is still potentially possible but opt to develop my other knight and was angling potentially for a rapid attack on Black's kingside. On move 9, we both mutually castle kingside. On move 10, I play (10. Bb2), taking advantage of the open b-file to laser beam Black's knight on f6, which is only defended by the g7 pawn. In essence, this was a threat to crack their kingside defence!
Black moves their knight, but this was a mistake! Effectively, the Black king now had no pieces defending the kingside. So, I decide that it's piece sacrificing time to smash open king's defending pawns! First (11. Qh5) with a mate threat forcing Black to advance their h-pawn (11... h6). Then bishop sacrifice killing the g-pawn - a brilliant move - forcing the king forward (12. Bxg7 Kxg7). Then, I leave my knight hanging on g5 and bring my light square bishop into the attack; Black can't resist the free knight which is a blunder (13. Bd3 hxg5). I now have a mate in 3, but tunnel vision without deeper calculation resulted in me missing the obvious mating pattern... Boo!
Black's king manages to escape the mating net and it's forced back onto e8. At this point, I'm down two minor pieces with an evaluation of [-5] to [-6], aka, completely losing! However, my advantage is that my remaining pieces are developed, while Black's position is cramped. I also had pins and traps that made it difficult for Black to play. Taking advantage of this, I keep making threats, even though many of these are technically unsound. The challenge of the position resulted in Black running down on time, even though they maintained their technical evaluation advantage. However, Black was only on the defensive and could not mount a counterattack. Separate to evaluation, this FEELS like losing.
When my opponent had less than 2 minutes left on the clock, I straight up hung a piece having made a visual lapse in continuity, but the aggressive move in the context of the game make it seem like a trap (it wasn't!). To bolster this impression, I keep up the complexity by sacrificing another rook for one of Black's pawns - my goal was simply to induce Black to make a panic blunder and this tactic was successful when on move 24, Black hangs their rook trying to counterattack my queen. Two moves later, Black resigns with less than a minute left, psychologically defeated! GG!
Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/79242696009
