KG Brilliancies

The King's Gambit, like most gambits, is ripe for unsuspected attacks and brilliant combinations and mates. I though a thread dedicated to brilliant play might be appropriate.

I'm reposting this from a blog entry of mine called, A Clever Little King's Gambit:

Karl Lepge (1831-1890) and August Saalbach (seemingly 1800-1864) played a series of games, two of which are recorded in Fiske's (and Morphy's) 1860 Chess Monthly.  Both Lepge and Saalbach had some loses published in Schachzeitung against Anderssen and Paulsen. They were all played even, so apparently they were both players of some force.  In this KGA (Bishop's Gambit) game however, Saalbach loses to Lepge's clever, some might say brilliant, play:

A repost from Cazenove's Queen Sac:

John Cazenove (1788-1879)  was the son of a Genevese merchant who migrated to London.  He published, anonymously, some pamplets on economics, such as "Principles of Political Economy" and also published a now-rare chess book entitled "A selection of curious and entertaining games at Chess"  in 1817. George Walker claimed the games presented in Cazenove's book are brilliant. Cazenove was also president of the London Chess Club for a time.

Here, Cazenove lets us witness a brilliant Queen sacrifice in a King's Gambit miniature.

Here are two little Prince Dadian gems employing the King's Gambit, both annotated by Steinitz himself:

Here's a sweet little game played by HE Bird against an amateur at QB odds. His opponent played an uninspired Faulbeer against which the hungry Bird sacked a second piece for a voracious attack:

After their match  Morphy played Anderssen 6 casual games in 3 hours. Of these skittles games, Morphy won 5 and lost 1.  Below is a brilliant KGA from that set:

Here is a wonderful KGA Cunnigham defense by a could of obscure players, playing in correspondence 33 years ago:

Rudolf Spielmann earned the sobriquet, "Last Knight of the King's Gambit,"  for his Romantic approach to chess.  Here's a KGA by a young Spielmann against an even younger Richard Reti:

Very good games. Apparently, there are other jewels which also deserve consideration:

Judge Meek of Alabama, who played the miniature above, was a good friend of Judge Morphy of Louisiana and his son Paul.  Meek, like Paul Morphy took part in the 1st American Chess Congress of 1857. Paul played official and unofficial games at the Tournament. It should be noted that Morphy, a master of the KG, used the opening in blindfold simul games, a simul game (Morphy only ever engaged in one regular simul and that was against 5 masters, in which he played and won a KG against HE Bird), casual games, odds-games and serious games, seldom losing.

Here is a Muzio played by Morphy in an off-hand game at the Congress against an unknown opponent.  It features a beautiful epaulet mate (note thay Morphy missed a quicker mate):

This is the KG Morphy played against HE Bird in Morphy's sole sighted simul in which he also played Rivière, Boden, Barnes and Löwenthal, all very strong players. It should be noted that in Morphy's only loss - against Barnes- he had missed a clear win. This KG isn't flashy, but shows how to convert an inititive into a won endgame.

Great examples of brilliant gambit play!Thanks Batgirl!

I have some games from Houdini using the KG. They aren't nearly as pretty, but perhaps their technical brilliancy allows them to be posted here?

Thank you so much for telling me this! I love watching Houdini work, but I can't always understand what's going on... I'm grateful for the enlightenment!

They say houdini is positional but can evade tactical difficulties. The main difference is that it NEVER makes an inferior move or an unsound sac just for nothing. and by the way, which version of houdini r u using. It seems really very robust at the opening! (Sadly, due to lack of funding, I use Houdini 1.0 beta, cant buy the 2.o pro!)

1.5a, with a 64-bit, 4-core Windows Processor. You can download the version I use here:

http://www.cruxis.com/chess/houdini.htm

The link's near the bottom of the page, and is highlighted blue. Hope that helps. :)

As for this version of Houdini playing robustly in the openings, I completely agree! Watching it play the Sicilian and KG against inferior opponents is a hobby of mine.

haha, I would like to make a match between the 2 version.:-D

If anyone has it then, we can set up a correspondence game. I'm going to buy it later in life, when I actually have funding. Consider the fact that Houdini 1.5a is actually second on the IPON list, with Houdini 2.0 as first! 

We will my friend, my bro used to remember the good old days about the RYBKA, one of his frens from Japan had bought rybka.... There was such a hype...phew, rybka has vanished :-|