The Damino defence

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 f6

Just don't play it as black

The Damino Defence is a very nice psychological defense indeed.

9 times out of 10 it's a U1000 rated player losing their rook on move 6.

 But one time it was a strong amateur pretending to be beginner (because who else plays 2... f6?) and using it to score a draw against Bobby Fischer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOMfveWenSw

Yeah, that's a (at least to me) known simul game.

By by the way, the other 1 out of 10 times is some amateur who thinks he's clever like Sam Sloan.

Is that good or bad?

f6 doesn't lose.

e4 e5 Nf3 f6 Nxe5 Qe7 Nf3 d5 d3 is how "clever" people try it.

The self promotion afterwards is annoying.

I remember reading something like "it's been years since strong players in my area have dared to play Nxe5 against me"

lol

Thanks. I was just wondering how to take it.

I was asking about the reference to Mr. Sloan.

Thanks IM Pfren ;-) nice examples!

Yes, I meant clever sarcastically.

I haven't studied these lines, confident I would get at least a small plus on my own. Thanks for the example games where white is doing better than a small plus heh.

What happens if you play an unrated game and your opponent is 400 points higher rated than you?

Do you think the Damino Defence is losing by force?

Why didn't White play the thematic 3.Nxe5?

Damiano is inaccurate e4 e5 Nf3 f6??

It is only thematic if you know about it!

If you don't know the move f6 is a mistake than you might not ever play 3.Nxe5 because you may fear it loses a piece.

In truth black can not take the knight on e5 because of the tactical shot Qh5+.

However, if no one ever told you about the tactical shot.

You may not ever consider 3.Nxe5.

It is a perfect example of playing against the opponent and not the board.

Here is a game against a player 1650 so about 150 points lower.

The level of chess knowledge he knows has increased of course.

After 3.Nxe5 I know one of the clever ways of playing the line for black is with 3...Qe7.

In this game I chose to play 3...Ne7.

I wanted to adopt a pawn set up of f6 and d6.

If you are familar with the Caro Kann or Semi-Slav.

Than you know they normally have a pawn on c6 and e6.

I wanted to to do the same plan with the pawns shifted over.

The only thing I didn't like about this idea was the fact my dark bishop became a huge inconvince for me.

I believe I have an improvement though.

After 3...Ne7 4.Nf3

I will try 4...Ng6

Than follow up with a Bc5 or b4 than the pawn move d6.

I got really cramped and my pieces stumbled in the below game.

My opponent was pretty vicious lol.

What is the Damino defense?

just curious.