Tuesday, January 1

Happy New Year 1913!

We begin the year with a game from the Antipodes, played recently in Australia in the gambit tournament of the Melbourne Chess Club.  We leave it to our readers to determine whether Black might have done better to play 22...Rxc5 rather than 22...Kxc6; it is likewise open to question whether White, in turn, might have better substituted the immediate 26.cxd5+ for 26.b5+.  To our eye, after 26.cxd5+ the recapture 26...Rxd5 seems poor in view of 27.b5+, when 27...Kxc5 is answered by 28.Qa3+, 27...Kb6 by 28.Rxd5, and 27...Kd6 by 28.Nxe4+ fxe4 29.Qa3+ Kxe6 30.Qxe7+ Kxe7 31.Rxd5.  If this be correct, Black may well be obliged to meet 26.cxd5+ with 26...Kd6, when 27.Nxe4+ fxe4 28.Qxe4 appears to leave the result of the game very much an open question.  It is in any event a spirited and hard-fought encounter, and will provide much fodder for analytically-inclined devotees.

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