Budapest Gambit

The Budapest Gambit is one of the least common gambits but still offers black a lot of interesting play. In the main line for example, white can easily fall into a trap that ends in checkmate very early in the game.

In the second move, black looks to give up his pawn on e5 but then starts to develop of his pieces to add pressure on the e5 pawn. White will be unable to hold onto the extra pawn and therefore many times will just give back the pawn and continue to develop pieces and not worry about the pawn advantage.

In most gambits, the side giving up material will dictate how the game continues, in the budapest gambit it is usually white that decides how the game will continue. In the main line it is white that can decide whether to stay up in material and have doubled pawns or to give back the pawn and have a double bishop pair. This is not to say it is still not playable for black, but white does have more options in the budapest than in other gambits.


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G7 Drawn After Tough Fight

The seventh game of the World Championship match in Sofia, Bulgaria also ended in a draw. Challenger Veselin Topalov showed impressive opening preparation and put the World Champion under considerable pressure. However, Anand defended accurately and perhaps even missed a win after the time control.


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Former FIDE President Campomanes Dies At 83

Florencio Campomanes died today in the Philippines. This was confirmed to us by FIDE Treasurer Nigel Freeman. Campomanes was FIDE President from 1982 to 1995. He was 83.

Campomanes was born Manila, February 22, 1927. He earned his B.A. in Political Science from the University of the Philippines in 1948. Then, he studied at Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island), where he earned his M.A. in 1951. He undertook doctoral studies at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., from 1949-54.

He was a National Master strength player during his peak years, and was Philippine national champion on two occasions (1956, 1960). He represented his country at five Chess Olympiads: Moscow 1956, Munich 1958, Leipzig 1960, Varna 1962, and Havana 1966. He met some distinguished opposition as a result, losing games against Pal Benko and Ludek Pachman at Moscow 1956, Oscar Panno at Munich 1958, Mikhail Tal and Miguel Najdorf at Leipzig 1960, and Lev Polugaevsky at Havana 1966.

He became involved in FIDE as a national delegate, and worked his way into prominence in Asian chess organization. Campomanes helped to organize the World Championship match at Baguio, Philippines, in 1978, between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi.

He is best remembered as the President of the international chess organization FIDE. He was elected to that post in 1982, and held it until 1995, through several controversies, most notably the abandonment of the 1984-85 World Championship between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov without result, after 48 games, and the break-away from FIDE of the Professional Chess Association in 1993.

On the positive side, the membership of FIDE grew significantly, by about 50 member nations, during his tenure as FIDE president. Campomanes was succeeded as FIDE President in 1995 by Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. He was appointed FIDE Honorary President and was often present at significant international competitions such as Zonal and Continental Championships, Chess Olympiads and World Chess Championships.

In early February 2007, Florencio Campomanes suffered injuries from a car accident, at which time he was in intensive care. No details of his death are known at this point, but over the years he had suffered from “all sorts of things”, FIDE Treasurer Nigel Freeman told us.

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Blackmar-Diemer Gambit

The Blackmar-Diemer Gambit is one of the most ambitious attempts for white to gain a developmental advantage.

From the second move white looks to give away his king's pawn. Although many top GM's find this to be unsound, many club level players have great success with it and if you are a very aggressive player I recommend playing it from time to time.

After white gives gambit's his pawn he then looks to develop his knight to c3, followed by playing f3. This move only shows that those players attempting to play this opening like to play outside standard theory. After black captures on f3, white can either capture with his knight or can instead play the aggressive line (Ryder Gambit) and capture with his queen, thus allowing the black queen to take an additional white pawn on d4.

If white does decide to play the Ryder Gambit, many times black can fall into the Halosar Trap. If you haven't checked out the video on the Halosar Trap you can watch it HERE.

It is also very important to remember that this opening can be transposed from other openings. One of the most common lines is white opening with e4 and black responding with the Scandinavian Defense d5. If you don't like playing against the Scandinavian Defense you can now play d4 and you will have the same position.

This opening is very fun for those players that don't mind giving up a pawn or two in the early part of a game in exchange for a large lead in development and the potential to chase the opponents king around the board all game long. If you however only like to play when you are up in material this is not the opening for you.


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Bird's Opening

The Bird's Opening is the 6th most popular opening and is a very aggressive opening. White starts out weaking his king side and starts a flank attack on the center with his f pawn. This opening is not used in lots of top level play but some of the most beautiful games in chess history have been played using the Bird's Opening.

After black defends with d5 the game will transpose into a reverse of the Dutch defense, where white opens with d4 and black responds with f5. White's main focus is on the dark squares in the game which is a big difference than the usual light squares that white usually focuses on.

While the light square bishop is usually the key minor piece for white, in this opening the dark square bishop actually gets the nod. White will usually fianchetto his bishop on the queen side to b2 and add more pressure on the dark squares.

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Benoni Defense

The Benoni Defense is a very aggressive line that black can play to counter the very common open by white d4. While many defenses against the queen pawn opening are closed and drawish, the Benoni Defense gives black many opportunities to not only equalize the position, but also to gain an advantage and play for the win.

In the Modern Benoni Defense, the main focus of the game is white's center control of the light squares with it's key pawn on d5 and black's control of the center from the dark squares. Black will usually fianchetto his bishop on the kingside to g7 to add extra support to the dark squares.

For a white player you want to keep constant pressure on the d5 square and use it later on to set up outposts for your minor pieces and to apply pressure on black. For black players you want to keep white from applying pressure and keep them from getting any outposts on the e6 and c6 squares. The Benoni Defense usually opens up after the opening which means that bishops are more powerful than knights so be cautious about trading off your bishop.

Black should get lots of counter play and should have a very good game after things open up in the middle.

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Benko Gambit

The Benko Gambit is one of the most well respected gambits in chess. For this reason it is one of the main lines stemming from the Benoni Defense.

White can either accept the gambit or decline this gambit with Nf3. Although some players may prefer to decline the gambit if they are unfamiliar you will amost always see white accept with cxb5.

Black's entire goal is to give up a pawn early on to give himself a big advantage on the queen side. Black will continue to try to give white another pawn with a6. Many players don't mind playing down a pawn as black because of the great attacking lines that stem from the queen side attack in the benko gambit.

If you play as white in the Benko Gambit and you don't want to get into the main line, defending your queen side all game, it is common practice to give back the pawn material advantage and focus on building up your central control.

This opening is not for the faint of heart. It's a very aggressive opening and should be played accordingly.

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