During the past several days I have been playing a lot of 10 minute games on the Internet, mostly experimenting with any weird, unusual opening that I could think of. Two seem to have worked out surprisingly well:
1) Latvian Gambit (or Greco Counter Gambit as I knew it way back when)1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f5
2) Portuguese Opening 1. e4 e5 2. Bb5
IM Andrew Martin actually did a Foxy DVD on the Portuguese and the hype says you can “look forward to the wicked Portuguese Gambit or a super-charged King’s Gambit position. A shock opening that is eminently playable...”
Graham Burgess says it’s an opening that looks like a Ruy Lopez except white forgot to play 2.Nf3...it’s not as bad or nonsensical as it appears and black must proceed carefully.
Based on the scant theory available there are three basic lines:
Main Line: 2…c6 3.Ba4
Portuguese Gambit: 2…Nf6 3.d4!?
Other: 2…a6, 2…Nc6, 2…Qg5 and 2…Bc5
The idea is that by delaying Nf3, white leaves the f-pawn free to move and retains the possibility of playing f2–f4. The trade-off is that white's lack of pressure on e5 leaves Black with a freer hand. Blah...blah...blah. That’s theoretical stuff that perhaps nobody but GMs care about, but then a GM would never play the Portuguese.
Whenever I’ve played it online my opponents seem to get flummoxed. I don’t know why it is but many of them seem to think that there must be an immediate, crushing refutation (there isn’t) and the refutation requires violating sound opening principles and strategy. Some of them also seem to think that an opponent who plays such a silly move as 2.Bb5 is also going to be a pushover and fall for crude, sloppy tactical refutations. All the wrong reactions.
While I’ve had pretty good luck with the Portuguese, it’s been mostly because of...good luck! All it takes is a look at Chess Tempo's report on the opening to see that in the long run white does not do well if black plays 2...c6 or 2...Nf6. It’s fun, but play it at your own risk!
[Event "Online G10"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2020.1.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Tartajubow"]
[Black "Guest"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]
%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{Portuguese Opening} 1. e4 e5 2. Bb5 {Normal is 2...Nf6 when white can play
the Portuguese Gambit with 3.d4!? or the solid 3.d3 or even 3.Nf3.} 2... a6
3. Ba4 { In my database black has played 3...Nc6 and 3...Nf6, but in none of
the game did he get a substantial advantage although it must be noted that
none of the games were played by masters. Stockfish suggests that either one
of those moves would be OK.} 3... Qh4 {This crude move violates opening
principles and simply can't be good. Just because white has played something
unusual does not give black a license to play silly moves.} 4. Nc3 b5 5. Bb3
Bc5 6. Qe2 Bb7 7. Nf3 {White can already claim a slight advantage because
black now has to lose time retreating the Q and going to e7 was best.} 7...
Qf6 {Both Stockfish and Komodo recommend that I play 8.Nd5 Bxd5 9.exd5, but
Stockfish's evaluation of 2.79 in white's favor is ridiculous. Komodo's 1.25
is much more accurate.} 8. d3 {This really isn't bad, but according to the
engines it loses most of white's advantage. Bblack should play 8...Ne7 and
then 9.Bg5 Qd6 with a nearly equal position, but I seriously doubt many humans
would play ...Qd6 and so black's 8...h6 looks logical.} 8... h6 9. Nd5 Bxd5 {I
was prepared to play 10.Bxd5 but realized that after 10...c6 11.Bb6 Ne7 white
doesn't have much. After 10. exd5! black does not have any satisfactory
defense of his e-Pawn. 10...d6 is met by 11.d4!} 10. exd5 Bd6 {Awkward at
best and played after taking a considerable amount of time.} 11. O-O {Stronger
would have been 11.d4!} 11... Ne7 12. Re1 {Now instead of castling and trying
to put up a manly defense black decides to try for counterplay.} 12... g5 {I
don't know what to make of this position! Engines suggest 13.a4 or 13.Bd2 with
an evaluation of about 2.00 (Komodo) or 3.15 (Stockfish).} 13. Nxe5 {This
logical move weighs in at about 1.60-2.00, depending on the engine} 13... c6
{His best chance was to trade on e5.} 14. d4 {Also good was 14.Ng4} 14... O-O
{Castling into extreme danger. 14...cxd5 was relatively best. Now with 15.h4
white has a very powerful attack.} 15. Nxf7 {Not exactly unsound but after
this white has lost his advantage and allowed black right back in the game.
Black has two choices: 15...Kxf7 16. dxc6+ Kg7 17.cxd7 (with a B+3Ps vs 2Ns)
or the move he played. (with a R+2Ps vs 2Ns). Either move is satisfactory.}
15... Rxf7 16. dxc6 Nbxc6 17. Bxf7+ Kxf7 18. c3 {Now the position is equal and
both sides have their chances.} 18... Nf5 19. a4 b4 20. d5 {Better was 20.Bd2.
With either 20...Na5 or 20...Ne5 black would stand slightly better.} 20...
Nce7 21. c4 {Both engines think white should have played 21. cxb4 with
equality. Now both engines give black a slight advantage.} 21... a5 22. Be3
Re8 {This looks OK, but it's a tactical error. Correct was 22...Nxe3} 23. c5
{White's Ps will be quite threatening.} 23... Be5 24. Bxg5 hxg5 25. Qxe5 {Now
after the best 25...FRc8 26.d6 white would be slightly better.} 25... Nd4 {A
losing blunder for reasons that are soon apparent.} 26. Qxf6+ {I did not
realize I was winning here...I just wanted to get Qs off and use my Rs on thge
d- and e-file in conjunction with the two Ps.} 26... Kxf6 {Now the problem
with 25...Nd4 is obvious. The exchange of Qs has drawn black's K away from
the defense of the R which can bow be picked off with 27.d6} 27. Rad1 {This is
OK also.} 27... Nc2 28. d6 Nxe1 29. Rxe1 g4 30. Rxe7 Rxe7 {Although the ending
is still lost after the better 30...Rc8 at least black would have had more
play.} 31. dxe7 Kxe7 32. Kf1 Ke6 33. Ke2 Kd5 34. Kd3 Kxc5 35. f3 gxf3 36.
gxf3 1-0
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