A Successful Stonewall and a King Hunt

    The post of Mat 23rd (and a few past posts) was critical of the Stonewall Attack, but here is one that succeeded! It goes way back to the 1800s. 

    In those days it was a rare thing tp find Americana playing in Europe, but Preston Ware participated in Vienna in 1882 (see CROSSTABLE). It was one of the strongest tournaments ever with 18 of the best players of the day meeting in a double round event. 

    It was a bad tournament for the American representative Preston Ware, but he did score a win against the World Champion Wilhem Steinitz and he won the following King Hunt game against Max Weiss of Hungary. 

    Preston Ware Jr. (1821 – 1890, 68 years old) was a leading Boston player . He served as e President of the Boston Chess Club from 1868 to 1873. Ware and as President of the American Chess Foundation in 1872. 

    Ware made few few tournament appearances and they were mot especially successful, due in part to an offbeat opening repertoire. For example, in New York 1880 he played 1...a5 in all nine games with black and 1.a4 in two of his games with white. However, in his one international tournament (Vienna 1882), he defeated Steinitz. In that game Ware, as white, played the same opening as in the game below; it went 113 moves, Ware having a R+B+P vs. Steinitz’ R+P. 

    His opponent in the following game was Max Weiss (1857 – 1927, 69 years old), of Austria who had a short, but brillaint career. Chess metrics estimates his highest ever rating to have been 2727 in 1889 which place him at #4 in the world behind Steinitz, Gunsverg and Chigorin. 

    At New York in 1889 which was held to determine a challenger to Steinitz for the World Championship, Weiss tied for 1st with Mikhail Chigorin. Weiss drew the subsequent play-off match (+0 -0 =4), but then he quit chess for a banking career. In 1895, he did play a match against Georg Marco and won decisively (+5 -1 =1) , =1, -1). Also in 1895, he tied for first with Carl Schlechter in a tournament. 

[Event "Vienna"] [Site "Vienna AUH"] [Date "1882.05.10"] [Round "?"] [White "Preston Ware"] [Black "Max Weiss"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D00"] [Annotator "Stockfish 16"] [PlyCount "75"] [EventDate "1882.05.10"] {D00: Stonewall Attack} 1. d4 d5 2. f4 {Thos is a rather inusual way of reaching the Stonewall and Ware used it to win a marathon game against Steinitz in the same tournament.} e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 Bd6 5. Bd3 c5 6. c3 Nc6 7. O-O a6 (7... Qc7 8. Ne5 b6 9. Nd2 Bb7 10. Qe2 O-O 11. g4 {Black has sufficient defensive resources against white's attack. The chances are equal. Schwan,W-Przepiorka,D Barmen 1905 ½-½ (41)}) (7... Ne4 8. Ne5 cxd4 9. exd4 O-O 10. Nd2 f5 11. g4 {Black has a very slight advantage. Harriott,T (1892)-Al Tarbosh,W (2283) chess.com INT 2023}) 8. Bd2 {It's strange that with white having 6 Ps on black squares that this bad B which seems to have no prospects actully finds a useful position outside the P-chain. Also, very often in the Stnewall white plays Bbd2 to prevent black from playing ...Ne4, but Ware has an interesting idea in mind.} O-O 9. a3 b6 10. h3 Bb7 11. Be1 Ne4 12. Nbd2 Nxd2 13. Qxd2 Na5 {This is a wasste of time...the threat of ...Nb3 is an empty one.} (13... Ne7 {keeps the N handy for defense and is much more useful. According to Komodo 14 (Human) play might continue...} 14. g4 c4 15. Bc2 Qe8 16. Bg3 f6 17. Rfe1 Bc6 18. a4 Qd7 19. Kg2 g6 20. Qf2 b5 21. axb5 axb5 22. g5 Nf5 { with a completely equal position.}) (13... Ne7 {and Stockfish 16 continues} 14. Rd1 a5 15. g4 Qd7 16. Qc2 Kh8 17. Qe2 f6 18. Rf2 Bc6 19. Rg2 Ba4 20. Rc1 c4 21. Bb1 b5 22. h4 f5 {and white is slightly better.}) 14. Rd1 Nc4 15. Qe2 Na5 16. Bh4 {Finally white has solved the problem of his Dark squared B and he is now prepared to launch a powerful K-side attack. However, Preston and at least one pre-engine annotator mussed an even better move.} (16. Bxh7+ {[%mdl 512] leaves black in dire straits. However, working out the complications OTB would be extremely difficult.} Kxh7 (16... Kh8 17. dxc5 bxc5 18. Ng5 Qf6 19. b4 Nc4 20. Bd3 {and white is winning.}) 17. Ng5+ Kg6 {The K is surprising safe here, but white still has a very strong attack.} 18. e4 f5 19. Nxe6 Qf6 20. exf5+ ( 20. Nxf8+ Rxf8 21. e5 Qe6 {with good defensive possibilities.}) 20... Kh7 21. Qg4 Rf7 22. Ng5+ Kg8 23. Qh5 Qxf5 24. g4 g6 25. Qh4 Qf6 26. Nxf7 Qxf7 27. f5 { with a strong attack.}) 16... Qc7 (16... Qe8 {offers stiffer resistance.} 17. Ng5 (17. Bxh7+ Kxh7 18. Ng5+ Kh6 {White has no effective way to continue the attack and so it is black who stands better.}) 17... f5 (17... h6 18. Nh7) 18. g4 {and black;s defense should hold.}) 17. Ng5 {He could still sacrifice on h7, but the text is superior.} h6 18. Qh5 Nc4 {For all the moves this N has made it has accomplished nothing. Somewhat better would have been 18...Bc8 to defend e6.} 19. Nxe6 fxe6 20. Qg6 Rf5 21. Qxe6+ Rf7 22. Qg6 $1 {Now the threat is 23 Q-R7ch, K-Bl; 24 Q-R8 mate.} Kf8 23. Qh7 Ke8 {Fleeing for his life in an attempt to avoid mate.} 24. Bg6 {[%mdl 32]} Bf8 {This protects the g-Pawn, but now the white f-Pawn threat­ens to complete the destruction of black's position by moving to the 6th rank. Since the R cannot be saved, black's K continues its flight.} 25. f5 Kd7 26. Bxf7 Nxe3 27. Be6+ Kc6 28. Qg6 Bd6 { Weiss is desperately trying to improvise a shelter for his homeless K.} 29. Rfe1 Nxd1 {The desired effect of his 18th move has finally been achieved, but to no avail.} 30. Rxd1 c4 {Black is only a P down and he has fended off mate and so now he attempts to close up the Q-side.} 31. Bxd5+ {[%mdl 512] Ware continues his relentless King hunt.} Kxd5 (31... Kb5 32. Bxb7 Qxb7 33. Qxd6 a5 34. Qe6 a4 35. d5 {and it's clear that white is winning.}) 32. Qe6+ {White mates in 16!.} Kc6 33. Qxc4+ Kd7 34. Qe6+ Kc6 35. d5+ Kb5 36. Qe2+ Ka4 37. Qc2+ Kb5 38. a4+ {Black resigned} (38. a4+ Ka5 39. b4+ Bxb4 40. cxb4+ Kxb4 41. Rb1+ Ka5 42. Be1+ Qc3 43. Bxc3# {It's paradoxical that the once bad looking B delivers the mate!}) 1-0