After the game was played it was thought the game vindicated Shipley's claim that the attack was good despite the fact that Capablanca, after considerable analysis, determined it was inferior. This agreed with Janowsky's assertion that the attack was unsatisfactory for white. As for the belief that this game vindicated Shipley's claim, it was based, as was often the case, on the result. It used to be common practice to praise every move of the winner and criticize all the loser's moves. Things are not often so simple.
While visiting New York City Shipley met Janowsky at the Manhattan Chess Club. When WW1 broke out Janowsky, Champion of France, was in Germany taking part in the Mannheim tournament when he was interned with the Russian masters, but later escaped into Switzerland and finally came to the United States.
Shipley and Janowsky were discussing the Gledhill Attack and Janowsky stated the attack was new to him because he considered the French inferior for black and never played it. So, he had never made a serious study of it. They set up the position after the seventh move and Shipley played 8.Qg3 which Janowsky met with 8...Ng6 with the idea of freeing his dark squared B the task of defending the N on f5. Janowsky concluded that black then had the better game, believing white had sacrificed a P for very little compensation. Shipley disagreed.
At about that time Capablanca showed up and Shipley and Capa played several skittles games with Capa adapting Janowsky's suggest line. Naturally, Capa won and so Shipley believed he was apparently wrong in his judgment of white's chances. But, to more thoroughly test the variation a correspondence game was arranged with Janowsky agreeing to take the black pieces.
After his 9th move (9.Ndb5) Shipley believed he had the better game and if Janowsky agreed, the game should be abandoned. Janowsky disagreed and replied, “Relative to your remark that you think you have the better of the game, I do not agree with your position.” Capablanca wrote, I believe that white has a chance, but also black has the best of it, nevertheless.” Shipley admitted that the opinion of these two players was superior to his, but believed that it was always possible that an “offhand opinion given by the best masters may be shaken by thorough analysis.” Although Shipley is listed as playing the white pieces analysis appearing in the American Chess Bulletin makes it clear he was in consultation with other strong Philadelphia players.
The Gledhill Attack remains pretty much unexplored although a series covering it, Secrets of Opening Surprises, by New in Chess is available. Yorkshire Chess History site has an interesting article about Walter Gledhill HERE.
[Event "Correspondence"]
[Site ""]
[Date "1917.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Walter Penn Shipley"]
[Black "David Janowsky"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C11"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 17.1"]
[PlyCount "67"]
[EventDate "1917.??.??"]
{C11: French: Gledhill Attack} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. Qg4 {
This is the Gledhill Attack. It leads to a dangerous, if somewhat risky,
attack for white.} c5 6. Nf3 cxd4 7. Nxd4 {The modern response is 7.Nb5. White
can recapture with the Q which is also acceptable.} Nxe5 8. Qg3 {This move
arrives at what was considered the critical position. This attack was first
analyzed by Walter Gledhill of Leeds, England about 1900 and several articles
were published in British Chess Monthly during 1900-1901. This position had
been examined previously and it was believed black has the better game.
Shipley disagreed, but the prevailing opinion was correct; black is slightly
better.} Ng6 {Developing with 8...Nbc6 was better.} 9. Ndb5 {[%mdl 1024] This
fine move by Shipley is the only move by which white can maintain his slight
advantage as it forces black's N to an unfavorable square.} Na6 10. h4 {
Aggressive play.} (10. Be3 {is too slow to gain any advantage.} b6 11. Nd4 Nc7
12. Nc6 Qd6 13. Qxd6 Bxd6 14. O-O-O O-O 15. Kb1 Bd7 {Here after the better 16,
Nd4 black has a significant advantage.} 16. Nb5 Bxc6 17. Nxd6 Rfd8 18. Nxf7
Kxf7 {Tran Le Dan,T-Medina,W Da Nang 2008}) 10... Bc5 {Gledhill's suggestion
was 10...Be7, but in that case white would recover his P and eventually get a
strong attack by bringing his Q over to the Q-side. Capablanca suggested 10...
Bb4 as the best move. With the move played. which happens to be the best one,
Janowsky is relying on what was described at the time as an "ingenious
defense" inaugurated by his 12th and 13th moves.} 11. h5 Ne7 12. Bd3 {This
move is actually better than capturing the g-Pawn. Shipley now expected
expected 12...Kf8 because he thought castling left black with no defense.} (12.
Qxg7 {12.Bd3 1.10 Published analysis of the day considered this unsatisfactory.
} Rg8 13. Qxh7 e5 14. Be3 Bf5 15. Qh6 d4 {with plenty of play.}) 12... O-O {
This is risky, but 12...Bd7 doesn't offer black much and Janowsky was never
afraid of taking a risk.} (12... Kf8 {is too defensive for Janowsky's taste.}
13. h6 g6 14. Bg5 {leaves black too tied up.}) 13. Bh6 Nf5 {This is the move
Janowsky was relying on when he played 10...Bc5. The game was being followed
by all the Philadelphia players, all of whom overlooked Janowsky’s ingenious
method of extricating himself from white’s strong attack. A Philadelphia
player named C.S. Martinez was an exception. He had predicted 13...Nf5. All
the observers were correct as the position is still in white’s favor.} 14.
Bxf5 {[%mdl 128]} Qf6 15. Bxh7+ Kxh7 16. Bf4 Bd7 {After the game Janowsky
commented that black has a slight advantage here: his K is safe, the c-file
allows him a line of attack and white’s P-formation on the K-side is a poor
one. Actually, after 16...Bd7 it's whpte who is better owing to the
compromised position of black's K. However, Janowsky's observation would have
been correct had he played 16...e4! counterattacking i the center.} (16... e5
17. h6 g6 18. Bxe5 Bxf2+ 19. Kf1 Bxg3+ 20. Bxf6 Re8 {with fully equal chances.}
) 17. O-O-O Nb4 {Janowsky is playing too aggressively.} (17... Bxb5 18. Nxb5
Nb4 19. a3 Nc6 20. Rd3 (20. Nd6 e5) 20... a6 21. Nc3 Rac8 {with good defensive
chances.}) 18. Nd6 {At the time annotators thought this move constituted a
"daring adventure" because he will have difficulty in extricating it, but on
the plus side, as long as it’s on d6 it’s a thorn in black’s side and at
this point white stands much better. Note that unlike in the variation after
17...Bxb5 black does not have a N on c6 and so cannot play ...e5} Bc6 19. Rd2
Qe7 20. a3 a5 {After this Janowsky is left with a lost position. In any case
his position was not very good.} (20... Rad8 21. axb4 Bxd6 22. Bxd6 Rxd6 23. h6
g6 24. b5 Bd7 25. Re1 {and white has all the play/}) 21. Be5 {As was often the
case, if Janowsky offered a piece it paid to look twice.} (21. axb4 axb4 22.
Nb1 Rad8 23. Nxf7 Qxf7 24. Be5 Rd7 {with equal chances.}) 21... f6 22. Qg6+ {
Shipley ignores the N (taking it now would lose) and conducts a winning attack.
} (22. axb4 axb4 23. Nb1 fxe5 24. Qg6+ (24. Qxe5 Qxd6 25. Qxd6 Bxd6) 24... Kg8
25. h6 Rf6 26. Qg3 g6 {White's attack is over and his N is trapped.}) 22... Kg8
23. h6 Bd7 24. Bf4 {It was safe to tke the N nowm but it can wait.} Bc6 25.
hxg7 Qxg7 26. Qxg7+ Kxg7 27. axb4 axb4 {With an extra piece the win is a
matter of technique.} 28. Rd3 $1 {[%cal Rd3g3]} Bxd6 29. Rg3+ Kf7 30. Rh7+ Ke8
31. Bxd6 bxc3 32. bxc3 Ra6 33. Rgg7 Ra8 34. Bc7 {Black resigned} 1-0
No comments:
Post a Comment