The opening involves a lot of complications and it's not seen much in top-level play. The blurb for Eric Schiller's book on it calls it "a monstrous thicket of complications which still have not been fully explore.”
You can watch an interesting video on the Frankenstein-Dracula Variation HERE.
In the following old game we see Weaver Adams playing the Vienna, an opening which became closely associated with him. In his first book, White to Play and Win, published in 1939, Adams claimed that 1.e4 was white's strongest move and that if both sides played the best moves white ought to win. After 1...e5 Adams claimed the magic bullet was the Bishop's Opening (2.Bc4).
When the Bishop's Opening didn't produce the desired results, he switched to the Vienna Game, claiming a win with what is today known as the Frankenstein–Dracula Variation. When that failed he switched to the Adams Gambit where he played 6.d4 instead of 6.Nb5.
In the following game Adams adopted what was at the time his favorite opening line, but his opponent was well prepared for it. I could not discover any information on the match, but the Massachusetts Chess Association has a very nice tribute to his opponent, Harry Lyman, HERE.
Obviously neither of these players was a GM, but at that time they were among the best in the county. The first USCF Rating List (Novemberm 1951) had two Grandmasters (Fine and Reshevsky), 5 Active Senior Masters and 5 who were Inactive. There were only 27 Active Masters (Adams was #10 and there were 10 Inactive Masters. Lyman was not rated.
[Event "Match, Bostom"]
[Site ""]
[Date "1946.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Weaver W. Adams"]
[Black "Harry Lyman"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C27"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 17.1"]
[PlyCount "52"]
[EventDate "1946.??.??"]
{C27: Vienna Game: FrankensteinDracula Variation} 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Bc4
Nxe4 (3... Nc6 {is for the less adventerous.} 4. d3 {and now black can play 4..
.Na5, 4... Bb4 or 4...Bc5.}) 4. Qh5 {This is the only move that offers white
any real chances at gaining an advantage.} (4. Nxe4 d5 {and none of the moves
available to white have proven satisfactory/}) (4. Nf3 {is a so-so move.} Nxc3
5. dxc3 f6 6. Nh4 g6 7. f4 {Despite appearances black is doing quite well.}) (
4. Bxf7+ {was suggested by Max Lange back in 1863, but it's not quite sound.})
4... Nd6 {This is the only good way of defending against the mate threat.} 5.
Bb3 {This is, by far, the best even though 5.Qxe5+ might look inviting.} (5.
Qxe5+ Qe7 6. Qxe7+ Bxe7 {With Qs off the board white has no real attacjing
prospects whic is the reason for playing the Frankenstein-Dracula in the first
place.}) 5... Nc6 6. Nb5 {[%mdl 512] This is almost always played because it
threatens 7.Nxd6 and 8.Qxf7#. This is the move that Adams eventually gave up
on.} (6. d4 {The Adams Gambit. White's play soon fizzles out.} Nxd4 7. Nd5 Ne6
8. Qxe5 c6 {White has more freedom for his pieces, but there is no way to
crack open black's position.}) 6... g6 7. Qf3 {Renewing the threat of mate on
f7.} f5 (7... Nf5 {does not fare well after} 8. Qd5 Nh6 9. d3 {Black still
must deal with the threat of mate on f7.} g5 10. Nf3 f6 11. h4 {Black has a
difficukt position,}) 8. Qd5 {Again, white threatens mate on f7.} Qe7 9. Nxc7+
Kd8 10. Nxa8 b6 11. d3 Bb7 12. h4 f4 {Lyman : " A much more logical move than
12... (as given in Modern Chess Openings) since it has the merit of holding
whlte's Queen Bishop in check while black tries to open more lines."} 13. Qf3
Nd4 {This looks good, but he could better have stifled white's play with 13...
Bh6} (13... Bh6 14. Bd2 Nd4 15. Qg4 e4 {with equak chances.}) 14. Qh3 Bh6 {
Preparing ...e4 which is not good immediately.} (14... e4 15. Bxf4 exd3+ 16.
Kf1 d2 17. Bg5 Ba6+ 18. Ne2 Nxe2 19. Bxe7+ Bxe7 20. c4 Nxc4 21. Kxe2 Ne5+ 22.
Kd1 Nd3 23. Qg3 Nxb2+ 24. Kc2 Bf6 25. Qd6 Bd3+ 26. Kxd2 {1-0 Mrudul,D (2256)
-Iinuma,P (2010) chess.com INT 2022}) 15. Bd2 e4 16. O-O-O {Playing it safe,
but in this sharp position there is no time for that!} (16. Bc3 exd3+ 17. Kf1
Nxb3 18. axb3 dxc2 19. Qd3 (19. Bxh8 Ne4 20. Ne2 f3 21. gxf3 Nd2+ 22. Kg2 Bxf3+
{is fatak ti white.}) 19... Be4 20. Qe2 {with a doubk-edged position.}) 16...
e3 {Black now has the initiative and never lets up.} 17. Bc3 exf2 {And now ...
f3+ would win.} 18. Nf3 Ne2+ 19. Kb1 Nxc3+ 20. bxc3 Nb5 {It's surprising how
quickly white's K, which looked so safe after 16.O-O-O, has fallen into danger.
} 21. Kb2 Qa3+ 22. Ka1 Qa5 23. Ng5 Qxc3+ 24. Kb1 Re8 25. Qg4 Na3+ 26. Kc1 f3 {
0-1 Mate is looming.} (26... f3 {WHite can hold out the longest only as
follows...} 27. Qe4 Rxe4 28. dxe4 fxg2 29. Nc7 Qe3+ 30. Kb2 Bg7+ 31. e5 Bxe5+
32. Rd4 Nc4+ 33. Bxc4 Bxd4+ 34. c3 Qxc3+ 35. Kb1 Qb2#) 0-1
Do you know when the clumsy name "Frankenstein-Dracula variation" was first used to describe this old line in the Vienna? I don't remember ever encountering that name when I was a young, studious chess player, so it must be or relatively recent vintage
ReplyDeleteI think Tim Harding named it that back in the 70s describing it in terms such as dangerous and bloodthirsty.
ReplyDelete