Bryntse Gambit

     Wladyslaw Krol is a veteran ICCF Senior International Master from Bialystok, Poland. The line in the Ruy Lopez 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Ng4?! is named after him, the Krol Defense. The idea is that after6.h3 h5 then 7. hxg4? hxg4 where black has very good tactical possibilities after ...Qh4. Of course, if white plays something like 7. d4 or 7.c3 black may find himself with a misplaced N. There's not a lot of theory on the opening. 7.hxg4? hxg4 8.c3 gxf3 9.Qxf3 Qh4 and black should win. I discovered this interesting line because in one of my CC tournaments I am playing Krol (I am white and opened 1.d4) and looking at his games lead to my discovering the Bryntse Gambit.
     The Bryntse Gambit, a subvariation of the Grand Prix Sicilian where White sacrifices his queen on move six (1. e4 c5 2. f4 d5 3. Nf3!? de 4. Ng5 Nf6 5. Bc4 Bg4?! 6. Qxg4!) is another Krol favorite. This gambit was invented by a Swedish correspondence player named Arne Bryntse who won the Swedish correspondence championship in 1972. He even used the “if move” option to suggest the move 5. … Bg4 to his opponents! He would write, “If 5. … Bg4 6. Qxg4.” Krol has scored +6 -1 =3 with it.
     Here’s one of his best games using the Bryntse Gambit. I give the game with only light notes by Stockfish 5. It was interesting going through this game with SF because it shows the difficulty of engine analysis that good CC players have to deal with. In many positions SF kept bouncing back and forth between what it considered the best move and the evaluation sometimes changed drastically the deeper it got into the position.
 

Bryntse Gambit Game

     I have posted on this gambit before and recently came across another game by one of its strongest adherents, the veteran ICCF Senior Master Wladyslaw Krol. In this game his opponent was FIDE IM Denis Ramboldoni (FIDE 2479). Krol won this game when his opponent lost on time in a completely won position. 
     Denis Rombaldoni (14 March 1989 ) is from Italy. Both of his parents, father Andrea and Hungarian mother, Brigitta Horvath Banki, are strong players. Rombaldoni started taking lessons at age 13 from GM Igor Efimov and in 2002 he won the International Festival of Montebelluna ahead of two GM's. He also won several youth titles. He was awarded the IM title as a result of his performance in January 2008 when he scored 6.5 – 2.5 in a tournament in the Medes Islands in Spain. 
     He practiced football (soccer to US readers) for nine years, also at a competitive level, being selected for the team of Fano Calcio , but then decided to quit to devote himself to chess and studies. His brother Axel (FIDE 2501) was awarded the GM title in 2013. 
     This gambit was invented in the 1960's by the Swedish correspondence player Arne Bryntse. In the 1960's and early 1970's Bryntse was a regular competitor in the Swedish correspondence chess championship, and he won the title in 1972. Krol has also championed the gambit in various forms, but it appears that it's simply not playable in games where engine use is involved. In any case this rather boring game shows how modern engine-assisted correspondence games are...lots of long drawn out games with moves that don't seem to make any sense and in the long run a slight advantage is very slowly increased to the point that it's overwhelming. I'm posting it here just because I enjoyed investigating the opening with Komodo and because it does appear that it would be interesting to play it OTB if one is inclined to try rare and risky gambits. I can see black getting into trouble against it.