What’s It’s Name?

     The other day, as black, I played an interesting 30 minute game online that opened 1.e4 f5. Yes, I played 1...f5. What’s it’s name? 
     I ask because there is a lot of discussion about it on forums and it has been called the Duras Gambit, The Fred, the Southern Fred, the Reversed From and the Tiers Counter Gambit. 
     The line played in my game, 1.e4 f5 2.exf5 Nf6, has been called the Main Line Fred or the Duras Gambit. I also saw it referred to as the Fake Fred or the Pseudo-Fred...apparently if you are a serious aficionado, 2...Nf6 is not the true Fred. That’s 2...Kf7. I don’t know. 
     It's really not good at all and there's a reason why masters don’t play it. In fact there’s really little reason for anybody to play it because as one forum poster observed, “If the opponent is weaker than you, then you should be able to win without taking such risks. If the opponent is stronger, he is likely to know the refutation or find it.” 
     Some unfortunate fellow named Magana played the true Fred against Pillsbury in a simul in Paris in 1902 and never had a chance: 
Pillsbury - Magana, Paris 1902 
1.e4 f5 2.exf5 Kf7 3.d4 d5 4.Qh5+ g6 5.fxg6+ Kg7 6.Bd3 Nf6 7.Bh6+ Kg8 8.gxh7+ Nxh7 9.Qg6+ Bg7 10.Qxg7 mate. 
     Paste the game into an engine and look at the evaluations. After 1...f5 black starts out at -2.00 and it quickly gets worse. At best, with 8...Rxh7 black could have kept his disadvantage at -6.50 instead of getting mated. 

Oldrich Duras

     At Prague in 1938, Oldrich Duras employed 1...f5 in two games against Dr. Ossip Bernstein, winning one and drawing one. 
     In January, Bernstein, an old friend of Duras, was visiting Prague and they had not seen each other for nearly 25 years. They played a couple of quick games to try out the Duras Defense (or whatever you want to call it) and the games were recorded by Frantisek Fric who published Sachovy tyden (Week in Chess). During the War he became one of the victims of of the Nazis. 
     Here’s my Duras Gambit, or whatever it is. 


 

Play Online Chess

[Event "Online"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2019.11.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Guest"]
[Black "Tartajubow"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{Duras Gambit} 1. e4 f5 {No matter how you slice it, this is a very
disadvantageous move for black. The two most vulnerable Ps are f2 and f7
because only the King guards them. And moving those Ps, especially for black,
creates open diagonals to the K, making it more difficult to defend. So says
the Chessmaster 10th edition opening theory table. Somebody in one of the
forums said, "As black you have to hope white will blunder in the first 5
moves."} 2. exf5 {2.f4 transposes into the Swiss gambit normally reached by 1.
f4 f5 2.e4, while 2.d4 transposes to the Staunton gambit normally reached by
1. d4 f5 2.e4.} 2... Nf6 {Against Duras, Bernstein now played 3.Nc3 d5 and
4.Bd3.} 3. d4 d5 4. Bg5 {There was no logical reson to return the P. Correct
was 4.Bd3. Here engines evaluate the position with white only having his
normal half P opening advantage, but it seems to me that the missing f-Pawn
with its associated K-side weakening is more serious than that.} 4... Bxf5 5.
Bxf6 {Another illogical move...the unprovoked yeilding of the two Bs.} 5...
gxf6 6. Nc3 {I was toying with 6...e5, but realized 7.dxe5 fxe5 8.Qh5+
wouldn't have been very pleasant. Stockfish thinks that in order to maintain
equality I should now play 6...Bg6 in order to meet 7.Bd3 with Bf7 and so keep
my K safe.} 6... e6 7. Bd3 Bg6 8. Bxg6+ hxg6 {Now white could grab the
advantage with 9.Qg4 forcing the Fred-like move 9...Kf7. Then after castling
Q-side white has a nice game.} 9. Qe2 {Not really worth the two question marks
it got during the auto-annotation, but it does forfeit the advantage.} 9...
Qe7 10. O-O-O Bh6+ 11. Kb1 {I really don't understand engine moves. Here
Stockfish thinks I am exactly equal after 11... Nc6 (blocking the c-Pawn) or
11...c6 or even 11...Kd7.} 11... Nd7 {This made sense to me: it develops a
piece, prepares Q-side castling and preserves the option of playing ...c5.
Stockfish disagrees and says white is better by a P and a quarter after
12.Re1. Indeed! After 12.Re1 Kf7 loses to 13.Nxd5. So after 12.Re1 Nb6
13.Qxe6 Qxe6 14,Rxe6+ I would be a P down.} 12. h4 {After this the chances are
about equal. I was going to castle, but noticed at the last second that white
could then play Nxd5 because of the pin on the e-Pawn.} 12... Nb6 {As luck
would have it 12...c5 13.Re1 and the K has to guard the P from f7 which is not
so good. And of course 12...O-O-O is met by 13.Nxd5.} 13. b3 {This prevents
intrusion on a4 and c4, but 13.Re1 was better although now the e-Pawn can be
defended by 13...Kd7 where the K is safer than on f7.} 13... O-O-O {Finally
black has achieved full equality. As is often the case when players of
mediocre ability are involved even horrible openings like 1...f5 are
successful because we don't know how to refute them. Unlike a lot of opening
books floating around these days would have you believe, it's not because the
opening has some hidden resources that will give us the advantage against an
opponent who isn't in the know. Instead, they succeed because we are crappy
players.} 14. Nf3 Kb8 15. g4 {I like black here. White has no real prospects
on the K-side whereas I have some chances of launching an attack against
white's K.} 15... Bf4 16. Kb2 {Apparently white is out of ideas on how to
continue and so makes a neutral move. He might have tried the defensive
N-e1-d3.} 16... e5 { Being better developed and controlling the center, it's
time to open up the game. With his next move white cooperates. Mixing things
up with 17.h5 or the defensive N maneuver Ne1-d3 were better ideas.} 17. dxe5
fxe5 {Black dominates the position.} 18. g5 {Now Stockfish is recommending
that I play moves like 18...e5 or 18...Rhe8 or even 18...c5.} 18... Nc4+ {If
he takes the N then 19...Qb4+ wins back the N and leaves white in dire
straits. Stockfish still thinks I am winning by about 2.5 Ps whereas before
this move it was more like 4 Ps. My opponent spent quite a bit of time here.}
19. Ka1 Qa3 20. Rb1 {Now Stockfish wants me to retreat the N or possibly play
20...e4 with about a four P advantage. Honestly, I',m not seeing that much of
an advantage. Instead I decided to bring up a R.} 20... Rd6 {According to the
engine this move fritters away almost all of black's advantage.} 21. Rhd1
{Here I suddenly realized that my intended 21...Rh3 is pointless as white just
plays Rxd5 which leaves him slightly better because there just isn't any way to
continue the attack. Now it's my turn to think a bit. If I play 21...d4 (my
first intention) then after 22.Qxc4 dxc3 23.Rxd6 I have nothing.} 21... e4 {I
hesitated to play this because the N takes up a nice post on d4, but on the
other hand it opens up the long diagonal for my B. As it turns out, it wasn't
the best thanks to a little tactical shot it made available to white. White
could have now played 22.Rxd5 and if 22...Rxd5? 23.Nxd5 exf3 24.Qxc4 things
are even. So, best is 22.Rxd5 Nb6 which keeps a slight advantage.} 22. Nd4
Be5 {Mostly played on general principles, but this is actually the best move
by far.} 23. Ncb5 {This meets with a nifty refutation. If he had played, say,
23.f3 I would have played 23.. .Ra6 with a huge advantage, but honestly, after
that I'm not sure how I would have continued.} 23... Qxa2+ {Mate attack} 24.
Kxa2 Ra6+ 25. Na3 Rxa3# 0-1