Friday, November 29, 2019

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. 


 

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