One advantage of the gambit is you don't have to worry about black rattling off a long string of book theory!
Besides taking you opponent out of the book, luring black's c-Pawn away allows white to occupy the center with d2-d4 which hopefully will work to his advantage. Additionally, white gets speedy development which should be sufficient compensation. Of course, black can decline the gambit, but almost nobody ever does.
Kamran Shirazi (born November 21, 1952) is an IM who was born in Tehran and won the 1972 Iranian Championship. He moved to the United States in 1979 and quickly became one of the most active players in the country. He was a fixture on the NY chess scene in the 1980s and was known as a dashing, enigmatic, figure.
Thanks to his success in U.S. events plus the fact that the 1980s were a time of rating inflation, his rating rose rapidly and he became one of the highest rated players country. However, when he qualified for he 1984 U.S. Championship based on his results in the 1983 Church's Fried Chicken Grand Prix he finished dead last with a lone draw (against GM Roman Dzindzichashvili) out of 17 games. In that tournament he also achieved the dubious distinction of losing the shortest decisive game in the history of the Championship. Oddly, in that gane he played the Wing Gambit, one of his specialties, which we're looking at today! He earned $37.50 for his efforts.
When asked to explain the debacle Shirazi only said, “I was very restless at the time and I hadn’t been sleeping.” Asked what he had been doing, he said he had been playing games and added that for him that was a "form of partying."
Robert Byrne wrote that Shirazi could "produce a novel and original way of looking at a position, and quite often he plays with a certain freshness, but his eccentricities work against him as well as for him." Byrne added, "He can think of a new way of going wrong every time he sits down and plays a game."
Shirazi made an appearance in the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer where he was introduced as Grandmaster Shirazi. In 2006, he moved to France and changed his FIDE federation from the US to France.
Known for playing strange and unorthodox openings, Shirazi is known for his flamboyant and innovative style of play as well as Byrne's previously mentioned amazing ability to somehow lose. Byrne wrote of the necessity of making use of fantasy if you want to be a greta player, but he cautioned that "you have to have control over it. You can’t be fantastic every time the itch gets to you.”
Shirazi was one of the best Blitz players in the U.S. and in today's game we'll take a look at how he demolished a GM playing one of his favorite lines against the Sicilian, the Wing Gambit.
It was played in a Game 20 in a strong rapid tournament in Livry-Gargan, near Paris, back in 2009. The tournament was won by GM Murtas Kazhgakeyev of Kazakhstan. Shirazi and his opponent, GM Pavel Tregubov of Russia, tied for places 25-30 (342 players).
Kamran Shirazi2404–Pavel Tregubov26281–0B20Livry Gargan (France) Open (Game 20)6Livry Gargan10.05.2009Stockfish 15
Sicilian Wing Gambit 1.e4 c5 2.b4 cxb4 2...e6 3.bxc5 xc5 4.d4
is seldom seen. Black can retreat the B or play ...Bb4+, but he has no more
than equality. 3.a3 3.c4 e5 4.f3 c6 5.b2 d6 6.d4 exd4 7.xd4 f6 8.d2 e7 9.d3 0-0 10.0-0 Hector,J (2500)-Kudrin,S (2570) Palma de Mallorca
1989. Black is a solid P up and went on to win. 3.b2 f6 4.e5 d5 5.f3 c6 6.c4 b6 7.b3 e6 8.0-0 e7 9.c4 a5 10.c2 xb3 11.axb3 0-0 12.c1 a5 13.d4 f5 Black gets into serious trouble after this. Correct was either
13...d4 or 13...d6 14.d5 exd5 15.c5 a6 16.cxb6 xb6 17.d4 g6 Rogers,I
(2545)-Douven,R (2405) Groningen 1991 1-0 3...d5 This along with 3...bxa3
and 3...e6 are the most popular replies. All are of about equal value. 3...e6 4.axb4 xb4 5.c3 e7 6.d4 d6 7.f3 c6 8.e3 Black has a solid
position and went on to win. Marshall,F-Tarrasch,S San Sebastian 1912 3...bxa3 4.d4 d6 5.f4 g6 6.f3 g7 7.h3 c6 8.c3 f6 9.e5 Better was 9.Bd3 dxe5 10.fxe5 d5 11.xd5 xd5 12.c4 a5+ 13.d2 b6 14.c5 b2 15.b1 f5 16.xb2 axb2 17.h6 b1 0-1 Savchenko,B (2567)-Yeletsky,I (2438) Voronezh
2019 4.exd5 xd5 5.f3 5.axb4 e5+ 0-1 Shirazi-John Peters, US
Championship, 1984. 5...e5 6.c4 e6 7.d4 exd4+ 7...e4 was a reasonable
alternative. 8.g5 g6 A strange position. Stockfish 15 suggests either 9.
c5 or 9.h4 as equalizing. 8.e2 d3 Returning the P for no reason seems a
strange decision. 8...Qg6 and black is slightly better. 9.xd3 f6 10.0-0 c6 11.e1 e7 12.axb4 This looks reasonable, but the advantage swings in
black's favor. 12.d1 f5 13.xf5 xf5 14.axb4 xb4 15.a4+ The point
of move 12. White will play Ba3 next move and the chances will be about equal. 12...xb4 It seems odd, but taking with the B was actually better. 12...xb4 There is no way for white to utilize the fact that black's Q is standing
between the R and K. 13.d2 0-0 leaves black slightly better. 13.d2 0-0 14.f1 14.d3 was better d6 15.xe7 xe7 16.a3 wins
the N and white has what should be a winning advantage. e4 17.xb4 xb4 18.xb4 e8 19.c3 xc3 20.xc3 Stockfish evaluates this position as winning
for white, but I didn't believe it so ran a Shootout and white did score +4 -
0 =1, so it's true. However, the dames were very long, 100 moves or more, so
in human play a draw seems like a likely outcome. 14...d6 The
losing move. 14...e4 This saves the game and even leaves black slightly
better, but who is going to voluntarily walk into a pin when moving the Q out
of danger looks so logical? 15.b2 There is just no way to take advantage
of the pinned N on e4. 15.d4 f6 wins 15.f4 f5 15...f5 16.c3 a5 17.e3 f6 18.d4 d8 and things fizzle out to equality after 19.xe4 fxe4 20.xf6 xf6 21.xf6 gxf6 22.xe4 15.xe7 Decisive. xe7 16.a3 d8 17.b2 This can be considered the decisive move because
the logical looking 17.Qxb4 allows black to equalize. 17.xb4 xb4 18.xb4 d1 paralyzing white's pieces. Chances are equal. 17.xb4 is much worse.
After xd2 18.xe7 d1 19.xf6 gxf6 20.fd2 f5 black has a winning
position. 17...d1 And now ...Nd3 would win. 18.xb4 d8 19.c2 d7 19...g4 is tougher. 20.d2 xf3 21.gxf3 d4 22.xd1 xa1 Technically
the position favors white, but in practical play it's quite unclear. In
Shootouts white scored +3 -0 =2, but the games were long, one going over 150
moves! 20.c3 White has established a winning position and
Shirazi plays the rest of the game with great precision. b6 21.b5 b7 21...b7 22.e5 e6 23.d1 b8 When compared to white's, black's pieces have
little in the way of prospects. In Shootouts from this position white scored
five wins as all black could do was sit passively while white ground him down
to a winning ending. Still, this seems like black's best option. 22.e5
Black's R comes under relentless fire. e4 23.c1 b7 24.d6 e7 25.xe4 xe5 So, black has saved his R, but white is winning. 26.xf6+ gxf6 27.c3 e6 28.f4 d6 29.g4+ f8 30.d1 a3 31.h3 e8 32.d3 c5 33.xh7 e7 34.d5 a3 35.h3 Black resigned. It looks like there is
plenty of play left in the position, but Stockfish puts white's advantage at
over 9 Ps. 35.h3 Not being a Grandmaster I don't see a clear way of
winning here, so here is Stockfish 15's continuation. a4 35...e5
Practically speaking this may be black's best chance. 36.d7+ 36.xe5 xh3 37.gxh3 fxe5 38.xe5+ would win, but it's more difficult. 36...e8 37.c7 e6 38.c5 There's no really good answer to Qh8+ d8 39.e7 xe7 40.h8+ d7 41.xa8 xc3 42.d5+ e8 43.b5+ f8 44.d8+ g7 45.xe7 bxc5
Engines give white the win here, but with humans who knows?! 36.b2 c8 37.a3+ c5 38.c3 e8 39.h4 f5 40.xf5 a5 41.d5 f6 42.xc5+ bxc5 43.xa5 f7 44.xc5 e1 45.c7+ e7 46.g3 g8 47.f3 g6 48.g3 e1 49.g2 c2 50.h5+ and wins. 1–0
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