The Blackburne Shilling Gambit is the name facetiously given to a dubious
chess opening
A chess opening or simply an opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established theory; the other phases are the middlegame and the endgame. Many opening sequences have standard names such as the "Sicilian Defens ...
, derived from an offshoot of the
Italian Game
The Italian Game is a family of chess openings beginning with the moves:
:1. e4 e5
:2. Nf3 Nc6
:3. Bc4
This opening is defined by the of the white bishop to c4 (the so-called ""), where it attacks Black's vulnerable f7-square. It is part ...
, that begins:
:1.
e4 e5
:2.
Nf3 Nc6
:3.
Bc4 Nd4
It is also sometimes referred to as the Kostić Gambit after the Serbian
grandmaster Borislav Kostić
Borislav or Boryslav (Cyrillic script: Борислав) is a Slavic male given name.
People who have this name include:
*Borislav Cvetković, a Croatian-born Serbian football manager and former player
*Borislav Ivanov, a Bulgarian chess player ...
, who played it in the early 20th century.
[Bill Wall (2005), The Blackburne Shilling Gambit](_blank)
/ref>
History
Wilhelm Steinitz
William Steinitz (born Wilhelm Steinitz; May 14, 1836 – August 12, 1900) was an Austrian and, later, American chess player. From 1886 to 1894, he was the first official World Chess Champion. He was also a highly influential writer and che ...
made the first known mention of this line, noting it in 1895 in the Addenda to his ''Modern Chess Instructor'', Part II.Wilhelm Steinitz
William Steinitz (born Wilhelm Steinitz; May 14, 1836 – August 12, 1900) was an Austrian and, later, American chess player. From 1886 to 1894, he was the first official World Chess Champion. He was also a highly influential writer and che ...
, ''The Modern Chess Instructor'', Edition Olms Zürich, 1990 (reprint), p. 63 of Part II. .chessgames.com
Chessgames.com is an Internet chess community with over 224,000 members. The site maintains a large database of chess games, where each game has its own discussion page for comments and analysis. Limited primarily to games where at least one pla ...
, Dunlop–Hicks, New Zealand Championship, dates from 1911. Another early game, mentioned by Bill Wall, is Muhlock–Kostić, Cologne, 1912.
Analysis
Black's third move is a weak, time-wasting move. Steinitz recommended 4.0-0 or 4.Nxd4 in response.International Master
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...
Jeremy Silman
Jeremy Silman (born August 28, 1954) is an American International Master (IM) of chess and writer. Silman was born in Del Rio, Texas. He began playing chess at the age of 12. He has won the American Open, the National Open, and the U.S. Open, and ...
writes that White has an advantage after 4.0-0 (Paul Keres
Paul Keres (; 7 January 1916 – 5 June 1975) was an Estonian chess grandmaster and chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, and narrowly missed a chance at a World Chess Championship match on five ...
gives 4.0-0 d6 5.Nxd4 exd4 6.c3 "with the better position".initiative
In political science, an initiative (also known as a popular initiative or citizens' initiative) is a means by which a petition signed by a certain number of registered voters can force a government to choose either to enact a law or hold a pu ...
in the after 6.Nxc3 d6 7.d4 ; if 5...Bc5, Black loses a pawn to 6.Bxf7+ Kxf7 7.Qh5+ (Wolfgang Unzicker
Wolfgang Unzicker (26 June 1925 – 20 April 2006) was one of the strongest German chess Grandmasters from 1945 to about 1970.
He decided against making chess his profession, choosing law instead.
Unzicker was at times the world's strongest amat ...
).smothered mate
In chess, a smothered mate is a checkmate delivered by a knight in which the mated king is unable to move because it is completely surrounded (or ''smothered'') by its own pieces.
The mate is usually seen in a corner of the board, since fewer pie ...
. This trap is what gives the line its name; the great English master
Master or masters may refer to:
Ranks or titles
* Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans
*Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...
Joseph Henry Blackburne
Joseph Henry Blackburne (10 December 1841 – 1 September 1924) was a British chess player. Nicknamed "The Black Death", he dominated the British scene during the latter part of the 19th century. Blackburne learned the game at the relatively late ...
reputedly used it to win one shilling
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence o ...
per game from café visitors.gambit
A gambit (from Italian , the act of tripping someone with the leg to make them fall) is a chess opening in which a player sacrifices with the aim of achieving a subsequent advantage.
The word '' gambit'' is also sometimes used to describe sim ...
, since White cannot take the pawn
Pawn most often refers to:
* Pawn (chess), the weakest and most numerous piece in the game
* Pawnbroker or pawnshop, a business that provides loans by taking personal property as collateral
Pawn may also refer to:
Places
* Pawn, Oregon, an his ...
on e5 without losing material; however, after 4.Nxe5 Qg5, White can maintain a game with 5.Bxf7+! Steinitz wrote that this move, "followed by castling
Castling is a move in chess. It consists of moving the king two squares toward a rook on the same and then moving the rook to the square that the king passed over. Castling is permitted only if neither the king nor the rook has previously moved ...
, is now White's best chance and in some measure a promising one, considering that he has two Pawns and the attack for the piece".Graham Burgess
Graham K. Burgess (born 24 February 1968 in Liverpool, England) is an English FIDE Master of chess and a noted writer and trainer. He became a FIDE Master at the age of twenty. He attended Birkdale High School in Southport, Merseyside. In 198 ...
writes that 3...Nd4 is also known as the "Oh my God!" trap, as for full effect, Black is supposed to make this exclamation, pretending to have accidentally blundered the e-pawn. Burgess condemns this behavior as unethical, and notes that the trap, if avoided, leaves White with a large advantage.[Graham Burgess, ''The Mammoth Book of Chess'', Carroll & Graf, 1997, pp. 122–23. .]
See also
* List of chess openings
This is a list of chess openings, organized by the ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'' () code. In 1966, Chess Informant categorized the chess openings into five broad areas ("A" through "E"), with each of those broken down into one hundred subca ...
* List of chess openings named after people
''The Oxford Companion to Chess'' lists 1,327 named openings and variants. Chess players' names are the most common sources of opening names. The name given to an opening is not always that of the first player to adopt it; often an opening is name ...
References
{{reflist, 1
Chess openings
Chess traps
1912 in chess