The Gunderam Defense, also known as the Brazilian Defense or the Câmara Defense if followed by moves ...g6, ...Bg7 and ...Nf6, creating the typical King's Indian formation, is a rarely played

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 ...

starting with the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 Qe7 It is named after chess player and theoretician , though

Hélder Câmara Hélder Pessoa Câmara (7 February 1909 – 27 August 1999) was a Brazilian Catholic archbishop. A self-identified socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characteriz ...

played it 4 years prior to Gunderam.

History

The opening was first played by

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 ...

in 1954, in the IV Centennial of the City of São Paulo Tournament and the XXII Brazilian Chess Championship. Gunderam played it for the first time in a correspondence match against August Babel in 1958 and published an analysis of it in his book ''Neue Eröffnungswege'', in 1961. He named this defense "''Damenverteidigung''" ("Queen Defence"), whose main line would be 1. e4 e5 2.Nf3 Qe7 3.Nc3 c6 4.Bc4 f5. He also analyzed a sharp line characterized by the moves: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Qe7 3.Bc4 f5 4.exf5 d5 5.Bxd5 Nf6 6.Bb3 Bxf5. In 1969, Washington de Oliveira published a work dedicated to the analysis of Câmara's use of the opening, called ''Notas Sobre a Defesa Brasileira'' ("Annotations on the Brazilian Defense").

Overview

Although 2...Qe7 does answer the threat against Black's e-pawn, it interferes with the development of Black's dark-square bishop. One of the ideas behind this awkward queen move is to unbalance the game by castling

queenside This glossary of chess explains commonly used terms in chess, in alphabetical order. Some of these terms have their own pages, like ''fork'' and ''pin''. For a list of unorthodox chess pieces, see Fairy chess piece; for a list of terms specific t ...

while White will presumably castle

kingside This glossary of chess explains commonly used terms in chess, in alphabetical order. Some of these terms have their own pages, like ''fork'' and ''pin''. For a list of unorthodox chess pieces, see Fairy chess piece; for a list of terms specific t ...

. Whereas Gunderam's suggestion was the f7-f5 break, as a delayed

Latvian Gambit The Latvian Gambit (or Greco Countergambit) is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 f5 It is one of the oldest chess openings, having been analysed in the 17th century by Gioachino Greco, after whom it is sometimes ...

, Câmara's intent was to allow the use of the King's Indian setup against King's Pawn opening, proceeding with ...g6, ...Bg7 and ...Nf6 after 2...Qe7. It became popular among Brazilian players then, so much so they begun calling it "the Brazilian defense", being employed often in the top national competition the following years. Later on, Hélder Câmara requested that it be called "Camara Defense" instead.

Notable Games

August Babel vs Gerhart Gunderam, Germany (corr), 1958

References

{{reflist Chess openings 1958 in chess

History

Overview

Notable Games

See also

References