By Brian Wall
http:// en. wikipedia. org / wiki / La _ Bourd onnais _% E2 % 80 % 93 _ McDonnell _ ch ess _ matches
------------------------------------- Timeline 1834 – Louis Charles Mahe De Labourdonnais from France and Alexander McDonnell from Ireland contest a series of 6 matches at the Westminster Chess Club, London, England between June and October 1934, an unofficial World Championship match since Labourdonnais was considered the best player in the world. Louis won 45 games to McDonnells ' s 27( 31 %) with 13 draws in 85 games. Alexander won the second match and was leading the final match when it broke off forever, therefore one could say the world had an Irish Chess Champion for a brief spell. McDonnell made up for the difference in strength by taking more time, sometimes hours for one move, since there were no clocks. 1850 – My great-great grandfather Walter Wall leaves Ireland due to the potato famine. Later half of my 8 younger brothers and some aunts and uncles visit Ireland and the farm where the Wall family used to live. 1955 – Brian Wall is born. My dad sings Irish songs to me all his life. 1980 – I become a Chessmaster. 1991 – I live in a house in Lowell, Massachusetts with 3 other Chessmasters, IM David Vigorito, US Senior Open Champion Joel Johnson and Unorthodox Chess Openings guru Jack Young. 2000 – Jack Young tells me about the Fishing Pole for about 5 minutes on the phone. I become obsessed with this kind of attack, playing thousands of games with it, writing thousands of Chess emails about it, making YouTube videos, even an illustrated version in HOW TO PLAY CHESS LIKE AN ANIMAL. Jonathan O ' Connor, President of the Irish Chess Union, joins my Chess email list and suggests I write for Ireland. 2010 – I use ChessBase to collect 50,000 Fishing Pole attacks. The first one I find is a 1600 Greco game. The second Fishing Pole is from the Labourdonnais-McDonnell match which is the one I would like to present to you.
The first Fishing Pole attack, 1620, by Greco.
Greco, Gioacchino – N. N. Europe 1620 [ ECO ¨C54¨ ] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. Ng5 O-O 6. d3 h6 7. h4 hxg5 8. hxg5 Nh7 9. Qh5 1-0
-------------------------------------- A few Fishing Pole attacks so you get the idea.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Ng4 5. h3 h5 6. hxg4 hxg4 7. Ne1 Qh4 8. f4 g3 mating.
The g4-Knight is the bait and the h5- pawn is the Fishing Rod. In England a weak player is a bunny, in America it ' s a fish, I am not sure what they call them in Ireland.
" You are fishing for cheap tactics with fish " – Life Master Jack Young.
The fish nibbles the Knight and gets thrown in the pail.----------------------------------------------- A few more traps.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Ng4 5. Re1 Bc5 6. d4 Nxd4 7. Nxd4 Qh4 8. Nf3 Qxf2 + 9. Kh1 Qg1 + 10. Rxg1 Nf2 #( Smothered mate.)
----------------------------------------------- 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Ng4 5. Re1 Bc5 6. d4 Nxd4 7. Nxd4
In England a weak player is a bunny, in America it ' s a fish, I am not sure what they call them in Ireland.
Qh4 8. Nf3 Qxf2 + 9. Kh1 Qg1 + 10. Rxg1 Nf2 # My favorite, checkmating with three minor pieces a Queen down.----------------------------------------------- 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Ng4 5. d4 exd4 6. Nxd4 h5 7. Nc3 Bc5 8. Nxc6 Qh4 9. h3 Qg3 10. hxg4 hxg4----------------------------------------------- 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Ng4 5. d4 exd4 6. Nxd4 h5 7. Nc3 Bc5 8. Nxc6 Qh4 9. Bf4 Bxf2 + 10. Kh1 Nxh2 11. g3 Qh3 12. Rxf2 Nf3 + 13. Rh2 Qxh2 #------------------------------------------------- 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Ng4 5. d3 Bc5 6. h3 h5 7. Bxc6 dxc6 8. c3 Bb6 9. d4 Qf6 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. dxe5 Qxe5 12. Nd2 Bxh3 13. gxh3 Qg3 + 14. Kh1 Qxh3 + 15. Kg1 Rh6 0-1
I have thousands of games like these from slow Grandmaster games to one minute v luggertje bullet games.------------------------------------------------- As opposed to most openings Irish pawn chains are encouraged.
Internet Chess Club 2010 OscarWilde- B-Wall [ ECO " C65 "] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Ng4 5. h3 h5 6. d3 Bc5 7. c3 a6 8. Ba4 Ba7 9. hxg4 hxg4 10. Ng5 d6 11. Bxc6 + bxc6 12. d4 f6 13. g3 fxg5 14. dxe5 Be6 15. Kg2 Kd7 16. Qe2
15 | P a g e I r i s h C h e s s J o u r n a l