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