The Urusov Gambit - Acknowledgments

BISHOP'S OPENING | DIMOCK TOURNAMENT | URUSOV GAMBIT | TWO KNIGHTS DEFENSE | LINKS

Acknowledgments

I first started analyzing the Urusov Gambit 23 years ago, led to it by I. A. Horowitz's classic opening book Chess Openings: Theory and Practice (Simon & Schuster 1964), where it is featured in the first chapter. When I discovered over the board that a line he (and all subsequent writers) gave as "unclear" was actually clearly winning for White (see the game Goeller-Hall, Union County 1980), I became hooked. I've been analyzing the Urusov and other openings ever since, even though I gave up playing seriously about 15 years ago.

Why I've published this article is a bit of a mystery to me. Orignally, when I put up my first Urusov Gambit page about three years ago, I just wanted to make my analysis available to others because it was more complete than anything I'd come across in print and it seemed a pity not to share it. I could have put together a book or a CD, but I wanted to reach a wider audience and to learn more about the web in the process. And I've learned a lot these past three years. I've lately been teaching people how to publish web sites and so I now think of this as my hobby site, one where I can have fun while learning more about usability and web publishing generally. It has taken quite a few spare hours to convert my old web site (no longer on the web) into something designed for a wider audience to browse through and use right at the computer. My goal is to have a completely usable (though hardly "finished") site by the end of Summer 2003, at which point I hope this will be a model of usability in chess publishing on the web.

Index of Lines

Introduction

A) 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d4 ...

B) 3.d4 Nxe4 4.dxe4

C) 3.d4 exd4 4.Nf3 ...

I) 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Qxd4 ...

J) 5.Qxd4 Nf6 6.Bg5?!

K) 5.Qxd4 Nf6 6.Nc3! ...

L) 6.Nc3 Be7 7.Bg5 Nc6 8.Qh4 d5

M) 6.Nc3 Be7 7.Bg5 Nc6 8.Qh4 d6

N) 6.Nc3 Be7 7.Bg5 c6 8.O-O-O d5

Acknowledgments

Urusov Gambit & Related Links

Urusov PGN File from Pitt Archives

Putting together a list of acknowledgments and sources for analysis I've been developing for over 20 years is a difficult undertaking. The following list will necessarily be incomplete. Besides the sources listed here, I owe debts of gratitude to various people who personally helped me develop the content for this site. The late Edgar T. McCormick lent his library and reviewed my analysis -- in the process playing countless games with me. The members of the Westfield Chess Club in New Jersey gave me great support as I developed as a player and provided many chances to try out the Urusov in club tournaments. Special thanks to Glenn Petersen who offered me space in The Castled King (precursor to the Atlantic Chess News) to publish an early version of this analysis in 1984-1985, and to Bill Freeman who edited my work. I put that article aside for many years, until I put up my first rather primitive web page to share it. That page sat idle for about a year until Max Burkett corresponded with me about it and pointed me toward many of the great game archives on the web that would help to improve what I'd begun. It took me almost a year more to get around to making those improvements, but Max instigated that work and I thank him for that -- and for his many wonderful game files at the Pitt Archive that have supported my efforts.

Bibliography

Bishop's Opening PGN File
<ftp://136.142.185.47/group/student-activities/chess/PGN/Openings/bishoppg.zip>

Burkett, Max. Various materials on the Urusov Gambit and on Prince Urusov. 1997. <ftp://136.142.185.47/group/student-activities/chess/PGN/Openings/urusovpg.zip>. Accessed April 28, 2001.

Collins, Jack. Postal Games. Chess Review. July 1949. 224.

Estrin, Yakov and Igor Glazkov. Double King Pawn Openings. 1982.

Estrin, Yakov. Gambits. Chess Enterprises 1982.

Forintos, Gyozo and Ervin Haag. The Petroff Defense. New York: Macmillan 1991.

Galberg-Lund, Soren. Urusovuv Gambit. Brno: Self published 1995. Available from Chess Digest. An English translation of Galber-Lund's work was available as The Urusoff Gambit at http://ftp.ru.xemacs.org/pub/games/freechess/texts/urusoff.txt -- still available through the archives. It is also archived under: http://ftp.belnet.be/pub/mirror/ftp.freechess.org/pub/chess/texts/urusoff.txt

Goeller, Michael. "The Bishop's Opening: Swashbuckling Returns." Two part article. The Castled King: The Official Publication of the New Jersey State Chess Federation. 9.6-10.1 (November-December 1984 and January-February 1985): 8-12 and 12-17.

Harding, Tim. Bishop's Opening. The Chess Player 1973.

__________. "The Eternal Appeal of the Urusov Gambit." The Kibitzer #28 at ChessCafe. 1998.

__________. "Interesting Byways in the Classic Open Games." The Kibitzer #46 at ChessCafe. 2000.

__________. "Is the Urusov Gambit Sound?" The Kibitzer #29 at ChessCafe. 1998.

__________. "Once more unto the Urusov, dear friends, once more..." The Kibitzer #53 at ChessCafe. April 2003.

__________. Philidor's Defense: A Re-appraisal. Chess Digest 1984.

__________. "Some Opening Topics Revisited." The Kibitzer #33 at ChessCafe. 1999.

__________. "What Exactly Is the Bishop's Opening?" The Kibitzer #27 at ChessCafe. 1998.

Hooper, David. A Complete Defense to 1.e4. 1966.

Keres, Paul. "Lauferspiel." Dreispringerspiel bis Konigsgambit. Berlin: Sportverlag 1974. 207-213.

Kosten, Tony. Winning with the Philidor Defense. New York: Henry Holt 1992.

Lane, Gary. Winning with the Bishop's Opening. New York: Henry Holt 1993.

Larsen, Bent. Chapter C24 in Encyclopedia of Chess Openings (ECO). Beograd 1981.

Lasker, Emmanuel. Lasker's Manual of Chess. Dover.

Leach, Colin. Bishop's Opening. Self published 1990. Available from Chess Digest.

Minev, Nikolai. "Rare and Forgotten Opening Ideas: The Potter-Marshall Center Gambit." Players Chess News 9.5 (Number 39, August 5, 1985): 4.

Müller, Karsten and Martin Voigt. Danish Dynamite: Explosive Gambits: the Danish, Goring, Scotch, and Urusov. Millford, CT: Russell Enterprises, 2003.

Reinfeld, Fred. Dubrovnik 1950. Chess Review. December 1950. 365.

Schiller, Eric. White to Play 1.e4 and Win. Chess Digest, 1992.

Soltis, Andrew. Karl Marx Plays Chess and Other Reports on the World's Oldest Game. New York: David McKay 1991.

Tartakower, Dr. S. and J. Du Mont. 500 Master Games of Chess. 1952. New York: Dover 1975.

Tartakower, Dr. S. and J. Du Mont. 100 Master Games of Modern Chess. New York: Dover 1975.

Van der Tak, A. C. "A Forgotten Gambit." New In Chess Yearbook. Volume 59. Edited by Genna Sosonko and Paul van der Sterren. Netherlands: Interchess BV 2001. 106-111.

Van Wieringen, C. A. Annotations. Dick Smit Memorial 2000. <http://www.nbc.schaakbond.nl/emailbulletin/DSMTOT.pdf> Accessed January 10, 2002.

West, James. The Philidor Countergambit. Chess Enterprises 1994.

Additional entries can be found under the Dimock Theme Tournament bibliography.

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