Sunday 3 April 2011

The Sacrificial Trap



Napoleon I - Madame de Remusat (MalmaisonCastle (1804)

Napoleon opened with the Dunst Opening1.Nc3 (The opening move 1.Nc3 develops the knight to a good square where it attacks the central e4 and d5 squares.)
Remosat replied with 1...e5 (This natural move is playable, but dangerous if Black does not know what he is doing).I would wood have played 1...d5 witch is one of Black's best replies, occupying the center and underscoring the unsettled position of White's knight.

Napoleon continued 2.Nf3 and Black replied d6 (Philidor Defense)

after(1.Nc3 e5 2.Nf3 d6)

Napoleon moved e2-e4 (securing Black's E-Pawn and placing more pressure on the d5 square). Black responds with f7-f5 (Kings Gambit). Now Napoleon shows his intentions with 4.h4 (preventing a possible pin on his Knight from the Black Queens Bishop). Black takes the E-Pawn ( 4...fxe4) Napoleon retakes with Knight (Nxe4) 
after(3.e4 f5 4.h3 fxe4 5.Nxe4)


 Black feels confident Nc6 (Supporting her E-Pawn in order to move the D-Pawn) Napoleon plays 6.Nfg5,  Black moves d6-d5 (removing the defender E-Knight defends the G-Knight). Napoleon attacks with Queen to h5 check, Black removes check with g7-g6.White retreats to queen to f3
     
after(5...Nc6 6.Nfg5 d5 7.Qh5+ g6 8.Qf3)

Up to now Black had the advantage. As you can see black needs to remove the threat (Queen to f7#). Remosat tried to accomplish this by moving her Knight h6 (protecting the f7 square). According to me this was her first major mistake , She should have moved her Bishop to f5 (removing the threat and strengthening her line while also increasing the pressure on Napoleons Knights). Her mistake changed the course of the game : Napoleon moved with tempo Nf6 check, black responded by moving her King to e7. Napoleon moved again with tempo Knight takes d5 check. Black moves King to d6.

after(8....Nh6 9.Nf6+ Ke7 10.Nxd5+ Kd6)


Now this is where Napoleon's brilliance came into play, he played Knight to e4 check (cutting off he's D-Knight from any protection) The bait was set. She being taunted by the Knights for so long couldn't resist and made the huge blunder of taking the bait (Kxd5).The trap was sprung.

           after(11.Ne4 Kxd5)                                           12.Bc4


          12.....Kxc4 13.Qb3+                                 13.....Kd4 14.Qd3#

No comments:

Post a Comment