Alekhine's Brilliancy with the Blumenfeld Countergambit

Featured is a chess game between Siegbert Tarrasch and Alexander Alekhine from the 1922 Bad Pistyan. Alekhine earned a brilliancy prize for this game. In this model game for the Blumenfeld Countergambit, Tarrasch doesn't recognize the danger of allowing Alekhine's e-pawn to advance to e4. As soon as the "Alpha Zero pawn" is established, Alekhine is winning. Pay special attention to just how logical many of Alekhine's follow-up moves are after 14...e4.
#AlexanderAlekhine #BlumenfeldCountergambit
Image of Alexander Alekhine by Klimbim 0.1
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PGN
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. c4 c5 4. d5 b5 5. dxe6 fxe6 6. cxb5 d5
7. e3 Bd6 8. Nc3 O-O 9. Be2 Bb7 10. b3 Nbd7 11. Bb2 Qe7
12. O-O Rad8 13. Qc2 e5 14. Rfe1 e4 15. Nd2 Ne5 16. Nd1 Nfg4
17. Bxg4 Nxg4 18. Nf1 Qg5 19. h3 Nh6 20. Kh1 Nf5 21. Nh2 d4
22. Bc1 d3 23. Qc4+ Kh8 24. Bb2 Ng3+ 25. Kg1 Bd5 26. Qa4 Ne2+
27. Kh1 Rf7 28. Qa6 h5 29. b6 Ng3+ 30. Kg1 axb6 31. Qxb6 Ne2+
32. Kh1 Ng3+ 33. Kg1 d2 34. Rf1 Nxf1 35. Nxf1 Be6 36. Kh1 Bxh3
37. gxh3 Rf3 38. Ng3 h4 39. Bf6 Qxf6 40. Nxe4 Rxh3+

[@ChessUnderFireALearningJourney]

"The purpose of a move is to make the next one easier." - Emanuel Lasker. This video perfectly highlights that with the Blumenfeld Gambit! Black's development flowed like clockwork after e4, while White struggled. Great lesson, thanks!

[@stevenorth1564]

Wonderful quote hope I remember that!

[@lukacalov1988]

Fun fact: Alekhine has the highest win% ever with 71% excluding Morphy

[@user-id5pb2de5e]

What’s Morphys?

[@bjordsvennson2726]

​​​​84%​@@user-id5pb2de5e

[@deadbeefmonster]

Thanks for playing out these games I know I went through multiple times as a child. Just without the fancy new algebraic notation these new kids use :P I miss you referring to "king bishop" and "king knight" a lot as in the olden days, nice hearing it in this game!

[@ChessNetwork]

👍☺️

[@juanfranciscobrizuela]

New and fancy? It is the standard FIDE notation since 1981. It's been 43 years!

[@deadbeefmonster]

@@juanfranciscobrizuela lol, true. Just Alexhine games were in descriptive notation back then, it was slow to catch on. MCO helped before the advent of chess computers people leaned on.

[@AG_247]

​@@juanfranciscobrizuelaPerspective Matters. 43 years might be twice your lifespan, but it's barely 20% of professional chess' lifespan, or maybe half the lifespan from the OG comment here.

[@chrishauser5505]

I played chess heavily in high school in the 70s. Algebraic notation was "new", and practically all chess books used the old notation. It's like knowing how to drive a manual transmission: most kids will never know that fun. 😎

[@bartman898]

The game taught me to be more patient in my positions. Something I need.

[@richarddavis8486]

Wow! Thanks for sharing, Jerry. This is already a model game for the Broomfield counter gambit, which will inspire me in my future games.

[@ChessNetwork]

👍

[@mr.nobody2515]

Genius play by Alekhine, I wonder how strong he would be in modern times spending more time on chess and having more knowledge, definitely 2800+ player. Tarrash was also a genius player with very deep positional understanding in those times, and was by the way a doctor

[@lukacalov1988]

I agree Alekhine is easily 2700 Probably around 2800 strenght

[@AG_247]

Chess from those times just has something magical, I can't even describe it. Thanks Jerry. Also: you know, the game is literally legendary, when there are two players competing against each other who have an opening named after them. Awesome coverage!

[@andylee3114]

Great game and instructively explained as always. Fun to see each of Black's attacking moves opening the door for the next.

[@lukemarfim]

What an incredible game by Alekhine! This countergambit is amazing!

[@gbu32]

What great minds. Love all of your videos. Keep up your great work.

[@ChessNetwork]

Thank you 😎

[@ramazanhoxha4265]

alekhine was a chess monster he showed his opponents no mercy..

[@LomLaLay]

When I played actively, this was the opening I disliked most to play against.

[@stevenorth1564]

Once again, awesome analysis of a great game thanks Jerry. And Tarrasch was no piker.

[@ChessNetwork]

Thank you Steve. 👍

[@Tod_oMal]

One word comes up to me while watching Alekine's play, it is "Diabolical".

[@andre11zz]

Amazing game! Will take a look into this variation soon

[@FurkanKahraman.]

İ love the old time chess play's

[@mr.nobody2515]

Me too, in those times there was so many genius players who basically invented chess opening theory and deep knowledge and understanding of chess without computers, golden time of chess I think

[@intrance96]

@@mr.nobody2515 I agree, i'd say perfect chess is boring chess :)

[@DarkSideChess]

This is the second game I memorized after the Opera game. My coach told me it shows how powerful the mobile pawn center can be and how to use it.

[@jameslazer819]

Wow that is a stunning game! Black barely needs to sacrifice anything, such an elegant game. Thx 👏

[@ezequielnazario6544]

Man a superGM life must be tough. Imagine playing a game with 90% accuracy and get crushed like that. How do you proceed? I love chess because it teaches you to be humble and go on. Great stuff Jerry, greetings from Spain

[@ChessNetwork]

Top players are extremely resilient in-game and in-between games. Nice to read you’re enjoying the content from 🇪🇸. 👍

[@yggdrasil9039]

Wow. Alekhine's moves flow like clockwork.

[@Tod_oMal]

Capablanca's Spirit...

[@maximus4007]

Thanks Jerry..👌👌👌

[@deemitchell4603]

Very cool game!

[@liammcconville5390]

love seeing games from this era on the channel

[@altonbrek]

Great game. Very entertaining. 😊

[@jimmywalker8354]

White was on the backfoot from the middlegame.... they were pushed back.

[@ChessNetwork]

That’s the power of e4. 👍

[@Jaylooker]

Having unopposed central control can lead to a dangerous attack

[@cptnoremac]

"0 inaccuracies? Reported for cheating." -- Lichess user

[@cloudforest4087]

He's my favorite player!

[@ChessNetwork]

👍😎

[@michaelf8221]

I recognize the finish from this game from "the woodpecker method" - cool to see how this came from a blumenfeld gambit

[@markmartens]

Lovely game.

[@MoonBurn13]

The whole show was dizzying! All the way from “How he get that beautiful position out of the opening again?” Then the incomprehensible magic begins in earnest. Thanx Jerry.

[@ChessNetwork]

e4 is 💪

[@haidermohsin]

With all this deep positional and tactical feat that's almost a century old people nowadays when Magnus Carlsen castles his king or move his black bishop to black square they say oh my goodness it's the first time in chess we see such playing. Thank you for the precious analysis.

[@LazloHo]

This is a great lesson for a mid-rated player. Studying your last loss, working your way backwards from the lopsided ending, finding each exchange and hung piece felt forced in the situation, trying to find the initial mistake that led to the disaster - how often do we make it all the way back to 7. e3? We don't often sense the danger as early as we need to.

[@psybranet]

Brillianvy indeed

[@Tod_oMal]

The Spirit of Capablanca all over Alekhine's place.

[@davesmith5656]

I have heard that Alekhine is pronounced ah-lee-OH-kheen. Don't know if that's correct or not, but it could be. For sure it is improbable that AH-lec-kine is correct. Edit: I looked it up. The man changed his name from ah-leeOH-heen to Alekhine to make it easier for French and English speakers. The original is in Cyrillic and I'm not going to look up some typographical program to print it. I guess any pronunciation is acceptable.

[@welp...]

The change you're referring to is merely a spelling one, the extra "e" in the end. Regarding pronunciation, Alekhine himself always insisted that the correct one is ah-leh-heen, but unfortunately for him the ah-leeOH-heen version is what became widespread among Russian speakers in USSR because it's kinda more "logical" to our tongue.

[@MichaelFJ1969]

Amazing how he made white seem like a total patzer. The rook on a1 never moved.

[@Wilhelm-100TheTechnoAdmiral]

I'm so happy to watch these videos and pretend that I understand 😂

[@buhamut1986]

thx

[@ChessNetwork]

Welcome 👍

[@gingersam851]

Good to see some games of human vs human instead of computer vs computer.

[@triscuit5103]

First. Thanks Gary, awesome video ❤

[@zwischendurundmoll3968]

Gary? Jerry u mean?

[@irfanyamashita7184]

Who is gary?

[@marksfeir7615]

Jerry!

[@loplop7029]

Hi Jerry.

[@mahmoudayoub9168]

Hi Jerry, You haven't streamed in a while Hope you are doing well and can stream more often soon

[@bullwinkle5445]

every time I watch one of these videos I just feel more stupid. (but I love them)

[@YungLilBoii]

Don't tell Jake and Amir about this Counter Gambit

[@ChessNetwork]

Nice one! ☺️

[@YungLilBoii]

@@ChessNetwork whoa. You got that reference?

[@exponentmantissa5598]

What a massacre and Tarrasch was no easy player to do this to with black!

[@M.KEY_HEMIN]

OMG

[@M.KEY_HEMIN]

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@manuelbaeza9396]

Like 👍 and comment to support good chess content 🎉

[@ChessNetwork]

Thank you

[@YKLWEF]

Very pretty.

[@Gru39]

Never heard of Blumenfeld but very easily and early destroyed white center. Yeah white got an early g5 pawn but so what

[@jrbrown1989]

Test comment

[@jrbrown1989]

Why are my other attempts to comment getting removed?? Just trying to say that I "tookathingor2away". Is that a forbidden phrase or something??

[@AtomicBl453]

@@jrbrown1989 meshed together words are probably prohibited to prevent bots from spamming links.

[@jrbrown1989]

@@AtomicBl453 the words were not mashed together originally. I mashed them together afterward to circumvent the removal algorithm

[@ChessNetwork]

🤷‍♂️I can see your comments.

[@TurkeyMeat]

It could very well be a common bot phrase recently that got blacklisted or something. Weird.

[@abderahmanmauritani1433]

What a game ❤