Opening Insanity

This 21-mover becomes so chaotic so fast that my annotations are going to be of a more general nature than concrete variation style.

Here is the aforementioned game Simpson-Madison:

1. e4 d6 2. d4 f5!? (!!)
It looks risky, it is risky, and it completely dashes any hopes white may have had of a normal game.

3. Bd3?! fxe4! 4. Bxe4 Nf6 5. Bd3 g6!?
Seems to be the best way to continue for black. If black ever gets to play ...e5 without consequence, black will stand much better.


6. Nf3 Bg7 7. Be3=+
White is already displaying that he has no idea what to do here, and thus 2. ...f5 is justified. It seems that Bg5 was better.

7. ...Nc6 8. Nbd2 Ng4!
Forcing the dark squared bishop off, after which it will be difficult to attack black and black will stand better.

9. Ng5?! Nxe3 10. fxe3 e5!
This is the reason that Ng5 was not so strong. Playing the ...e5 break with tempo really hurts white. That is not to say black can relax; white still has dangerous threats in the air, most notably Nxh7 with the idea of ...Rxh7? Bxg6+!

Of course, 11. Nxh7 fails to Qh4+ picking up the piece and not losing the rook in the process.

11. Ndf3 exd4!?
Now the chaos begins. This move invites white to take on h7 since there is no Qh4+ available now. It is hard to say what kind of plan either side should adopt, since both sides are precariously uncastled. If white castles immediately, it is entirely possible that black will be able to hold on to an extra pawn on e3. Simply recapturing will only serve to further mobilize the black pieces. Here is how white handled the situation:

12. Nxh7 Bf5!?
This is the idea I had in mind on Nxh7, that it will be hard to get that knight out of there without giving up all of white's remaining attacking chances. So trading seems to help black, not trading seems to help black, what should white do?

13. e4??
This is the losing move. A loss of time when every tempo counts. White's best try may simply be to trade the bishops and hope for the best.

13. ...Bg4!
If you think this pin is nasty, just wait.

14. e5
Its kind of sad, but this almost seems forced.

14. ...Nxe5 15. Qe2 Qe7
Now white has nothing, his pieces are all over the place, swinging at air, and black can even taunt white by castling soon.


16. Nhg5 Bh6
This has to be just agonizing for white.

17. Ne4 0-0-0
How horrible is this? Black castles and white just has to sit there and watch his position get worse.

18. 0-0? Be3+
White has been in losing since e4, but now it gets real bad real fast.

19. Nf2
It really doesn't matter what white does, the end is nigh.

19. ...Bxf3 20. gxf3 Qh4
There was a technically more accurate mate in some large number for black here, but as they say, a win is a win.

21. h3?? Qxh3 0-1
Here is the final position:


Just looking over the game, it almost seems like white never really got comfortable after 2. ...f5. This just goes to show what shock value can do to an opponent.