Comical Observations + 2½ smashing OTB games.

1. e4 e5 2. d4 {The theory of the Danish Gambit in three words: Must. Can. May. You must take the first pawn, you can safely take the 2nd pawn, you may take the third pawn.} 2... exd4 3. c3 dxc3 4. Bc4 cxb2 5. Bxb2 Bb4+ 6. Nc3 d6 7. Nf3 Nf6 8. O-O Bxc3 9. Bxc3 O-O 10. e5 Ne4 {This Knight takes on the whole White army.} 11. Bb2 Bg4 12. Qd4 Bxf3 13. gxf3 Ng5 14. Kh1 Nxf3 15. Qd3 {This looks silly. White is offering Black a 4th pawn with a gain of tempo on the Queen.} 15... Nxe5 16. Rg1 {The point. 16...NxQ 17.Rxg7+ Kg8 18.Rg8++!! Kxg8 19.Rg1 mates. } 16... Qd7 17. Qd2 Ng6 {Having nicked two pawns the breathless Black Knight drops back to g6 to defend his King and have a rest.} 18. Qd4 {Unfortunately....} 18... Ne5 {....that was forced. Now it's Crash! Bang! and Wallop!} 19. Rxg7+ {Crash!} 19... Kxg7 20. Rg1+ Kh8 {20..Kf6 gets mated in a few standard moves with 21.Qh4+ } 21. Qxe5+ {Bang!} 21... dxe5 22. Bxe5+ f6 23. Bxf6+ {Wallop!} 23... Rxf6 24. Rg8

[FEN "r1b2rk1/pp2qp2/2nRp1p1/6Pn/1Pp5/P1N1P3/1BQ2PP1/2K2B1R w - - 0 1"]
1. Rxh5 gxh5 2. Nd5 exd5 3. Qh7+ Kxh7 4. Rh6+ Kg8 5. Rh8 {“A delightful finish.” writes J. Du Mont in 200 Miniatures. Agreed.}

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Nf3 Bb4+ {Introducing an opening nuisance to White who wants the b-Knight on d2 and the c1-Bishop on b2.} 5. Bd2 Bd6 6. Bg2 c6 7. Qc2 Nbd7 8. O-O O-O 9. Rd1 {There are 5 pieces between that Rook and the Queen....} 9... Qe7 {...How many times have you seen the good guys do that? It's an automatic response backed with years of knowledge. Delay in side stepping the Rook often cause misery.} 10. Bg5 h6 11. Bxf6 Nxf6 12. Nbd2 e5 {Andrew was not too fond of this but I can see nothing wrong with it. It leads to a position Adams wanted to work with. It is not a rule of thumb 'opening up the position for the two Bishops’ move because Black is going to give one straight back.} 13. dxe5 Bxe5 14. cxd5 Nxd5 {Black avoids the Isolated Queen Pawn. Play with a IQP if you want to or have to. Given a third choice stronger players tend to avoid them.} 15. Nxe5 Qxe5 16. Nc4 Qf6 17. e4 Nb6 18. Ne3 {I like White and right up to and including the very last move I can see me playing the very same moves as he does now.} 18... Be6 19. f4 Rad8 20. f5 Bc8 21. Ng4 Qe7 22. f6 gxf6 23. Nxh6+ Kg7 24.Nf5+ {What was wrong with any of that. Nothing. Most of lads reading this would have played the same.} 24... Bxf5 25. exf5 {We now reach the position discussed above. Let us see what happened. We are White.} 25... Rfe8 26. Rxd8 Rxd8 27. Rf1 Rd4 {Mickey's first venture into our side of the board. Look at that. (properly done you should now feeling the Gordon butterflies.) What is Adams up too. I see it! Rc4 and then Qc5+ and he has Rc2.} 28. b3 {Nipped that one in the bud. Gordon is no dope and if my notes show bias towards the winner, I'm trying not too. If a good player can trip himself up in these positions (the game is about to come an abrupt end.) then we all can.} 28... Nd7 {The Knight is heading for e5.} 29. Rd1 {Let us get rid of that Rook. It is more active than ours. It’s annoying me.} 29... Qc5 {And that's it. White resigned. 30.Qxc5 RxR+ and NxQ. There is no way out. The threat of the discovered checkmate is a killer. A wonderful alert move from Adams. If White tries to play on with Rook and Bishop v a Queen.} 30. Rxd4 Qxc2 31. Rxd7 Qc5+ {...the White bits are all on the wrong squares. If now 32.Kf1 Qxf5+ and QxR.} 32. Kh1 Qc1+ {And mate next move. It's what happens so often when you are playing a good player. You think you are doing OK. Suddenly he has activity and you are good enough to spot that he is building up a better position than yours. This induces a howler and it’s over.}

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qe6+ 4. Be2 Bd7 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. O-O Rd8 7. Re1
g6 {Now the good guys (me!) would save up the discovered attack on the Queen. 8.b3 and 9.Bc4 looks tasty. White will be whacking on f7 if the Queen goes to wrong square, if not she still gets booted about. Instead White wastes his shot stealing a pawn.} 8. Ba6 Qf5 9. Bxb7 Nf6 10. Bxc6 Bxc6 {Now a common error here is moves like 11.Re5? Bxf3! and Black is OK. White's best is to cook something up before Black gets castled. 11.Ne5 looks OK.}11. Nd4 {The right idea but the wrong square. A one move blunder, so typical on here. Slow down, take your time.} 11... Rxd4 12. Ne2 Ng4 {Black wastes no time putting this one to bed. } 13. f3 Qc5 {So that is where Mickey Adams got the Queen discovered check idea from. Black now resigned. 0-1. So we now have some fun. What follows DID NOT HAPPEN.} 14. Kh1 {There is Philidor’s legacy in there. (the King is smother mated by a Knight) see it? Go for it. } 14... Nf2+ 15. Kg1 Rxd2 {And if 16.Qxd2 Black pulls off the Philidor’s Legacy. Watch.} 16. Qxd2 Nh3+ 17. Kh1 Qg1+ 18. Nxg1 {Arghhhh!!! this is Philidor’s Nightmare. Own up how many fell for it. That's it finished now...not quite, there is always one last trick. Nobody won by resigning.} 18... Bh6 {This guy is a nutter, why don't people just resign when they are beat?} 19. Qxh6 Nf2 {That's a Philidor Legacy. I repeat, IT DID NOT HAPPEN. Just me having some fun. Humour me.}