---

On Monday, I posted a video and article on my favourite response (and arguably, the best response at the beginner-intermediate level!) with Black to the Ruy López Opening, the wonderful Jaenisch Gambit (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 f5). In that entry, I covered the Jaenisch Gambit, Declined 4. O-O, and the gambit Accepted (4. exf5).

Today, I’m going to cover an absolutely spectacular (🤩👍) game of 10+5 rapid I played on Lichess, down a line resulting in a quick win in the Jaenisch Gambit, Exchange Variation (4. Bxc6). The Exchange Variation is the most common response by White against the Jaenisch at the beginner-intermediate level, as it’s a very natural Ruy López-ish response, and, from the perspective of accuracy, it’s not even bad with the engine giving a minor advantage to White [+0.2].

However, White’s tactical intuitions about the position are misleading. For White, the “obvious” idea is that exchanging the bishop for Black’s c6-knight not only damages Black’s pawn structure by doubling the c-pawns (4… dxc6), but also removes Black’s defender of their e-pawn allowing a forward knight capture (5. Nxe5), seemingly winning a free point of material in the opening. The fascinating thing is that this capture, by far the most common manoeuvre by White, is inaccurate [+0.2 à -0.1]. The best and most accurate move in the position for White is the principled and patient (5. Nc3), but this is played only 6% of the time!

Part of the trickiness of the position is that it lulls White into committing to a seemingly powerful early attack. After Black plays the first critical move of the line (5… Qd4), a forcing move, White’s only good move is the unintuitive backwards knight move (6. Nf3) and giving back their material advantage.

In practice, White will most commonly play (6. Qh5+?), a counterattack, with (6… g6 7. Nxg6) winning yet another pawn, pinning Black’s h7-pawn to the rook, and threatening to capture Black’s h8-rook with the next knight move which comes with a discovered check! But it’s all an illusion! 😏

This common tactical pattern for White fails in this specific line as Black’s queen on d4 (remember – the first critical move!) now defends the long dark square diagonal, including the h8-rook, meaning that the h7-pawn is not pinned! Black can capture the knight (7… hxg6) revealing an attack on White’s queen, and after (8. Qxg6+), Black must play the second critical move (8… Kd8!).

Suddenly, it becomes clear that White’s queen has no immediate targets and can’t meaningfully threaten Black’s king with checks. Black has opportunities with semi-opened kingside files and the evaluation is better than [-2] for Black despite the nominal material equality. In the Lichess community database, Black crushes with a win ratio of 68% vs 29% for Black! The evaluation change occurred a couple of moves ago with (6. Qh5+), and indeed works against more experienced players because they recognise the pattern for the illusory counterattack!

A brief historical digression:
I’d previously covered that the Jaenisch Gambit line was analysed by Carl Ferdinand von Jaenisch (1813-1872) who publishing his analyses in the early 1840s. John Cochrane used this knowledge to his advantage against Indian chess extraordinaire Moheschunder Bannerjee, in their historic series of games in Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1850. In a game where Bannerjee leads with the Ruy López Opening, Cochrane responds with the unexpected Jaenisch Gambit. Despite Bannerjee’s prowess, he nonetheless played down the Exchange Variation with 6. Qh5+ line subsequently losing quickly in the middlegame, demonstrating just how good the Jaenisch Gambit is for Black!

Check out: Bannerjee — Cochrane, 1850, Calcutta, India

In this game, White short castles (9. O-O) – a natural move getting their king out of danger on the exposed e-file, but this is a mistake! Remember the semi-opened kingside files for Black? This exposes White’s king to a potential massive attack. I set this up immediately with (9… Bd6) – targeting White’s h2-pawn with two attackers. And in fact, one step away from a stupendous 6-move combination checkmate line, should White not see the danger!

At this point, I was very excited as I discovered this mating attack two years ago in chess noob Game Reviews #3, but I had never subsequently had an opportunity to win using it. In the position, White must immediately defend their h-file/h7-pawn. In this game, they didn’t see it and played (10. c3??), attempting to win tempo on my queen, but it blunders [-M6]! 🤩

1. Punch a hole in White’s h-file with (10… Bxh2+!) and force White’s king onto the h-file (11. Kh1)
2. Pull the bishop back to reveal check by the h8-rook down the fully opened h-file, forcing White’s king back to g1 (11… Bd6+ 12. Kg1)
3. Next, a brilliancy by sacrificing, the ROOOOKKK!! 🤩 (12… Rh1+!! 13. Kxh1)
4. And then, once again the foresight of the critical move on turn 5, placing our queen on the d4 square and the long dark square diagonal is demonstrated as our queen replaces the rook and White’s king is once again forced to g1 (13… Qh8+! 14. Kg1)
5. White could have delayed checkmate by a turn by blocking one of the checks down the h-file through sacrificing their queen. This this game, they didn’t do this, and so on move 14, we complete with (14… Qh2#), good game, GG!

Game: https://www.chess.com/analysis/library/4pM9vaF9R8

[Event "Rated rapid game"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/wlNWfqUy"]
[Date "2024.08.21"]
[Round "?"]
[White "karmakarp"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[UTCDate "2024.08.21"]
[UTCTime "05:07:44"]
[WhiteElo "1416"]
[BlackElo "1441"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "-6"]
[BlackRatingDiff "+11"]
[TimeControl "600+5"]
[ECO "C63"]
[Opening "Ruy Lopez: Schliemann Defense, Exchange Variation"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[Annotator "lichess.org"]
[BlackUrl "https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/3711094.f52a0759.100x100o.671ef4f371ed@3x.png"]
[BlackCountry "17"]
[BlackTitle ""]
[WhiteUrl ""]
[WhiteCountry "225"]
[WhiteTitle ""]

1. e4 {[%clk 0:10:00]} 1... e5 {[%clk 0:10:00]} 2. Nf3 {[%clk 0:10:03]} 2... Nc6
{[%clk 0:10:03]} 3. Bb5 {[%clk 0:09:33]} 3... f5 {[%clk 0:10:04]} 4. Bxc6 {[%clk
0:09:19] Ruy López Opening: Jaenisch Gambit, Exchange Variation} 4... dxc6
{[%clk 0:10:07]} 5. Nxe5 {[%clk 0:09:19]} 5... Qd4 {[%clk 0:10:11] This is a
critical move in the position, as it baits White into playing a sensible looking
response, that is a mistake  $1} 6. Qh5+ $2 {[%clk 0:09:05][%c_effect
h5;square;h5;type;Mistake;persistent;true][%c_arrow
e5f3;keyPressed;none;from;e5;opacity;0.8;to;f3;persistent;false][%c_highlight
f3;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f3;persistent;false] A very natural move,
but a mistake as we'll see  $1} 6... g6 $1 {[%clk 0:10:14][%c_effect
g6;square;g6;type;GreatFind;persistent;true][%c_highlight
g6;keyPressed;alt;opacity;0.8;square;g6;persistent;false]} 7. Nxg6 {[%clk
0:09:08]} 7... hxg6 {[%clk 0:10:18]} 8. Qxg6+ {[%clk 0:09:07]} 8... Kd8 $1 {[%clk
0:10:22][%c_effect d8;square;d8;type;GreatFind;persistent;true][%c_highlight
d8;keyPressed;alt;opacity;0.8;square;d8;persistent;false] The second critical
move in the line. This is the only good move for the king. Despite the king
being in the centre, it is nonetheless safe from attack from White's offside
queen.} 9. O-O $6 {[%clk 0:08:48][%c_arrow
d2d3;keyPressed;none;from;d2;opacity;0.8;to;d3;persistent;false][%c_highlight
d3;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d3;persistent;false][%c_effect
g1;square;g1;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true] Another very common move, but this
is once again a mistake. The reason  $2 Black has engineered a semi-opened h-file
and White is now at risk of a massive attack  $1} 9... Bd6 {[%clk
0:09:56][%c_arrow
d6h2;keyPressed;none;from;d6;opacity;0.8;to;h2;persistent;false,h8h2;keyPressed;none;from;h8;opacity;0.8;to;h2;persistent;false][%c_highlight
h2;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;h2;persistent;false] White's last chance  $1
Note the two attackers on the h-pawn.} 10. c3 $4 {[%clk 0:08:41][%c_arrow
g6g5;keyPressed;none;from;g6;opacity;0.8;to;g5;persistent;false,g2g3;keyPressed;none;from;g2;opacity;0.8;to;g3;persistent;false][%c_highlight
g5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g5;persistent;false,c3;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;c3;persistent;false,g3;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g3;persistent;false][%c_effect
c3;square;c3;type;Blunder;persistent;true] White misses the gravity of the
tactic, or might not have seen it at all. Castling has lulled them into a false
sense of security. This hangs a beautiful forced checkmate line of 6 moves  $1}
10... Bxh2+ $1 {[%clk 0:09:56][%c_effect
h2;square;h2;type;GreatFind;persistent;true][%c_highlight
h2;keyPressed;alt;opacity;0.8;square;h2;persistent;false,g1;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g1;persistent;false][%c_arrow
h2g1;keyPressed;none;from;h2;opacity;0.8;to;g1;persistent;false] The bishop
punches a hole in White's h-file, fully opening the file  $1} 11. Kh1 {[%clk
0:08:40]} 11... Bd6+ {[%clk 0:09:39][%c_arrow
h8h1;keyPressed;none;from;h8;opacity;0.8;to;h1;persistent;false][%c_highlight
h1;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;h1;persistent;false]} 12. Kg1 {[%clk
0:08:42]} 12... Rh1+ $3 {[%clk 0:09:42][%c_effect
h1;square;h1;type;Brilliant;persistent;true][%c_highlight
h1;keyPressed;alt;opacity;0.8;square;h1;persistent;false,g1;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g1;persistent;false][%c_arrow
h1g1;keyPressed;none;from;h1;opacity;0.8;to;g1;persistent;false] Rook sacrifice
 $3} 13. Kxh1 {[%clk 0:08:44]} 13... Qh8+ $1 {[%clk 0:09:47][%c_effect
h8;square;h8;type;GreatFind;persistent;true][%c_highlight
h8;keyPressed;alt;opacity;0.8;square;h8;persistent;false,h1;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;h1;persistent;false][%c_arrow
h8h1;keyPressed;none;from;h8;opacity;0.8;to;h1;persistent;false] And the queen
on the long dark square diagonal, replaces the rook on h8  $1} 14. Kg1 {[%clk
0:08:40] White can potentially delay checkmate by one turn by blocking and
sacrificing their queen, but White simply chooses to move the king, resigned to
their fate...} 14... Qh2# {[%clk 0:09:46][%c_effect
d8;square;d8;type;Winner,g1;square;g1;type;CheckmateWhite][%c_arrow
h2g1;keyPressed;none;from;h2;opacity;0.8;to;g1;persistent;false,d6h2;keyPressed;none;from;d6;opacity;0.8;to;h2;persistent;false,h2h1;keyPressed;none;from;h2;opacity;0.8;to;h1;persistent;false][%c_highlight
g1;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g1;persistent;false,h2;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;h2;persistent;false,h1;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;h1;persistent;false]
Checkmate, devastating; good game, GG  $1} 0-1