The Kibitzer
by Tim Harding

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave - or Has He?

MY VERY first Kibitzer column dealt with the sharp opening line
which, many years ago, I called the Frankenstein-Dracula
Variation because of its hair-raising and bloodthirsty nature.

I explained how the variation got its name and looked at some
examples but I did not really look closely into the theory.
However, it is now time to do that since my friend Gian-Maria
Tani, director of thematic openings tournaments for the
International Correspondence Chess Federation, has put the
opening on his list of events starting later this year. 

In case you don't know what I am talking about the key position,
from which all games in the thematic tournament will begin, is
shown in the first diagram.

This is to be found in ECO code C27 and it can be reached via
either the Bishops Opening (1 e4 e5 2 Bc4 Nf6 3 Nc3) or the
Vienna (2 Nc3 Nf6 3 Bc4). Play to the diagram then goes 3...Nxe4
4 Qh5 Nd6 5 Bb3 Nc6 6 Nb5 g6 7 Qf3 f5 8 Qd5 Qe7 9 Nxc7+ Kd8
10 Nxa8 b6, but we shall have to go back to the start because a lot
of those moves require explanation unless you have studied the
line.

Since in the Vienna move order 1 e4 e5 2 Nc3 Black has a playable
alternative (2...Nc6) I generally preferred to head for the
Frankenstein-Dracula via 2 Bc4. As 2 Bc4 is less often played than
White's other reasonable choices after 1 e4 e5, it is also more likely
to gain you clock time. In fact when I started to play chess again
after a two-year lay-off in the early 1970s, I chose the Bishops
Opening because there seemed little theory on it, and at first I
answered 2...Nf6 by 3 Qe2 to avoid all theory. Then I discovered I
could win a black rook...

By the way, Gary Lane's 1993 book "Winning With The Bishop's
Opening" does not deal with this line at all, evidently considering
it to be a Vienna, but the variation is covered in "The Complete
Vienna" by Tseitlin and Glazkov (1995). That has some new
material but in many cases in this variation it adds nothing to what
I published in my 1976 book on the Vienna, and the 1986 one by
Konstantinopolsky and Lepeshkin. (Of course theory tends to
change slower in unfashionable openings than it does in the
Sicilian, for example.)

After 1 e4 e5 2 Bc4 Nf6 3 Nc3 Black has a wide choice of moves
(3...Nc6 for example) but is often tempted to play 3...Nxe4 because
the fork 4 Nxe4 d5 is pretty clearly good for him. A British player,
Graham Lee, insisted to me many times that 4 Bxf7+ is a good
move here; although the theory books say otherwise, because it
gives Black the bishop pair as well as an extra central pawn, he got
good results with it in practice. However, this Kibitzer article is
concerned with the move 4 Qh5 which used to surprise many of
my opponents in the 1970s. Not only does White threaten
checkmate in one move, he also threatens Qxe5+ and Nxe4. Black
has only one move: he has to play 4...Nd6 although it blocks his
d-pawn and thus hinders his queenside development.

On the other hand, Black does gain a tempo by attacking the
bishop. White has two choices here: try to bore his opponent to
death by Qxe5+ or retreat the bishop to b3, maintaining the
pressure against f7. This is where psychology comes in. If you
have good reason to think you have surprised your opponent then 5
Bb3 is the right move but 5 Qxe5+ is not without merit, especially
against opponents who relish tactics and have prepared the
Frankenstein-Dracula for Black but may not be so comfortable in
the semi-ending that arises after 5 Qxe5+ Qe7 6 Qxe7+ Bxe7 and
now Ulf Andersson's flexible move 7 Be2! (Most books give only
7 Bb3.) Grandmaster Andersson recommended this to me when I
showed him the line at the 1972 Teesside international tournament
in England and 12 years later I finally employed 7 Be2 with
success.

Of course Dracula (who plays Black in my story about this
variation) and the Frankenstein Monster would not be seen undead
playing moves like 5 Qxe5+ so the main line continues 5 Bb3 Nc6
(offering the pawn back by 5...Be7 is another story, which can be
told next month). Now there is probably only one good move for
White although Tseitlin and Glazkov had a shot at rehabilitating
the Weaver Adams' gambit 6 d4?!.

After one loss with that, I decided that 6 Nb5! is a must. White
threatens checkmate in two moves and if the knight is captured
then it is mate on the move. 

Black must defend his f7-pawn and doing so by 6...Qe7 allows
White to play 7 Nxc7+ etc., winning the rook in the corner under
more favourable circumstances than in the main line. As this
cannot be postponed indefinitely, Black tries to gain time and
space by 6...g6 7 Qf3 (renewing the threat) 7...f5 (I know of no
good case for 7...f6) 8 Qd5 (threatening mate yet again) and now
the rook must die, 8...Qe7 9 Nxc7+ Kd8 10 Nxa8. The final move
to the diagram is 10...b6, best because it prepares ...Bb7 so that
Black is only sacrificing the exchange instead of a whole rook. 

White has a wide choice at move 11. He could even play 11 Nxb6
to have an extra pawn as well as the exchange, but generally
speaking I prefer to let Black expend a tempo with the bishop to
eat it on a8, and in most lines there is an opportunity of playing
Nxb6 later in reply to ...Bb7. White's traditional moves in this line,
therefore, were 11 Qf3 or 11 Nf3 (or 11 d4 Bb7 12 Nf3 which
comes to the same) but Black has generally got ample
compensation in these lines. Instead of opening the centre, White
should aim to complete his development, usually by castling
queenside eventually, while of course keeping the queen alive.

The plan for White which revived the whole line was discovered
independently by American master Santasiere and the Danish
postal master Julius Nielsen and it was Nielsen's games in the 5th
Correspondence World Championship which really made an
impression on me.

From the diagram, White nowadays usually continues 11 d3 Bb7
12 h4 (Threatening Bg5 in order to prepare the queen's retreat)
12...f4 (12...h6 can be played but generates less counterplay.) 13
Qf3 Nd4 14 Qg4!, improving on the old line 14 Qh3. 

DIAGRAM after 14 Qg4.

The threat is to exchange queens can be prevented by 14...Bh6
when 15 Nh3 as in Nielsen-Altshuler (see Kibitzer 1) should be
answered by 15...Rf8! with dangerous counterplay according to
Tseitlin and Glazkov. However their analysis, and that of John
Nunn, suggests that White gets some advantage by 15 Bd2 instead.
After 15...e4 16 0-0-0 e3 17 fxe3 Nxb3+ 18 axb3 fxe3 19 Be1 e2+
20 Rd2 Bxa8 (one of Nunn's lines) Tseitlin and Glazkov
recommend 21 Nxe2 instead of 21 Nf3 (Suder-Kanonowicz, Polish
Cor Ch 1993).

In practice 14...Bg7 has usually been played in recent games. The
problem for Black is that he is not only behind on material, but
also his king is permanently stuck in the centre: good for an ending
maybe, but if White can castle then he can go on the offensive and
it only takes one miscalculation to leave your position in ruins in
the Frankenstein-Dracula. I don't claim the following is a great
game but it does show how things can go badly wrong for Black:

E. Kuipers - F. Verduyn World Under 16 Champ, Duisburg 1992

1 e4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 Bc4 Nxe4 4 Qh5 Nd6 5 Bb3 Nc6 6 Nb5 g6 7
Qf3 f5 8 Qd5 Qe7 9 Nxc7+ Kd8 10 Nxa8 b6 11 d3 Bb7 12 h4 f4
13 Qf3 Nd4 14 Qg4 Bg7 15 Bd2 N6f5 16 0-0-0 h5 17 Qxg6
Nxb3+ 18 axb3 Nxh4 19 Rxh4! Rh6 20 Bb4 d6 21 Bxd6 Rxg6 22
Bxe7+ Kxe7 23 Nc7 a6 24 c4 Rxg2 25 Nd5+ Bxd5 26 cxd5 Rxf2
27 Rxh5 e4 28 dxe4 Bxb2+ 29 Kb1 Bc3 30 d6+ 1-0.

White's knight even escaped from the corner: a good argument for
not playing Nxb6.

My happy point-gathering days with the Frankenstein-Dracula
were briefly threatened when John Nunn found 13...Bh6 (instead of
...Nd4) and used it to defeat Curt Hansen in the 1974 student
olympiad (see Kibitzer 1) but improvements were found for White
(basically 14 Bd2!) so that Black returned to 13...Nd4 in the
important NBC-25 correspondence tournament held early in this
decade. In three games, with the two strongest Dutch postal
masters (Timmerman and van Oosterom) playing Black, White
secured only two draws. Those were both played by Terje Wibe of
Norway, and featured the variation 13...f4 14 Qg4 again.
Timmerman played 14...Bg7 while van Oosterom preferred 14...
Bxa8.

However, it seems these games are not the last word because
Timmerman (the world's highest rated correspondence
player) subsequently lost in the variation when he tried to repeat
his line in a 1993 Dutch league match.

M. Okkes - Timmerman, Amstelveen-Volmac2, 1993

1 e4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 Bc4 Nxe4 4 Qh5 Nd6 5 Bb3 Nc6 6 Nb5 g6 7
Qf3 f5 8 Qd5 Qe7 9 Nxc7+ Kd8 10 Nxa8 b6 11 d3 Bb7 12 h4 f4
13 Qf3 Nd4 14 Qg4 Bg7 15 Bd2 

15 Nxb6 axb6 16 Bd2 led to a draw in the Wibe-Timmerman
game.

15...Bxa8 16 0-0-0

In Kibitzer 1, we looked at Carleton-Tait where White won with 16
Nh3 which I have not seen repeated. Earlier 16 h5 g5 17 c3 N4f5
occurred in a 1982 postal game M.Fiorito-Timmerman, won by
Black after a lot of complications. In this game White's weakness
at g2 became significant.

16...Bf6 

This position also occurred by transposition in Wibe-van
Oosterom, where White played 17 h5. Evidently Black was hoping
to follow Ekebjaerg-Timmerman, from the NBC-25 (then still in
progress) in which 17 Bb4 a5 18 Bxd6 Qxd6 19 Nh3 was played,
following a 1970s postal game cited in my Vienna book. Black
took the initiative by 19 ... Qc6 (a new move) 20 Ng5 a4! 21 Bc4
b5! and went to win a splendid game against his very strong
opponent: 22 Nf7+ Kc7 23 Nxh8 Bxh8 24 h5! g5! 25 c3 bxc4 26
cxd4 cxd3+ 27 Kb1 Qc2+ 28 Ka1 a3! 29 Rb1 Be4! 30 Qd1 exd4!
31 Qf1! d6! 32 f3 Bf5 33 Qc1 d2 34 Qxc2+ Bxc2 35 Rhd1 d3! 36
Rxd2 Kb6! 0-1. Okkes played a different move and won rapidly:

17 Re1 Qg7 18 Kb1 h5 19 Qh3 N6f5 20 Ne2 Nxe2 21 Rxe2 Nxh4
22 g3!?

DIAGRAM

White levers open the position and creates huge complications.
Here Black can consider 22...Bf3 and 22...Bg2 among other moves
and I expect he ran very short of time.

22... Nf3 23 Bc3 Ng5 24 Qh2 Bxh1 25 gxf4!

Probably Black expected Qxh1; now the position blows up in his
face.

25... Bf3 26 fxe5 Qf8 27 exf6 Qc5 28 Re5 Qc7 29 Qf4 1-0

The finish is quite impressive but I wouldn't bet much money on
White if somebody else plays the Frankenstein-Dracula against
Timmerman in a top-level postal tournament.

So the variation is still very much open. Moreover, the following
game shows a Swedish GM in trouble against a lower-rated
opponent in one of White's lesser lines.

R. Raud (2365) - Jonny Hector Rilton Cup, Stockholm 1996

1 e4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 Bc4 Nxe4 4 Qh5 Nd6 5 Bb3 Nc6 6 Nb5 g6 7
Qf3 f5 8 Qd5 Qe7 9 Nxc7+ Kd8 10 Nxa8 b6 11 Qf3 Bb7 12 h4
(Tseitlin and Glazkov recommend 12 d3 Nd4 13 Qh3 here.)
12...Bg7 (According to theory, 12...Nd4 13 Qh3 Bxa8 is good for
Black.) 13 Qh3 e4 14 Ne2 Bxa8 15 0-0 Bf6 16 d3 Bxh4 17 Bf4
Bf6 18 Bxd6 Qxd6 19 dxe4 fxe4 20 Rad1 Qe7 21 Nf4 Bxb2 22 c3
Re8 23 Rxd7+ Qxd7 24 Rd1 Qxd1+ 25 Bxd1 Re7 26 Qh6 Ke8 27
Nxg6 hxg6 28 Qh8+ Kd7 29 Qxa8 and White won in 60 moves. 

The fact that a grandmaster can go wrong so quickly in this
Frankenstein-Dracula Variation, even in a line supposedly very bad
for White, shows how difficult it is to play, and how it can really
earn points for a player who studies it and knows what he is doing!

 * If you want to enter the ICCF thematic tournament on the
Frankenstein-Dracula, it is theme 10, due to start in September and
entries have to be with your national CC organisation by the end of
July. If you live in a country without a correspondence chess
federation, contact Mr Tani on: tani@torino.alpcom.it. 