Anker Aasum of Norway is the author of 1.Nc3, Sleipner-Eroffnung, written in 1988. He also writes a chess newsletter called Sleipner International News, which he recently sent me. His latest issue, No. 11, posed a few questions in certain variations of 1.Nc3, one of my favorite openings. I wrote 1.Nc3, Dunst Opening in 1995.
His first question was on the variation, 1.Nc3 d5 2.e3 e5 3.Qh5, which he attributes to Bernhard Geismann, who calls it the Cerro-Torre. The earliest game that I know with this variation is from Cappello-Galardini, Corr. 1966. The game continued, 3...Qd6 4.d4 exd4 5.exd4 c6 6.Bg5 Qg6 7.Qe2+ and White won in 17 moves. I recently played the same variation. Bill Wall - Springfield, Internet 2005 1.Nc3 d5 2.e3 e5 3.Qh5 Bd6? 4.Nxd5 g6 5.Qf3 c6 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.Bc4 b5 8.Bxb5 e4 9.Nxe4 Nxe4 10.Qxe4+ Qe7 11.Bxc6+ Nxc6 12.Qxc6+ 1-0.
Question 2 dealt with the variation 1.Nc3 d5 2.e4 e5. The earliest game that I know is from Barry-Merrill, Massachusetts 1962. The game continued 3.Nxd5 f5 4.Bc4 Qh4 5.Nxc7+ and White won in 18 moves. I ran into this variation in 1999. Bill Wall - RTK, Internet 1999. 1.Nc3 d5 2.e4 e5 3.Nxd5 Be6 4.Bc4 Bc5 5.Nf3 Nf6 6.Nxf6+ Qxf6 7.Bxe6 fxe6 8.de3 O-O 9.O-O Qg6 10.Nxe5 and I won in 19 moves. In another game, I played 1.Nc3 d5 2.e4 e5 3.exd5 Bf5 4.Nf3 Na6 5.Bb5+ Bd7 6.Bxa6 bxa6 7.Qe2 f6 8.d4, and I eventually won, Wall-Jeremiah, Internet 1999.
Question 3 dealt with the variation 1.Nc3 d5 2.Nf3, Lean's Opening. This comes from Lean-Apscheneek, Bromley 1925. That game continued, 2...d4 3.Ne4 f5 4.Ng3 c5 5.e4 fxe4 6.Nxe4 Qd5 7.Bb5+ and White won in 36 moves. I ran into it in 2001 with this game. MuddCrust-Wall, Internet 2001 1.Nc3 d5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.e3 e6 4.b3 Nf6 5.Ng5 e5 6.Qf3 h6 7.Nh3 Nb4 8.Bd3?? e4 and I easily won. I tried the same variation recently as White. Bill Wall - DeDios, Internet 2005, 1.Nc3 d5 2.Nf3 d4 3.Nb1 h6 4.c3 Nc6 5.cxd4 Nxd4 6.Qa4+ Nc6 7.Nc3 a6 8.d4 b5? 9.Nxb5 and I won in 16 moves.
Question 4 dealt with the variation 1.Nc3 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nxe4 Qd5. Aasum calls this the Mailfert Variation. This variation seemed to appear in 1992 in Germany. I have seen at least a dozen games with this new variation.
Question 5 dealt with the variation 1.Nc3 d5 2.e4 d4 3.Nde2 e5 4.Ng3 Be6 5.Nf3 f6. The first game I can find with this variation is Figuero-Marcussi, Buenos Aires 1963. The game continued 6.Bb5+ c6 7.Ba4 Nd7 8.Bb3 Nc5 9.Bxe6 Nxe6 10.d3 and White won in 41 moves.
Question 6 dealt with the variation 1.Nc3 d5 2.f4 (rare) c5 3.Nd3 d4 4.Ne4 e6 5.b4.
Question 7 dealt with 1.Nc3 e5 2.d4, Blake's Opening and 1.Nc3 e5 2.Nf3, Napoleon's Attack (from a supposed Napoleon Bonaparte vs Madame De Remusat in 1804). The earlist game I can find on 1.Nc3 e5 2.d4 is Viner-Watson, Brisbane 1924.
Question 8 dealt with 1.Nc3 e5 2.Nf3 d6, the Philidor Invitation, and is it better than 1.Nc3 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4. An example of the first variation is this: Pizza-Wall, Internet 2001. 1.Nc3 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.e3 Nc6 4.d4 Bg4 5.dxe5 dxe5 6.Nd5 e4 7.h3 Be6 0-1.
Question 9 dealt with 1.Nc3 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.Qxd4 Nc6 4.Qh4, which Aasum calls the Novosibirian Adventure or the Czrenner Variation. It was first played by Czrenner-Olah, Corr. 1969. The game continued 4...Nf6 5.Bd2 e6 6.g4 Be7 7.g5, and White won in 32 moves.
Question 10 dealt with 1.Nc3 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.Be3. Dirk van Geet played this variation in 1966 against Haase and in 1967 against Langeweg.
Questions 11 and 12 dealt with 1.Nc3 Nf6 2.g4, the Tubingen Gambit. Van Geet was playing this in 1958. I played it in a recent game. Wall-SurfRook, Internet 2005. 1.Nc3 Nf6 2.g4 Nxg4 3.e4 d6 4.Bc4 e5 5.d3 Qf6 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Bg5 Qg6 8.Nd5 Kd7 9.h3 Nf6 10.Rg1 Nd4 11.Nh4 1-0.
Question 13 dealt with 1.Nc3 Nf6 and White's other second moves. This included 2.e3, 2.Nf3, 2.d3 (Joel Benjamin variation), 2.a3 (Leeners variation), 2.f4 (Aasum's variation), 2.g3 (Demian's variation), 2.f3 (Schlenker's variation), 2.h4 (Terence Taylor's variation), 2.d4, 2.Rb1, 2.b3, and 2.e4.
Question 14 dealt with 1.Nc3 g6 2.h4. The earliest game I can find with this move is Van Geet-Crabbendam, Amsterdam 1969.
Question 15 dealt with 1.Nc3 e6 2.Nh3 and 1.Nc3 b6 2.Nh3.
Question 16 dealt with 1.Nc3 a6. This is an idea from Hugh Myers, who first played it in 1981.
If you have any 1.Nc3 games, email them to me at [email protected] or mail them to me at Bill Wall, 906 Pine Walk Court NE, Palm Bay, FL 32905.
You can also send your games to Anker Aasum, Asakveien 59, N-1785 Halden, Norway.
