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Chessville
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Thompson's Gambit
(The reader
may care to have a chess set by him, as the story contains a game ------------------------------------------- Some people thought that Thompson was accident prone, and various happenings in his eventful life seemed to bear out that opinion. Certainly, many things of a somewhat physical nature occurred to him during his time. Frequently they impinged on his chess career, often with startling results. The events which I am about to relate must have been one of the most traumatic episodes of his history. Thompson’s day started badly, although this was not an unusual occurrence for him. He lived in a village just outside of town and commuted to work each day by bus. On this particular occasion he was waiting for his bus, idly watching some birds pecking at a pie which somebody had dropped on the pavement. A large Alsatian dog came up, scared off the birds and started eating the pie. Not wishing to see the birds deprived of their meal, Thompson picked up some pieces of the pie and threw them up on to the roof of a shed on which the birds had settled, so that they could continue their repast. The dog, being of an aggressive nature, took exception to this and began to menace Thompson, barking ferociously. Thompson was pinned against a wall by the beast’s attack and it was fortunate that the dog’s owner heard the commotion and emerged to call off his pet. After threatening Thompson with extreme violence if he ever frightened his sensitive animal again he retired indoors. Thompson turned round to see his bus at the stop. Not wishing to be late for work, Thompson broke into a run, intending to jump on to the bus but failing to notice that there was a lamp-post between him and the vehicle. Unable to stop, Thompson crashed into the lamp-post and rebounded into the road where he lay dazed and bleeding. Some of the passengers saw what had happened and, being regular commuters used to Thompson’s antics, picked him up without undue ceremony and installed him on a seat, where he felt sufficiently recovered to carry on to work. On arriving at the office, bloodstained and slightly dazed, Thompson was fussed over by the lady members of staff. After a day of light duties and numerous cups of tea (a normal day for Thompson according to some cynics) he felt strong enough to proceed to the chess club after work. At the club we were naturally concerned on seeing his cuts and bruises, and after hearing about Thompson’s exploits we felt that he should stick to friendly games. However he insisted on playing his scheduled tournament game with Bill Grimshaw. Bill, like most club members, had a nickname, and was affectionately known as Grimmers - partly due to his surname, but also because of his habit of grimacing whenever it was his turn to play and he was considering his move. On this night he was destined to really live up to his sobriquet. Grimmers was a little reluctant to engage in a serious game in view of his opponent’s accident, but Thompson insisted on playing, and so they set up the board for their game. When they sat down, Thompson’s eyes seemed to glaze over and instead of his usual alert posture he slumped casually in his chair. As the game commenced we saw a strange new Thompson who trotted out his moves without pausing to think, playing with a sort of steely nonchalance that was completely out of character. There was a surprise for Grimmers straight away when Thompson eschewed his normal Polish opening of pawn to queen knight four, and played pawn to queen four. Bill replied pawn to queen four and was astonished when the response was pawn to king four. A frisson ran around the room as people started to realize that something unusual was happening, and Grimmers’ facial exercises went into overdrive. Not one to refuse a challenge, Grimmers took the king pawn and Thompson, who had never played a gambit in his life, replied with knight to queen bishop three. Grimmers defended with knight to king bishop three and Thompson’s immediate response was pawn to bishop three. By now quite a few people were watching the game, including the club’s openings expert, a small schoolboy with huge glasses, inevitably known as Specs, who announced that the opening was a Blackmar-Diemer Gambit. Grimmers, with an expression worthy of Quasimodo himself, took the pawn and Thompson replied with knight takes pawn. As Grimmers moved pawn to king three, Specs announced that Black had played the Euwe defence. Thompson moved bishop to queen three, and Grimmers decided to pin the knight with bishop to knight five. Without hesitation Thompson coolly castled. After some thought, and considerable exercise of his facial muscles, Grimmers played bishop takes knight. Thompson, who had gone for a stroll round the room, returned and retook with pawn takes bishop. Grimmers castled, and Thompson replied instantly with bishop to rook three. At this stage Grimmers was feeling slightly unnerved, partly by Thompson’s unexpected opening and partly by his strange demeanour. It was as if he was playing a completely new and unknown opponent. To compose himself Grimmers decided to get a breath of fresh air outside. After playing rook to king one he walked out of the room. Thompson again replied without seeming to think, moving knight to king five. While waiting for his opponent to return Specs tried to engage him in conversation about his opening, but without success. Although not rude, Thompson would not converse and his only response was a vague smile. Grimmers returned and after some thought played queen’s knight to queen two, which was met immediately by queen to bishop three. Thompson wandered off again as Grimmers pored over his position then played knight to knight three - maybe not the best move but Bill was feeling decidedly disorientated and having difficulty in concentrating. He told me afterwards that it was like playing someone from another planet, which is perhaps an apt description of Thompson. Thompson made his way through a crowd of spectators to get back to the board and with barely a glance at the position played queen to rook three. Alive to the threat of rook takes knight and mate on rook two, Grimmers rapidly moved pawn to king rook three, only to be faced with knight takes pawn on bishop seven. Bill felt he had little option but to take the knight with his king. Thompson immediately played the obvious queen to rook five, check. King to knight one seemed the only move but Grimmers was then shattered by rook takes knight. After a tentative rook to bishop one Thompson completed the demolition by rook takes rook pawn, and Black had to resign. A buzz of excited conversation arose when the game had finished. Thompson remained oblivious and had to be prompted when Grimmers asked for another chance to play against his Blackmar-Diemer Gambit, or BDG as Specs knowledgeably abbreviated it. The second game opened as before until Black’s fifth move, which was bishop to knight five - the Teichmann defence, as Specs informed us. After seventeen moves Grimmers was forced to turn over his king in resignation. The contestants played several more games, all of which became gambits by Thompson whether he played White or Black. He did not once hesitate before making a move, and he won all the games decisively. At the end of the night the club broke up and several people were ready to give Thompson a lift home, but he had already left. A few days later Thompson’s wife phoned me to say that he had been in hospital, but was now fully recovered. After the chess club he had not returned home. At midnight he had been discovered wandering in a daze in a nearby field. Mrs Thompson knew nothing of chess and had thought he was having some sort of mediaeval hallucination as he mumbled about knights, castles, kings, queens and bishops. Thompson was taken to hospital, where concussion was diagnosed, and he was kept in for observation. After a couple of days he had returned to normality (insofar as such a state could ever be achieved by Thompson) and returned to the care of his long-suffering wife. Next week at the club Thompson was astonished to be told that he had beaten Grimmers as he had no recollection whatsoever of playing him. When told that he had played several gambits he vigorously denied this, saying that he never risked gambits - they were much too complicated. He insisted that somebody else must have played the games and indeed, the Thompson we saw that night was not the man we knew. Thompson could not be persuaded that he had been involved and was convinced that he was the target of some sort of stunt by Jumbo Pratt, the club joker. But there lies another tale...
The Blackmar-Diemer Gambits were recorded by Specs and are given below: Thompson-Grimmers
1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3
e6 6.Bd3 Bb4 7.O-O Bxc3 8.bxc3 O-O 9.Ba3 Re8 10.Ne5 Nbd7 11.Qf3 Nb6 12.Qh3
h6 13.Nxf7 Kxf7 14.Qh5+ Kg8 15.Rxf6 Rf8 16.Rxh6 (1-0) Thompson-Grimmers
1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3
Bg4 6.h3 Bxf3 7.Qxf3 Nc6 8.Bb5 Qd6 9.Bf4 Qe6+ 10.Be5 O-O-O 11.O-O-O Nxe5
12.dxe5 Rxd1+ 13.Rxd1 Qxe5 14.Ba6 Ne4 15.Nxe4 bxa6 16.Nc5 Qg5+ 17.Kb1 (1-0)
Copyright R. Canter, 2000
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