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The Discart – Bonetti Chess Match, 1863 Reviewed by Rick Kennedy
Return with us now to those thrilling days of yester-year… Not to the Lone Ranger and Tonto, mind you, but to two mid-19th century Modenese chess swash-bucklers, Francesco Discart and Cornelio Bonetti; and not through the medium of old-time radio, for that matter, but through the new format of the chess eBook. ChessCentral sells a variety of chess eBooks, each a compressed ChessBase (.cbv) file that can be downloaded directly from the website and then viewed through a chess-playing program (Fritz5 or higher) or database (ChessBase 6 or higher) or the free downloadable ChessBaseLight. Available are classics like Capablanca’s Chess Fundamentals, Lasker’s Common Sense in Chess, and Reti’s Modern Ideas in Chess. There are not-as-well-known classical texts like Chess Endings for Beginners, by J.H. Blake; Play Chess – Have Fun!, by Lewis McClary; and E.E. Cunnington’s Chess Lessons for Beginners and Chess Openings for Beginners. There are also modern titles like Dan Heisman’s new millennium-sounding The Computer Analyzes the Fried Liver and Lolli – gambits, those, not victuals. Five years ago, Alessandro Nizzola, of Mantova, Italy, discovered and acquired some unpublished manuscripts by Francesco Discart, of Modena. Included was Grande Match al Giuoco delgi Scacchi. Sfida tra l’Ingegnere Cornelio Bonetti ed il Cavaliere Francesco Discart ambedue di Modena giuocata in Modena in casa del Conte Ferdinando Cassoli nel mese di Gennajo dell’Anno 1863. This account of a mid-19th century chess match of 15 games; plus four text documents (including biographies of Discart and Bonetti); a half-dozen off-hand games played by one or the other; and four compositions by Discart (including one help-mate), make up the eBook. The inclusion of several scans (a couple of the problems, a drawing of Discart) adds to the historical interest. Discart was one of the strongest players in Modena in the mid-1800s. His matches with his rivals, including Bonetti “the Snake,” were played to establish and maintain his reputation. Discart was also a chess problemist, and served as chess columnist for Illustrazione Universale and Settimana Illustrata in the mid- to late-1860s. Bonetti was a construction engineer, and was also considered a strong player, although at least in 1863 he was unable to best Discart. Several aspects of the 1863 Discart –Bonetti match make it interesting beyond being simply a recovered piece of chess arcana – and a showcase for the benefits of the modern eBook (the ability to play over the games on the computer, to access databases to compare games, and to consult a chess-playing program like Fritz). Of course, there is the attacking play by “the Italian Anderssen” to enjoy. Modernists can also (smugly?) compare their own efforts against those of players in the post-Morphy-pre-Steinitz era. Most intriguing is the effect of the old Italian rules, still in effect at the time of the match. (In fact, Discart had to decline an invitation, a year previously, to the Grand Chess Congress of London, because he was unfamiliar with the rules of the “modern” game.) At this point it is helpful to point out that Allessandro Nizzola has written “Italian Chess 1560 – 1880 The Special Moves and Their Consequences,” which appears in the Skittles Room of the ChessCafe. The article is a lively presentation of the three main ways in which the older version of chess in Italy varied from the European (our modern) version. First, there was not yet acceptance of a pawn capture en passant. Second, a pawn reaching the 8th rank could only promote to a piece that had already been captured by the opponent; so that a pawn that arrived at the end of it’s journey remained “suspended” in its natural state until a piece was captured and could replace it. From Francesco Discart’s opening analysis given in Nizzola’s ChessCafe article: 1.e4 b6 2.d4 Bb7 3.Bd3 f5 4.exf5 Bxg2 5.Qh5+ g6 6.fxg6 Bg7 7.gxh7+ Kf8 hxg8 suspended pawn
Discart notes that
8…Rxh5 is now an error, as White plays 9.Bh7 and g8=Q, checkmate!
As a small example of passar battaglia (the rule forbidding pawn capturing in passing), in this position from the opening game of the match, Discart with White, now played 8.f4 and Bonetti did not have the modern capturing option, 8…gxf3 en passant. By far the greatest difference between chess then, and chess now, was the older form of “free castling.” Instead of taking only two steps in the direction of the Rook, the King, when “free castling” had the choice of moving one, two, three or four (in the case of Queenside castling) squares in the Rook’s direction; and the Rook, instead of just hopping over the King, had the option of arriving at the first square of the King/Queen’s file, the Bishop’s file, or the Knight’s file, respectively. Clearly, “free castling” opened up a whole host of attacking and counter-attacking ideas – or, more correctly, its abandonment by Italian chessplayers in 1880 for the more restrictive modern European castling, stifled many of those opportunities. In the current chess-playing world, where many bemoan the extension of opening theory to the 20th or 25th move, it is not surprising to find Tim Harding, in his “The Kibitzer” column (www.chesscafe.com/text/kibitz31.txt) suggesting that we “Bring Back Free Castling!” Harding believes that “free castling” would revolutionize opening play – “What it probably does mean is that after 1.e4 the reply 1…e5 is dubious…” – and he quotes Steinitz, who wrote that it might be too revolutionary: “The possibility of putting the Rook in the1-square gives, according to most of the players, too great an advantage to White in many openings.” Bonetti – Discart, 4th Match game, 1863, gives a couple of “free” examples: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6
Here we have a regular Giuoco Piano, but White now castled [K-g1, R-e1] 5.0-0 d6 6.d4 Bb6 7.h3 Qe7 8.Bg5 Bd7 9.Na3 h6 10.Bh4 g5 11.Bg3 Now Black castled [K-b8, R-e8] creating an interesting, double-edged position (0-1, 36).
By the way, it is relevant to note that ChessBase can represent “free castling” through the entry of the necessary “null” moves (i.e. the castling player gets to make several moves in a row without his opponent replying) but it does mess up the numbering of moves a bit (although they remain in the same order, of course.) Sid Pickard and the folks at ChessCentral really would like you to enjoy Alessandro Nizzola’s The Discart – Bonetti Chess Match, 1863, so much so that they have come through with a chess “hat trick” to make that possible. It is a simple process to go to the Chess Central website, look on the page under the "Chess by Format" title, click on "Chess E-Books," and find the match. The cost is $9.95, and, since you download the eBook directly, there’s no “postage and handling” to pay, or any time spent waiting for the postal service to deliver to your doorstep. You can play over the games, enjoy and analyze them by yourself, or call on Fritz & Co. to help you out. Not convinced? Instead of clicking on the “Add to Cart” button on the web page to make the purchase, go to the top and click on “Articles.” You will find many interesting articles on the new page, but if you persist and do not wander off, you can click on “Discart- Bonetti Chess Game Match, 1863” and be linked with an on-line version which includes the ability to play through each of the games. Finally, you can go to the top bar and click on “Members.” Joining ChessCentral is free, quick, and gives access to a whole pile of additional articles to download – including a .pdf version of the Discart – Bonetti match book, which can be read with Adobe’s free Acrobat Reader, or printed out for perusal on your own time. One last look the way chess used to be – and, who knows, the way it once might be again: Bonetti - Discart 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Bb5
Qb6 6.Bxc6+ bxc6 7.Ne2 cxd4 8.cxd4 c5 9.0-0 Ba6 10.Be3 Bxe2 11.Qxe2 cxd4
12.Bg5 Bc5 13.Nd2 Ne7 14.Nb3 h6 15.Bd2 Nc6 16.Rac1 Be7 17.Rxc6 [This
sacrifice does not lead to any superiority in attack.] 17...Qxc6 18.Rc1
Qb7 19.Nxd4 0-0 20.-- Rfe8 [Free Castling.] 21.b4 Rec8 22.Rb1 Rc4
23.Qd3 Rac8 24.h3 Qb6 25.Be3 Rxb4 26.Rd1 Qc7 27.Qe2 Qc4 28.Qg4
[Evidently, if White plays 28.Rc1 instead, Black takes three pieces for the
Queen 28...Qxc1+ 29.Bxc1 Rxc1+ 30.Kh2 Rxd4 and maintains the better game.]
28...Qxa2 29.Bxh6 Bf8 30.Be3 Rb1 31.Rxb1 Qxb1+ 32.Kh2 Rc4 33.Qg5 a5
34.Qd8 Qe4 [Black loses a tempo with this useless move, whereas he must
continually advance the a-pawn 34...a4 ] 35.Nf3 Rc3 36.Qxa5 Rc8 37.Bd4
[A very serious mistake.] 37...Qf4+ 0-1
Available from Chess Central
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