What, Casey, no queen sac?

[Sheroff]

I've been spending the past year travelling the globe as a freelance writer, and finding a bit of time for chess along the way. There's a great park (Kennedy) in Lima, Peru where the hustlers congregate. I made a pittance there showing them the error of their ways, although they had a couple of players I'd put in the over-2000 category. Hard to get rich on 80 cents a game, though. In Cordoba, Spain, I found a nice little chess academy and had some great games with the locals there - super friendly and solid strength. The champion of Cordoba came by the second day and challenged me to some blitz (word gets around - there's a new gunslinger in town)- I'm pleased to report I didn't embarrass myself too much at all. Can't recall his name, but he was tough.

Unfortunately (and surprisingly), the chess scene in Budapest, Barcelona and Portugal was harder to come by than I envisioned. I'm currently in Romania (Transylvania), writing occasional travel articles, eating great food, enjoying views of the Carpathian mountains and enjoying the occasional chess bout on ICC, like this one (I was White):

1. e4 c5
2. Nf3 g6
3. d4 cxd4
4. Nxd4 Bg7
5.Nc3 Nc6
6. Be3 Nf6
7. Bc4 0-0
8. Bb3 d6
Apparently he knows about the famous Fischer-Reshevsky opening trap, so he didn't play Na5, allowing 9. e5 etc.
9. f3 Na5
10. Qd2 a6
11. Bh6 Nxb3
12. axb3 b5
13. h4 Bb7
14. Bxg7 Kxg7
15. g4 h5
16. gxh5 Nxh5
17. 0-0-0 Rh8
18. Rdg1 Qc7
There was a threat, but this move doesn't answer it, unfortunately...
19. Rxg6+! 1-0

Bamboozle-ectomy alert. Possibly a premature resignation, but taking with the f-pawn loses the queen to a fork, and taking with the king loses to a crushing queen check on g5. A king retreat to f8 still leaves Black with an ugly game a pawn down with nothing but grisly grovelling prospects in store.

Off to Brasov, Romania next, followed by Varna on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. I imagine some unsuspecting Bulgarians may be able to be coerced into a chess game or two... .

Cheers,
Kevin Casey

[MichaelBaron]

Unfortunately (and surprisingly), the chess scene in Budapest, Barcelona and Portugal was harder to come by than I envisioned.

Cheers,
Kevin Casey

Nice Game.
Re Budapest, they had plenty of chess clubs back in the late 80s/early90s. Some may still be around.

[Zwischenzug]

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[Capablanca-Fan]

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