I don't usually get to play Colin except in club night practice games due to his vastly superior rating, but a couple of good games, including a draw against Carl, saw me playing him for the lead in the Swiss tournament. As far as I know, Colin and I are the only players in the club who play the Latvian Gambit regularly (defined by Black's seemingly outrageous 2….f5 after 1 e4 e5, 2 Nf3 (which makes it a kind of King's Gambit in reverse) and I had previously never played against it over the board as White. Colin sportingly accepted the challenge, although placing it on the record that he normally played it as a surprise weapon against opponents unlikely to be familiar with the theory.

In my favour was that I had a copy of the Bible on the Latvian Gambit that Colin relies on, Anatoly Lein and Sid Pickard's (1995) The Latvian Gambit: a Grandmaster View, so I knew what his theory looked like. But I had also purchased the very recent (2001) analytical volume by Tony Kosten, The Latvian Gambit Lives! Kosten revisited his thinking on the Latvian Gambit in part to take into account its frequent appearance in correspondence chess, where access to data bases and search engines has made many recent games "tactically flawless", enabling theoretical progress in an opening shunned at the highest levels.

How much preparation time was the big man worth? I decided to give twenty four full hours spread over a week, armed with the two cited books, the Gambitingly database, ChessBase 7.0 and Fritz 6. The myriad variations are far too complex to commit to rote memory but I ended up knowing all the main lines, the underlying themes and several recently discovered tricks. This is how the game went.

White: David Jenkins
Black: Colin Searle
Latvian Gambit (poisoned g2 pawn variation)

1 e4 e5
2 Nf3 f5

This early provocative move enters the players inextricably into the controversial intricacies of the Latvian Gambit, which in most of its variations rewards tactical over positional play to an extreme degree. In the diagram position, White has a number of choices, and accepting the gambit by taking the e pawn or the f pawn are both playable. But when I am Black the move I most fear is Bc4, so in it goes.

3 Bc4 fxe4

Opening up the f file and challenging the Knight, which is more than happy to take on e5. Black's best response is probably Svedenborg's variation (4…d5) where White gets in a ferocious attack but there are clear chances for both sides. Colin very spiritedly played the absolutely committal Qg5 attacking both the Knight and the (poisoned?) g pawn, as follows:

4 Nxe5 Qg5
5 d4

This last move is virtually forced as none of the "obvious" alternatives get anywhere. I noticed that the great man was playing with an air of settled insouciance, rattling off his moves and entering them briskly on his score sheet.

5 ….Qxg2
6 Qh5+ g6

As Tony Kosten puts it, in spite of the reply g6, Qh5+ is "the only correct plan, and one that will involve White in the sacrifice of half his army". The next few moves by White are given an exclamation mark by both commentators in the mentioned texts and would be extremely difficult to calculate over the board in the absence of theoretical knowledge.

7 Bf7+ Kd8 (fatal otherwise)
8 Bxg6

Now that White has virtually abandoned half his army to its fate, Black has no good reason to deny himself a quick rampage, and Colin (who has been here many times before) does not hesitate in picking up the Rook on h1 with check. The King moves to its known best square.

8 ….Qxh1+
9 Ke2

In the poisoned g2 pawn variation this is the first parting of the ways. I began with the hunch that if the game went this route Colin would grab the Bishop on c1 which in so many variations is a formidable weapon in White's attack. The Bishop capture is all but extinct at masters' level since Keres' was able to demonstrate that White's attack is very strong indeed even without the Bishop. I had spent some time on the substantial analysis (a veritable crash course in tactics) given by Tony Kosten, and fancied my chances in this variation, although the position appears to me to fall short of being a demonstrable win by force. One small inaccuracy and White finds himself behind on material with no compensation. The other alternative is Diemer's move (9….c6) with Black postponing his grabbing ways in order to secure a back door for his harassed king. The more I looked at this alternative the more I thought it would appeal to Colin, introducing as it does a touch of elegance into the brutalism of the Latvian. Colin certainly would have read in The Latvian Gambit: a Grandmaster View Victor Purpol's chilling pronouncement on the g2 poisoned pawn variation, "The Black King is safe if it can reach a6. Dead otherwise." Chairman Searle would surely demonstrate the validity of the long march to freedom in the teeth of any attack the upstart Jenkins could offer, if ever we arrived at this position. And so it transpired that this was the move played.

9….c6
10 Nc3

This continuation by White is obviously very strong, bringing another piece into the attack and defending the bishop on c1, as well as looking to the possibility of a "discovery", picking up the White Queen with a Bishop check. This well-known position is also another theoretical parting of the ways, with White having a strong attack after either 10….Nf6 or 10….Kc7. Lein and Pickard, however, get close to recommending the rather subtle looking move that Colin actually opted for, the so-called "Blockade Attack".

10 ….e3

These two authors of The Latvian Gambit: a Grandmaster View state unequivocally that White is "forced into the double rook sacrifice" and should play Bxe3 "if he is to make further headway". They give this further sacrifice yet another exclamation mark. But I was more than intrigued to discover that Tony Kosten reads this position differently, citing a recent theoretical novelty based on the vulnerable position of the Black Queen. Any chance here that the Searle could be caught napping? If White could simply pick up his Queen and reposition it on g3, then play Be4 attacking the Queen with a defended Bishop, this would surely be a devastating and unwelcome blow. Miraculously, White can indeed perform this trick with the aid of some fine tactics. I had not rote-learned the continuation but understood the underlying theme and, crucially, knew that there was a solution. Cited by Kosten, I had previously seen it played in a correspondence game between Falkowski and Leisebein. Nevertheless it took me some time to find it again over the board.

11 Nf7+ Kc7
12 Qg5

The point is that dealing with the Knight check takes the Black King to c7 where it can be immediately further harassed by Qg5 threatening mate on d8. The response to this interim threat is more or less forced, and the Queen gets to its target square of g3 with check, forcing a further relieving move and allowing the planned Bishop attack on the Queen. None of this is in the Searle Bible and clearly came as a surprise to him, with the Bishop move a bolt from the blue. I wandered happily around looking at other games leaving Colin's domed head and its quizzical frown alone at the board.

12….Be7
13 Qg3+ d6
14 Be4

There is a partial solution and I knew Colin would find it. The Black Queen escapes with another piece of tactics, but only at the expense of a Bishop sacrifice to lure the Queen from g3.

14….Bg4+
15 Qxg4 Qxh2
16 Bxe3 Nf6
17 Qxe6!

Tony Kosten gives this move an exclamation mark, declaring that the variation "wins by force". This is because the Black Queen is vulnerable to Ra1 and the White Bishop must be taken out first. But since Qxe7 is with check, another White piece drops.

17….Nxe4
18 Qxe7+ Nd7
19 Nxe4 Rhe8

With this move Colin at last leaves the book. Falfowski v. Leisenbein continued with the probably slightly better 19….Rae8. My strategy from this point is to seek to exchange down into a simplified won endgame and if possible to divest Colin of the advantage of his two rooks, which are very powerful in endgames. A sensible start seems to be a forced Queen exchange.

20 Qxd6+ Qxd6
21 Nfxd6 Re6
22 Bf4 Rf8
23 Ke3 Nb6
24 Nc4+

This move, although probably a failure of nerve, is intended to offer some material back in order to arrive at a position that gives Colin absolutely no chance of counterplay (it is not only Julius Caesar's "lean and hungry" men who are "dangerous"). The discovered check allows Black to get two minor pieces for his Rook, but just look at the resulting position! If Colin declines the offer I get a Knight swap and the drive for simplification goes on.

24….Rxf4
25 Kxf4 Nxc4
26 b3 Nb6
27 c4 Nc8
28 Rh1 Re7
29 Nf6 Re2
30 Rxh7+ Kb6
31 f3 Rxa2
32 Nd7+ Ka5
33 Nc5 b6
34 Ne4 Rg2
35 Rc7 Rg8
36 Rxc6 Kb4
37 d5 Kxb3
38 d6 a5
39 d7 Ne7

It was here that my mental processes went haywire. I had planned the immediate and obviously winning Re6 which captures the Knight as loosing it is the only way to prevent my promoting the pawn and enabling the Black Rook to station itself defensively on the queening square. Then I found myself wondering whether Rxb6+ check might not be the better initial move, followed by Re6. Were there circumstances in which Black's a and b pawns might constitute a threat with the Black Rook and sacrificing itself for the promoting pawn and Black's connected passed pawns suddenly becoming dangerous? I got to thinking many moves on as to how my Knight might contribute in these circumstances, even to the point of planning likely manoeuvres. My thoughts then wandered even further, almost as one forbidden to achieve, to muse on whether I should offer Colin an honourable draw, having taken advantage of his sporting generosity in allowing me to turn a serious match into a training game and turning up armed to the teeth with the latest theory. Amid these confusing and over-dispersed thoughts, I picked up my knight, leaving the Rook en pris, and of course promptly resigned.

To say I was disappointed does not get within galactic distance of my distraught emotions at the time. I felt the shame and mortification for over a week and only half jokingly considered signing myself up for bereavement counselling. I do not, however, feel that the twenty-four hours of study was wasted and I look forward to my next game as White against the Latvian Gambit. Any offers?