Harding Tim. Four Gambits To Beat the French

Chess Digest Inc., 1998. — 264 p. — ISBN: 978-0-87568-295-2.Since the last few reviews, I have received a number of interesting and critical responses. First and foremost, my ill-considered remark that the Cochrane Gambit is 'simply unsound' and capable of refutation aroused the ire of a subculture of Cochrane-Heads (of whose existence I was previously unaware; would that I could return to those innocent days!). These loyalists sent me glowing reports on the Cochrane and in two cases, truckloads of games. At the very least, these games proved to me that, when neither side has the slightest idea how to play the resulting positions, the Cochrane is probably more dangerous for Black than White!As a result, I spent more time than I'd like to admit investigating 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nxf7 Kxf7. Remarkably, as if to humiliate me further, no less than world-class player Veselin Topalov just played 4.Nxf7 against Kramnik in Linares, and drew the game, which would seem to render my 'unsound' comments to the scrap heap. However, there are a few points to make about that game:(a) Topalov played this after a loss as White to Kasparov, in which the latter's superior theoretical preparation (extending past move 20 in a main line) must have depressed Topalov. So a crazy experimental response may have been just the therapy he needed in the next round;(b) More importantly, after 4...Kxf7, Topalov played not 5.d4 (the only move considered in most sources), nor even 5.Bc4, Cochrane's original idea (discredited by 5...d5!), but 5.Nc3!ÿ, a move probably designed to avoid the known drawbacks of the other two moves.Now Kramnik responded with 5...c5 6.Bc4+ Be6 7.Bxe6+ Kxe6 8.d4 Kf7 9.dxc5 Nc6, a completely safe method which appears to me to be at least equal. We'll have to see what the players' notes say. The only theoretical comment I can find on 5.Nc3 gives it a 'ÿ!' and suggests 5...Qe8! 6.Bc4+ Be6, when Black is clearly better (Osnos and Kalinchenko in NIC Yearbook 19). I'm sure that Topalov would have played 6.d4! instead, with the idea 6...Nxe4 ÿ 7.Qh5+ g6 8.Qd5+. However, Black can play 5...Qe8 6.d4 d5 7.e5 Bb4, transposing to a normal Cochrane (if there is any such thing), and the move 5...Qe7! ÿ also deserves strong consideration, intending 6.d4 c5.