Luis Ledesma French Defence Sawyer

Back in 1989-1991 I tried to play the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit at every opportunity with the White pieces, if Black avoided it with a move like 1.d4 Nf6, then I went with either 2.Nc3 or 2.f3. That way I could still transpose back to the BDG if Black played 2...d5. When Black did not co-operate, I tried to create something original.

I invented the French Defence Sawyer Variation that combines 2.f3 with 4.Bg5 while holding back Nc3 for at least a move or two. Luis Ledesma delayed ...Be7 a move, but castled 6...0-0 quickly. Against Luis, I just developed toward the center and kingside. After Black allowed a pawn fork, I turned down the win of a piece to play for checkmate.

For the next several months I will be posting games from my 10 sections of the 1989 USCF Golden Knights Postal Chess Tournament. I have done about half of them so far this year. As I recall, if I failed to score 4.5 out of 6 games in a section of the preliminary round, then I was dumped from the Golden Knights to the Golden Squires (SS) event for the Semi-Final round. The next month or two will include games from those events.

Sawyer (2032) - Ledesma (1694), corr USCF 89SS40, 11.02.1991 begins 1.d4 Nf6 2.f3 e6 3.e4 d5 4.Bg5 dxe4 [4...Be7 is the most common reply.] 5.fxe4 Be7 6.Nc3 0-0 7.Nf3 b6 [Houdini 3 and Fritz 13 think Black should play 7...h6 8.Bxf6 Bxf6 9.e5= when White's Nf3 is at the moment looks better than Black's Bc8.] 8.Qd2 Bb7 9.Qf4 [Wandering closer to the Black king just to see what might happen...]

9...Bd6? [A tactical error. Logical is 9...Nbd7 10.0-0-0=] 10.e5 Bb4 11.Bxf6 gxf6 12.exf6 Kh8 13.Qh6 1-0

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