GM Gambit !

Not that I play it as White, but I think its great to see a Grandmaster play an opening as romantic as the King's Gambit.

Currently there is a series of matches being played involving 5 of the Netherlands most promising "youngsters" against invited GMs.

These include Yasser Seriwan (author of many training books), Lubomir Ftacnik (opening analyst and most recent book "Sicilian Defence")  and Nigel Short ( no longer the strongest English GM, but in good form since the Staunton Memorial last year ). As well as two lesser known invitees Sebastian Siebrecht and Dennis de Vreugt.

The format is a match of 4 games and Short's first game against  (Chessbase's World Cup commentator ) Anish Giri was the King's Gambit Accepted which Giri continued with the relatively rare 3...Ne7. No quick GM draw here, but a fine 59 move game finishing in a Rook and pawns ending.

In a surprise second game, as Black, Short played the Benoni Defence against Giri's d4, and although it also was drawn Giri said of it "'I thought, he never plays the Benoni so he knows nothing about it except maybe for something he prepared. I thought I was ok but he had 21.. d5! after which I am worse or maybe even lost. If I could have played a move like Qf3 my position would be fine. So Nigel played a very good game but he just missed Qh6."

So what does Short play today ? The Veresov, of course, what could be more natural !

However, the first win from the 'promising youngsters' came from Lisa Schut, beating Siebrecht on the White side of a Sicilian Paulsen, to gain her second ever win over a GM. She apparently didn't know the variation with 7...Nc6 but played well and with 16. f4 produced a slight error from Seibrecht who went down fighting.

A first report is here ( in Dutch and with a very 'Bridget Jones' looking Lisa Schut ) and the games are relayed live here .

More information on the match here. The last games will be played tomorrow at the Max Euwe Centre.