Philidor Counter Gambit 1999

I would like to show a model game in the Philidor Counter Gambit in which Black remains a pawn down to the very end but has good compensation for it. Actually the game begins as a Latvian Gambit before transposing into the PCG. This should come as no great surprise since the PCG is really nothing more than the Latvian Gambit Deferred. Like 3...d6 in Bobby Fischer's "bust" to the King's Gambit, the move 2...d6 in the PCG is "a high-class waiting move" designed to keep the white knight from the e5 square.

The player of the black pieces in this contest is Dr. Michael Downey of Moorestown, New Jersey. He is the winner of the First Latvian Gambit World Championship, a correspondence event that included 26 players from throughout the world. More than half of them were ICCF Masters. Downey has been kind enough to mail me the scores to nine of his games, including the following which took place 7/24/1994 through 8/7/1995.

Jorg Pape [Germany] - Michael Downey [USA]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 3.exf5 d6 4.d4 e4 5.Ng5 Bxf5


6.Nc3 d5 7.f3 e3 8.Bxe3 Be7 9.Qe2 Nc6 10.g4 Bc8 11.O-O-O Nf6 12.Bf4 O-O


13.Ne6 Bxe6 14.Qxe6+ Kh8 15.Bg2 Bb4 16.Bg5 Bxc3 17.bxc3 Re8 18.Bxf6 gxf6 19.Qf5 Qd6 20.Rhe1 Qa3+ 21.Kb1 Qxc3 22.Qxf6+ Kg8 23.Qg5+ Kh8 24.Rxe8+ Rxe8 25.Qd2 Qxd2 26.Rxd2 Na5 27.c3 Nc4 28.Rf2, draw.


Downey gives the likely continuation 28...Re1+ 29.Kc2 Ra1 30.Kd3 Rd1+ 31.Ke2 Rc1 32.Kd3 Rd1+, etc.


{This article originally appeared in the May-June 1999 issue of Atlantic Chess News}