OK, Ed.
Here's a try from memory and with no board around...I'll correct it later if necessary. I liked the game because of the sacs, though White really didn't play overly well.

JD - GK, USCF Golden Knights '97 Semifinals
1. c4 c6
2. Nc3 d5
3. c:d5 c:d5
4. d4 e5!?
5. d:e5 d4
6. Ne4 Qa5+
7. Nd2 Nc6
8. Nf3 Nh6 (I think Tal once played Nge7 here, but what the heck)
9. Qc2?! Bf5
10. Qb3 Bb4
11. a3?! Rc8
12. h3?! O-O (White seems determined not to develop )
13. e3 d:e3
14. f:e3 Be6
15. Qd3 N:e5 (After long thought I decided to invite complications. 15...Rfd8 would be almost automatic OTB)
16. N:e5 Rfd8
17. Nc6!? R:c6 (White can hardly survive complications with his Kingside effectively still in the box)
18. a:b4 Qc7
19. Qb1 Ba2! (spectacular but obvious)
20. Q:a2 R:c1+
21. Ke2 R:d2+
22. Kg1 R:g2+ (the sac immediately comes to mind, but the follow-up took a long time to calculate)
23. K:g2 Nf5!!
24. Rg1 (forced) Nh4+
25. Kh1 Qc6+
26. Kh2 Rc2+ (White resigned due to a long forced mate on the b8 square)
0-1

[Late edit] Make that 21. Kf2 above.

This is a nice game by Guy.

1. c4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. c:d5 c:d5 4. d4 e5!? Hereinafter the "Quebec Trailer Park Counter-Gambit." 5. d:e5 Okay, a question. Is there a good way to decline this? 5. Nf3 is bad. There's no good move with the dark-square bishop. That leaves 5. e3 and 5. e4. The former renews the threat of winning the pawn without giving Black compensation; after 5. e3 e:d4 6. e:d4 White retains his first tempo advantage. The latter offers up a counter pawn sacrifice of dubious utility. It seems to me that the capture is logically forced. 5...d4
6. Ne4 Qa5+ 7. Nd2 Maybe White should play 7.Bd2, so after 7...Q:e5 8. Nf3 he converts his extra pawn into extra tempi. 7...Nc6 8. Nf3 Nh6 (I think Tal once played Nge7 here, but what the heck) 9. Qc2?! Perhaps White has a better plan here in 9. g3, 10 Bg2, 11. 0-0. This move simply loses a tempo. 10. Qb3 at once attacks the b pawn. 9... Bf5 10. Qb3 Bb4A nice move. I don't know why I like it, I just do. Something about the placing of the bishop seems right. It's an intuitive thing I cannot give any analysis for. 11. a3?! Rc8 [/i][b] Another nice move revealing the pseudo-threat of 11. a3. [b][/i]12. h3?! O-O (White seems determined not to develop ) 13. e3 d:e3 14. f:e3 White now has doubloons on the open e-file. His extra pawn sits on e3. 14...Be6 15. Qd3 N:e5 (After long thought I decided to invite complications. 15...Rfd8 would be almost automatic OTB) 16. N:e5 Rfd8 17. Nc6!? A nice try if nothing else. 17... R:c6 (White can hardly survive complications with his Kingside effectively still in the box) 18. a:b4 Qc7 19. Qb1 Ba2! (spectacular but obvious) Oh piffle! This is a nice combination and you should be justly proud of it. 20. Q:a2 R:c1+ 21. Kf2 R:d2+ 22. Kg1 Fleeing from the Cylon Tyranny...[b] 22...R:g2+ (the sac immediately comes to mind, but the follow-up took a long time to calculate) 23. K:g2 Nf5!! 24. Rg1 (forced) Nh4+
25. Kh1 Qc6+ 26. Kh2 Rc2+ (White resigned due to a long forced mate on the b8 square)
0-1

Thanks, Ed. I can't tell you how many hours I spent analyzing Black's 15th and the sequence following Black's 22nd. But it was a lot...

Years later I fed the game into a computer, which played 15...N:e5 immediately (a bit sobering). But it didn't suggest 22...R:g2+. Perhaps the mate was beyond the horizon. I wonder if modern computers, e.g. Rybka, would find that sac.

The gambit I played is treated in books. At the time of the game, Markov and Schipkov's Winning with the Slav (not a great book, kind of a database dump) recommended it and gave some game references, including Dzindzi-Tal, NY (rapid) 1990. Since then NCO rates it highly.

Ed, good point about Bd2. I'll address that for now (maybe more re. acceptance of gambit later).

After Bd2, Black takes ...QxP and White has to retreat Ng3 before kicking the Queen with Nf3. It looks like White will have trouble getting any opening advantage. All the games I saw had Ne4-d2 blocking the check. An advantage of Ne4-d2 is that if Black immediately recaptures ...QxP, White straightaway kicks the Queen with Ng1-f3 and subsequently can pressure the d-pawn with Nd2-b3.

OTOH, Black doesn't have to check with the Queen. Sadler (see below) gives a Tozer-Levitt, London 1993 game: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. cd cd 4. Nc3 e5 5. de d4 6. Ne4 Nc6 7. Nf3 Bf5 8. Ng3 Bg6 9. a3 Bc5 10. Qb3 Nge7 with compensation.

But let's backtrack to the more common Winawer Gambit (with pawns still on c4 and c6). Everyone blocked the check with the Knight until Garry Kimovich's 1992 gambit-bust, which went 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 e5 4. de d4 5. Ne4 Qa5+ 6. Bd2! Q:e5 7. Ng3! Qd6 (7...c5 is analyzed to plus-over-equal for White)8. Nf3 Nf6 9. Qc2 Be7 10. O-O-O! O-O [punctuation from Matthew Sadler's Slav book, which has discussion of the gambit with and without the exchange on d5]. Garry subsequently worked up a Kingside attack and won in fine form.

But without the c-pawns, long castling looks dangerous for White and Black can play ...Nc6. This may be why the gambit's better when White exchanges c-pawns.

[Disclaimer: I haven't kept up with Winawer Gambit theory, so perhaps there have been Black improvements, but I wouldn't play it without analysis/research.]

"After Bd2, Black takes ...QxP and White has to retreat Ng3 before kicking the Queen with Nf3. It looks like White will have trouble getting any opening advantage. All the games I saw had Ne4-d2 blocking the check. An advantage of Ne4-d2 is that if Black immediately recaptures ...QxP, White straightaway kicks the Queen with Ng1-f3 and subsequently can pressure the d-pawn with Nd2-b3."

After the queen check and Bd2, then ...Qxe5 hits the hanging knight. Because of this may ....d4, Nb1 is better. I fail to see the good of the knight on e4. It looks useless to me.

FWIW, Ed, I looked up some positions on Chesslab.com (free database) and just about anything is playable. The gambit's been declined with both 5. e3 and 5. Nf3. Blocking the Queen check with Bd2 seems to lead to quite interesting play. Even 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. cd cd 4. Nc3 e5 5. de d4 6. Ne4 Qa5+ 7. Bd2 Q:e5 8. Ng5!? looks interesting (this is also in my old ECO, see below).

There's also some treatment in my old volume of ECO D, albeit under the pointless (why would White trade on d5 here?) move order 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 e5 4. cd cd.

Wow. 8. Ng5? Can't Black just kick it with 8...h6, leading to a traffic jam on the kingside?