My fascination with Josef Holumbirek’s chess puzzles lead me to a splendid little chess game he played using the white pieces and the Danish Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3). For many in Northern California, the Danish Gambit brings to mind its greatest advocate, Richard Shorman. Richard taught hundreds of children about this swashbuckling opening as a means toward improving their understanding of imbalances and the power of the initiative. It’s too bad that I discovered the game below after Richard’s passing as I would have loved to share it with Mr. Shorman and hear his thoughts on Josef Holumbirek’s play using the Danish Gambit.
Chris Torres is a nationally renowned scholastic chess coach working in the San Francisco Bay Area. His classes have attracted players of strengths ranging from rank beginners to world champions. A chess professional since 1998, Chris is widely recognized as one of the main driving forces behind the explosion in popularity and sudden rise in quality of scholastic chess in California. Chris Torres served as the President of the Torres Chess and Music Academy from 2005-2020 and currently is recognized as a correspondence chess master with the United States Chess Federation. Since 1998 Chris Torres has taught 6 individual national champions as well as led multiple school teams to win national championship titles. In addition, Chris Torres has directed and taught at 10 different schools which have been California State Champions at chess. In 2011 and 2012, several former and current students of Chris Torres have been selected to represent the United States at the World Youth Chess Championships. Mr. Torres’ hobbies include playing classical guitar and getting his students to appear on the national top 100 chess rating lists.
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