[Event "Fantasy"] [Site "?"] [Date "????.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "NN"] [Black "Kholmov??, Ratmir"] [Result "*"] [ECO "B00"] [PlyCount "18"] [EventDate "2019.08.28"] {[%evp 0,18,19,31,45,-16,26,27,121,121,128,131,123,130,87,79,90,89,60,60,38]} 1. e4 Nc6 2. f4 {Not a very good move.} b6 ({After} 2... d5 {Black has a good version of the Scandinavian opening.}) 3. Nf3 e5 {Of course Black's set-up cannot really be recommended, as in the King's Gambit, the move b6 seems rather clumsy.} 4. fxe5 {The obvious try to refute Black's play. After 4. fxe5 we have the position in which, according to legend, Kholmov's drunken head sank in despair. But not all would be lost.} ({A simple move like} 4. Nc3 { transposing to a favorable variation of the King's Gambit, is probably stronger. White must be better here, though Black is far from lost. But who knows? Having seen people playing an early knight fianchetto with Ng8-f6-h5-g7 in the Modern defence with 1... g6, I tried to make a similar maneuver with Nc6-a5-b7 work here, but not surprisingly I did not succeed.}) 4... Nxe5 { The only move. There is no good way to make a gambit of it.} 5. Nxe5 {Again the obvious move, but not a good one.} ({Again} 5. Nc3 {seems best, but it is not a fatal blow. With help from Stockfish, I found the interesting variation} Nxf3+ 6. Qxf3 Qh4+ 7. g3 Qf6 8. Qxf6 Nxf6 9. Nb5 Bb7 10. Nxc7+ Kd8 11. Nxa8 Bxe4 {Here White is probably somewhat better, but not much.}) 5... Qh4+ 6. g3 Qxe4+ 7. Qe2 Qxh1 ({In my database there is a game from 2000 where Black submitted to his doom with} 7... Bb7 {but of course this is not relevant.}) 8. Ng6+ Be7 9. Nxh8 Bb7 {This is the end of the main line. White is a piece up, but his Nh8 is trapped and he is behind in development. My Stockfish gives a small advantage to Black. So what's the verdict on the Drunken Mirrored Gruenfeld opening? If White is not overly ambitious, he can reach a favorable King's Gambit, but a try for an outright refutation will backfire. In a blitz game, the Drunken Grunfeld seems playable.} *