Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...e5/2. Nc3/2...Nf6/3. Bc4/3...Nxe4/4. Qh5/4...Nd6/5. Bb3/5...Nc6/6. Nb5/6...g6/7. Qf3/7...f5/8. Qd5/8...Qe7/9. Nxc7/9...Kd8/10. Nxa8/10...b6

Vienna Game, Frankenstein-Dracula Variation
a b c d e f g h 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 a b c d e f g h
Position in Forsyth-Edwards Notation (FEN) N1bk1b1r/p2pq2p/1pnn2p1/3Qpp2/8/1B6/PPPP1PPP/R1B1K1NR w
Moves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Bc4 Nxe4 4. Qh5 Nd6 5. Bb3 Nc6 6. Nb5 g6 7. Qf3 f5 8. Qd5 Qe7 9. Nxc7 Kd8 10. Nxa8 b6

Vienna Game, Frankenstein-Dracula Variation

The players have reached the base position of the Frankenstein-Dracula opening. Such variant owes its name to Tim Harding, a chess author that, in his 1973 book "Bishop’s Opening", commented that, because of its extreme sharpness, it would have been appropriate for a duel between the two literary monsters. Harding then explicitly introduced the name "Frankenstein-Dracula Variation" in his 1976 book about Vienna Opening.

The position is, indeed, very delicate: White has a Rook more, but he is likely to lose the Knight in a8, so that he has actually only an exchange advantage. The backdraw of this material gain is the underdevelopment: during the first ten moves, White has touched four times his Queen's Knight that is about to be captured, and three times the Queen, so that his only developed light piece is the Bb3. Moreover, his Queen is in a risky position in the middle of the board, with very few escape routes in case she was attacked. On the contrary, Black has gained space with pawns, his Knights are active and the Bishops are ready to be placed on important diagonals. Black can therefore begin a dangerous attack.

White must therefore consolidate his position. In parallel, he should prepare a counterattack against the opposite King, which is not well fortified. In the immediate, after a series of nearly forced moves, he has however various choices: he can try to recover his delay in development by playing moves such as d3, d4 or Nf3, bring the Queen to a safer place with Qf3, or even grab another pawn with Nxb6. According to the chess writer Carsten Hansen (as of 2000), this last choice is the main line. The move 11. d3 is instead described by Hansen as a previous main line, while Harding in 1998 considered it the most usual choice.

Theory table

For explanation of theory tables, see theory table and for notation, see algebraic notation..

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Bc4 Nxe4 4. Qh5 Nd6 5. Bb3 Nc6 6. Nb5 g6 7. Qf3 f5 8. Qd5 Qe7 9. Nxc7+ Kd8 10. Nxa8 b6

	11
	Nxb6 -		∞
	d3 Bb7	h4 -		∞
	Nf3 -		∞
	d4 -		∞
	Qf3 -		∞

References

• Tim Harding, Bishop’s Opening, Nottingham: The Chess Player, 1973.
• Tim Harding, Vienna Opening, Nottingham: The Chess Player, 1976.
• Tim Harding, "Kibitzer – Frankenstein and Dracula at the Chessboard", chesscafe.com, 1996.
• Tim Harding, "Kibitzer – Dracula Has Risen from the Grave - or Has He?", chesscafe.com, February 1998.
• Carsten Hansen, "Checkpoint – Tales from the Crypt", chesscafe.com, August 2000.