C54 Giuoco Piano: 4.c3 Nf6, main lines with 5.d4 and 5.d3 (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d3 a6 6.Bg5)

With this post I am at long last at a point where I have posted example games of 100 different opening variations!! It is a milestone that has been long coming but it is finally here. The fact that this game happens to feature a win of mine even better though it just happened to be that way. If it had been a loss or a draw, I would have still posted it now. I put up a few exercise positions yesterday to mate in three and mate in four sections. I will most likely put more examples in the exercises section of this blog later today. Also all +1s are very much appreciated, so do consider doing those if you like the content I share with you.

This game was roughly evenly played for the first twelve moves. The position below is taken after my 12th move axb5. The move that my opponent should have played was most likely 13.Na3 and follow it up with 14.Qb3 perhaps.

Rcogley played Qb3 first, which was a huge blunder. It allowed me to play 13...Bxf2+, which wins a pawn and a rook for a bishop. I sometimes see tactical opportunities like this and seeing this tactic enabled me to win the game. The game did not end here though, the game ended in mate after 35 moves.

[Event "Let's Play!"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2008.07.08"] [Round "?"] [White "rcogley"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C54"] [WhiteElo "1603"] [BlackElo "1885"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "70"] [EventDate "2008.??.??"] {[%evp 16,69,27,0,34,33,30,25,44,40,47,-252,-254,-257,-257,-331,-215,-318,-320, -320,-298,-379,-365,-484,-381,-348,-302,-304,-301,-380,-372,-354,-350,-665, -681,-653,-692,-693,-668,-655,-616,-6198,-6198,-6198,-6198,-6191,-6191,-6179, -2591,-6170,-6070,-29987,-29988,-29996,-29997,-29999]} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d3 {C54 Italian Game: Classical Variation. Giuoco Pianissimo} a6 6. Bg5 {C54 Giuoco Piano: 4.c3 Nf6, main lines with 5.d4 and 5. d3} d6 7. O-O (7. d4 exd4 8. cxd4 Bb4+ 9. Nc3 h6 10. Bxf6 Qxf6 11. O-O Bxc3 12. bxc3 O-O 13. Rb1 Na5 14. Be2 Bg4 15. h3 Bh5 16. Nh2 Bxe2 17. Qxe2 b5 18. f4 Qe6 19. f5 Qc4 20. Qd2 f6 21. Ng4 Rae8 {Tischbierek,R (2480)-Schoene,R (2345) Berlin 1991 1-0 (41)}) (7. h3 O-O 8. Nbd2 Be6 9. Bb3 Qe7 10. O-O b5 11. Qe2 Rae8 12. a4 bxa4 13. Bxe6 Qxe6 14. c4 a5 15. b3 Ne7 16. Be3 Nd7 {0-1 (16) Garcia Guevara,N (1780)-Otalora,C (2140) Bogota 2013}) 7... O-O 8. b4 $146 (8. h3 Be6 9. Bxe6 fxe6 10. Qb3 d5 11. Qxb7 Na5 12. Bxf6 Rxf6 13. Qxa8 Qxa8 14. b4 Bxb4 15. cxb4 Nc6 16. a3 Qb7 17. Nbd2 Qb5 18. Rac1 Nd4 19. Nxd4 exd4 20. Nf3 Qxd3 21. exd5 exd5 22. Rxc7 Qxa3 {Bashouti,M (1116)-Scholz,R (1165) Dresden 2012 0-1}) 8... Ba7 9. a4 {LiveBook: 6 Games} Be6 10. Bxe6 fxe6 11. Re1 b5 12. axb5 (12. Re2 {seems wilder.} Rb8 13. Rea2 Bb6 14. Na3 Qd7 15. Qe2) 12... axb5 {[#] Threatens to win with ...Bxf2+!} 13. Qb3 $2 {-2.52/25 [%mdl 8192]} (13. Na3 $14 {0.47/26}) {[%tqu "En","","","","a7f2","",10]} 13... Bxf2+ $1 $19 { [%mdl 512]} 14. Kxf2 Rxa1 15. Na3 Rxe1 16. Kxe1 {-3.18/27} (16. Qxe6+ $142 { -2.15/26} Kh8 17. Kxe1) 16... Qd7 17. Nxb5 h6 18. Be3 Ra8 19. Kf2 Ng4+ 20. Ke2 Nxe3 21. Kxe3 Ne7 22. c4 c6 23. Nc3 Ng6 24. d4 $2 {-6.65/23 [#]} (24. g3 { -3.50/28}) 24... exd4+ 25. Nxd4 c5 26. Nf3 cxb4 27. Qxb4 Qa7+ 28. Kd2 Qf2+ 29. Kc1 Ra1+ 30. Nb1 Qf1+ 31. Ne1 Nf4 {-25.91/32} (31... Ne5 $142 {-61.79/30} 32. Qb8+ Kh7) 32. Kb2 Nd3+ 33. Kxa1 Nxb4 {Black mates.} 34. Nf3 Qxc4 35. Nfd2 Qa2# {Accuracy: White = 15%, Black = 68%.} 0-1