C20 1.e4 e5: Unusual White second moves (1.a3 e5 2.e4)

It does seem to get a bit trickier now to find examples of openings I have not yet covered. Well, I guess after a bit over 100 different opening variations it is not all that strange. There will be something new everyday in this blog or that is at least something I try to do if there is no strong enough reason to do otherwise. When I last checked, I had 285 games in progress, so the playing madness still continues. I did not update more puzzles yesterday and I may not update more today but certainly tomorrow onward I will start doing them again, especially if I can't find a game that features an opening I have not covered yet. I tried to do some tactics training over the weekend only to discover that I am quite bad at solving tactics. Maybe if I could do those a certain amount per day, I would steadily improve. If that does not significantly increase my solving abilities I may need to do some other brain exercises, to get the old brain more alert.

[Event "OS INCLIVEIS"] [Site "http://www.queenalice.com/gam"] [Date "2014.08.14"] [Round "?"] [White "adelio"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C20"] [WhiteElo "1775"] [BlackElo "2123"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "46"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] {[%evp 9,45,-69,-58,-93,-120,-200,-142,-162,-157,-165,-126,-223,-145,-152,-134, -143,-140,-251,-141,-154,-49,-300,-128,-362,-367,-365,-362,-998,-1000,-1406, -1397,-1293,-1085,-29993,-1184,-29996,-29997,-29999]} 1. a3 e5 2. e4 {C20 1.e4 e5: Unusual White second moves C20 King's Pawn Game: Mengarini's Opening} Nf6 3. d3 Bc5 (3... d5 4. f4 Nc6 5. fxe5 Nxe5 6. d4 Neg4 7. exd5 Nxd5 8. Qe2+ Be7 9. h3 O-O 10. hxg4 Re8 11. Kd1 Bh4 12. Qd2 Bxg4+ 13. Nf3 Bxf3+ 14. gxf3 Ne3+ 15. Qxe3 Rxe3 16. Bxe3 Qf6 17. Be2 Re8 18. Bd2 {Surtees,M (2151)-Haslinger,S (2543) Halifax 2010 0-1}) 4. Be2 $146 (4. b4 Bb6 5. h3 d5 6. Bg5 dxe4 7. dxe4 Bxf2+ 8. Ke2 Qxd1+ 9. Kxd1 Nxe4 10. Nf3 f6 11. Bh4 Bxh4 12. Nxh4 Nf2+ 13. Ke2 Nxh1 14. Kf3 g5 15. Nf5 Bxf5 16. g4 Bxc2 17. Nc3 Nc6 18. Rc1 Nd4+ {Zacarias Guerra,P (1357)-Cabrera Marmol,M (1871) Barcelona 2017 0-1}) (4. h3 h6 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. b4 Be7 7. Bb2 d6 8. Nbd2 a5 9. c3 axb4 10. axb4 Bd7 11. Rxa8 Qxa8 12. Qa1 O-O 13. Be2 d5 14. O-O dxe4 15. Nxe4 Nxe4 16. dxe4 Be6 17. Qxa8 Rxa8 18. Ra1 Rxa1+ {Schaefer,H-Mungard,J Pinneberg 2001 1/2-1/2 (57)}) (4. Nc3 c6 5. h3 d5 6. Bg5 O-O 7. Nf3 d4 8. Ne2 Nbd7 9. b4 Be7 10. c4 Ne8 11. h4 h6 12. Bd2 Qc7 13. Ng3 Ndf6 14. Nh2 Be6 15. Be2 Nh7 16. h5 Ng5 17. Bg4 Qd7 18. Nf5 Nd6 { Samano,B-Milosevic,A (2260) London,Canada 1995 0-1 (73)}) 4... O-O 5. h4 d5 6. h5 dxe4 7. Bg5 {-2.00/24} (7. Nc3 $17 {-1.20/27}) 7... exd3 8. Qxd3 {Black is clearly better.} Qxd3 9. Bxd3 Nd5 10. Nf3 {-2.23/24} (10. Ne2 $17 {-1.26/27}) 10... f6 11. Bh4 Re8 12. Bc4 Be6 13. Nc3 {-2.51/25} (13. Nbd2 $17 {-1.40/27 might work better.}) 13... c6 {-1.41/27} (13... Nxc3 $19 {-2.51/25} 14. Bxe6+ Rxe6 15. bxc3 Nd7) 14. Ne4 Bf8 {-0.49/25} ({Black should try} 14... Nd7 $17 { -1.54/22} 15. Bg3 h6) 15. Bxd5 $4 {-3.00/25 [%mdl 8192] [#]} (15. h6 $1 $15 { -0.49/25}) 15... Bxd5 {-1.28/26} (15... cxd5 $19 {-3.00/25 has better winning chances.} 16. Ng3 Nd7) 16. Nxf6+ $2 {-3.62/25} (16. Nfd2 $17 {-1.28/26 is a better defense.}) 16... gxf6 $19 17. Bxf6 Nd7 18. Bxe5 $2 {-9.98/24} (18. Bg5 { -3.62/26}) 18... Nxe5 19. O-O Nxf3+ 20. gxf3 Bxf3 {[#] ( -> ...Re5)} 21. b4 Bd6 {-11.84/26} (21... Re5 $142 {-#7/46} 22. Kh2 Bd6 23. Rg1+ Kh8 24. Rg2 Rxh5+ 25. Kg1 Rg8 26. Rxg8+ Kxg8 27. Kf1 Rh1#) 22. c4 Re4 23. c5 Rg4# {Accuracy: White = 14%, Black = 28%.} 0-1