C37 King's Gambit Accepted: Muzio Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.d4 Bg7)

This game was played in tedjj's mini-tournament XLIII which is held at GameKnot. I am on sixth place and no matter what happens on the last two games I have to finish, I will be sixth in the final standings aswell. My sixth place finish will earn me 1 mini-tournament point. Winner gets 11 points, player who finishes second will get 9, third will get 7, fourth will get 5 and fifth will receive 3 points. Those points serve a dual purpose, they are currency for entering the mini-tournaments and they are also used to compare players and determine who is the best mini-tournament player. 100 best mini-tournament players are listed at GameKnot. I am of course nowhere close to getting into that list. I have only entered two of those mini-tournaments and they are both still in progress.

I have mostly played the Fischer Defense of the King's Gambit Accepted in the last few years but for this game I thought I would try something else. Due to my successful experiment in this game, I might continue playing lines similar to this against the King's Gambit in the future as well. If nothing else, it will at least give me some refreshing ideas on how to play chess. I think I have stuck on my way of playing chess a bit too long and change would be required to maybe reignite some of the interest I have lost. Then again new variations seem to appear in my games even though I rarely make a conscious choice to alter the way I play.

[Event "tedjj's mini-tournament XLIII"] [Site "http://gameknot.com/chess.pl?"] [Date "2015.09.14"] [Round "?"] [White "buzzwold"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C37"] [WhiteElo "1306"] [BlackElo "1741"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (30s)"] [PlyCount "52"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 g5 4. d4 Bg7 {C37 King's Gambit Accepted: Muzio Gambit} 5. Nc3 d6 {LiveBook: 27 Games. ...g4 is the strong threat.} 6. h4 { -0.41/23} (6. g3 $1 $11 {0.00/23 feels stronger.} g4 7. Nh4 f3 8. Be3 Nc6 9. Qd2 h5 10. O-O-O Nge7 11. h3 Bd7 12. Bc4 Be6 13. Nd5 Qd7 14. Bb3 Ng6 15. Nf5 Bxf5 16. exf5 Qxf5 17. hxg4 Qxg4 18. Nxc7+ Kd7 19. Nxa8 Rxa8 20. Qf2 Re8 21. Bd5 {Ponomariov,R (2712) -Dominguez Perez,L (2732) Huaian 2016 1-0}) 6... f6 $146 {0.41/22} (6... h6 $1 $15 {-0.41/23} 7. hxg5 hxg5 8. Rxh8 Bxh8 9. g3 g4 10. Bxf4 gxf3 11. Qxf3 Bxd4 12. O-O-O Nc6 13. Bb5 Bxc3 14. Qxc3 Bd7 15. Bxc6 Bxc6 16. Qh8 Kd7 17. Qh3+ Ke8 18. Qh8 Kd7 19. Qh3+ Ke8 {1/2-1/2 (19) Rechel,B (2420)-Law,A (2310) West Bromwich 2003}) 7. Bd3 Bg4 8. O-O {-0.71/20} (8. Be2 $11 {0.00/25}) 8... Nd7 {-0.09/22} (8... h6 $17 {-0.71/20}) 9. Be2 {-0.61/20} ( 9. g3 $11 {-0.09/22}) 9... Nh6 10. hxg5 {-1.46/25} (10. Bc4 $142 {-0.82/22}) 10... fxg5 $17 11. Nh2 {-2.07/23} (11. g3 $17 {-1.40/25 was called for.}) 11... Bxe2 $19 12. Qxe2 $2 {-3.71/22 [#]} (12. Nxe2 {-2.07/26} Qe7 13. Nf3) 12... O-O {-2.02/23} (12... Bxd4+ $142 {-3.71/22} 13. Kh1 Bxc3 14. bxc3 Qe7) 13. Qf2 c6 14. Bd2 Qb6 15. Ne2 Nf6 16. Nc3 {-8.01/25} (16. Qf3 $142 {-4.64/25} Rfe8 17. e5 dxe5 18. Qb3+ Nf7 19. Rfe1) 16... Nfg4 17. Nxg4 Nxg4 18. Qe2 Bxd4+ 19. Be3 Bxe3+ 20. Kh1 Nf2+ 21. Kh2 Rf6 {[#] ( -> ...Rh6+)} 22. Qh5 Rg6 23. Na4 Qd4 24. Nc3 Kg7 25. Rxf2 Bxf2 26. Rd1 Qf6 {Accuracy: White = 3%, Black = 55%.} 0-1