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.d4 exd4 6.e5 d5)

This is from a team match called Magnificent Obsessives Ride. It was played on 40 boards between Obsessive Chess Disorder!! and Team Australia. I played on board 7 for OCD and managed to help the team with two wins. This was a very close match as the score 42 - 38 suggests. The match ended in our victory! It was very disappointing to see some players in both teams having cheater badges next to their handle. If the score of the match would be corrected so that the points that the cheaters got would go to their opponents who did not cheat, the final score would be 41,5 - 38,5 in our favor, so the result would not change that much. Timeouts were a decisive factor in this match though, we lost five games on time, but our opponent lost eleven games on time. The final score might have been quite different if those timeouts would not have happened. This post was previously named as C53 Italian Game: Classical Variation, Greco Gambit, which is how the opening is categorized at lichess.org, for instance. The new name comes from the Fritz 16 opening classification, but both share the same exact moves.

[Event "Magnificent Obsessives Ride - Board 7"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2015.05.11"] [Round "?"] [White "Chair-man"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C54"] [WhiteElo "1823"] [BlackElo "1889"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (30s)"] [PlyCount "136"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. e5 d5 {C54 Giuoco Piano: 4.c3 Nf6, main lines with 5.d4 and 5.d3. LiveBook: 441 Games} 7. exd6 {-0.93/22 } (7. Be2 $11 {0.06/26 remains equal.} d3 8. exf6 dxe2 9. Qxe2+ Kf8 10. Bg5) 7... Qxd6 8. Qe2+ $146 (8. h3 O-O 9. O-O Bf5 10. Bd3 Bxd3 11. Qxd3 Rad8 12. a3 Ne5 13. Qf5 Nxf3+ 14. Qxf3 c6 15. c4 Bb6 16. b4 Bc7 17. Bf4 Qxf4 18. Qxf4 Bxf4 19. g3 Bc7 20. Re1 Rfe8 21. Nd2 Rxe1+ 22. Rxe1 Kf8 {Kariuki,S-Asavasaetakul,C (1704) Ahmedabad 2017 0-1 (38)}) (8. O-O O-O 9. Bg5 (9. b4 Bb6 10. Ba3 Ne5 11. Nxe5 Qxe5 12. Re1 Qf4 13. Bc1 Qd6 14. Qb3 Bf5 15. h3 c6 16. h4 Bc7 17. g3 Nh5 18. cxd4 Qxd4 19. Bb2 Qb6 20. Kg2 Bd6 21. a3 Qd8 22. Qf3 Bg6 23. Nc3 Nf6 { Malkova, A (1558)-Richterova,J (1459) Kouty nad Desnou 2015 0-1 (53)}) 9... Ne4 10. Qc2 (10. Bh4 dxc3 11. Nxc3 Nxc3 12. bxc3 Bf5 13. Bg3 Qxd1 14. Raxd1 Bb6 15. Bd5 Bd7 16. Ng5 Bg4 17. Rd2 h6 18. Bf3 hxg5 19. Bxg4 f5 20. Bd1 f4 21. Rd5 fxg3 22. hxg3 Rae8 23. Rxg5 Rf6 24. Bf3 Re5 {Maderner,A (1750)-Hrbek,S (1711) Malinska 2015 0-1}) 10... Nxg5 11. Nxg5 Qh6 12. Ne4 Bb6 13. Bd3 Ne5 14. Nbd2 dxc3 15. bxc3 Rd8 16. Bc4 Bf5 17. Rad1 Ng4 18. Nf3 Rxd1 19. Rxd1 Bxe4 20. Qxe4 Nxf2 {0-1 (20) Cano Cavero,A-Rizouk,A (2499) Erandio 2005}) 8... Qe7 9. b4 { Black is slightly better.} Qxe2+ 10. Kxe2 {-1.56/25} ({White should play} 10. Bxe2 {-0.80/28} Bb6 11. b5) 10... Bd6 11. Nxd4 Nxd4+ 12. cxd4 Bxb4 13. Bb2 O-O 14. Nc3 {-2.39/23} (14. Rc1 $17 {-1.57/26 was worth a try.}) 14... Bf5 { ...Rfe8+ is the strong threat.} 15. f3 Rfe8+ 16. Kf2 c6 17. Rhe1 Kf8 18. Re5 Bg6 19. Rae1 Bd6 20. R5e2 Re7 {-1.17/27} ({Worse is} 20... Bxh2 21. Rxe8+ Nxe8 22. g3 $16) (20... b5 $19 {-1.69/24} 21. Bb3 a5) 21. Ne4 {-2.53/27} (21. Rxe7 $17 {-1.17/27 keeps fighting.} Bxe7 22. Ne2) 21... Nxe4+ $19 ({Inferior is} 21... Bxh2 22. g3 $16) 22. fxe4 Bb4 23. Rf1 Bxe4 24. Kg3 {and the idea Rxe4 leaves White hopeful.} Bg6 25. Rxe7 Bxe7 26. Kg4 Rd8 27. h4 f6 28. Kf3 Bf7 29. Bxf7 Kxf7 {Endgame KRB-KRB} 30. g4 Rd5 31. a3 Rb5 32. Rf2 Rb3+ 33. Ke4 Bxa3 34. Bxa3 Rxa3 {KR-KR} 35. g5 Ra4 36. gxf6 gxf6 37. Rf5 b5 38. Rc5 Ra6 39. h5 { -7.99/31} (39. Kd3 $142 {-4.73/29} Ke6 40. Ke3) 39... Rb6 40. Kd3 a5 41. d5 cxd5 42. Rc7+ Kg8 43. h6 b4 44. Rg7+ Kh8 45. Ra7 Rb8 {[#] ( -> ...b3)} 46. Kc2 f5 47. Rxa5 Kg8 48. Rxd5 Kf7 49. Rxf5+ Kg6 $1 50. Rf3 Kxh6 51. Rg3 Kh5 52. Kb3 Kh4 {Black mates.} 53. Rg7 h5 54. Rg6 Kh3 55. Rg5 h4 56. Rg7 Kh2 57. Rg4 h3 58. Rg5 Kh1 59. Rg3 h2 60. Rg4 Rf8 61. Kxb4 Rf2 62. Kc3 Rg2 63. Rd4 Kg1 64. Rd1+ Kf2 65. Rd2+ Kg3 66. Rd3+ Kh4 67. Rd1 Rg1 68. Rd4+ Kh3 {Precision: White = 23%, Black = 80%.} 0-1