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 a6 5.O-O Nf6 6.d3)

It took me some time, but I did manage to find yet another never before seen opening as far as this blog is concerned that is. Well, only for today as I did not have enough time to look further in my databases, so tomorrow is going to be another busy day, especially as I need to go and try to teach some chess again which will take some precious time away from looking through my databases. I have managed to find something to post everytime I have thought that this must be the end of new opening variations or chess960 starting positions.

This game was played in the second round of the tournament that was played in 2003 at Salo. I started plaing in over the board tournaments back in May 2001 and I think I got my first win in my thirteenth game, but I never had all that much success in these tournaments until something changed big time in the way I played the game. I had to reach a very low rating until things started to go the right way for me. I played in this same tournament a year before and then I lost all my games. After that tournament I just started to play a lot of games against the various characters in Chessmaster 8000 and I also started doing those exercises in it and it might have been the biggest reason why the next time I played OTB chess my climb through ratings seemed very easy. During the year that passed between this tournament and the one I played almost exactly a year ago before this one, I had increased my rating over 200 points. After this tournament my rating had increased 295 points from that lowest ever rating!! I do not remember a single occasion during that year that my rating would have dropped. Not only that but I had increased my rating 73 points in the tournament before this one and in this one I increased my rating 74 points. Clearly I had done something right after that disaster of a tournament. The game below was my first win in this tournament, but the first round draw also increased my rating because I faced an opponent that outrated me by almost 300 points.

[Event "SalSK"] [Site "?"] [Date "2003.11.01"] [Round "2"] [White "Niemi, Esa"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C54"] [WhiteElo "1816"] [BlackElo "1490"] [Annotator "Stockfish 6 64 BMI2 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "64"] [EventDate "2003.11.02"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 {Italian Game: Classical Variation (#2)} a6 (4... d6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb6 {Italian Game: Classical Variation, La Bourdonnais Variation}) (4... f5 {Italian Game: Classical Variation, Alexandre Gambit}) (4... Nf6 5. b4 {Italian Game: Bird's Attack}) 5. O-O Nf6 6. d3 { C54 Giuoco Piano: 4.c3 Nf6, main lines with 5.d4 and 5.d3} b5 7. Bb3 O-O {N} ( 7... d6 8. h3 Bb7 9. Re1 Bb6 10. Nbd2 Qd7 11. Nf1 O-O-O 12. Be3 h6 13. Bxb6 cxb6 14. Ne3 g5 15. a4 Na5 16. axb5 axb5 17. Ba2 g4 18. hxg4 Nxg4 19. Nd5 Bxd5 20. Bxd5 Nf6 21. c4 Rhg8 22. Re3 {Peray,S (2010)-Deleau,D (2050) France 1999 1-0 (41)}) (7... Be7 8. Bd5 Bb7 9. Bxc6 dxc6 10. Nxe5 c5 11. Re1 c4 12. Nd2 cxd3 13. Qf3 c5 14. Nxd3 c4 15. Nf4 O-O 16. Nf1 Nxe4 17. Rxe4 f5 18. Ne6 Qd6 19. Rd4 Qxd4 20. Qxb7 {1-0 (20) Lopez Silva,H (2414)-Abarca Gonzalez,N (2267) Santiago de Chile 2014}) (7... d6 8. a4 Rb8 9. d4 {+/=}) 8. Bg5 (8. d4 $5 Ba7 9. Nxe5 Nxe5 10. dxe5 Nxe4 11. Bd5 Nxf2 12. Rxf2 {+/-}) 8... Be7 9. Re1 Bb7 10. d4 d6 11. a4 Qd7 (11... exd4 12. axb5 axb5 13. Rxa8 Bxa8 14. Nxd4 Nxd4 15. cxd4 {=}) 12. axb5 axb5 13. Rxa8 Rxa8 14. Nbd2 h6 {Black threatens to win material: h6xg5} 15. Bh4 Nh7 16. Bg3 Bf6 17. Bd5 Qc8 (17... exd4 18. cxd4 Na5 19. Bxb7 Nxb7 20. Qc2 {+/=}) 18. Qb3 exd4 19. Bxf7+ Kh8 20. cxd4 Nxd4 21. Nxd4 Bxd4 22. Nf3 Bb6 23. Qxb5 Nf6 (23... Ra5 24. Qe2 {+/-}) 24. e5 Ra5 25. Qb3 dxe5 26. Nxe5 ({Weaker is} 26. Rxe5 Ra1+ 27. Re1 Qa8 {=}) 26... Be4 (26... Qa8 27. Ng6+ Kh7 28. Nf4 {+/-}) 27. Ng6+ (27. Nc4 $5 Ra6 28. Nxb6 Rxb6 {+-}) 27... Kh7 {+/-} 28. Nh4 (28. Nf4 Qa8 29. Qd1 Bf5 {+/-}) 28... Qa8 (28... Qd7 29. h3 Rb5 30. Qa4 { +/-}) 29. h3 (29. Qd1 Bc5 {+/-}) 29... Ra1 {+/=} 30. Rxa1 Qxa1+ 31. Kh2 Bd4 ( 31... Qa7 {!? +/= is interesting}) 32. f3 $4 {stumbles just before the finish line} (32. Nf3 Bxb2 33. Nd2 {+/-}) 32... Qg1# 0-1