C44 Ponziani Opening and Scotch Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Be2 Nf6 4.d3 d5)

This was played mostly because these two players are playing in a club tournament, but could not play the game over the board or should I say that this way of playing the game suited both players better. The game below was played quite evenly until my opponent played 6.Bg5, which is a bad move because it loses time. It does attack my queen, but with my reply 6...Be7, it shows why the move 6.Bg5 loses time. If knuutson273 now plays Bxe7, he has used two moves to trade my bishop that has moved only once. If he moves the bishop away to d2, for example, then he has also lost time. 6.Bg5 does not lose the game, however, but it does give me a small advantage. The obviously losing move of the game is 7.O-O which allows me to win a piece. After that mistake the game soon ends. If my opponent had played 10.Bf3, I would have most likely continued with 10...Bh3 because it was the only move I even considered of playing during the game. The move 10...Nd4 that Stockfish gave as a suggestion in this after the game analysis seems like an interesting idea also.

[Event "Chess.com"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2016.01.01"] [Round "6"] [White "knuutson273"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C44"] [WhiteElo "813"] [BlackElo "1848"] [Annotator "Stockfish 6 64 BMI2 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "20"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Be2 {King's Pawn Game: Tayler Opening} Nf6 4. d3 (4. d4 exd4 5. e5 {King's Pawn Game: Tayler Opening, Basman Gambit}) 4... d5 {C44 Ponziani Opening and Scotch Gambit} 5. exd5 (5. Nbd2 {King's Pawn Game: Tayler Opening, Inverted Hanham}) 5... Nxd5 6. Bg5 (6. O-O Bd6 7. Nbd2 Nb6 8. b3 O-O 9. Bb2 f5 10. Re1 Re8 11. Bf1 Bd7 12. g3 Qf6 13. Bg2 a5 14. a3 Rad8 15. Nf1 Kh8 16. Qd2 h6 17. Kh1 Kh7 18. h4 Be6 19. Rad1 Bf7 20. Kh2 Bh5 {Kortes,M-Stamnov,A (2235) Bela Crkva 1989 0-1}) (6. b3 f6 7. c4 Nb6 8. O-O Be6 9. Be3 Qd7 10. Qc2 O-O-O 11. Nbd2 Nb4 12. Qc3 Nxd3 13. Rab1 Bb4 14. Qc2 Nf4 15. Rfd1 Nxe2+ 16. Kf1 Nd4 17. Nxd4 exd4 18. Ne4 d3 19. Qc1 Qc6 20. f3 Bf5 {Nguyen,V (923)-Schnabel,L (1457) Willingen 2015 1/2-1/2 (59)}) 6... Be7 {Black threatens to win material: Be7xg5} 7. O-O {?? N} (7. Bxe7 Qxe7 8. Nbd2 O-O 9. O-O Bg4 10. h3 Bh5 11. Nd4 Nxd4 12. Bxh5 Nf4 13. Bf3 Qg5 14. Kh2 Nxf3+ 15. Qxf3 Nxh3 16. Ne4 Qf4+ 17. Kxh3 Qh6+ 18. Kg3 f5 19. Rh1 Qg6+ 20. Kh2 fxe4 21. Qe3 exd3 {Konstantinov,G (1985) -Stoykov,G Sofia 2004 1/2-1/2 (46)}) (7. Bd2 O-O 8. O-O Bf5 9. Nc3 Re8 10. Ne4 Qd7 11. Ng3 Rad8 12. Nxf5 Qxf5 13. c3 Kh8 14. Qc2 Rd6 15. Be3 Rg6 16. Kh1 Nf4 17. Bxf4 exf4 18. Rac1 Bf6 19. Rfe1 {1/2-1/2 (19) Pham,T-Pham,M Vung Tau 2004}) (7. Bxe7 {would be a reprieve} Qxe7 8. O-O {=/+}) 7... Bxg5 {-+} 8. Nxg5 Qxg5 9. Qc1 (9. Bf3 {what else?} Be6 10. Nc3 {-+}) 9... Nf4 10. Bd1 (10. Bf3 { desperation} Nd4 11. Qd1 Nxg2 12. Kh1 {-+}) 10... Qxg2# 0-1