C44 Ponziani Opening and Scotch Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 d6 4.d4 Bd7 5.c3 Nf6 6.Qe2)

This game has been shared in the blog before, but having more understanding of the openings, I had to switch this game to this post. I am still not an expert of opening theory, but I have better tools at my disposal these days to learn more about openings. If I were to play this game again, I would not lose on time or resign in the position this game finished. One of those things happened over five years ago but I have no recollection which one it was.

The point at which my position started to go downhill can be seen below. I played 16.Bxf4 and while it may seem at first a better move than 16.Rxf4, it apparently is not. To me it would seem that the rook is more vulnerable to attacks on f4 than the bishop. The problem with the bishop move is that it can't move after the reply 16...Nh5 because of the fork my opponent could get on g3 otherwise. In the game my opponent played 16...Nh5 and I did move my bishop to e3... At that point I was in a losing position.

My 17th move was the final nail in the coffin and I could not recover from the the two consecutive blunders and the game ended quite quickly after that. The move 20...Be6 being the last move played in the game.

[Event "Let's play chess"] [Site "http://gameknot.com/chess.pl?"] [Date "2009.05.19"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "flightrisk"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C44"] [WhiteElo "1729"] [BlackElo "1670"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "40"] [EventDate "2009.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 d6 {Spanish Game: Steinitz Defense} 4. d4 Bd7 (4... exd4 5. O-O {Spanish Game: Steinitz Defense. Center Gambit}) 5. c3 (5. Nc3 Nf6 6. Bxc6 {Spanish Game: Steinitz Defense. Nimzowitsch Attack}) 5... Nf6 6. Qe2 { C44 Ponziani Opening and Scotch Gambit} a6 7. Ba4 b5 {Black threatens to win material: b5xa4} 8. Bc2 $146 (8. Bb3 Be7 9. O-O (9. h3 O-O 10. O-O Re8 11. Ng5 Rf8 12. f4 exd4 13. e5 dxe5 14. fxe5 Bc5 15. Qe1 dxc3+ 16. Kh1 Bd4 17. Qh4 Bxe5 18. Rxf6 h6 19. Rxh6 gxh6 20. Qxh6 Bf5 21. Nxc3 Qd3 22. Nf3 Bxc3 23. bxc3 Qxc3 {Stojanovic,M (2245)-Sekulic,V (2315) Bijeljina Dvorovi 1994 1-0 (31)}) 9... O-O 10. Rd1 (10. Nbd2 h6 11. Re1 Re8 12. d5 Na5 13. Bc2 c6 14. b4 Nc4 15. Nxc4 bxc4 16. Qxc4 cxd5 17. exd5 Bb5 18. Qh4 Nxd5 19. Qg3 Nxc3 20. Bxh6 Bf6 21. Bg5 Ne2+ 22. Rxe2 Bxe2 23. Bxf6 Qxf6 24. Ng5 e4 {Valentine,B (1969)-Hunt,M (2068) England 2016 0-1 (66)}) 10... Qc8 11. Nbd2 Re8 12. Nf1 exd4 13. cxd4 Bf8 14. Ng3 Na5 15. Bc2 c5 16. dxc5 Qxc5 17. Bg5 Ng4 18. Rac1 Nc4 19. Bd3 Nge5 20. Bxc4 Nxf3+ 21. Qxf3 bxc4 22. Be3 Qe5 {Hou,Y (2673)-Zhao,X (2514) Beijing 2014 1/2-1/ 2 (88)}) 8... g6 9. O-O Bg7 10. h3 {Controls g4} (10. dxe5 Nxe5 11. Nxe5 dxe5 $11) 10... O-O $11 11. Be3 Qe7 (11... exd4 12. Nxd4 Re8 13. Nd2 $11) 12. Nbd2 a5 (12... Rfb8 13. Rfd1 $11) 13. Rae1 (13. d5 $5 Na7 14. a4 $14) 13... a4 $11 { Black gets more space} 14. Nh2 ({Worse is} 14. Qxb5 exd4 15. Bg5 h6 16. Bxf6 Qxf6 17. cxd4 Rfb8 $17) 14... Na5 15. f4 (15. Bg5 h6 16. Bh4 g5 $11) 15... exf4 (15... Nh5 16. dxe5 Ng3 17. Qf2 Nxf1 18. exd6 cxd6 19. Nhxf1 $11) 16. Bxf4 (16. Rxf4 $142 $5 {should be considered} Nc4 17. Nxc4 bxc4 18. Qf2 $11) 16... Nh5 $17 17. Be3 $2 (17. Ng4 $142 $5 Nxf4 18. Rxf4 $15) 17... Ng3 $19 18. Qf2 Nxf1 19. Nhxf1 (19. Qxf1 $142 f5 20. Nhf3 $19) 19... c6 (19... f5 $142 {a shame that Black overlooked this excellent chance} 20. exf5 Bxf5 21. Bxf5 Rxf5 $19 ( 21... gxf5 $6 22. Bf4 Qf7 23. a3 $17)) 20. Ng3 (20. Bf4 $5 $17) 20... Be6 $19 0-1