C44 Ponziani Opening and Scotch Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Nc6 4.c3 exd4 5.cxd4)

I did update the tournament info to reflect the current situation and round one is still in progress. Soon it will be three year anniversary for round one... This game was played on round one of the 2014 September Glacial Super Casual I tournament that is held at Red Hot Pawn. There were 64 players who started this tournament and they were divided into groups of 8 players. I am playing in group 7 and I currently lead the group, having only lost one game so far. I have only one game left to finish on round one and I feel confident about my chances to win the group. And I should win it, being the clearly highest rated player in the group. It has been the case since the start of the tournament even though my rating has plummeted again. There is still one player who can take the win out of my grasp. I have gathered 36 points so far, a player who is currently second, Timothy Collins (1663), has gathered 30 points and third place went to dooser2004 (1678), who gathered 23 points. Timothy Collins is the only person in the group who can still take the win from me and my only game in progress is against him. A couple of other games are still in progress, so it is not only my game that is delaying the tournament.

In this game my opponent tried the move 3...Nc6, something that no opponent of mine has played before in the games previously seen in this blog. It might be the best try of my opponents so far. That being said, it is not a move that could be recommended. My opponent, Chippy Minton, was able to maintain a rather decent position against me until it came time to reply to my 9th move O-O. The position can be seen below.

Chippy Minton played 9...Bxc3. It was a mistake to give up the bishop pair without any provocation. A better alternative for my opponent would have been 9...O-O. I maintained the advantage quite easily, but it was only due to my opponent's huge blunder on move 15 that I was able to finish the game with the move 16.Qh7#. Otherwise the game could have continued a lot longer.

[Event "Glacial Super Casual"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2014.09.13"] [Round "1"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "Chippy Minton"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C44"] [WhiteElo "1811"] [BlackElo "1347"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "31"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 {Philidor Defense} Nc6 (3... exd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 { Philidor Defense: Exchange Variation}) (3... Nf6 4. Nc3 Nbd7 5. Bc4 Be7 6. Bxf7+ {Philidor Defense: Lion Variation, Bishop Sacrifice} (6. dxe5 dxe5 7. Bxf7+ {Philidor Defense: Lion Variation, Delayed Bishop Sacrifice})) 4. c3 exd4 5. cxd4 {C44 Ponziani Opening and Scotch Gambit} d5 (5... Be7 6. Nc3 (6. Bb5 Bd7 7. O-O a6 8. Ba4 b5 9. Bb3 Na5 10. Bc2 c5 11. dxc5 dxc5 12. Nc3 Be6 13. Bf4 Nf6 14. Qxd8+ Bxd8 15. Ng5 Bc4 16. Rfe1 h6 17. Nh3 Be6 18. Bd6 Rc8 19. Nf4 g5 20. Nxe6 fxe6 {Lorenc,T-Cenek,M Czechia 1996 1-0 (34)}) 6... Nf6 7. Bd3 O-O 8. h3 Re8 9. O-O h6 10. Be3 Bf8 11. Rc1 Bd7 12. a3 Be7 13. Bb1 Nh7 14. Qd3 Nf8 15. Rfd1 a6 16. Bf4 Rc8 17. Nd5 Be6 18. Ne3 Bd7 19. Bg3 Bf6 20. Rd2 {Hoen,R (2300) -Kaderi,M Skopje 1972 1-0 (34)}) 6. Nc3 Bb4 7. e5 Be6 $146 (7... Nge7 8. Bd3 O-O 9. O-O h6 10. Qc2 Bg4 11. Be3 Qd7 12. Nh4 f5 13. f4 g5 14. fxg5 hxg5 15. Nf3 f4 16. Bf2 Bxf3 17. gxf3 Qh3 18. Be1 Nxd4 19. Qg2 Qxg2+ 20. Kxg2 c5 21. Ne2 Ndc6 22. Bxb4 {De Amicis,D (1875) -Meekers,G Lommel 1992 0-1 (40)}) 8. Bb5 Nge7 {White has an active position} 9. O-O Bxc3 (9... O-O 10. h3 $14) 10. bxc3 $16 a6 11. Ba4 b5 12. Bc2 h6 (12... Bg4 13. Ba3 $16) 13. Nh4 Qd7 14. Ba3 Bg4 (14... Na5 15. Bc5 Nc4 16. a4 $16) 15. Qd3 (15. f3 $142 $5 Bf5 16. Nxf5 Nxf5 17. Re1 $18) 15... O-O $4 {leads to further unpleasantness} (15... g5 $142 16. Nf3 Bf5 $16) 16. Qh7# 1-0