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.d3 d6 6.Nbd2 a6)

This game was played in a team match called AoC vs R&J TM. It is a match between Art of Chess and Romeo and Juliet. I played board 12 for Romeo and Juliet in this match until my opponent lost both his games on time. This was played on 100 boards so it was a quite large team match and match ended with a score 111 - 89 in favor of our opponent Art of Chess. Sadly there was both timeout losses and accounts were closed during this match. It seems that both of these occur in every team match which is really unfortunate.

The game featured only small inaccuracies until we reached the position after my 9th move. It can be seen below. In that position my opponent played 10.a4, which gave me an opportunity to get a clear advantage. I was able to find the best move 10...d5 in reply, so I was clearly better at that point.

I was only able to be on the better side of the board for a couple of moves, with my 13th move I lost some of my advantage and my 14th move took all the advantage away. It did not last long because JogadorAmador's 15th move tipped the advantage clearly in my favor again.

[Event "AoC vs R&J TM - Board 12"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2014.12.21"] [Round "?"] [White "JogadorAmador"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C54"] [WhiteElo "1489"] [BlackElo "1878"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "30"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d3 {Italian Game: Classical Variation. Giuoco Pianissimo} d6 (5... a6 6. Bb3 Ba7 7. h3 O-O 8. O-O d6 9. Re1 {Italian Game: Classical Variation. Giuoco Pianissimo Main Line}) 6. Nbd2 a6 { C54 Giuoco Piano: 4.c3 Nf6, main lines with 5.d4 and 5.d3} 7. b4 Ba7 8. Nf1 (8. O-O O-O 9. Re1 b5 10. Bb3 a5 11. bxa5 Nxa5 12. Bc2 Bd7 13. Nf1 h6 14. Ng3 Bb6 15. h3 Re8 16. Bd2 Nb7 17. Qc1 Kh7 18. Rd1 Qe7 19. Rf1 Ra7 20. Kh1 Rea8 21. Nh4 Nh5 22. Nhf5 Nxg3+ {Durarbayli,V (2618)-Le,Q (2697) Baku 2015 0-1 (43)}) (8. h3 O-O 9. Nf1 d5 10. exd5 Nxd5 11. Qc2 b5 12. Bb3 Ndxb4 13. cxb4 Nxb4 14. Qc3 Nxd3+ 15. Ke2 e4 16. Ng5 Bd4 17. Nxf7 Rxf7 18. Qc6 Bxa1 19. Bg5 Bf6 20. Bxf6 gxf6 21. Qxe4 Nc1+ {0-1 (21) Thimm,T (2116)-Helmer,C (2132) Germany 2016}) 8... Be6 $146 (8... O-O 9. Ng3 (9. Be3 Ne7 10. Ng3 Ng6 11. O-O c6 12. Bb3 h6 13. Qd2 Be6 14. d4 exd4 15. Nxd4 Bxb3 16. Nxb3 Bb8 17. Na5 Qe7 18. f3 Rd8 19. Nf5 Qc7 20. Rad1 d5 21. g3 Ne5 22. Qf2 Re8 23. Bb6 Qc8 {Ribeiro, R (2159)-Eden,J (2090) Paris 2010 1-0 (61)}) 9... Be6 10. Bb3 Qd7 11. Bc2 a5 12. b5 Ne7 13. a4 Ng6 14. h3 Rad8 15. Bg5 h6 16. Bxf6 gxf6 17. Nh5 Qe7 18. Nh2 f5 19. exf5 Bxf5 20. Ng4 Qg5 21. Ngf6+ Kh8 22. g3 Be6 23. h4 {Moses,S (1511) -Nothnagel,M (1732) Oberhof 2012 1-0}) (8... d5 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Be3 $11) 9. Bb3 (9. Bxe6 fxe6 10. Qb3 Qe7 $11) 9... O-O (9... d5 10. Qc2 O-O $11) 10. a4 (10. Bxe6 $142 {and White hangs on} fxe6 11. Ng3 $11) 10... d5 $17 11. exd5 Nxd5 12. Bxd5 Qxd5 13. Ne3 Qd6 {Black has an active position} (13... Bxe3 $142 $5 14. Bxe3 Rfd8 $17) 14. O-O $15 Rad8 (14... Rfd8 15. b5 Na5 16. Ba3 Qxd3 17. Qxd3 Rxd3 18. Nxe5 $15 ) 15. Ne1 $2 (15. b5 $142 $5 {and White could well hope to play on} Na5 16. Ba3 $11) 15... f5 0-1