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 a6 6.Bb3)

This is from the 142 board match between BREAKING BAD and Baker Street Irregulars. I played board 10 in this match for Baker Street Irregulars and managed to get only a draw from the two games. In that drawn game I probably should have continued on and tried to play for the win but at that time no clear winning idea came to mind and thought that my opponent would have had his own chances in the lines I tried to look at before accepting the draw offer. This match ended with the score 167 - 117 in favor of BREAKING BAD.

Perhaps the first moment in the game when one of the players made a properly noticeable mistake was seen in the diagram position below. I played the move 13...f6 in the game. It both attacks the bishop on g5 and supports the pawn on e5. It also has the drawback of opening the diagonal from a2 to g8 and since both my queen and king are on the same diagonal, it can be a bit dangerous for me. Noticing that there might be a problem with the diagonal, I moved my king to h8 after the bishop had retreated to d2. However, it was a bad decision on my part and I should have played 14...Qe7 instead, which would have opened up the diagonal my light-squared bishop and from e7 the queen would have also helped to prevent the pawn from c3 advancing to c5 in two moves. The move 14...Kh8 was so bad that I should have been already in a losing position.

Gozetti played 15.Qe1 with the idea of playing c4 on the next move and winning a piece. It was not a good decision and my opponent should have played 15.c4 instead. The move played in the game resulted in an even position, while the move 15.c4 would have resulted in a winning position for Gozetti. I continued with the move 15...Ne7, in order to get myself out of the piece winning attempt. The next position of interest came after 21...Bb7 and you can see it on the next diagram. The position should be roughly even in the diagram position, but the path towards equality is a bit narrow and it is easy to go wrong.

At this moment in the game Gozetti started to go downhill for awhile. My opponent first played 22.Bb3 and when I replied by playing 22...Qe8, Gozetti then continued with the move 23.c5 and according to the engine Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT, I should be clearly better. The game went reasonably well for me until we reached the position that can be seen in the diagram below. In the game I played 28...Bd5.

I played it because I wanted to reply to the threat with a threat. I did not probably even consider the move 28...Bxe4 because it looks so bad, at least with first glance. It would have improved the pawn structure of my opponent and I liked to keep the weak pawn on d3 and I most likely thought that I can win that pawn. Unfortunately with my move all my advantage disappeared and the position should be about even again. I got my last chance for the advantage when Gozetti played 32.Nxd6 in the diagram position below.

For a few moves I was able to be on the better side of the board, but then I played the game losing move 35...Rg8 in the position below. I am not sure why I thought that 35...Rg8 is the move to play. I probably just wanted to prevent the move 36.Bg7+.

Instead of the passive move I played in the game, I should have played 35...Qd5, which both attacks the undefended rook on b7 and prevents the move Qe6 for the time being. In the game Gozetti replied with 36.Qe6 and it was clear at that point that I am going to lose, but I still played a few more moves until I saw that I can't prevent being mated, so I resigned after 39.Qe7.

[Event "Breaking Bad vs Baker Street Irregulars"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2014.11.18"] [Round "?"] [White "Gozetti"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C54"] [WhiteElo "1916"] [BlackElo "1849"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "77"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d3 {Italian Game: Classical Variation. Giuoco Pianissimo} a6 6. Bb3 {C54 Giuoco Piano: 4.c3 Nf6, main lines with 5.d4 and 5.d3} d5 (6... Ba7 7. h3 O-O 8. O-O d6 9. Re1 {Italian Game: Classical Variation. Giuoco Pianissimo Main Line}) 7. exd5 Nxd5 8. O-O O-O 9. h3 (9. Nxe5 Bxf2+ 10. Rxf2 Nxe5 11. h3 Be6 12. d4 Ng6 13. c4 Nde7 14. d5 Bd7 15. Nc3 c5 16. Qh5 b6 17. Bc2 f5 18. Bg5 Qc7 19. Re1 Rae8 20. Rfe2 Qd6 21. Qf3 b5 22. b3 h6 23. Be3 b4 {Eryshkanova,A (2140)-Severina,M (2212) Loo 2014 1/ 2-1/2 (42)}) 9... Bb6 $146 {Black has a very active position} (9... Nb6 10. Re1 h6 11. Nbd2 Qxd3 12. Nxe5 Qg3 13. Qf3 Qxf3 14. Ndxf3 Ne7 15. Nd3 Bd6 16. Bf4 Ng6 17. Bxd6 cxd6 18. Re4 a5 19. Rd4 Rd8 20. Rd1 d5 21. Nc5 Ne7 22. a4 Re8 23. R4d2 Nd7 24. Nxd7 {Kramnik,V (2807)-Krasenkow,M (2633) Wijk aan Zee 2003 1-0 (80)}) (9... Nf6 10. Re1 Qd6 11. Nbd2 Qxd3 12. Nxe5 Nxe5 13. Rxe5 Ba7 14. Qf3 Qxf3 15. Nxf3 Nd7 16. Re1 Nc5 17. Bc2 Bd7 18. Be3 Bb6 19. Rad1 Rad8 20. b4 Ne6 21. Ne5 Bc8 22. Bxb6 cxb6 23. Nc4 Rxd1 24. Rxd1 {Mainka,R (2456)-Stern, R (2489) Hoeckendorf 2004 1-0 (57)}) (9... Nde7 10. Qe2 Ng6 11. Bg5 Be7 12. Be3 Bf5 13. Rd1 Qd7 14. d4 exd4 15. Nxd4 Nxd4 16. cxd4 Bd6 17. Qf3 Rae8 18. Nc3 b5 19. a3 a5 20. Rac1 b4 21. axb4 axb4 22. Ba4 Qe6 23. Nb5 Be4 24. Qh5 {Sermek,D (2525) -Nikolac,J (2437) Pula 2001 1-0 (56)}) (9... Be6 10. Qe2 $11) 10. Bg5 { White threatens to win material: Bg5xd8} (10. Re1 Kh8 $14) 10... Qd6 (10... f6 11. Bh4 Na5 12. Bc2 $11) 11. Nbd2 {Black has a very active position} Na5 (11... Be6 12. Nc4 Qc5 13. Rc1 $14) 12. Ne4 {White threatens to win material: Ne4xd6} Qe6 13. Bc2 f6 (13... h6 $5 {is noteworthy} 14. Bd2 f5 $14) 14. Bd2 $16 Kh8 ( 14... c5 $142 15. c4 Nb4 $16) 15. Qe1 $4 {throwing away the advantage} (15. c4 $142 {would have given White a clear advantage} Nf4 16. Bxf4 exf4 17. c5 $18) 15... Ne7 16. c4 {White has a new backward pawn: d3} (16. b4 $5 {deserves consideration} Nac6 17. a4 $11) 16... Nac6 $15 17. b4 Nd4 {Black threatens to win material: Nd4xc2} 18. Qd1 Nef5 19. Nxd4 Bxd4 {Praise the bishop!} 20. Rb1 b6 21. a4 Bb7 22. Bb3 (22. Qg4 Bc6 $11) 22... Qe8 $15 23. c5 {White wins space} Rd8 24. cxb6 cxb6 25. Rc1 (25. Kh2 b5 26. axb5 axb5 $15) 25... Qd7 (25... Bxe4 26. dxe4 Ng3 27. Re1 $17) 26. b5 (26. Rc2 $5 $15) 26... axb5 $17 27. axb5 Qxb5 28. Rc7 Bd5 (28... Bxe4 $142 $5 29. dxe4 Ng3 $17) 29. Bxd5 $11 Qxd5 30. Qg4 g6 31. h4 Nd6 32. Nxd6 (32. Bh6 Rf7 33. Nxf6 Qa2 34. Rxf7 Qxf7 $11 (34... Nxf7 $143 35. Be3 $16)) 32... Qxd6 $15 ({Not} 32... Rxd6 33. Bb4 Bc5 34. Bxc5 bxc5 35. Ra1 $14) 33. Rfc1 Bc5 34. Rb7 (34. Ra7 Qb8 (34... Qxd3 $143 35. Bh6 Rfe8 36. Bg7+ Kg8 37. Bxf6 $11) 35. Rca1 b5 $15) 34... Qxd3 (34... Qc6 35. Ra7 Rd4 36. Qh3 $17) 35. Bh6 $15 {White has a mate threat} Rg8 $4 {spoils everything} ( 35... Qd5 $142 {is the best chance} 36. Bxf8 Qxb7 37. Bxc5 bxc5 38. Rxc5 Qd7 $17) 36. Qe6 $18 Rdf8 (36... Qf5 {the last chance for counterplay} 37. Rxc5 $1 {Mate attack} Qxe6 $18) 37. Bxf8 (37. Rxc5 Qb1+ 38. Kh2 Qe4 39. Bxf8 Qxh4+ 40. Kg1 Rxf8 41. Rc8 Qh6 42. Qxf6+ Kg8 43. Qf7+ Kh8 44. Rxf8+ Qxf8 45. Qxf8#) 37... Rxf8 38. Rxc5 $1 {Mate attack} bxc5 (38... bxc5 39. Qe7 {Mate attack}) (38... -- $140 39. Qxf6+ {Mate threat}) 39. Qe7 (39. Qe7 Qd1+ 40. Kh2 Rf7 41. Qe8+ Kg7 42. Qxf7+ Kh6 43. Qxh7#) 1-0