C44 Ponziani Opening and Scotch Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6)

The game you see below was played in the first round of a tournament called 2014 August Banded Quartets I 1700-1800. Despite the name of the tournament, in my group there were five players. It was the only group to have that many, other groups were four player groups, more suitable according to the name of the tournament. I was able to win my group and advance to the second round where I no longer managed to win the group and the tournament at the same time. The winner of the tournament, chessicle, won all his games on round two. I was on shared third place in the final standings.

While the position looked a bit bad for White before, it was only when my opponent played 12.Qe2 that me winning the game was the most likely outcome. Unfortunately I did not find the strongest move, 12...e4, instead I moved my bishop to d6. If you look at the notation of the game, there is an example variation starting with the move 12...e4. Moving the bishop to d6 did protect the pawn on e5, but it also lost the possible discovered attacks against the undefended knight on h4.

The game continued to be played in a slightly favorable manner for me with the moves 13.Nd2 Rad8 and then KingDavid403 played 14.Ne4, slipping more towards a loss again. 14.Re1 was a better choice. I gave one more chance for my opponent to stay in the game when I played 16...g6.

I am not sure why I played 16...g6 to be honest, maybe I wanted the possibility to follow it up with the move f5. My opponent played 17.Bh6 in reply and I just choose to move my rook to e8. I could have played f5 in response, but it does seem a bit too risky of a move.

KingDavid403 then played the game losing blunder 18.Nf5. I played the obvious reply 18...Be6 and my opponent was hopelessly lost. KingDavid403 continued the struggle up to the move 39...Kxh3 and resigned in a position where I was up a bishop and three pawns.

[Event "Banded Quartets"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2014.08.16"] [Round "1"] [White "KingDavid403"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C44"] [WhiteElo "1690"] [BlackElo "1871"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "78"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 {C44 Ponziani Opening and Scotch Gambit} 3. h3 (3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Bb4 {Spanish Game: Morphy Defense. Alapin's Defense Deferred} (4... Bc5 {Spanish Game: Morphy Defense. Classical Defense Deferred}) (4... d6 5. Bxc6+ bxc6 6. d4 f6 {Spanish Game: Morphy Defense. Modern Steinitz Defense})) 3... Nf6 4. d3 Be7 (4... d5 5. Nbd2 (5. Qe2 d4 6. Bd2 Nb4 7. Bxb4 Bxb4+ 8. c3 dxc3 9. bxc3 Bd6 10. Qc2 c5 11. Nbd2 O-O 12. Nc4 Be6 13. Ncxe5 Qc7 14. Nc4 Bxc4 15. dxc4 Nxe4 16. Be2 Rfe8 17. O-O Nf6 18. Bd3 Re7 19. Rae1 Rae8 {Bukhari,M (1737) -Sulimani, Y (1760) Al Ain 2015 1/2-1/2}) 5... Bc5 6. Be2 O-O 7. c3 a5 8. a4 Be6 9. Qc2 Qe7 10. Nf1 Rad8 11. g4 dxe4 12. dxe4 Nxe4 13. Qxe4 Bd5 14. Qc2 e4 15. Ng5 h6 16. h4 hxg5 17. Bxg5 f6 18. Be3 Ne5 19. O-O-O {Radvanyi,T (2130) -Vass,V (2150) Budapest 2000 1/2-1/2 (41)}) 5. Be2 O-O $146 (5... d5 6. Nc3 dxe4 7. dxe4 Qxd1+ 8. Bxd1 O-O 9. O-O h6 10. Re1 Be6 11. Be2 Rad8 12. Bd3 Nh5 13. Be3 Nf4 14. Bxa7 Nxd3 15. cxd3 Nxa7 16. Nxe5 Bf6 17. f4 Bxe5 18. fxe5 Rxd3 19. Rad1 Rxd1 20. Rxd1 {Liashenko,M-Opanasjuk,M Evpatoria 2007 0-1 (55)}) 6. c3 {Covers b4} d5 7. exd5 (7. Nbd2 Qd6 $11) 7... Qxd5 {Black has a very active position} 8. O-O {White has a cramped position} Bf5 9. Nh4 {White threatens to win material: Nh4xf5} Be6 {White has a cramped position} 10. Bf3 {White threatens to win material: Bf3xd5} Qd7 11. Bxc6 {White forks: d7+b7} Qxc6 { Black has the pair of bishops} 12. Qe2 (12. Nf3 Nd7 $17) 12... Bd6 {White has a cramped position} (12... e4 $142 $5 13. Re1 Nd7 14. Qxe4 Qxe4 15. Rxe4 Nc5 $19) 13. Nd2 $15 Rad8 14. Ne4 (14. Re1 $5 $15) 14... Nxe4 $17 15. Qxe4 Bd5 { Black threatens to win material: Bd5xe4} (15... Qd7 16. Re1 c6 17. d4 $17) 16. Qg4 g6 (16... Rfe8 $5 $17) 17. Bh6 $15 {White threatens to win material: Bh6xf8 } Rfe8 18. Nf5 $4 (18. c4 $142 {was much better} Be6 19. Qg5 $15) 18... Be6 $19 19. Qg5 (19. Qe2 {doesn't change anything anymore} Bxf5 20. Rad1 Qa6 $19) 19... Bxf5 20. Qf6 (20. Rad1 {doesn't change the outcome of the game} Be7 21. Qe3 Bc5 $19) 20... Bf8 21. Qxc6 bxc6 22. Bxf8 Kxf8 23. Rfe1 (23. f3 {does not improve anything} Rxd3 24. Rad1 Red8 25. Rxd3 Rxd3 $19) 23... Rxd3 24. Rad1 Rxd1 25. Rxd1 Rb8 26. b3 (26. Rd2 {does not win a prize} Ke7 $19) 26... Ke7 27. f3 (27. g4 {does not help much} Be6 $19) 27... Rd8 28. Re1 Kf6 29. g4 (29. Re2 { hardly improves anything} h5 $19) 29... Be6 30. Re2 (30. Kg2 {does not save the day} Rd2+ 31. Kg3 Rxa2 $19) 30... Rd3 31. c4 Rxf3 32. Kg2 Rd3 33. Rf2+ Kg5 34. Kh2 e4 35. Kg2 Kh4 36. Re2 f5 37. gxf5 gxf5 38. Rf2 Rg3+ (38... Rxh3 39. Rf4+ Kg5 40. Kxh3 Kxf4 41. Kg2 e3 42. a3 Ke4 43. a4 f4 44. b4 f3+ 45. Kf1 Bxc4+ 46. Kg1 f2+ 47. Kh2 f1=Q 48. Kg3 Qf2+ 49. Kg4 Qf4+ 50. Kh5 Be2#) 39. Kf1 $19 Kxh3 (39... Kxh3 40. Ke1 Rg1+ 41. Kd2 Rg2 42. Rxg2 Kxg2 43. Ke3 Kg3 44. a3 f4+ 45. Kxe4 f3 46. Ke5 Bh3 47. Kf6 f2 48. Ke7 f1=Q 49. b4 Qf4 50. a4 Qd6+ 51. Kf7 Be6+ 52. Kf6 Bxc4+ 53. Kg7 Qg6+ 54. Kh8 Qg8#) 0-1