C50 Hungarian Defence and Giuoco Pianissimo (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.O-O d6 5.h3 Nf6)

This game was played at Red Hot Pawn in 2014. The game is from a tournament called 2014 August Grand Seven Fourteen II and it was played on one group containing 21 players. Every player faced all 20 opponents twice and all at the same time. The only tournament I have ever been able to win at RHP was this one! This relatively short game features only one really critical moment in my opinion and it came after the move 7.c3. I spot the opportunity to take the pawn and as I liked the positions that would come after it, I took on e4. My move did not win the game, but it presented a problem for my opponent, which Thaba was not able to answer correctly.

The best idea might just be to play 8.d4 and ignore the knight on e4. The reason is that in the game continuation Thaba had to give up the bishop for the d-pawn and by doing so it only hastened my development since I was able to take with the queen, which also attacked the rook on e4. In the game the initiative was on my side after 8.Rxe4. When my queen landed on d5, it should be obvious that I am much better because I have an easy development, while Thaba has problems developing the queenside pieces and I had more space and the center was firmly in my control. I even had the bishop pair, while my opponent did not. I only managed to get ahead in material after 14.d4 exd3, but the game was positionally won before that.

[Event "Grand Seven Fourteen"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2014.08.11"] [Round "1"] [White "Thaba"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C50"] [WhiteElo "1494"] [BlackElo "1876"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s)"] [PlyCount "32"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. O-O d6 5. h3 Nf6 {C50 Hungarian Defence and Giuoco Pianissimo} 6. Re1 O-O 7. c3 Nxe4 8. Rxe4 (8. d4 exd4 9. cxd4 Bb6 10. Rxe4 d5 11. Bxd5 Qxd5 12. Nc3 Qd8 13. d5 Bf5 14. Rf4 Ne7 15. Be3 Bg6 16. Qb3 Nf5 17. Bxb6 axb6 18. Re1 Nd6 19. Rd4 Qf6 20. Rd2 Bh5 21. Re3 Rfe8 22. Rde2 Rxe3 {Poetsch,H (2281)-Huschenbeth,N (2425) Willingen 2009 1/2-1/2 (116)}) 8... d5 9. Bxd5 $146 (9. Nxe5 dxe4 10. Nxf7 Qf6 11. Ng5+ Kh8 12. Nxe4 Bxf2+ 13. Kh1 Qh4 14. Nxf2 Rxf2 15. Kg1 Rxg2+ 16. Kxg2 Bxh3+ {0-1 (16) Niederhoffer,A-Marko, H La Valetta 1980}) (9. Rh4 dxc4 10. Qc2 g6 11. Rxc4 Qd5 12. d3 Bf5 13. Ne1 Qxc4 14. dxc4 Bxc2 15. Bh6 Rfd8 16. Nxc2 Rd1+ 17. Kh2 Bxf2 18. Nba3 Rad8 19. Rxd1 Rxd1 20. Nb5 Rd7 21. Be3 Bxe3 22. Nxe3 a6 23. Nd5 Kg7 {Matthaiaki,N (1118) -Tagkalaki,I Porto Rio 2016 0-1 (40)}) (9. d4 exd4 10. Ng5 dxc4 11. Nxh7 Bf5 12. Bg5 f6 13. Nxf6+ gxf6 14. Bh6 Bxe4 15. Qg4+ Kf7 16. Qxe4 Rh8 17. Qf5 Rxh6 18. Qxc5 Qd6 19. Qxc4+ Qe6 20. Qf1 Rd8 21. Nd2 {0-1 (21) Daude Puvill,A (2178) -Lacrosse,M (2256) Benidorm 2002}) 9... Qxd5 10. Re1 Bf5 11. b4 (11. d4 exd4 12. Bf4 Rfe8 $17) 11... Bd6 12. Bb2 (12. Qb3 $142 $5 Qxb3 13. axb3 $17) 12... e4 $19 13. Nh2 (13. Nh4 Bd7 14. d3 exd3 15. Nd2 $19) 13... Ne5 14. d4 (14. c4 { doesn't do any good} Nxc4 15. Qb3 Be6 $19) 14... exd3 (14... Nd3 $142 {might be the shorter path} 15. Re2 $19) 15. Nd2 Nc4 16. Nxc4 Qxc4 0-1