C50 Hungarian Defence and Giuoco Pianissimo (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.O-O d6 5.h3 Nf6 6.d3 Be6)

The game below was played in a team match called the WOLF. It was played between * The WOLF * and ♙ Thematic Matches & Tournaments. In this 48 board match I played on board 3 and lost both my games. The match ended with a score of 22.5 - 73.5 in favor of ♙ Thematic Matches & Tournaments. This match started on December 15th, 2014 and finished on April 29th, 2015. I think there was two critical moments in this game and first of them is the position after 19...Nxf5. Er_is_geen_hoop_meer made a huge blunder by taking on f5 with the queen. This was my best and only chance during the game to steer the position clearly in my favor.

The reason why 20.Qxf5 is bad is that 20...Nxe4 was possible. It wins at least a pawn, because if White captures the knight with the pawn, then the game might continue 21...Rf6 22.Qxe5+ Bxf2 and Black gets the material back with interest. I missed my chance and played 20...g6, after which the position was equal. The second critical moment came after the move 29.Qf4. Unlike me, my opponent, FIDE Master Er_is_geen_hoop_meer was able to take advantage of the blunder.

I first played 29...Rd2, which was quite a horrible move, especially when replied with 30.e5, like my opponent did in the game, but then I really handed over the win to Er_is_geen_hoop_meer with the answer 30...Ng8. I do not remember the reason why I moved my knight to such a horribly passive square, but there was no coming back from it. Even though I would have likely lost the game, had I moved my knight to h5, it still was a better try, at least it would have attacked the queen and it would have delayed the pawn advance to e6. I did continue my struggle for a few moves, but I had to give up the game when 36.Qc7+ was played, because at that moment the game is hopelessly lost.

[Event "the WOLF - Board 3"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2014.12.15"] [Round "?"] [White "Er_is_geen_hoop_meer"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C50"] [WhiteElo "1986"] [BlackElo "1854"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s)"] [PlyCount "71"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. O-O d6 5. h3 Nf6 6. d3 Be6 {C50 Hungarian Defence and Giuoco Pianissimo} 7. Nbd2 O-O 8. c3 (8. Re1 a6 9. a4 Qd7 10. Nf1 h6 11. c3 Bxc4 12. dxc4 Qe6 13. b3 Ne7 14. Ng3 Nd7 15. Nh4 Kh7 16. Nhf5 Nxf5 17. exf5 Qe7 18. Qf3 Rab8 19. Ne4 Ba7 20. Qh5 Nf6 21. Qh4 Ng8 22. f6 gxf6 { Zeman,M (2056)-Jelinek,M (2176) Klatovy 2016 1-0}) 8... a6 (8... Qd7 9. Ng5 h6 10. Nxe6 fxe6 11. b4 Bb6 12. a4 a6 13. a5 Ba7 14. b5 axb5 15. Bxb5 Qf7 16. Bxc6 bxc6 17. Nc4 Nh5 18. Be3 Nf4 19. Kh2 Qg6 20. g3 Nh5 21. Qg4 Qf7 22. Ra2 Nf6 23. Qe2 {Molinero Martin,J (2013)-Capellades Subirana,M (2235) Sant Adria 2013 1-0 (55)}) 9. Re1 $146 (9. Ng5 Qd7 10. b4 b5 11. Bxe6 fxe6 12. bxc5 dxc5 13. Nb3 Qd6 14. Be3 c4 15. Bc5 Qd8 16. dxc4 Re8 17. cxb5 axb5 18. Qxd8 Rexd8 19. Nxe6 Rd3 20. Nxc7 Rad8 21. Be7 R8d7 22. Bxf6 Rxc7 23. Bg5 Rxc3 {Korman,J (1409)-Alt, E (839) Saarbruecken 2006 1-0 (41)}) (9. a3 Rb8 10. b4 Ba7 11. Bxe6 fxe6 12. Qe2 Qd7 13. Bb2 Rf7 14. d4 exd4 15. cxd4 Rbf8 16. Rad1 b5 17. e5 Nd5 18. Ne4 h6 19. Qd2 Bb8 20. Bc1 Nce7 21. Qc2 Nf5 22. Bd2 Kh7 23. Nc3 Nxc3 {Wild,C (1370) -Generet,E (1490) Pau 2008 1-0 (39)}) (9. b4 Ba7 10. Bb2 b5 11. Bb3 a5 12. a3 Re8 13. Re1 d5 14. exd5 Nxd5 15. Bxd5 Qxd5 16. Qe2 f6 17. c4 Qd7 18. cxb5 Nd4 19. Nxd4 exd4 20. Qf3 Qxb5 21. Rxe6 {1-0 (21) Pietrasanta,J (2125)-Levacic,M (1890) France 2001}) 9... b5 10. Bb3 Re8 11. Bc2 (11. Bxe6 Rxe6 12. b4 Bb6 $11) 11... Bb6 12. a4 Ne7 13. Ng5 Ng6 (13... Bd7 14. a5 Ba7 15. Bb3 $11) 14. Nf1 ( 14. Nxe6 Rxe6 15. Bb3 Re8 $14) 14... d5 (14... Bd7 15. Ng3 $11) 15. Qe2 (15. Nxe6 Rxe6 16. Ng3 c6 $11) 15... c6 (15... Bd7 16. Qd1 $11) 16. Ng3 (16. Nxe6 Rxe6 17. Ng3 b4 $11) 16... h6 (16... Bd7 17. Nf3 $11) 17. Nxe6 Rxe6 (17... fxe6 $2 18. d4 dxe4 19. Bxe4 Nxe4 20. Qxe4 $18 (20. Nxe4 $6 exd4 21. Qg4 Ne5 $11)) 18. Nf5 Ne7 19. Qf3 Nxf5 20. Qxf5 (20. exf5 Re8 $11) 20... g6 {Black threatens to win material: g6xf5} (20... Nxe4 $142 21. Be3 Bxe3 22. Rxe3 Nf6 $17) 21. Qf3 $11 Kg7 {Black king safety dropped} 22. Bb3 dxe4 23. dxe4 Rd6 24. Be3 Bxe3 25. Qxe3 Rc8 26. axb5 axb5 (26... cxb5 27. Red1 $11) 27. Qc5 $14 {White threatens to win material: Qc5xe5} Rc7 28. Qxe5 Re7 {Black threatens to win material: Re7xe5} 29. Qf4 Rd2 $2 (29... g5 $142 $5 {must be considered} 30. Qf3 Rd3 $14) 30. e5 $16 Ng8 $2 (30... Nh5 $142 31. Qe4 Rxb2 $16) 31. e6 $18 Rxb2 (31... f5 32. Rad1 Rxd1 33. Rxd1 Qc8 $18) 32. exf7 Nf6 33. Rxe7 Qxe7 34. Ra8 g5 (34... Rb1+ {cannot change what is in store for White} 35. Kh2 Rxb3 36. f8=Q+ Qxf8 37. Rxf8 Kxf8 38. Qxf6+ Ke8 39. Qe6+ Kd8 40. Qxb3 g5 41. Qe6 Kc7 42. Qxh6 c5 43. Qxg5 Kc6 44. f4 b4 45. f5 b3 46. f6 b2 47. f7 b1=Q 48. f8=Q Qb6 49. Qe8+ Kb7 50. Qd5+ Ka6 51. Qa4+ Qa5 52. Qa8+ Kb6 53. Q4xa5#) 35. f8=Q+ (35. Rg8+ Nxg8 36. fxg8=Q#) 35... Qxf8 36. Qc7+ (36. Qc7+ Kg6 37. Rxf8 Rb1+ 38. Kh2 Nd7 39. Qxc6+ Nf6 40. Qxf6+ Kh5 41. Qf7+ Kh4 42. g3#) (36. Rxf8 {is a useless try} gxf4 37. Rf7+ Kg6 $15) 1-0