C50 Hungarian Defence and Giuoco Pianissimo (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Nc3 d6 5.h3 Be6)

This was played on the second round of the tournament that was played at Tampere close to ten years ago. I had lost my first round game against a player who was higher rated than me about 200 points and on this round I won a game against someone, who was lower rated than me by over 200 points. Therefore, after two rounds I was doing as well as could be expected, I guess. The next two rounds made sure that this was going to end up as another bad tournament for me in 2006. I think this was the third tournament in a row where I continued my downhill. That downhill also continued for the bigger part of the rest of the year. The most important moment of the game was seen after the move 10...Ne7. My opponent played 11.Be3, which lost a pawn as can be seen in the game continuation 11...Bxe3 12.Qxe3 Nexd5 13.Bxd5 Nxd5.

Admittedly my opponent was already slightly worse before playing the move 11.Be3, but had the material remained equal, I would not have had enough to win the game, in case both players would make accurate moves for the rest of the game that is. I basically had the material advantage and the compensation when I won the pawn, so the game was really one-sided to the end. That being said, my final move was rather embarrassing, I went for the material with 33...Rxg4 when I could have just mated my opponent by taking the undefended rook on e1 with my queen.

[Event "Tammer-Shakki"] [Site "?"] [Date "2006.03.18"] [Round "2"] [White "Jylhä-Ollila, Kaarlo"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C50"] [WhiteElo "1447"] [BlackElo "1682"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s)"] [PlyCount "66"] [EventDate "2006.03.18"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. Nc3 d6 5. h3 Be6 {C50 Hungarian Defence and Giuoco Pianissimo} 6. Nd5 (6. Bb3 Qd7 7. d3 Nge7 8. Be3 Ng6 9. Qd2 Bb4 10. a3 Ba5 11. Bxe6 fxe6 12. b4 Bb6 13. Ne2 O-O 14. c4 Rad8 15. O-O Rxf3 16. Bxb6 axb6 17. gxf3 Nh4 18. Qe3 Rf8 19. Kh2 Nd4 20. f4 exf4 {Jablonska,A-Luks,M (2120) Brzeg Dolny 1995 0-1}) 6... Nf6 7. d3 h6 $146 {Consolidates g5} (7... Na5 8. Nxf6+ Qxf6 9. Bxe6 Qxe6 10. a3 Nc6 11. Bd2 Qf6 12. O-O Nd4 13. Nxd4 Bxd4 14. c3 Bb6 15. a4 a6 16. Be3 c5 17. b4 Ba7 18. bxc5 dxc5 19. Rb1 Qc6 20. Qh5 O-O 21. Qxe5 Qxa4 22. Rxb7 {Novruzlu,N (1257)-Horn,L Batumi 2016 1-0}) (7... O-O 8. Bg5 Bxd5 9. Bxd5 Nd4 10. Nxd4 Bxd4 11. c3 c6 12. Bb3 Bc5 13. O-O Re8 14. Kh1 d5 15. exd5 cxd5 16. Bxf6 gxf6 17. Qg4+ Kh8 18. Qh5 Qd7 19. Bc2 Bb6 20. d4 e4 21. a4 Rg8 22. Qh6 {Barcons Rovira,J (1765)-Asensio Ruiz de Alda,J (1673) Santa Eulalia de Roncana 2015 0-1 (34)}) (7... Qd7 8. Bb3 Bxd5 9. exd5 Ne7 10. c4 O-O 11. O-O h6 12. d4 exd4 13. Nxd4 Bxd4 14. Qxd4 Nf5 15. Qd3 Rfe8 16. Bc2 g6 17. g4 Nh4 18. Bxh6 Nxg4 19. hxg4 Qxg4+ 20. Qg3 Qh5 21. Be3 Nf3+ 22. Kg2 {Magiera, R-Peters,M Hessen 2000 1/2-1/2}) 8. a3 {Secures b4} a5 9. Qe2 (9. Nxf6+ Qxf6 10. Bxe6 Qxe6 $11) 9... Bxd5 $15 10. exd5 Ne7 11. Be3 (11. Bb5+ $5 Nd7 12. Ba4 $15) 11... Bxe3 $17 12. Qxe3 (12. fxe3 Nfxd5 13. O-O O-O $17) 12... Nexd5 13. Bxd5 Nxd5 14. Qe4 c6 15. O-O (15. c4 Nf6 16. Qe3 O-O $17) 15... O-O 16. Nh2 ( 16. Qf5 g6 17. Qe4 f5 $19) 16... Nf4 17. Rad1 (17. Rfe1 f5 18. Qe3 a4 $19) 17... f5 18. Qf3 Qg5 (18... Qb6 19. Rb1 $19) 19. Kh1 Rae8 20. Rg1 d5 {Black intends e4} 21. Rde1 (21. Qe3 Qf6 $19) 21... e4 22. dxe4 fxe4 23. Qc3 (23. Qe3 b5 $19) 23... Qd8 24. Qd4 Rf6 (24... Ne6 {might be the shorter path} 25. Qe3 $19) 25. Re3 Ref8 (25... c5 {keeps an even firmer grip} 26. Qxc5 Rc6 27. Qd4 Rxc2 28. Rf1 $19) 26. Ng4 $2 (26. f3 Ne6 27. Qd1 Rf4 $19) 26... Rf5 (26... Rg6 $142 {seems even better} 27. Nh2 a4 $19) 27. Rge1 (27. Qd1 Ng6 28. f3 exf3 29. gxf3 $19) 27... Ne6 (27... h5 $142 {makes it even easier for Black} 28. Nh2 Ne6 29. Qd2 Rxf2 30. R1e2 $19) 28. Qd1 (28. Qd2 {cannot change destiny} h5 29. Nh2 Rxf2 $19) 28... h5 29. Nh2 Rxf2 30. Qxh5 (30. R3e2 {doesn't get the bull off the ice} Qg5 31. Rg1 e3 $19) 30... Rxg2 $3 {Double attack: h5/g2} 31. Ng4 (31. Kxg2 Qg5+ {Double attack}) 31... Nf4 32. Qe5 Qh4 (32... Rxg4 33. Rf1 Qh4 34. Kh2 Rg2+ 35. Kh1 Rg3 36. Rxg3 Qxg3 37. Rxf4 Rxf4 38. Qb8+ Kh7 39. Qxf4 Qxf4 40. b3 e3 41. c3 Qg3 42. a4 e2 43. b4 e1=Q#) 33. Rb3 Rxg4 (33... Rxg4 34. Rf1 Rf6 35. Kh2 Nxh3 36. Qb8+ Kh7 37. Rxh3 Rh6 38. Qh8+ Kxh8 39. Rf8+ Kh7 40. Rh8+ Kxh8 41. b3 Qxh3#) (33... Qxe1#) 0-1

Another couple of reference games and these are actually the highest rated people who have ended up in a position after 5...Be6. It does not actually mean that the opening would be categorized the same in these reference games as in the game I played. I am not intentionally picking up only the drawn games, but since there are no games between high rated players that resulted in one of the players winning, this is all that can be added here.

[Event "Ho Chi Minh City HD Bank op 5th"] [Site "Ho Chi Minh City"] [Date "2015.03.18"] [Round "3"] [White "Nay, Oo Kyaw Tun"] [Black "Torre, Eugenio"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C46"] [WhiteElo "2292"] [BlackElo "2449"] [PlyCount "97"] [EventDate "2015.03.17"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "9"] [EventCountry "VIE"] [SourceTitle "Mega2015 Update 19"] [Source "Chessbase"] [SourceDate "2015.04.03"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Bc5 4. Bc4 d6 5. h3 Be6 6. Bb3 Bxb3 7. axb3 Nge7 8. O-O a6 9. d3 O-O 10. Be3 Bxe3 11. fxe3 f5 12. Nh4 fxe4 13. dxe4 Qd7 14. Qe2 Qe6 15. Rxf8+ Rxf8 16. Rf1 Rxf1+ 17. Kxf1 Nb4 18. Nf3 c6 19. Kg1 h6 20. Qd2 a5 21. Na4 b5 22. Nc3 Na6 23. Nd1 b4 24. Nf2 Nc5 25. Qe2 Nc8 26. Nd2 Nb6 27. Nd3 Nbd7 28. Nf2 Nf6 29. Kh2 Kh7 30. Kg1 Qf7 31. Qf3 Qg6 32. Kh2 d5 33. Qf5 Ncxe4 34. Qxg6+ Kxg6 35. Nfxe4 Nxe4 36. Nxe4 dxe4 37. Kg1 Kg5 38. g3 Kf5 39. Kf2 Ke6 40. Ke2 Kd5 41. Kd2 Kc5 42. Kc1 Kb5 43. Kd2 h5 44. Kd1 c5 45. Kd2 g6 46. Kd1 a4 47. bxa4+ Kxa4 48. Kc1 c4 49. Kb1 1/2-1/2 [Event "Oberliga Nord O 1415"] [Site "Germany"] [Date "2015.03.15"] [Round "8.4"] [White "Schoewel, Matthias"] [Black "Schoene, Ralf"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C50"] [WhiteElo "2221"] [BlackElo "2318"] [PlyCount "34"] [EventDate "2014.09.21"] [EventType "team-tourn"] [EventRounds "9"] [EventCountry "GER"] [SourceTitle "Mega2015 Update 30"] [Source "Chessbase"] [SourceDate "2015.06.19"] [WhiteTeam "Berlin Oberschoeneweide"] [BlackTeam "Neuruppin"] [WhiteTeamCountry "GER"] [BlackTeamCountry "GER"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. Nc3 d6 5. h3 Be6 6. Bxe6 fxe6 7. Na4 Bb6 8. Nxb6 axb6 9. d4 exd4 10. Nxd4 Qd7 11. O-O Nf6 12. Re1 Nxd4 13. Qxd4 e5 14. Qd3 Qf7 15. a4 O-O 16. Re2 h6 17. c4 Kh8 1/2-1/2