64 square madness that some of us call chess...: C50 Hungarian Defence and Giuoco Pianissimo (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.O-O d6 5.c3)

C50 Hungarian Defence and Giuoco Pianissimo (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.O-O d6 5.c3)

The game below was played on the second round of a weekend tournament that was played at Hämeenlinna over eight years ago. This was my first loss of the tournament and it also later turned out to be the only loss I suffered in this tournament that lasted five rounds. On the first round I had won a game against a player who was rated 1418. On the last three rounds I was able to get one win and two draws.

The first four moves from both players were good enough to keep the game balanced, but then I on move 5, I blundered. I am not sure why I thought back then that Be6 would be a good move to play. These days I would play 5...Nf6 instead of 5...Be6.

5...Nf6 seems like the best way to continue the development of the pieces.

My positional downhill continued with 9...Nge7, which is a bit too passive move. I should have played my knight to f6 where it is more active. However, my opponent did not find the best move, so I was able to breath a little bit easier. 10.Bg5 is not really a bad move, but it is not as good as 10.d5. I immediately made a bad move as a reply to Bg5, 10...O-O, and the position clearly favored my opponent again. I needed to play either 10...h6 or 10...Qd7 in order to keep the position roughly even.

The best move in the position is 10.d5.

However, with the move 11.a4, the position evened out again. Both players kept playing badly and the advantage shifted a bit until the position was equal again after 13.Ne2. The game went on without any huge mistakes until I played 28...Ra6.

Moves like 28...Nb3, 28...b6 and 28...Rd7 would have kept the position equal.

I completely ignored the possibility of 29.Nxe5, which my opponent played in the game. While that was a good move, even after that I should have been able to keep my chances for a draw alive. However, I was not paying enough attention and played the horrible blunder 32...Nc5 in response to Re1, which meant that I allowed a mate in two that my opponent saw and was able to deliver it as well, because I did not resign even though I saw the mate after I moved the knight.

The only way to try and hold on was to move the knight to f6 and guard the key square e8.

Even if I had moved my knight to f6, my position was close to being unsalvageable and it would have been rather difficult to get even a draw.

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Move	N	Result	Elo

Replay and check the LiveBook here

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.0-0 d6 5.c3 C50 Hungarian Defence and Giuoco Pianissimo Be6 6.Bxe6 fxe6 7.d4 exd4 8.cxd4 Bb6 9.Nc3 9.d5 exd5 10.exd5 Nce7 11.Ng5 Qd7 12.Ne6 Nf5 13.Re1 Nge7 14.g4 Nh4 15.Bg5 Nhg6 16.Nxg7+ Kf7 17.Ne6 Ne5 18.Rxe5 dxe5 19.Qf3+ Ke8 20.Nc3 Rg8 21.Re1 Qd6 22.Ne4 Qb4 23.Nf6+ Kf7 Crosa Coll,M (2415)-Coutinho,S (2208) Brasilia 2005 1-0 (31) 9.Bg5 Nce7 10.Nc3 Nf6 11.Qb3 Qd7 12.a4 c6 13.a5 Bd8 14.Rfd1 d5 15.Ne5 Qd6 16.exd5 exd5 17.Re1 0-0 18.Bf4 Nh5 19.Ne4 Qe6 20.Bg5 Qf5 21.g4 Qe6 22.gxh5 Kh8 23.Ng3 Qd6 Alev,G (1640)-Cevik,B Konya 2016 1-0 9...Nge7N 9...Nf6 10.d5 exd5 11.exd5 Ne7 12.Qe2 Qd7 13.Ng5 0-0 14.Ne6 Rfe8 15.Qf3 Ba5 16.Nf4 Bxc3 17.bxc3 Rf8 18.c4 b5 19.cxb5 Qxb5 20.Ne6 Rfc8 21.Bh6 Qxd5 22.Qxd5 Nexd5 23.Bxg7 Kf7 24.Bxf6 Tschammer,K (1605)-Roehr,T (1389) Oberhof 2013 1-0 (33) 9...Nf6 10.d5 exd5 11.exd5 Ne5± 10.Bg5 Black has a cramped position 10.d5 exd5 11.exd5 Ne5+- 10...0-0? 10...h6 11.Bh4 0-0 12.Na4= 11.a4 11.d5 Nb4 12.dxe6 h6± 11...a6? Controls b5 11...h6 12.Bh4 Qd7= 12.Qb3?? White threatens to win material: Qb3xe6. forfeits the advantage 12.d5 Ne5 13.Nxe5 dxe5 14.dxe6 Qxd1 15.Raxd1± 15.Rfxd1?! Bxf2+ 16.Kh1 Nc6 12...Qd7 White has an active position 12...Rxf3!? 13.gxf3 Nxd4 13.Ne2 White has a very active position 13.d5 exd5 14.Bxe7 Nxe7 14...Qxe7?? 15.Nxd5 Qe8 16.Nf6+ Kh8 17.Nxe8 Raxe8 18.Ng5+- 13...Ng6 14.Rad1 Rae8 White has an active position 15.Ng3 Qf7 16.Be3 h6 Prevents intrusion on g5 17.Ne2 e5 18.Qxf7+ Rxf7 19.d5 White gains space Bxe3 20.fxe3 White has new doubled pawns: e3+e4. Nb4 21.Ng3 21.a5 Rb8= 21...Ref8 21...a5 22.Nd2 22.Nf5 22.a5 Ne7= 22...Ne7 Black threatens to win material: Ne7xf5 22...a5 23.g4 23.N3h4 23.Nxe7+ Rxe7 24.a5 Ref7= 23...Nxf5 24.exf5 a5 25.e4 Na6 26.Ng6 White threatens to win material: Ng6xf8. The white knight is well posted. Ra8 27.Rc1 Nc5 Black threatens to win material: Nc5xa4. Black forks: a4+e4 28.Rc4 Ra6 28...Nb3!? must definitely be considered 29.Rf2 Nd4= 29.Nxe5!± Deflection: c5 Re7 29...dxe5 30.Rxc5 Overloading Deflection 30.Ng6 Rxe4 31.Rxe4 Nxe4 32.Re1 White threatens to win material: Re1xe4 Nc5?? 32...Nf6 33.Re8+ Kf7 34.Rf8# 1–0

White	EloW	Black	EloB	Res

Laitinen,J

1772

Vierjoki,T

1691

1–0

Here are few of the latest reference games from strong players that I could find from my reference database. Three of these were played in a blitz tournament and one in a rapid tournament.