Lessons From Newcastle VIII

IN round eight of the Northumbria Challengers (U2000 Fide) I had black against a player rated 1762 ECF/1689 Fide.

The full game can be seen at N8 but here I want to concentrate on the opening, which was a Giuoco Piano.

It began 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 and now came the somewhat unusual 6.b4!?

There are 189 examples of this position in ChessBase's 2022 Mega database

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I played 6...Bb6, but it is interesting that not only have grandmasters also tried 6...Be7!? but the latter scores an excellent 60% in Mega22, eight percentage points better than my choice.

The main continuation after ...Bb6 is 7.e5, and the game continued 7...d5 8.Bb5?! Ne5 9.cxd4 0-0, which Stockfish15 and Komodo13.02 reckon gives Black at least the upper hand.

Almost certainly better is 8.exf6 dxc4 9.Qe2+ Be6 10.b5, although the engines still give Black an edge.

However Black has a possible improvement earlier in 7...Ne4!? The main reply in Mega22 is 8.Bd5!?, when Daniil Dubov (2702) - Sergey Karjakin (2752), Russian Championship (Moscow) 2020, continued 8...Nxc3 9.Nxc3 dxc3 10.Bg5 Ne7 11.0-0 h6 with Black having the upper hand, according to the engines (but 1-0, 38 moves).

A better try for White, according to the engines, is 8.0-0, when Lawrence Trent (2246) - Jure Borišek (2241). European Chess Union U16 Championship (Peniscola, Spain) 2002, continued 8...0-0 9.b5 Ne7, after which White should probably play 10.cxd4 (the game saw 10.Nxd4?! and resulted in a 21-move win for Black), although the engines reckon 10...d5 11.exd6 Nxd6 is slightly better for Black.

CONCLUSION: as with many lines in the Giuoco Piano in which White aggressively pushes with 5.d4, play is sharp but seems to favour Black.