George Ainsworth (1890) - Spanton (1919)
Giuoco Piano
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.0-0 d6!?
The main move is 4...Nf6, when White has the option of a sharp gambit, viz 6.d4!? Bxd4 7.Nxd4 Nxd4, and play can quickly get sharp, eg 8.f4 d6 9.fxe5 dxe5 10.Bg5, after which White's bishop-pair and lead in development give decent practical chances, although Stockfish16 and Komodo14.1 reckon Black is slightly better.
5.c3 Nf6 6.d3 Bb6!?
Black often withdraws the dark-square bishop in the early stages of the Giuoco Piano, either, as here, to b6, or, probably more often, to a7 after first playing ...a6 or ...a5. The point is to give Black flexibility in how to deal with the move d4 (I will elaborate on this below).
7.Bb3!?
This is also a common move in the Giuoco Piano, and indeed is the main move here in ChessBase's 2023 Mega database, although 7.Nbd2 and 7.a4 are also popular. White's light-square bishop is an important piece in this opening, and, once Black has protected the e5 pawn by playing ...d6 the threat of ...Na5, exchanging off the bishop, is in the air, although here, after 7.Nbd2 Na5, White can preserve the bishop with 8.Bb5+.
7...Bg4 8.Nbd2 Ne7!?
The manoeuvre of the white queen's knight via d2 and f1 to e3 or g3 to bolster a kingside attack is well-known, and Black has a similar idea with manoeuvring the black queen's knight from c6 via e7 to g6. If Black's dark-square bishop were still on c5, playing ...Ne7 would be problematic because White could reply d4, forcing Black to 'give up' the centre with exd4.
9.Re1 Ng6 10.h3
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| How should Black meet the threat to the bishop? |
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10...Be6
Stockfish16 suggests 10...Bc8!?; Komodo14.1 prefers 10...Bxf3!?
Possible seems to be 10...Bh5!?, as 11.g4 Nxg4 12.hxg4 Bxg4 gives Black promising compensation. However the engines reckon 11.Nf1 is harder for Black to meet.
11.Bc2 Qd7 12.Nf1 0-0
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| Now both players have castled, how would you assess the position? |
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It may look fairly balanced but Komodo14.1 reckons White has a slight edge, while Stockfish16 goes further in awarding White the upper hand. The point, I believe, is White is ready for advancing in the centre, or on the queenside, while Black still has to prepare central action.
13.d4 c6
Ivan Gerasimov (2277) - Roman Safonov (2114), Russian U18 Club Championship 2007, saw 13...Qe7 14.Ng3 Rad8!? 15.Bg5 Kh8!?, after which the engines reckon 16.Nh5 or 16.Nf5 would have given White a large advantage.
14.Ng3 Rad8
Better may be 14...h6, as played in James Hanham - David Baird, New York State Winter Championship 1897. Hanham continued 15.Nf5?!, when 15...Nxe4!? looks good. This was later tested in Anatoliy Polivanov (2452) - Zachary Tanenbaum (2137), Lichess Blitz 2020, which continued 16.Nxh6+ gxh6 17.Bxe4 f5 with promising play for Black (0-1, 34 moves). The engines reckon White should be content with meeting 14...h6 with a move such as 15.Be3 or 15.a4.
15.Bg5 Kh8!? 16.Nf5
Probably not 16.d5?! as 16...Bxh3!? looks strong for Black now that the bishop on b6 bears down on f2.
16...Rde8 17.h4?
White is better after 17.Bxf6 gxf6 18.Qd2. Even 17.Ng3!? is good for White, according to the engines.
17...Nxe4! 18.Nxg7 Nxg5 19.Nxe8 Nxf3+ 20.Qxf3 Rxe8
Black is much better, according to the engines, after 20...f6!
21.h5 Nf4 22.dxe5 dxe5 23.Rxe5 f6
The engines reckon Black is slightly better, or at least has the better side of equality, after 23...Qd2!?
24.Re4
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| How should Black proceed? |
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24...Nd5?!
Black probably had to try 24...Nh3+!? 25.gxh3 Rg8+ with an unclear position.
25.Rae1 Bf7?
Possibly best is 25...f5!?, when the engines continue 26.R4e2 Nf6 27.h6, claiming White has at least the upper hand.
26.Rxe8+ Bxe8 27.c4
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| The black position is collapsing |
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27...Qf7!? 28.cxd5 cxd5 29.h6 Bc7?
Missing White's pretty finish, but the engines reckon Black is the equivalent of much more than a rook down anyway.
30.Qxf6+! Kg8 31.Rxe8+! 1-0
Thank you for the game and the excellent article!
ReplyDeleteIt was a really interesting game and I don’t often see such creative ideas at the club level, such as Kh8!?. I think I thought for about 25 minutes as I was calculating d5, which didn’t work for the reasons you highlighted, but also Nh4 which also looked scary with the Bxh3 sacrifice looming. Nf5 just looked like a safer move than the alternatives. I also considered dxe5 going into an endgame with a better pawn structure (after taking on f6) but you would have had at least equality with the bishop pair and the weakened f4 square for your knight.
Completely missed Nxe4 but, despite what the engine says, I think the resulting position after Nxg7 Nxg5 Nxe8 Nxf3+ Qxf3 was practically unclear. f6 or f5 would have been objectively better than Rxe8 but you did set a nasty trap, which I’m assuming you saw: after Rxe8 Qf6+ Kg8 h5 Bd8!! winning on the spot. That’s why I had to play h5 first.
h4? was a time pressure-induced move and I was somewhat fortunate to not be completely lost after Nxe4. Other than that it was probably one of the best games I’ve played.
Thank you again for the brilliant coverage.
Thanks for your kind words. I felt a little hard done-by in that I do not normally give out exclamation marks for moves, and yet you managed to come up with two moves on the bounce that deserved such an annotation (although to be fair you were already winning comfortably by then). And at least in this game I managed to avoid any moves that I feel deserve ??, which has not been the case lately ...
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