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When I play with the black pieces, I often end up playing against the Italian, specifically, the Giuoco Piano lines. This is as I usually respond to e4 with e5. I’ve mentioned before that I often feel a bit uncomfortable with the positional games of the main lines of the Giuoco Piano or the Giuoco Pianissimo when playing black – I just find that my opponent with the white pieces usually knows the theory better than me! Recently, I’ve been trying to shake things up a bit, by playing some moves that while not optimal, might take my opponent outside of their comfort zone. In this game, I attacked my opponent’s pieces with my kingside pawns, and then aimed to castle queen-side, and it actually worked really well! It led to a really fun game, and that’s what matters.

I was doing really well until the latter part of the middle game where I miscalculated a sequence of captures. I missed the fact that my opponent gained a tempo as they captured with check, resulting in me entering the endgame down a full piece. However, they didn’t feel that full advantage as their extra piece, a bishop, was effectively “stuck at home” and it took them several moves to get it out. Some inaccurate king and pawn moves in the endgame, as seen by the wildly fluctuating evaluation bar, eventually clinched me the victory!

I hope you found this video interesting, and thanks for watching!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/38186619373

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.02.09"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Ninochip"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C50"]
[WhiteElo "1270"]
[BlackElo "1273"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "15:24:28 PST"]
[Termination "vitualis won by checkmate"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. d3 Nf6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 g5 7. Bg3 d6 8. h3 Qe7 9. Nc3 Be6 10. Bxe6 Qxe6 11. Nb5 O-O-O 12. a3 Nh5 13. Bh2 a6 14. Nc3 Nd4 15. Nxd4 exd4 16. Nd5 c6 17. Nb4 Nf6 18. O-O a5 19. Na2 g4 20. h4 Rhg8 21. g3 h5 22. Kg2 d5 23. Re1 dxe4 24. dxe4 Nxe4 25. Qd3 f5 26. Nc1 Qd5 27. Kf1 Rge8 28. Ne2 Bb6 29. Nf4 Nc5 30. Nxd5 Nxd3 31. Nxb6+ Kc7 32. Rxe8 Rxe8 33. cxd3 Kxb6 34. Re1 Rd8 35. Re5 Rd5 36. Rxd5 cxd5 37. b3 Kb5 38. Ke2 a4 39. bxa4+ Kxa4 40. f3 Kxa3 41. fxg4 fxg4 42. Bg1 b5 43. Bxd4 b4 44. Ke3 b3 45. Kf4 b2 46. Bxb2+ Kxb2 47. Ke5 Kc2 48. Kxd5 Kxd3 49. Ke5 Ke3 50. Kf5 Kf3 51. Kg5 Kxg3 52. Kxh5 Kh3 53. Kg5 g3 54. h5 g2 55. h6 g1=Q+ 56. Kh5 Qg4# 0-1