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I am very happy at the time of this video as I have just crossed the 1300 ELO boundary on chess.com for rapid. I started the match with a rating of 1298 and just after I was matched up for a 30 min game with my random opponent, I saw that they were quite a bit higher rated – in the 1400s – and were Russian, insofar as listing a Russian flag. One of the interesting data points in chess.com’s “insights” analytics is that I tend lose games against similarly rated opponents from Russia, and also Indonesia. So I entered this game feeling not very hopeful. However, I was able to play the Vienna Game, got a great advantage in the opening, and held that advantage until the end. And by end, at checkmate I had literally 1.3 seconds left on the clock! In fact, I made 15 moves in the final ten seconds – super exciting!

The Vienna Game can result in some great opening advantages when the opponent is unfamiliar with the system. Frequently, this is the case as e4 players don’t usually play the Vienna. The Vienna can result in very early aggressive attacks in the centre, and my opponent’s passive move, Be7 on move 2, resulted in them losing control of the centre. However, my opponent played strongly and an insight that can be seen in the endgame is how strong a pair of knights can be against rooks.

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

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/38528609291

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.02.13"]
[Round "?"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "TyuminSergei210757"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C25"]
[WhiteElo "1309"]
[BlackElo "1404"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "14:54:39 PST"]
[Termination "vitualis won by checkmate"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Be7 3. d4 exd4 4. Qxd4 Bf6 5. e5 Qe7 6. f4 c6 7. Be2 c5 8. Qd5 Qe6 9. exf6 Nxf6 10. Qxe6+ fxe6 11. Be3 b6 12. O-O-O Bb7 13. Bf3 Bxf3 14. Nxf3 O-O 15. h3 d5 16. g4 d4 17. Bxd4 cxd4 18. Nxd4 Re8 19. g5 Nh5 20. Nde2 Nc6 21. a3 Ne7 22. Nb5 Rec8 23. Rd7 Nd5 24. Nxa7 Nhxf4 25. Nxc8 Nxe2+ 26. Kd2 Ng3 27. Re1 Rxc8 28. Rxe6 Nf4 29. Rxb6 Nxh3 30. g6 hxg6 31. Rxg6 Ne4+ 32. Ke3 Nhg5 33. Rgxg7+ Kh8 34. Rge7 Nf6 35. Rd4 Kg8 36. Kd3 Kf8 37. Re3 Rb8 38. b4 Ra8 39. Kc4 Rc8+ 40. Kb3 Kf7 41. Rc4 Ra8 42. Rc7+ Kg6 43. a4 Rb8 44. Rec3 Nd5 45. R7c6+ Kg7 46. R3c4 Nf3 47. Rg4+ Kf7 48. b5 Ne5 49. Rgc4 Nxc6 50. Rxc6 Ke7 51. c4 Nb6 52. Kb4 Kd7 53. a5 Nc8 54. Kc5 Ne7 55. Rd6+ Kc8 56. a6 Nf5 57. Rf6 Ne7 58. Rf8+ Kc7 59. Rxb8 Kxb8 60. b6 Nc8 61. Kb5 Nd6+ 62. Kc5 Nc8 63. Kc6 Ne7+ 64. Kd7 Nc8 65. c5 Na7 66. bxa7+ Kxa7 67. c6 Kxa6 68. c7 Kb5 69. c8=Q Kb4 70. Qc6 Kb3 71. Qc5 Kb2 72. Qc4 Kb1 73. Qc3 Ka2 74. Qb4 Ka1 75. Kc6 Ka2 76. Kc5 Ka1 77. Kc4 Ka2 78. Kc3 Ka1 79. Qb2# 1-0