---

This morning, I played a nice game of the Vienna with my morning coffee. In this game, some of the Vienna Game ideas came to fruition and tied together really well. Now, I certainly didn’t play this game perfectly according to Stockfish as I took a number of risks where the opponent could have equalised, and maybe even punished my moves in setting up the attack. However, it worked out in my favour.

Some of the ideas in this game are not unique to the Vienna, but it certainly works well with the Vienna when the opponent castles short. Firstly, the relatively early f4, and trading away the f-pawn allows for the semi-open f-file controlled by the rook after short castling. Along with the light square bishop on c4, this exerts pressure on the opponent’s weak f-pawn. The bishop also pins this pawn to the opponent’s king, something that can be forgotten and exploited, as was the case in this game.

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

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/40342790847

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.03.06"]
[Round "?"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "artan194"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C25"]
[WhiteElo "1314"]
[BlackElo "1367"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "14:03:47 PST"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 d6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d3 a6 5. a4 Bd7 6. f4 exf4 7. Bxf4 Nc6 8. Nf3 h6 9. O-O Be7 10. h3 O-O 11. e5 dxe5 12. Bxe5 Nxe5 13. Nxe5 Bd6 14. Ng6 Re8 15. Nd5 Kh7 16. Nxf6+ Qxf6 17. Rxf6 gxf6 18. Bxf7 Re5 19. Nxe5 1-0