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One of the ideas of the Vienna Game is that White can often develop a big attack on Black’s king-side, especially if they castle that side. This was the case in this fun game recently where Stockfish rated a couple of my moves as brilliancies!

At the beginner-intermediate level, players with the Black pieces sometimes don’t know how to respond to the Vienna Game. This might have been the case in this game where Black thought for over half a minute on their second move, and then played a non-committal flank pawn move (1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 h6). Although this move is certainly not an error, it also isn’t very good as I can immediately take the full centre with my d-pawn (3. d4). At the end of move 7, I was castled, was further developed, and Stockfish gave an evaluation in my favour of around [+2.5]!

However, I lose most of my advantage with a forward knight move (9. Ne5) that didn’t achieve anything and after a couple of trades, we arrive back close to equality [+0.32].

Black now tries an attack on the king-side with their knight (11… Ng4) and I respond with a move (12. Qg3) that was technically a blunder [-3.18], but only if Black found the single follow up move (12… Bh4). I only saw Black’s potential response after the move and knew that I was potentially in trouble. Luckily, Black didn’t see this tactic, and I regained the advantage. Strategically, my queen was potentially in a good place, on the same file as Black’s king, and as we had opposite-side castled, I was set up for a potential massive attack.

My opponent played some tactically clever moves, and in isolation, had manoeuvred to force trade their knight for one of my rooks. However, from the perspective of strategy, an attack on my king-side was fundamentally a “soft” threat as I had castled queen-side. Moreover, a counterattack on my part meant that I traded a rook and pawn for both of Black’s only developed pieces, which was excellent compensation. That rook wasn’t previously contributing the game, and the loss of the g-pawn now resulted in a semi-open file for my queen facing the Black king! Stockfish agreed with my perspective and after the trades, I was completely winning at roughly [+8] on move 18.

The game plan was now simple – first position my rook to form a battery with the queen staring at the Black king (19. Rg1). Black was forced to use one of their high value pieces (19… Qe7) to provide an extra defender to the g7 pawn. My knight jumps forward attacking the queen, forcing it to slide across (20. Nd5 Qf7).

Stockfish categorises the next two moves as brilliancies – I’ll take it, though admittedly they weren’t too hard to find. The queen is relatively pinned, insofar that it must stay on a square that defends g7 to prevent checkmate. So, (21. exf5) opens the light square diagonal for my bishop, while the queen must sit helpless. Black attacks my knight with a pawn (21… c6) but I can freely sacrifice that knight! The next brilliancy, (22. Bc3) adds a third attacker to the pawn on g7. Two moves later, the Black king is stripped of its final two pawn defenders and Black resigns with an impending [+M6]. Good game!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/58328383887

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.10.01"]
[Round "-"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "JoHelena"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "C25"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Vienna-Game"]
[UTCDate "2022.10.01"]
[UTCTime "01:55:41"]
[WhiteElo "1381"]
[BlackElo "1276"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]
[StartTime "01:55:41"]
[EndDate "2022.10.01"]
[EndTime "02:18:37"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/live/58328383887"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 {Vienna Game [+0.15]} 2... h6 {An interesting, but not very good, response [+0.51]} 3. d4 exd4 4. Qxd4 Nc6 5. Qe3 Be7 $6 {An inaccuracy [+1.35]} 6. Bd2 Nb4 7. O-O-O $1 {And with long castles, White is substantially ahead on development [+2.51]} 7... Nf6 8. Nf3 O-O 9. Ne5 d6 10. Nd3 Nxd3+ 11. Bxd3 Ng4 12. Qg3 {This was a blunder [-3.18] as Black has a very strong follow up attack with Bh4. However, they must find this move as all other moves favour White.} 12... Bg5 $4 {They don't find Bh4 and thus, blunder back [+2.13]} 13. f4 Bf6 14. h3 Bh4 15. Qf3 Nf2 16. g3 $1 {Disconnecting the bishop from the knight allows for two possibilities. If Black doesn't withdraw their bishop, then White opens up the g-file against the White king. If they do withdrawal, then White wins the black knight.} 16... Bxg3 $4 {This desperado was a game-changing blunder [+8.25]} 17. Qxg3 Nxd1 18. Kxd1 f5 19. Rg1 {With the queen and rook in a battery on the g-file and Black having sacrificed all their developed pieces, White is completely winning [+9.82]} 19... Qe7 20. Nd5 Qf7 21. exf5 $3 {[%c_arrow
e4f5;keyPressed;none;from;e4;opacity;0.8;to;f5;persistent;false] A brilliant move [+15.4]. Black's queen cannot capture the White knight as it must guard the pawn on g7 to prevent checkmate.} 21... c6 22. Bc3 $3 {Another brilliant move [+M19] as adding another attacker on the pawn on g7 completely overwhelms Black's defences. In this context, sacrificing the knight is immaterial.} 22... cxd5 23. Bxg7 Re8 24. Bxh6+ {[%c_effect
d1;square;d1;type;Winner,g8;square;g8;type;ResignBlack] Black resigns [+M6]}
(24. Bxh6+ Kh8 {If Black played on...} 25. Qh4 Re1+ {Black can only delay the inevitable by forced checks through sacrifice} 26. Kxe1 Qe8+ 27. Kd1 Qe1+ 28. Kxe1 Bxf5 29. Qf6+ Kh7 30. Bxf5#) 1-0