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Every now and then, you get an EPIC battle in a game of chess. This was one such game in a Team Australia tournament!

I had the Black pieces got to play the Ponziani-Steinitz Gambit, against my opponent’s attempted Fried Liver Attack (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 Nxe4). White continued with their plan, which is instantly excellent for Black! By move 6, I was completely winning with an evaluation of [-10] and by move 9, worse than [-20].

However, the position was tricky and three moves later, I made a massive blunder with an innocuous looking pawn move (12… c5) with a reversal of evaluation from around [-22] to [+6]! I didn’t realise I was losing initially, but it became obvious after my opponent’s next moves. Although I always seemed to be on the edge of checkmate and managed to avoid it with a few checks.

Finally on move 21, White blundered (21. Ke1) though again, it wasn’t immediately obvious that it was such. White should have attempted to force piece trades rather than hold onto material. Amazingly, we were back to equality [0.00] and a few moves later, I managed to take advantage of the open f-file with a credible checkmate threat. A theme of this game are the subtle errors that are massive blunders, and this occurred again for White on move 23 (23. Kg1) [-6.5]. If the king went to g2 rather than g1, it would have still been [0.00]!

At this point, was still up a whole piece, but with their knight and rook on the queen-side still yet to move, it was as if they were out of the game. Careful attacking play allowed me to keep my advantage and after another 20 moves, I finally managed to convert to a winning position and White resigned.

EPIC and this was one of the most enjoyable games I’ve ever played!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/daily/449037169

[Event "2022 Australian Championship B Resere division - Round 1"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.11.29"]
[Round "-"]
[White "baek09"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Tournament "https://www.chess.com/tournament/2022-australian-championship-b-resere-division"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "C57"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Italian-Game-Knight-Attack-Ponziani-Steinitz-Gambit"]
[UTCDate "2022.11.29"]
[UTCTime "16:17:07"]
[WhiteElo "393"]
[BlackElo "1195"]
[TimeControl "1/172800"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]
[StartTime "16:17:07"]
[EndDate "2022.11.30"]
[EndTime "15:04:39"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/daily/449037169"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 {Two Knights Defense} 4. Ng5 {[%c_arrow
g5f7;keyPressed;none;from;g5;opacity;0.8;to;f7;persistent;false,c4f7;keyPressed;none;from;c4;opacity;0.8;to;f7;persistent;false][%c_highlight
f7;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f7;persistent;false]} 4... Nxe4
{Ponziani-Steinitz Gambit [+1.68]} 5. Nxf7 $2 {[%c_effect
f7;square;f7;type;Mistake;persistent;true] A mistake [-0.63]} 5... Qh4 $1
{[%c_effect h4;square;h4;type;GreatFind;persistent;true][%c_arrow
e4f2;keyPressed;none;from;e4;opacity;0.8;to;f2;persistent;false,h4f2;keyPressed;none;from;h4;opacity;0.8;to;f2;persistent;false][%c_highlight
f2;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f2;persistent;false]} 6. Qf3 {[%c_effect
f3;square;f3;type;Blunder;persistent;true] Massive blunder [-10.4]} 6... Nd4 $1
{[%c_effect d4;square;d4;type;GreatFind;persistent;true]} 7. Qh3 Qxf2+ 8. Kd1 d5
9. Qh5 {[-21.7]} 9... g6 10. Qxe5+ Be6 11. Rf1 Qxg2 12. Qxd4 c5 {[%c_effect
c5;square;c5;type;Blunder;persistent;true] A massive blunder on my part [-21.5]
to [+6.18] $1} 13. Bb5+ Ke7 14. Qe5 $1 {[%c_effect
e5;square;e5;type;GreatFind;persistent;true]} 14... Qg4+ 15. Be2 $1 {[%c_effect
e2;square;e2;type;GreatFind;persistent;true]} 15... Qh4 16. Qc7+ Bd7 17. Qe5+
Be6 18. d3 {[%c_effect d3;square;d3;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true] An
inaccuracy [+7.17]} 18... Nf2+ 19. Kd2 {Another mistake and I'm clawing back the
disadvantage [+3.18]} 19... Bh6+ 20. Nxh6 Qxh6+ 21. Ke1 {[%c_effect
e1;square;e1;type;Blunder;persistent;true] White blunders and we're back to
equality [0.00]} 21... Qxc1+ 22. Kxf2 Rhf8+ 23. Kg1 {[%c_effect
g1;square;g1;type;Blunder;persistent;true] A subtle but massive blunder [-6.59]
and I'm winning again} 23... Rxf1+ $1 {[%c_effect
f1;square;f1;type;GreatFind;persistent;true]} 24. Bxf1 Rf8 $1 {[%c_effect
f8;square;f8;type;GreatFind;persistent;true]} 25. Qe2 Qg5+ 26. Kh1 Qc1 27. Kg1
Kd6 28. Kg2 {[%c_effect g2;square;g2;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true]} 28...
Qxb2 29. Nc3 Qxa1 30. Nb5+ Kd7 31. c4 Re8 {[%c_arrow
e6h3;keyPressed;none;from;e6;opacity;0.8;to;h3;persistent;false,h3g2;keyPressed;none;from;h3;opacity;0.8;to;g2;persistent;false,e8e2;keyPressed;none;from;e8;opacity;0.8;to;e2;persistent;false][%c_highlight
e2;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e2;persistent;false]} 32. Qf2 a6 33. Na3
b6 34. Kg3 Qe5+ 35. Kg2 Re7 36. Kg1 Rf7 37. Qg3 Qa1 38. Qg2 Qd4+ 39. Kh1 Rf2 40.
Qg1 Bg4 41. Bg2 Qf4 42. h3 Bf5 43. cxd5 Qh4 44. Qh2 Rxa2 45. Kg1 Qe1+
{[%c_effect d7;square;d7;type;Winner,g1;square;g1;type;ResignWhite] White
resigns as they are forced to lose their queen $1} ({This is the better move as it
forces [-M4]} 45... Qf2+ 46. Kh1 Ra1+ 47. Nb1 Rxb1+ 48. Bf1 Rxf1+ 49. Qg1 Rxg1#)
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