One of my tactics when I play with the Black pieces against the Italian Game, is to play the Two Knights Defense. If White is aggressive, I’m hoping for the beginning of a potential Fried Liver Attack and transforming it into the Ponziani-Steinitz Gambit, or if White is conservative, angling for a Four Knights Italian (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Nc3).

Part of the tactical approach is directing the game down an opening that I prefer as Black! I like the Four Knights Italian as from the beginning, Black has already equalised [0.00] and has some attacking chances. Moreover, at the beginner-intermediate level, I find that White often doesn’t really know how to respond to the relatively more aggressive line of theory, which on move 4, I capture the e4 pawn with a knight, they capture back with their knight, and then I fork their knight and bishop with my d-pawn (4… Nxe4 5. Nxe4 d5).

And this was the case in this game. White made what I suspect was an incorrect assumption/calculation that their best way forward was a “desperado” capture (6. Bxd5). White gives up their bishop pair and help accelerate the development of my queen into the centre of the board giving Black a firm advantage [-1.7].

White castles kingside on move 8 and so I played a provocative move with my bishop, pinning their knight to the queen. My goal, however, was to entice White to move their kingside pawns forward (8… Bh5 9. h3 Bh5 10. g4 Bg6), permanently weaking their kingside defences [-4.6].

At this point in the middle game, the position gets a bit complicated, and neither my opponent nor I saw a tactic in the middle of the board. Stockfish thus rates a series of errors/blunders from both of us related to this missed tactic.

Move 17, White made a terminal blunder [-6.8] by bringing their king forward (17. Kg2), aiming to prevent infiltration by my pieces into the weakened defences of their king. However, this placed the king onto an open diagonal.

A series of mostly forced trades later, the centre opens, and my final move (19. Nxc2) gave a double attack. My knight attacked White’s rook, and there was a simultaneous discovered attack by my rook on White’s queen. White opted to resign. GG!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/68773923995

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2023.01.29"]
[Round "-"]
[White "stevendecouto"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[CurrentPosition "2kr3r/ppp2ppp/2q5/4p3/1P2P1P1/P3B2P/2n2PK1/R2Q1R2 w - -"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "C47"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Four-Knights-Game-Italian-Variation"]
[UTCDate "2023.01.29"]
[UTCTime "23:26:12"]
[WhiteElo "1392"]
[BlackElo "1425"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]
[StartTime "23:26:12"]
[EndDate "2023.01.29"]
[EndTime "23:43:00"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/live/68773923995"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Nc3 {Four Knights Game: Italian Variation is
good for Black as it brings the game back to equality, and Black has some good
attacking chances [0.00]} 4... Nxe4 5. Nxe4 d5 $1 {[%c_effect
d5;square;d5;type;GreatFind;keyPressed;undefined;persistent;true] I often find
White unprepared for this opening sequence and will make a mistake after this
point $1} 6. Bxd5 $2 {[%c_arrow
c4d3;keyPressed;none;from;c4;opacity;0.8;to;d3;persistent;false][%c_highlight
d3;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d3;persistent;false][%c_effect
d5;square;d5;type;Mistake;keyPressed;undefined;persistent;true] A case in point
- White has assumed an unnecessary \"desperado\", which is a mistake [-1.7]}
({This would have been the optimal move for White...} 6. Bd3 dxe4 7. Bxe4 Bd6 8.
O-O {This is probably the best continuation for White and the game remains dead
even [0.00]}) 6... Qxd5 7. Nc3 Qa5 8. O-O Bg4 9. h3 Bh5 10. g4 $6 {[%c_effect
g4;square;g4;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true][%c_arrow
a2a3;keyPressed;none;from;a2;opacity;0.8;to;a3;persistent;false][%c_highlight
a3;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;a3;persistent;false] An inaccuracy,
weakening the king-side defences [-2.7]} 10... Bg6 11. d3 O-O-O 12. a3 $2
{[%c_effect a3;square;a3;type;Mistake;persistent;true][%c_arrow
f1e1;keyPressed;none;from;f1;opacity;0.8;to;e1;persistent;false][%c_highlight
e1;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e1;persistent;false] A complicated
position - this was apparently a mistake [-4.6]} 12... Bc5 $2 $9 {[%c_effect
c5;square;c5;type;Mistake;persistent;true][%c_arrow
e5e4;keyPressed;none;from;e5;opacity;0.8;to;e4;persistent;false][%c_highlight
e4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e4;persistent;false] This was a
mistake/miss [0.00]. With the pawn on d3 pinned to the queen, e4, \"placing
pressure on the pinned piece\" is a powerful move.} 13. Bd2 $2 {[%c_effect
d2;square;d2;type;Mistake;persistent;true][%c_highlight
g5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g5;persistent;false][%c_arrow
c1g5;keyPressed;none;from;c1;opacity;0.8;to;g5;persistent;false] A miss [-1.3]}
13... Qb6 $4 {[%c_effect b6;square;b6;type;Blunder;persistent;true] A straight up
blunder [+4.3]. I didn't see the that Na4 would have been a fork.} 14. b4 $2 $9
{[%c_effect b4;square;b4;type;Mistake;persistent;true] However, neither did
White [-1.9]} 14... Bd4 15. Nxd4 $2 {[%c_effect
d4;square;d4;type;Mistake;persistent;true][%c_arrow
d1e2;keyPressed;none;from;d1;opacity;0.8;to;e2;persistent;false][%c_highlight
e2;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e2;persistent;false] A mistake [-3.9].
White trading one of their defensive piece around their king, in the context of
the weakened kingside pawns, is unwise.} 15... Nxd4 16. Be3 Qf6 $2 {[%c_effect
f6;square;f6;type;Mistake;persistent;true][%c_arrow
h7h5;keyPressed;none;from;h7;opacity;0.8;to;h5;persistent;false][%c_highlight
h5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;h5;persistent;false] Stockfish didn't like
this move [from -3.9 to -1.6] preferring an attack into White's position down
the h-file} 17. Kg2 $4 {[%c_arrow
e3d4;keyPressed;none;from;e3;opacity;0.8;to;d4;persistent;false][%c_highlight
d4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d4;persistent;false][%c_effect
g2;square;g2;type;Blunder;keyPressed;undefined;persistent;true] Although
understandably White wanted to defend the f3 square from infiltration by the
knight, the king has exposed itself to the light square diagonal. [-6.8]} 17...
Qc6+ $1 {[%c_effect c6;square;c6;type;GreatFind;persistent;true]} 18. Ne4 Bxe4+
19. dxe4 Nxc2 {[%c_effect
c8;square;c8;type;Winner,g2;square;g2;type;ResignWhite] With the double attack,
White will lose the rook for a knight. White opted to resign - GG $1} 0-1