Italian Game | Endgame Time Scramble!

#Italian #TwoKnights #timescramble

This was a game against a super-friendly Kiwi, a New Zealander.  They are quite a bit lower-rated than me, and I'm not sure how we were matched by chess.com, but I'm glad that we did!  We had a complicated early game, and I had a massive time scramble at the end.

In the first game, I had the White pieces and I won quickly as it was a game of the Vienna Gambit, declined by Nc6.  In the second game, my friend from across the Tasman Sea played a very solid Italian Game.

This was a good lesson in humility for me!  I think I was feeling a bit cocky and arrogant having won the first match that I played relatively recklessly. After the opening where I was reasonably sure I was a bit ahead, I played an aggressive knight move (10... Ng4) against their king, even though I didn't immediately have an attack.  I knew that the more solid approach was to finish development and to castle first, but I was hoping to induce a blunder and then and find a mating tactic.

My opponent, however, played well, and an opportunity never came.  Rather, I found myself reasonably sure that I was losing during the middle-game and Stockfish agreed.  In parts of the game, it approached [+7] for my opponent!

Relatively closed and positional Italian middle-games can be difficult to navigate, and I had committed that knight to g4 - a liability. Stockfish recommended withdrawing that knight as the best move on analysis several times!  Interestingly, chat from my opponent suggested that that knight did make them feel very uncomfortable, so there may be some value from a psychological perspective (though if anything, they may have played better!)  White got a very nice position with a semi-open f-file controlled by their rook, and their light square bishop pinning my f7 pawn!

Move 29 was the turning point in the game.  We had traded some material and the centre was opening up.  I always play better with open positions and fewer pieces.  I could feel the tide turning, and I knew I was winning.

Move 35, I formed a triple battery the rook pair and queen down the b-file and managed to further trade down a rook.  I only had 36 seconds left on the clock, but I had a simple strategic idea that would require minimal calculation effort. My passed a-pawn was now my biggest asset and by pushing it to promotion, I would force White to trade another one of their pieces.

And this worked.  I won by checkmate on move 49 and had made 15 moves in the final 30 seconds of the game, with 6.3 seconds left on the clock.  Nonetheless, this was an amazing game by my 800 rated opponent - well done and GG!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/67749750165