Dual commentary between Stephen and I. We go over the training game we played yesterday. It was a positional Giuoco Piano which turned tactical very fast!
Here is the link to the game; https://lichess.org/Zw12Ntf2/black
Yesterday we played our first training game (we are going to play one per month). Stephen got to choose the time format and the opening. It was a game in 60’, and we played the Italian, which is his main weapon against e5.
Here is Stephen’s profile on Lichess: https://lichess.org/@/smjm
Just like last week, I played an opening I never played before, I played black against the Italian. I play the Italian myself, so I know the plans for both sides very well, but it was still very weird playing black!
This time I didn’t make the mistake of playing an unsound variation. Last time I played the dubious Steinitz Scotch which is losing for black. Now I went for the main line for black in the Italian against c3, d3 for white.
The opening went well, and we both developed normally. At one point, Stephen played a weird move – a3, wanting to make room for his bishop on the long diagonal. That was a waste of time in my opinion because white has already played c3 and prepared Bc2, d4. At that point I thought I was equal.
Soon after that we reached the critical point in the game. Stephen played Be3, a common offer of a bishop exchange both sides can play. Usually black does this more often than white. I accepted the trade, thinking that Stephen will recapture with the f pawn, thus preventing me from entering f4 with my knight. He took with the rook instead, and I had a strategically better position.
When your pieces are better, there is room for tactics. My strong knight on f4, the bishop staring at h3, and the queen ready to enter the position, combined with an imprecise move Stephen played, led to a series of tactical moves which resulted in a material loss for white.
But it wasn’t that simple. I was veeery wrong at one point.
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