HiveChess Thematic Arena- Tournament Victory For Me Today! (Scotch Gambit Analysis)

Hi all, How are you doing today? I trust you having a good day.

Weeks ago, I asked that we played the scotch gambit in one of our themed Saturday's tournament. My request was granted by @schamangerbert, and we were hosted today with a scotch Arena.

Dreams Come True!

I came from behind to win tonight's tournament which makes me very happy. Winning a hive Arena feels good. However, winning the scotch gambit arena feel great.

In the video attached to this post, I took a look at some of my tournament games and explained some few ideas.

I will do my best to write those ideas in text format below.

The Scotch Gambit.

Before i share some of my thoughts, I'd like to appreciate @deadleaf who did well to write a post on this opening prior to the tournament.

Improving Your Chess | Workshop #04

I really love the workshop idea, it really helps to study these openings. I had a good run today which felt good. If only i could understand how @jaki01 plays the Tromposky, just maybe i would win more games easily on time. Even @pereu4ivatel's Scandinavian could be annoying sometimes.

Anyway, Thank you @deadleaf!

Game 1

@Samostically(2225) vs @stayoutoftherz(2076)

This is the starting position of the scotch gambit.

It arises from 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4.Bc4!

What makes this opening very interesting is the fact that it is full of tricks. Well, that's how you understand why white sacrifices a pawn on d4.

The Bishop targets f7 immediately. White also prepares to castle immediately. He has different options to proceed and black has to act fast in the scotch!

What exactly should black do?

Yes, black must counter attack. In this position, @stayoutoftherz is in unfamiliar territory and he tries to play safe with 4.h6?!

Now this move gives white a long range of options as black last move does not attack the centre. White could play 5.c3 , 5. 0-0 or even 5. Nxd4

In this position, I chose the aggressive 5.c3 and it caused problems for black as his knight got trapped couple of moves later.

From here it should have been easy. However, @stayoutoftherz is not one to give up without a fight. I struggled and managed to convert with about 3 seconds left on the clock.

[Event "Hive Thematic Scotch Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/ChhSDunZ"]
[Date "2022.02.19"]
[White "ZGM_Samostically"]
[Black "stayoutoftherz"]
[Result "1-0"]
[UTCDate "2022.02.19"]
[UTCTime "20:51:15"]
[WhiteElo "2225"]
[BlackElo "2076"]
[Variant "From Position"]
[TimeControl "180+2"]
[ECO "?"]
[Opening "?"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[FEN "r1bqkbnr/pppp1ppp/2n5/8/2BpP3/5N2/PPP2PPP/RNBQK2R b KQkq - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]

1... h6 2. c3 Bc5 3. O-O Nf6 4. e5 Ng4 5. cxd4 Bb6 6. h3 Ncxe5 7. dxe5 Nxf2 8. Rxf2 O-O 9. Nc3 Bxf2+ 10. Kxf2 b6 11. Bd5 Rb8 12. Qe2 Re8 13. Kg1 c6 14. Bb3 Bb7 15. Bc2 d6 16. Qd3 g6 17. Bxh6 dxe5 18. Qxd8 Rbxd8 19. Ne4 Kh7 20. Bg5 Kg7 21. Bxd8 Rxd8 22. Rd1 Re8 23. Nd6 Re7 24. Nxb7 Rxb7 25. Nxe5 c5 26. Bb3 Re7 27. Nxf7 Re2 28. Rf1 Rxb2 29. h4 b5 30. Ng5 c4 31. Rf7+ Kg8 32. Bd1 Rb1 33. Rd7 c3 34. Kf2 Rb2+ 35. Ke3 Rxg2 36. Bb3+ Kf8 37. Ne6+ Ke8 38. Rg7 c2 39. Nc7+ Kd8 40. Ne6+ Ke8 41. Rg8+ Ke7 42. Rg7+ Kd6 43. Bxc2 Kxe6 44. Rxg6+ Rxg6 45. Bxg6 Kf6 46. h5 a5 47. Kd4 b4 48. Kc5 Kg5 49. Kb5 b3 50. axb3 a4 51. bxa4 Kh6 52. a5 Kg5 53. a6 Kh6 54. a7 Kg5 55. a8=Q Kf4 56. Qf8+ Ke5 57. Bc2 Kd4 58. h6 Ke3 59. h7 Kd2 60. h8=Q Kc1 61. Qh1+ Kb2 62. Qg2 Kc1 63. Bf5 Kd1 64. Bd7 Ke1 65. Qff1# 1-0

Game 2.

@tony1294(2270) vs @samostically(2225)

THE MAIN LINE

Like i explained in game one, black has to act very fast. Attacking the centre looks very scary at first glance. However, there are some tricks that save black should white misplay.

Black should play 4.Nf6!

There might be other playable continuations available on the chess engines. However, 4.Nf6 is frequently played with the highest success rate

The scary part comes immediately. Whit usually plays the very aggressive 5.e5 where black must counter attack with 5.d5!

White played 6.Bb5 which is the best move. It is usually tempting to take the knight on f6 (6.Nxf6 dxc4 7.fxg7 Bxg7). However, black is totally fine and almost winning. I explained this very well in the video.

6.Nxe4 , I saved my knight.

From this position, the remaining moves are easier to navigate and okay to play.

few moves later

I lost a game to @eniolw in this position in the tournament. So basically, if you get this opening main line right. You can then play the rest with your chess understanding.

This game with @tony1294 ended 0-1 , I picked the victory in an opposite colour endgame.

[Event "Hive Thematic Scotch Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/KlvhnXPG"]
[Date "2022.02.19"]
[White "tony1294"]
[Black "ZGM_Samostically"]
[Result "0-1"]
[UTCDate "2022.02.19"]
[UTCTime "20:00:20"]
[WhiteElo "2270"]
[BlackElo "2225"]
[Variant "From Position"]
[TimeControl "180+2"]
[ECO "?"]
[Opening "?"]
[Termination "Time forfeit"]
[FEN "r1bqkbnr/pppp1ppp/2n5/8/2BpP3/5N2/PPP2PPP/RNBQK2R b KQkq - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]

1... Nf6 2. e5 d5 3. Bb5 Ne4 4. Nxd4 Bd7 5. Bxc6 bxc6 6. O-O Bc5 7. c3 O-O 8. Nd2 Nxd2 9. Bxd2 Qe7 10. f4 f6 11. Qh5 fxe5 12. fxe5 Rab8 13. b3 Rxf1+ 14. Rxf1 Rf8 15. Rxf8+ Qxf8 16. Qf3 Qxf3 17. gxf3 Bb6 18. Kg2 c5 19. Ne2 d4 20. cxd4 cxd4 21. Nf4 Bb5 22. Nd5 c5 23. Nxb6 axb6 24. f4 Kf7 25. Kf3 g6 26. Ke4 Ke6 27. h3 Bf1 28. h4 b5 29. a4 bxa4 30. bxa4 Bg2+ 31. Kd3 Kd5 32. a5 c4+ 33. Kc2 Kc5 34. a6 Be4+ 35. Kc1 Kb6 36. e6 Kxa6 37. e7 Bc6 38. Bb4 Kb5 39. Bd6 Be8 40. Kd2 Kc6 41. Ba3 Kd5 42. Ke2 Ke4 43. Bd6 d3+ 44. Kd2 Kd4 45. Be5+ Kd5 46. Kc3 Ke6 47. Bc7 Kxe7 48. Ba5 Bf7 49. Kd4 Kd7 50. Ke5 Kc6 51. Bc3 Kb5 52. Kf6 Be8 53. Bd2 Ka4 54. Kg7 Kb3 55. Kh6 c3 56. Kxh7 cxd2 57. f5 d1=Q 58. fxg6 Qh5+ 0-1

I would stop here, for more insights, you can check my video attached to this post. There are also game recommendations in @deadleaf's post. I hope you learn a thing or two in this very tricky opening.

In Conclusion...

I wasn't invincible in this tournament, neither did i have the best performance. However, i was lucky to win. Maybe it's a reward for loving the opening so much.

Thank you For Reading This Post!

If you find this post helpful, please do well to leave a comment or a reblog for others to see it

_{40% of the HBD on this post goes to @badge-646464 to support #Hivechess}

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