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Gioachino Greco vs NN
Miscellaneous game (1620), ?, rd 1
Italian Game: Classical. Greco Gambit Greco Variation (C54)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
Apr-01-13  RookFile: NN finds a perfectly logical way to lose.
Feb-19-18  RKnight: If NN had been smarter, he would have played 12...Nxd4, saving the game and giving Greco chances to go wrong, e.g. 13. Qb4+ (better is 13 Qa3+) c5, 14 Qxc5+ d6, 15 Qd5 Nxf3+ etc. with advantage NN. Of course, NN may only have been Greco's alter ego, as others have remarked in different Greco games.
Jan-06-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  Diademas: I actually got to play the Greco attack in a serious game for the first time today.
I first deviated from this game with 13.Re1. My opponent gave up a few moves later.
Jan-06-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: < Diademas: I actually got to play the Greco attack in a serious game for the first time today.>

That's funny, in <Open Gambits> Botterill warned his readers that no one would ever play this line against them.

Just in case you get to play NN again, Stockfish likes 10.Ba3 best of all (10....d6 11.Rc1 Ba5 12.Qa4; 10....d5 11.Bb5 Bxa1 12.Re1+ Be6 13.Qc2; 10....Bxa1 11.Re1+). Greco plays SF's favorite move every time after that (though of course 13.Re1 is more than good enough).

<RKnight: If NN had been smarter, he would have played 12...Nxd4, saving the game and giving Greco chances to go wrong, e.g. 13. Qb4+ (better is 13 Qa3+)>

Indeed, 13.Qa3+ wins Black's queen. The game is quite lost by move 12.

Jan-07-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  Diademas: He was very pleased with himself when he played Nxe4, and even more so when I castled. It wasn't until I played Qb3 he realised he was in deep doo-doo.
Actually the machine only gives <+0.24 (23 ply) 10...d5 11.Qxc3 dxc4 12.d5 Ne7 13.Bb2 f6 14.Qxc4 Nxd5 15.Rae1+ Kf7 16.Ba3 c6 17.Re7+ Qxe7 18.Bxe7 Kxe7 19.Nd4 Rd8 20.a4 Kf8 > but there are a lot of subtle lines there you'll never gonna find on my or my opponents level.
Jan-07-20  Count Wedgemore: <Diademas: Actually the machine only gives <+0.24 (23 ply) 10...d5 11.Qxc3 dxc4 12.d5 Ne7 13.Bb2 f6 14.Qxc4 Nxd5 15.Rae1+ Kf7 16.Ba3 c6 17.Re7+ Qxe7 18.Bxe7 Kxe7 19.Nd4 Rd8 20.a4 Kf8 > but there are a lot of subtle lines there you'll never gonna find on my or my opponents level.>

Yeah, 10...d5 is a key move for Black in order to survive in this line. After White's 10.Qb3, that a2-g8 diagonal is deadly, and blocking it immediately is Black's best hope for survival. That said, even after 10...d5 Black's position still looks uncomfortable even if the silicon monsters apparently seem to think it's okay (only +0.24 in your analysis).

So greedily grabbing the a1-rook by playing 10...Bxa1 is definitely not the way to go for Black. That much is clear.

By the way, both 13.Ne5 and 13.Re1 look good. White is still much better. Actually, White can also safely gobble up the stranded bishop on a1 by playing 13.Rxa1; he is still winning.

Must have been fun to play the White side of this line, <Diademas>!

Jan-07-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  Diademas: < Count Wedgemore:
So greedily grabbing the a1-rook by playing 10...Bxa1 is definitely not the way to go for Black. That much is clear.>

We discussed it in the post mortem. He said he felt he had a choice of giving up the bishop and being tortured slowly for two hours, or grabbing the rook - hoping I would mess up - but most likely going down in flames.
Since the result would probably be the same in both instances, he chose the latter.

May-25-22
Premium Chessgames Member
  Ziryab: I played this game OTB in a blitz tourney last week. I have played it more than once online, as well as several variations. Although I'm more inclined to play 10.Ba3 these days.

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