Tuesday 4 August 2009

The Muzio

As part of my work on the Australian Correspondence Chess Quarterly (ACCQ) I often cover Thematic events run by the ICCF. For the August issue (which should be out in August), I intend to look at the Kings Gambit. While playing through the games I began to look for some wins for White in the Muzio Gambit. As I junior I quite liked this opening, but had little chance to play it, as my opponents decided that g5-g4 as Black 'looked' a little too adventurous.
Not so in the ICCF Kings Gambit Thematic, where there were plenty of Muzio's. The only trouble was that Black seemed to win most of them. However I did find a couple of White wins, one of which I include here. While it is a long game it is quite entertaining, and it is worth playing through, if only to see what seems to be a common defensive idea for Black (ie take the piece then run like hell for the queenside).

Marchisotti,D (2258) - Pintor,M (2216)
WSTT/1/06/Final - King's Gambit, C30-9 ICCF, 10.11.2008

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.Bc4 g4 5.0-0 gxf3 6.Qxf3 Qf6 7.d3 d6 8.Nc3 c6 9.Bxf4 Be7 10.Qe3 Qg7 11.d4 h5 12.Rae1 h4 13.Qd3 Nd7 14.h3 Nb6 15.Bb3 Qg6 16.a4 a5 17.Qf3 Bd7 18.d5 c5 19.e5 0-0-0 20.exd6 Bf6 21.Be3 Bd4 22.Ne4 Rh5 23.Bxd4 cxd4 24.Qd3 Kb8 25.Qxd4 Bxh3 26.Rf2 Nc8 27.Qc5 Rd7 28.Qxa5 Bf5 29.Nc5 Rxd6 30.Qb4 Rb6 31.Qf4+ Ka7 32.a5 Rb5 33.Qd4 Kb8 34.a6 bxa6 35.c4 Rb6 36.Bd1 Rh6 37.Rxf5 Qxf5 38.Bg4 Qc2 39.Qf4+ Nd6 40.Nd7+ Kb7 41.Nxb6 Kxb6 42.Qd4+ Kb7 43.c5 h3 44.Bxh3 Rxh3 45.gxh3 Nb5 46.Qf2 Qxf2+ 47.Kxf2 Kc7 48.h4 Kd7 49.Ra1 Nf6 50.Rxa6 Nxd5 51.h5 Ke7 52.h6 Nf6 53.b4 Nd4 54.Kg2 Nh7 55.Ra7+ Ke6 56.Rb7 Nf6 57.b5 1-0

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