Friday 28 May 2010

The "quiet" d3

d3 in the Italian Game is one move I really don't like seeing, for two reasons. Firstly, as a Traxler player, 4.d3 (after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6) looks like a cop-out by White, and secondly, after 4.d3 I've had a couple of games where I've just been ground down.
However it is considered quite a strong system for White, so there are good reasons to play it. And despite the tag "Quiet Italian" White can whip up quite a strong attack, as Movsesian demonstrates in the current ACP Rapid Knock Out event.

Movsesian,Sergei - Naiditsch,Arkadij [C50]
ACP Rapid KO, 27.05.2010

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.0-0 Nf6 5.d3 0-0 6.Bb3 d5 7.exd5 Nxd5 8.h3 Nb6 9.Re1 a5 10.a4 Bd6 11.Nc3 Bf5 12.Nb5 Bg6 13.Bg5 Qd7 14.Nh4 Nd4 15.Nxd4 exd4 16.Qf3 c6 17.Nxg6 hxg6 18.Re4 Bb4 19.h4 Rae8 20.h5 Rxe4 21.dxe4 gxh5 22.Qxh5 c5 (D)
23.Bf6 Qc6 24.e5 Nd7 25.Be7 c4 26.Bxf8 Nxf8 27.Ba2 Ne6 28.Rd1 d3 29.cxd3 Nf4 30.Qg4 Qxa4 31.Bxc4 Qc2 32.Rf1 Ne2+ 33.Kh2 Qd2 34.f4 1-0

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