081. Nah

White: aperturaf - all-play-all tournament, ChessWorld.net, 2018

In his June 2023 ChessPublishing column on 1 e4 e5, GM Tony Kosten includes the game D.Naroditsky-M.Timmermans, Titled Tuesday (blitz) 2023, which “demonstrates a dangerous line that hinders Black from castling and culminates in the (...) position after 12 f4. This is tempting for White as Black can quickly find himself in trouble in this line if he doesn't know exactly what he is doing. Here Black played a good novelty, but went astray immediately afterwards and was crushed.”

GM Naroditsky also livestreamed the game, which has since appeared on youtube. At 3:13 he concludes, having won in 19 moves: “Yeah, this Bc4 line basically busts the line. I mean, I've played like this with Black, and it's just so unpleasant to play this. It's like, you can never castle. The engine always finds some ways to stay alive, but like from a practical point of view it's like, it's insanely hard to play. Yeah.”

Nah.

The 7 Bc4 line is certainly challenging (see Game 75), but not the way he played it (7 Bc4 Na5?! 8 Qd3?! Be7 9 Nc3 etc). As I wrote in my book: “if 12 f4 then 12...Qc6!”.

This is rather more than staying alive. White has absolutely nothing here. More than that,
I prefer Black with the two bishops. And ...Qc6 is not at all hard to find. IM Timmermans would certainly find it with more time on the clock; i.e. in a situation other than being surprised in an online blitz game, and by a strong GM.

In fact I've won as Black after 12...Qc6. Well, to be strictly accurate, Stockfish says I was winning at move 15 (...Ng4), level at move 20, losing at move 28, winning at move 30 (...Bxc4+), losing at move 31 (Na5), level again at move 32, winning again at move 35, before I finally won at move 37. Such are the vicissitudes of 2350-rated 3-0 blitz on lichess.

The game below deviated at move 12. This is mentioned in my book too, up to 17...Bxg4, when “Black has whatever chances are going”. I see Stockfish 15 gives Black a clear advantage. Well, maybe. From the discussion mentioned in the previous post:

The point is not always what the assessment is as where it's going. Work on and is it trending up or down? Is a clear advantage trending to winning, staying where it is, or perhaps switching between a clear and slight advantage. Stockfish can defend a lot of positions it thinks are +0.8, +1, +1.3 for the opponent. Even more than that sometimes. In the end it comes down to, yes, the opponent is better, but can they actually win?

Or, here, can I actually win. As it happens, I did win. Sweet.

Incidentally, the following month Timmermans got to play the line again. This time he bashed out ...Qc6! (in an equivalent position) and was also winning at move 15. Though Stockfish is not too impressed with that game either. Such are the vicissitudes of IM level blitz on chess.com, I guess.