Miniature of the Month

I haven't presented a monthly miniature for a while, as I've been missing a bit of source material (Chessvibes Openings has ceased production, and Chesstoday has only just released a few monthly collections).
This miniature is actually from February 2014, and cam from the Gibraltar Open. White tries an early a3 in the Four Knights, which isn't a total waste of time, but gets run over by Black in pretty short order.
Coincidently I was just discussing a similar opening the other day, which was 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.a3 The idea is to get Black to play 3. ... d5 and aim for a Qh4 (Qh5 in this case) Reversed Scotch. But after seeing this game, maybe 3. ... Nc6 is the correct reply.


Kuipers,Stefan (2399) - Zhao Xue (2568) [C46]
Gibraltar Masters 2014 Caleta ENG (6.29), 02.02.2014

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. a3 Nd4 5. d3 Bc5 6. Nxe5 d5 7. Bg5 h6 8. Bh4 g5 9. Bg3 Qe7 10. Be2 Be6 11. Ng4 Bxg4 12. Bxg4 dxe4 13. O-O h5 14. Bxh5 Nxh5 15. Nd5 Nxg3 0-1