5* Renier, beautiful game and great analysis. It's so nice to see the whole board come together, with moves on the queenside or centre making direct impact on the kingside attack. As they say, if you play on both sides of the board you look like either a beginner or a grandmaster. Also goes to show just how misleading the name 'giuoco piano' really is. Although at many times it looked more like some Ruy through transposition than Italian - is it possible to reach these position through a Classical Ruy?.

These are the kind of games I love the most, they're so full...strategic and positional play across the whole board, yet incredibly dynamic and rich in tactical ideas and attacking threats. I don't know Radjabov's games really, but if this is his style I'm going to have to check out some more. More like this please!

Thanks Flint, well it's kind of difficult going into these type of positions from the classical Ruy, first of all look at the bishop outside the pawn chain on b6, the knight gets quickly to g6, and black plays c6, this is not seen very often in the classical ruy, however the same type of position can be reached if you play d3 in the Ruy, after black plays a6 Ba4 Nf6 d3, the so called Andersen variation (wich is seen from time to time at top level), you can follow a similar plan.

This game is very instructive in my opinion, tense struggle with tension in the center and both sides manouvering, of course black's play can be improved, I believe that after d4 exd4 and d5 is really good, but that's another story. Thanks a lot for watching and commenting.

Best regards
Renier
http://renierchess.blogspot.com

i agree this game is very instructive... especially when Radjabov misses the c5 breakthrough... which is just a very powerful move--- with ideas of d6 and actually the c5 move helps with the kingside attack... this is play over the entire board which is nice

Superb game, thanks!

Very amazing attacking game, Radjabov really crushed Pentala.

But also a very good analysis, 5 stars from me. I like it how you analyze the game, offering better moves like c5 instead of Nf5, and how you show us these great attacking lines (e.g. Rg6!!).
I also like you commenting the opening - not too deeply, but still pointing out the important ideas and alternatives.
I actually played 1...e5 and the Ne7-g6 / Nf6-h5-f4 idea against the Italian Game, and didn't pay too much attention to the Qf6 move, which I employ quite often in these positions. I bet my opponents even had the possibility of Nh5 more than once against me.

I really feel that your videos add to my chess understanding, so please keep it up!
Thank you.