Lorin D'Costa, Nick Murphy:
The Giuoco Piano

Review by Glenn Mitchell

The first chess opening I was taught as a child was the Giuoco Piano. I was seven or eight and it was a cousin of the same ago who showed me the opening. Two uncles frequently played chess on the weekend and my cousin passed along what his dad taught him about central control when he demonstrated the opening.

My coach, FM Valeri Lilov, asked me my opinion of the Giuoco Piano a few years ago. I replied with the common dogma that it was a beginner's opening: dull and boring. He told me, when he was an intermediate player, he played hundreds of games opening with the Giuoco Piano and then walked me through sharper variations in a fifteen minute tour de force.

It was GM Nigel Davies' DVD for ChessBase, Attack with the Modern Italian, which altered my opinion of the Giuoco Piano and stimulated my interest in playing the opening.

Last week’s release of Master and Amateur: Giuoco Piano by IM Lorin D’Costa and Nick Murphy has further stimulated me. As I just wrote on GM Davies' blog, The Chess Improver, I intend to spend the remainder of this year studying the Giuoco Piano and its closest siblings – and it was this DVD that brought me to this decision.

I can identify with Nick Murphy. Like him, I’m an untitled, intermediate-level player looking to improve. Part of what attracted me to this DVD was the concept of a back-and-forth discussion between an IM and a player like myself. The patter back and forth had the feel of a schtick, as both presenters mugged for the camera a bit and tried to quip wittily. Overall, it worked well. IM D’Costa behaved pretty much as one would expect from a chess coach during a coaching session.

Not only is the tone different between this DVD and other ChessBase offerings on the Italian Game, so is the approach to the opening. GM Davies’ DVD Attack with the Modern Italian focuses on both attacking lines and more positional approaches. GM Daniel King’s coverage in Power Play 17: Attack with 1.e4 is also more practical, exploring lines that will get White on the board and are more universal in character.

While the games of Sergei Movsesian are missing from the DVD, his sharper, gambit-oriented approach to the Giuoco Piano was there in spirit. Given that GM Movsesian is arguably the strongest and most consistent practitioner of sharp attacking games with the Giuoco Piano at the GM level currently, this absence was curious. The game Movsesian-Short from Corus Wijk ann Zee 2009 would have fit in very well, for example.

If you think of the Giuoco Piano as boring, you need to watch this DVD, where the focus is exclusively on sharp attacking lines. There's nothing Pianissimo about the coverage in these video clips. There’s not even much in the way of Piano in the games IM D’Costa chose.

There is a great deal to learn on this DVD. It bears repeated viewing. My eyes really opened, for example, when IM D’Costa explored a game where Magnus Carlsen played the Giuoco Piano variation with c3 in conjunction with d3 but as black with the colors reversed. His QN even managed to beat white's "Spanish knight" to the kingside and deprive it of its g3 perch.

This DVD is not a theoretical opening survey. There are passing references to theory, but they are just that – passing references. This is a DVD that is aimed squarely at intermediate players and the focus is laser-like on plans and ideas. One such idea that IM D’Costa repeats like a mantra is maintaining the initiative. He demonstrates with multiple games how white can prevent or delay black getting castled on the kingside through gambits, sacrifices, and aggressive piece play.

Nick Murphy is a good sport throughout. To keep the DVD spontaneous, IM D’Costa did not share the games or positions in advance with Nick. Perhaps doing all this in front of a studio crew was a bit distracting for Nick, since some of his choices were – well – rather weak. Nick didn’t make any outright blunders and he always reacted well when IM D’Costa pointed out better alternatives.

IM D’Costa was dismissive of questions from Nick on several occasions, telling him something like “I ask the questions.” The DVD would have had even more of a coaching session feel if IM D’Costa had slowed down at those moments, put his own thoughts and ideas on hold for a minute or two, and allowed Nick to ask more questions. That way, Nick would be less of a foil and I believe the DVD would be even more educational for the club and class-level tournament players.

I'm going to spar a lot with Fritz 13 over the next three-and-a-half months. Master and Amateur: Giuoco Piano with IM Lorin D’Costa and Nick Murphy will be an important part of my reeducation. I look forward to future ChessBase DVDs with this pair, too.

I strongly recommend The Giuoco Piano for improving players.

Lorin D'Costa, Nick Murphy The Giuoco Piano Languages: English ISBN: 978-3-86681-361-8 EAN: 4027975007502 Delivery: Download or Post €27.90 €23.45 without VAT (for Customers outside the EU) $31.77 (without VAT) Order this Endgame Trainer here