Cool Italian Idea - Study Your Classics

World Champion Ding Liren reached the following position in his R3 game vs Wesley So at the 2024 Sinquefield Cup:

Let's revisit the initial position in the above diagram.

Now, look at this position which happened in my game 4 months ago:

If Ding had studied his classics, a move like Bh4 would have immediately sprung to mind. I'm jesting, of course. Ding has obviously studied all my games and was definitely aware of the Bh4 idea. After all, he spent 25 minutes for Nh4 which indicates he was contemplating Bh4 as well.

In his defense, it's a super tough move to evaluate and in my game it was definitely more favorable thanks to the inclusion of a4-a5. Why? Black no longer has access to the a5 square for his knight which means he can't get my light squared bishop off the a2-g8 diagonal. If he's able to do that, then he can break the pin with ...Qe6. So, to revisit the variation in his game against Wesley - 13.Bh4, gxf3 Qxf3, Kg7, Nf1, Rh8, Ne3, Be6. Nf5+ would be strong here if not for Bxf5 Qxf5 Na5! The light squared bishop can't stay on the a2-g8 diagonal and White will probably be the one fighting for equality now.

In my game, as noted in the analysis of the second diagram above, Nf5+ Bxf5 Qxf5 leads to a winning setup. Black doesn't have Na5 and can't realistically break the pin.

Chess is hard.