A42 Modern Defence: Averbakh Variation (1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.c4 d6 4.Nc3 e6)

Here is a game that I played almost four years ago against a friend of mine. This is a game where I managed to see some nice tactics, something I am not so able to do all that well anymore.

I have wondered what my true rating should be these days as it is not at all consistent through different sites or even in close chess ratings. Let's see examples of my ratings and try to figure out where my rating should be. At Chess On The Web I have a rating of 1500, which I think is too low to be anywhere near my true rating. The weaker rating there can be easily explained by the fact that most of my opponents have been rated well under my rating and therefore even if I win my rating does not increase all that much. I have 25 wins and 4 losses there and no draws. Then there is my GameKnot rating which is currently at 1720 in correspondence chess and at tactics training I have a rating of 1779. At GameKnot I have managed to get 27 wins 10 losses and zero draws. The ratings at GameKnot are quite close what I would consider to be my current strength but further examination is required. My rating at Queen Alice Internet Chess Club is the best rating that I have anywhere at the moment and it is 2123. I am quite certain that there is quite a lot of air in that rating but then again I have played there 53 games, most of those have been tournament games and mostly I have faced players close to my rating. I am not sure why playing there would be all that different from playing in any other site but there is one thing that does make it a bit different from all the others, I have only played games there with 7 days per move and all other corr chess sites I played with faster time controls also. Now it is time to look at the ratings at Chess.com and they too give somewhat different results than other places. Live Chess - Blitz rating 1678 with the peak rating of 1865 in May 11th this year, Live Chess - Standard rating 1655, peaking at 1677 also may 11th this year, Online Chess rating 1787, peaking at 1974 in January 15th 2009, Tactics rating 1718, peaking at 2165 February 21st 2012 and my Chess Mentor rating 2155 which is also my highest rating that I have had in it. What can we gather from the Chess.com ratings is that my ability to see tactics has dropped like a rock in two years time for some reason. It may be due to my laziness to calculate properly and trusting more on my intuition which as you might have guessed is quite often wrong. When I have done tactics training I have noticed that I have no clue what so ever on what to do on a given position. Either the exercises have become tougher or I have become dumber or hit my head one time too many. At Red Hot Pawn I have managed to get my rating up to new heights and I am quite close to my peak rating there, current rating being 1798 and it peaked at 1806. Maybe I should say that my true rating is somewhere around 1770 or close to 1800 as mostly my ratings are close to those ratings. Then again the difference between my lowest ratings and highest current ratings is over 600 points, so who knows where I ought to be.

[Event "Let's Play!"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2010.10.18"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "Riekkinen, Keijo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A42"] [WhiteElo "1691"] [BlackElo "1500"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (5s), TV"] [PlyCount "65"] [EventDate "2010.??.??"] 1. e4 (1. d4 g6 2. c4 Bg7 3. Nc3 d6 {1-0 (60) Solovjova,A (1917)-Gordievich,L (1703) Batumi 2014} (3... e6 4. e4 {1-0 (62) Feng,T (1655)-Yuen,J Parramatta 2009})) (1. c4 g6 2. Nc3 Bg7 {1-0 (61) Duer,A (2390)-Wach,M (2330) Austria 1993 }) 1... g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. c4 d6 4. Nc3 {A42 Modern Defense: Averbakh Variation} e6 {A42 Modern Defence: Averbakh Variation} 5. g3 (5. Nf3 Ne7 6. Be3 Nd7 7. Bd3 b6 8. O-O Bb7 9. b4 O-O 10. Qd2 c5 11. bxc5 dxc5 12. d5 e5 13. Bh6 Nc8 14. Bxg7 Kxg7 15. a4 a5 16. Qb2 Qe7 17. Nd2 Ba6 18. Nb5 Bxb5 19. Qxb5 Rb8 {Duer,A (2390) -Wach,M (2330) Austria 1993 1-0 (61)}) 5... Nc6 $146 {1.09/17} (5... Ne7 $14 { 0.37/22} 6. Bg2 Nd7 7. Nge2 e5 8. Be3 f5 9. dxe5 Nxe5 10. f4 Ng4 11. Bd4 O-O 12. h3 Bxd4 13. Qxd4 Nf6 14. c5 fxe4 15. Nxe4 Nxe4 16. Qxe4 d5 17. Qb4 Nf5 18. Kf2 c6 19. Rhe1 Qf6 20. Qc3 d4 {Solovjova,A (1917)-Gordievich,L (1703) Batumi 2014 1-0 (60)}) (5... b6 6. Bg2 Bb7 7. Nge2 Ne7 8. O-O Nd7 9. Bg5 (9. f4 a6 10. Be3 c5 11. dxc5 Nxc5 12. b4 Nd7 13. Qxd6 Rc8 14. Rad1 Rxc4 15. Bxb6 Nc8 16. Bxd8 Nxd6 17. Rxd6 Kxd8 18. Rfd1 Bc8 19. e5 Bf8 20. R6d4 Rxb4 21. Rxb4 Bxb4 22. Ne4 Ke7 23. Nd4 Bb7 {Feng,T (1655)-Yuen,J Parramatta 2009 1-0 (62)}) 9... h6 10. Be3 a6 11. Qd2 Nf6 12. h3 Rb8 13. b4 g5 14. f4 g4 15. d5 gxh3 16. Bxh3 exd5 17. cxd5 Bc8 18. Bg2 Ng4 19. Bd4 f6 20. Nd1 {Vierroth,H (1668)-Schmitt,A (1798) Saarlouis 2002 1-0 (48)}) 6. Nge2 {0.37/23} ({White should play} 6. Nf3 $16 { 1.09/17}) 6... Nge7 $14 7. Bg2 {0.50/19} (7. d5 $16 {0.94/18}) 7... Bd7 { 1.50/18} (7... f5 $14 {0.50/19}) 8. O-O {0.84/19} (8. Be3 $142 {1.50/18}) 8... Ng8 {1.98/19} (8... a6 $16 {0.84/19}) 9. Be3 {1.52/20} (9. f4 $18 {1.98/19}) 9... h5 {2.25/16} (9... Nge7 $16 {1.52/20} 10. f4 O-O) 10. h4 {1.28/22} ({ Better is} 10. d5 $18 {2.25/16}) 10... f6 {2.58/19} (10... Nf6 $16 {1.28/22}) 11. Nf4 Nce7 {3.32/21} (11... Nge7 {1.85/23 keeps fighting.} 12. d5 exd5) 12. Bh3 f5 {4.14/18} (12... Qc8 {2.89/19 is a better defense.} 13. d5 exd5) 13. Qb3 Qc8 14. c5 {[#] cxd6 is the strong threat.} Nf6 $2 {5.32/18} (14... e5 {2.51/21 }) 15. Rac1 {2.18/21} (15. cxd6 $142 {5.32/18} cxd6 16. Rfc1) 15... dxc5 { 3.11/18} (15... d5 $142 {2.18/21}) 16. dxc5 $2 {0.62/20} (16. Rfe1 $18 {3.11/18 }) 16... c6 $2 {3.83/20} (16... e5 $14 {0.62/20}) 17. Rfd1 e5 18. Nfe2 $2 { 0.12/22} (18. Rxd7 $1 $18 {4.62/21} Nxd7 (18... Qxd7 19. Ne6) 19. Nxg6 $1 Nxg6 20. exf5 (20. Qe6+ Ne7 $17)) 18... Be6 $11 19. Qc2 {-0.41/23} ({White should try} 19. Qa4 $11 {0.14/23}) 19... Ng4 $2 {2.12/19} (19... f4 $1 $15 {-0.41/23 keeps the upper hand.} 20. Bxf4 Bxh3 21. Bxe5 Bg4) 20. Bg5 $1 $18 Qc7 $2 { 4.62/18} (20... Nh6 {1.84/23 was worth a try.} 21. f4 Nf7) 21. Rd6 Kf7 {6.34/21 } (21... Qc8 $142 {4.10/23} 22. Re1 f4) 22. Rcd1 Nf6 {12.50/18} (22... Qc8 $142 {4.97/23} 23. f3 (23. Bxe7 Kxe7 24. Re1 Kf8 $16) 23... Nf6) 23. Rxe6 $1 Kxe6 24. Qb3+ Ned5 25. exd5+ Kd7 26. dxc6+ Kc8 27. Bxf6 Re8 28. Nd5 Qxc6 29. Bxg7 Qe6 30. Qa4 {[#] Intending Qa5 and mate.} Kb8 31. Nf6 Rc8 32. Nd7+ Kc7 33. Bxe5+ {Accuracy: White = 22%, Black = 15%.} 1-0