C41 Philidor Defence (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Be7 5.Bc4 Nf6 6.Nc3 O-O 7.O-O)

As I had an hour or so extra to use today, I updated the exercises section of the blog with more puzzles before I did this post. I kind of knew that clocks were changed again to winter time but completely forgot it when I put the alarm for today morning. I am not that annoyed for waking up earlier than I intended as I got to these updates before I need to go to play some close chess again and set the clocks for the next round. So far after three rounds I have one win, one draw and one loss. In order to increase my rating a bit I may need to get at least 1,5 points in the last two games. If my previous attempts have shown though, it is not looking so promising and it is much more likely for me to plummet my rating again. Well, as I have put a lot more effort into my online games which I have 259 currently in progress, if none of my opponents have resigned without me noticing, are therefore more important to me than the close chess games at the moment, so whatever happens in the last two rounds is not all that much of a concern for me.

[Event "AUTO-MASTER-2088"] [Site "http://www.queenalice.com/gam"] [Date "2014.05.16"] [Round "1"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "Takeda"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C41"] [WhiteElo "2105"] [BlackElo "2027"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (5s), TV"] [PlyCount "89"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 (2... Nf6 3. Nc3 d6 4. d4 exd4 {0-1 (60) Cuervo,A (1767) -Gomez Perdomo,J (1876) Bogota 2017}) 3. d4 exd4 {C41 Philidor Defense: Exchange Variation} 4. Nxd4 Be7 (4... Nf6 5. Nc3 Be7 {1-0 (52) Mustafin,N (2277)-Grigoriev,P (1814) Yakutsk 2012}) 5. Bc4 Nf6 6. Nc3 O-O 7. O-O {0.06/21 C41 Philidor Defence} (7. Bf4 $16 {0.78/18}) 7... c5 {0.90/18} (7... Nc6 $11 { 0.06/21 keeps the balance.}) 8. Nde2 a6 (8... Be6 9. Qd3 Nc6 10. Nf4 Bxc4 11. Qxc4 Nb4 12. Ncd5 b5 13. Qxb5 Nxc2 14. Rb1 Rb8 15. Qa4 Nb4 16. Rd1 Nfxd5 17. Nxd5 Re8 18. Be3 Nxd5 19. Rxd5 Qc7 20. h3 Bf8 21. Bf4 Re6 22. f3 g6 23. b4 { Laouini,S (2196)-Belkhodja,S (2499) Malakoff 2006 1/2-1/2 (62)}) 9. a4 Be6 { White is slightly better.} (9... Qc7 10. Ng3 Nc6 11. Bg5 Bg4 12. f3 Be6 13. Nd5 Nxd5 14. exd5 Ne5 15. Bxe7 Qxe7 16. Be2 Bd7 17. c4 f5 18. Re1 Qh4 19. Nf1 Rf6 20. g3 Qh3 21. f4 Ng6 22. Bf3 Raf8 23. Bg2 Qh6 24. Qe2 {Cuervo,A (1767)-Gomez Perdomo,J (1876) Bogota 2017 0-1 (60)}) 10. Qd3 $146 {0.65/23} (10. b3 $16 { 1.20/18}) (10. Bxe6 fxe6 11. Nf4 Qd7 12. e5 dxe5 13. Qxd7 Nbxd7 14. Nxe6 Rfc8 15. Ng5 h6 16. Nge4 Nxe4 17. Nxe4 b5 18. Rd1 Nf6 19. Ng3 c4 20. Be3 b4 21. Kf1 Kf7 22. Nf5 b3 23. c3 Rd8 24. Bb6 Rxd1+ {Mustafin,N (2277)-Grigoriev,P (1814) Yakutsk 2012 1-0 (52)}) 10... Nc6 $14 {[#] Hoping for ...Ne5.} 11. Bxe6 { 0.05/21} (11. Nf4 $1 $16 {1.01/20}) 11... fxe6 $11 12. Nf4 {-0.48/21} (12. Qh3 $14 {0.56/20}) 12... Ne5 $2 {2.15/19} (12... Qd7 $15 {-0.48/21}) 13. Qh3 $18 Qd7 {3.25/19} (13... Qc8 {2.15/25 was necessary.} 14. Qxe6+ (14. Nxe6 Re8 $16) 14... Rf7) 14. Qxe6+ Qxe6 15. Nxe6 Rf7 16. Nf4 Nfg4 {2.62/18} (16... Nc6 { 1.64/23 keeps fighting.} 17. f3 Nd7) 17. h3 Nf6 18. b3 Nfd7 19. Nfd5 Raf8 20. Be3 Nf6 21. f3 Nc6 22. Rad1 Nb4 {3.32/20} (22... Bd8 $142 {2.37/22} 23. Nf4 Ba5 ) 23. Nxb4 cxb4 24. Nd5 Nxd5 25. Rxd5 ({Weaker is} 25. exd5 a5 $16) 25... Rc8 26. Rf2 Rc6 27. Re2 Bf6 28. Bd4 Bxd4+ {2.34/22} (28... Rfc7 $142 {1.65/26} 29. Bxf6 gxf6) 29. Rxd4 {Endgame KRR-KRR} a5 30. Red2 Rfc7 31. Rxd6 Rxc2 32. Rxc2 Rxc2 {KR-KR} 33. Rd8+ Kf7 34. Rd7+ Kf6 35. Rxb7 Rb2 36. Ra7 Rxb3 37. Rxa5 Ra3 38. Ra6+ $2 {0.00/21 [#]} (38. Rf5+ $18 {2.52/21} Ke7 39. a5) 38... Kf7 $2 { 3.09/27} (38... Ke5 $11 {0.00/21 and Black is okay.}) 39. a5 b3 40. Rb6 Rxa5 41. Rxb3 h6 42. Rb6 Re5 43. Kf2 Rg5 44. f4 Rc5 45. Kf3 {Accuracy: White = 42%, Black = 37%.} 1-0