C55 Two Knights: 4.d3, 4.d4 exd4 5.e5 and Max Lange Attack (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Be7 4.c3 Nf6 5.d3 O-O 6.O-O d5 7.exd5 Nxd5 8.Re1 Bf6)

What to say about the tournament I played last weekend, except that I managed to only get 2 points out of the possible 5. It was far from a good result but it does not bring me down all that much. I play more important games elsewhere these days than on close chess. Well, more important to me at least. With 264 games in progress at the moment I may end up having 300+ games if I am not careful... The amount of games I play now is still manageable though it does mean that I am only able to move in the games where I would lose on time if I would not move every day. I am planning to create a schedule where I would do all the games at Chess.com Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays while Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays I would move in my all Red Hot Pawn games. This I planned in order to manage my time better. Currently at 103 games at Chess.com and 149 RHP games in progress. As they are the two major contributors to my correspondence chess games, I feel that I need to start following that schedule as well as I possibly can.

Leduar took the first clear step in the wrong direction when my opponent played 14.Ne4 in the position below. The correct idea was to play the bishop to b2. Moving the knight to e4 was a bad idea, because it allowed me to ruin the pawn structure in front of leduar's king. I took advantage of my opportunity and replied by taking the knight on f3 with my bishop. It is true that I lose my bishop pair because of it, but the exchange was clearly in my favor.

The blunder my opponent made on his or her 14th move was the start of leduar's downfall. The game continued with the moves 15.gxf3 Bh4 16.Kh1 Qd5 and then my opponent made his or her final mistake by playing 17.c4. The problems that arose due to the pawn advance are that the pawn on b4 was no longer protected and the square d4 was no longer controlled by the c-pawn, which made the square d4 ideal place to move my knight to. My opponent never recovered from this blunder and I was able to checkmate my opponent on move 34 with the move Qxd1#. Admittedly I had a faster mate before, but I did not see it.

Game number two. This is the 48th game in the 100 rapid game match between these two players. My friend got his second win in a row in this match and decreased my lead to 9 points. The score after this game was 28.5 - 19.5. Even though losing two games in a row was not that big of a deal just yet, I needed to be careful not to lose too many games in a row and maybe even get a draw to break the losing streak as soon as possible in order to keep things still firmly in my control.

[Event "AUTO-MASTER-2088"] [Site "http://www.queenalice.com/gam"] [Date "2014.05.16"] [Round "1"] [White "leduar"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C55"] [WhiteElo "2022"] [BlackElo "2089"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "68"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Be7 {Italian Game: Hungarian Defense} 4. c3 (4. d4 exd4 5. c3 Nf6 6. e5 Ne4 {Italian Game: Hungarian Defense. Tartakower Variation }) 4... Nf6 5. d3 O-O 6. O-O d5 7. exd5 Nxd5 8. Re1 Bf6 {C55 Two Knights: 4.d3, 4.d4 exd4 5.e5 and Max Lange Attack} 9. Bb5 (9. Nbd2 Nb6 10. Bb5 Qd5 11. Qb3 Qd8 12. Bxc6 bxc6 13. Nxe5 Bxe5 14. Rxe5 Qxd3 15. c4 Qg6 16. Qg3 Bf5 17. Qf4 Be6 18. b3 Rfd8 19. Ba3 Qc2 20. Nf3 a5 21. h3 a4 22. Rg5 g6 23. Ne1 Rd1 { Podgursky,S (2260)-Pessi,E (2355) Bucharest 1996 0-1 (33)}) 9... Nde7 (9... Re8 10. Bxc6 bxc6 11. Nbd2 Nf4 12. d4 Nd3 13. Re3 Nxc1 14. Rxc1 exd4 15. Rxe8+ Qxe8 16. Nxd4 Bxd4 17. cxd4 Be6 18. b3 Bd5 19. Nc4 Rd8 20. Qd2 Bxc4 21. Rxc4 c5 22. g3 Qe7 23. Qa5 Rxd4 {1/2-1/2 (23) Garcia Lopez,J (1838) -Castro Lopez,S (1737) Martorell 2016}) 10. Nbd2 Bg4 $146 (10... a6 11. Bxc6 Nxc6 12. Ne4 Be7 13. Ng3 f6 14. b4 Bg4 15. h3 Be6 16. Bb2 Qd7 17. Qe2 b5 18. a3 Rad8 19. Rad1 Bb3 20. Rd2 Bd5 21. Rdd1 Bd6 22. c4 Bf7 23. c5 Be7 24. d4 Bb3 25. Rd2 {Bagheri,M (1958) -Kichukov,M (1821) Chennai 2012 1-0 (67)}) (10... a6 11. Bc4 $11) 11. Qc2 (11. h3 $5 Bf5 12. Ne4 $14) 11... a6 12. Bxc6 (12. Ba4 b5 13. Bb3 Bh5 $11) 12... Nxc6 $15 ({Worse is} 12... bxc6 13. Nxe5 Bf5 14. Ndf3 $16) 13. b4 (13. b3 Bf5 14. Ne4 Be7 $15) 13... Re8 {White has a cramped position} (13... Nxb4 14. cxb4 e4 15. Bb2 (15. Nxe4 $2 Bxa1 16. Bg5 f6 17. Qc4+ Kh8 18. Nxf6 Bxf6 19. Qxg4 Qxd3 $19) 15... exf3 16. Bxf6 Qxf6 17. Qxc7 fxg2 18. Qxb7 $15) 14. Ne4 (14. Bb2 $5 $11 {is interesting}) 14... Bxf3 $17 15. gxf3 Bh4 16. Kh1 (16. a4 Qd5 $17) 16... Qd5 17. c4 (17. Bg5 Bxg5 18. Nxg5 f6 $17) 17... Qd7 $19 18. Rg1 Nd4 19. Qd1 Qf5 (19... f5 20. Ng3 $19) 20. Bh6 g6 21. Bg5 (21. Be3 Qxf3+ 22. Qxf3 Nxf3 $19) 21... Bxg5 22. Rxg5 Qe6 23. Nd2 (23. Rb1 $19) 23... Rad8 24. Nb3 Qf6 25. Rg3 b6 26. a4 $2 (26. Nxd4 Rxd4 27. Qe2 $19) 26... Nxb3 27. Qxb3 e4 28. Re1 ( 28. Rd1 {is not much help} exf3 29. c5 Rd4 $19) 28... exf3 (28... Rxd3 $142 { keeps an even firmer grip} 29. Qc2 Red8 $19) 29. Rxe8+ (29. Re4 $19 {is the last straw}) 29... Rxe8 30. d4 (30. Qd1 {hoping against hope} Re2 31. Kg1 $19) 30... Re1+ 31. Rg1 Rxg1+ (31... Qg5 32. h3 Qxg1#) 32. Kxg1 Qg5+ 33. Kf1 Qc1+ 34. Qd1 Qxd1# 0-1 [Event "Challenge 32662530"] [Site "online arena"] [Date "2015.08.21"] [Round "1"] [White "Tocklin, Tomi"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C55"] [WhiteElo "1663"] [BlackElo "1794"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (5s), TV"] [PlyCount "89"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 (2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Be7 (3... Nf6) 4. d3 {0-1 (39) Meszaros,R (2050)-Szabados,G Hungary 1999} (4. c3 Nf6 5. d3 O-O {0-1 (33) Podgursky,S (2260)-Pessi,E (2355) Bucharest 1996})) 2... Nc6 3. d3 Nf6 4. Nf3 {C55 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense. Modern Bishop's Opening} Be7 5. O-O O-O 6. c3 d5 7. exd5 Nxd5 8. Re1 Bf6 {0.53/19 C55 Two Knights: 4.d3, 4.d4 exd4 5.e5 and Max Lange Attack} (8... Bg4 $11 {0.12/21}) 9. Nbd2 Nf4 {1.25/17} (9... Nb6 $11 { 0.24/22} 10. Bb5 Qd5 11. Qb3 Qd8 12. Bxc6 bxc6 13. Nxe5 Bxe5 14. Rxe5 Qxd3 15. c4 Qg6 16. Qg3 Bf5 17. Qf4 Be6 18. b3 Rfd8 19. Ba3 Qc2 20. Nf3 a5 21. h3 a4 22. Rg5 g6 23. Ne1 Rd1 24. Rxd1 Qxd1 {Podgursky,S (2260)-Pessi,E (2355) Bucharest 1996 0-1 (33)}) 10. Ne4 $16 Bg4 {1.62/19} (10... Bf5 $16 {1.08/23 keeps fighting.}) 11. d4 $1 {0.50/21} (11. Bxf4 exf4 12. h3 Bh5 13. d4 g5 14. Qb3 Na5 15. Qb5 Nxc4 16. Qxc4 Bxf3 17. gxf3 Bg7 18. Qb5 h6 19. Qf5 c6 20. Kg2 Qb6 21. h4 f6 22. Rh1 Rad8 23. hxg5 fxg5 24. Qe6+ Rf7 25. Nd6 Rxd6 {Ahmadzada,A (2343) -Kifliuk,R chess.com INT 2018 1-0 (31)}) 11... Ng6 $14 (11... exd4 12. Bxf4) 12. d5 $146 ({Reject} 12. Nxf6+ $6 Qxf6 13. d5 Bxf3 $11) (12. Be3 exd4 13. Nxf6+ Qxf6 14. Bxd4 Bxf3 15. Qxf3 Qxf3 16. gxf3 Nxd4 17. cxd4 Rad8 18. Rad1 Rd7 19. Re3 Rfd8 20. d5 Kf8 21. Kf1 Nf4 22. Re5 c6 23. d6 Rxd6 24. Rxd6 Rxd6 25. Ke1 Rd4 26. Re4 c5 {Meszaros,R (2050)-Szabados,G Hungary 1999 0-1 (39)}) 12... Nb8 {1.37/18} (12... Na5 $14 {0.58/24} 13. Bf1 b6) 13. Be2 {0.37/22} (13. h3 $16 {1.37/18} Bxf3 14. Qxf3) 13... Be7 14. c4 {-0.54/21} (14. h3 $14 {0.65/20} Bxf3 15. Bxf3) 14... Nd7 {0.09/22} (14... f5 $15 {-0.54/21} 15. Neg5 Bxf3 16. Nxf3 Nd7) 15. d6 {-0.69/21} (15. h3 $11 {0.09/22} Bxf3 16. Bxf3) 15... cxd6 { 0.09/21} (15... Bxd6 $1 $15 {-0.69/21} 16. Nxd6 cxd6) 16. Nxd6 {-1.27/19} (16. h3 $11 {0.09/21} Bxf3 17. Bxf3) 16... Qb6 {-0.02/21} (16... Nc5 $17 {-1.27/19} 17. Nb5 e4) 17. Nb5 $2 {-1.66/19 [#]} (17. Ne4 $11 {-0.02/21}) 17... a6 $2 { -0.05/23} (17... Bc5 $19 {-1.66/19} 18. Rf1 Nf6) 18. Nc3 $11 Bc5 19. Ne4 { -1.02/21} (19. Rf1 $1 $11 {-0.25/20}) 19... Be7 {0.19/22} ({Black should play} 19... Rfd8 $1 $17 {-1.02/21 ...Nf6 is the strong threat.} 20. Qc2 f5 21. Nxc5 Nxc5) 20. Be3 $36 {White has some pressure.} Qc7 {0.46/20} ({Black should try} 20... Qc6 $11 {-0.09/22} 21. Nc3 Nf6) 21. h3 {-0.09/23} (21. Nc3 $14 {0.46/20}) 21... Bf5 22. Nc3 Bc5 {0.96/21} (22... Be6 $11 {0.05/20}) 23. Nd5 $16 Qc6 { 1.65/20} (23... Qd8 $14 {0.70/22}) 24. Bxc5 $18 Qxc5 25. b4 $1 Qc6 $2 {5.57/20} (25... Qa7 $16 {1.34/23 is tougher.}) 26. h4 $2 {0.01/23} ({White must play} 26. Nh4 $1 $18 {5.57/20} Qe6 (26... Nxh4 27. Ne7+) 27. Nxf5 Qxf5 28. Bg4) 26... Rfe8 $11 27. b5 {0.00/22} ({Better is} 27. h5 $14 {0.58/20} Ne7 28. Bd3 Bxd3 29. Qxd3) 27... axb5 {1.12/20} (27... Qc5 $11 {0.00/22 remains equal.}) 28. cxb5 $16 Qd6 $1 29. h5 {0.60/22} (29. Rc1 $16 {1.15/18}) 29... Ne7 {1.18/20} ( 29... Ngf8 $14 {0.60/22}) 30. Bc4 Nxd5 31. Bxd5 Qb8 $2 {4.75/21} (31... Qf6 $1 $14 {0.69/22}) 32. Ng5 Re7 33. Qf3 Be6 34. Bxb7 Rxa2 $2 {8.78/19} (34... Ra7 { 3.60/22}) 35. Nxe6 $18 Qa7 36. Rxa2 Qxa2 37. Ng5 {[#] Threatens to win with Bd5.} h6 38. Ne4 Qb2 39. Bc6 Nf8 40. Qc3 Qa2 41. b6 f5 42. Nd2 e4 43. Qc4+ Qxc4 44. Nxc4 Re8 45. Bxe8 {Accuracy: White = 27%, Black = 20%.} 1-0