C41 Philidor Defence (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4)

Today I was proven yet again why I can only call myself a casual chess player and I can maybe never be actually good at the game. Today morning when I went to see what had happened in my correspondence games at Red Hot Pawn, I immeadiately saw that one of my games had ended in my loss, worse yet it was in a game I thought I would win with ease. I was up four pawns in that game but of course it does not matter if I can't see my opponent's obvious mate threat. It was not the first time I went into a mate in one in a correspondence game this year and I am afraid it might not be the last one either. I have lost two games where I had clearly a better game or winning game if I had seen the mate threat that is. In one game I was already losing when I missed the mate in one, so that does not worry me all that much. I have of course done other huge blunders this year also, hang my queen in two of my correspondence games and probably other pieces too though can't think of any at the moment for some reason. As I probably need to make some more moves still today, it is interesting to see in how many I make blunders from which I can't recover...

The move 3...h6 was already a move that made the game somewhat easy for me. This is because the move loses a pawn. I replied with the obvious move 4.dxe5. Then Tonto played another odd move, 4...a6. I am assuming that the purpose of both 3...h6 and 4...a6 is to prevent me from placing a piece on g5 and b5. I think both moves are waste of time and my opponent would have been better off by developing his or her pieces instead of the pawn moves. The position below has been taken after my 5th move, Bc4.

In this position my opponent played 5...Be7. This first developing move by Tonto was a huge blunder. Tonto should have played 5...Nc6 instead. Tonto's 5th move was so bad that it could have been the losing move. I am not sure what was going on in my head, but I only castled in reply. I guess I was not sure if I can castle afterwards if I did not do it at that moment. I had a stronger move available, 6.Qd5. Had I placed my queen to d5, the game might have been over sooner. I might have not been playing the most accurate moves in the remainder of the game, but the advantage was clearly on my side with ease regardless.

[Event "AUTO-MASTER-2135"] [Site "http://www.queenalice.com/gam"] [Date "2014.08.08"] [Round "1"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "Tonto"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C41"] [WhiteElo "2115"] [BlackElo "1971"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "51"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 {Philidor Defence} h6 (3... Be7 4. dxe5 Nc6 5. exd6 cxd6 6. Nc3 a6 7. Be2 Nf6 8. O-O O-O 9. a4 Re8 10. Re1 Be6 11. Nd4 Bd7 12. h3 Qb6 13. Nb3 Qc7 14. a5 Be6 15. Nd5 Bxd5 16. exd5 Ne5 17. Ra4 Nfd7 18. Bf1 { Maus,S (2330)-Azimi,R Cologne 1989 1-0}) (3... Bd7 {Philidor Defense: Philidor Gambit}) (3... Bg4 4. dxe5 Nd7 {Philidor Defense: Alapin-Blackburne Gambit}) ( 3... exd4 4. Bc4 {Philidor Defense: Morphy Gambit} (4. c3 {Philidor Defense: Bird Gambit})) 4. dxe5 a6 $146 (4... Bg4 5. Nc3 Nd7 6. e6 fxe6 7. h3 Bh5 8. Bc4 Qf6 9. Nb5 Kd8 10. g4 Bg6 11. Nfd4 Bf7 12. Be3 d5 13. exd5 exd5 14. Be2 c6 15. Nc3 c5 16. Nf5 d4 17. Bb5 Be6 18. Nxd4 cxd4 19. Bxd4 {Dolgova,T (1977) -Churusova,Y Moscow 2009 1-0}) (4... dxe5 5. Qxd8+ Kxd8 6. Nxe5 Be6 7. Bc4 Bxc4 8. Nxc4 Nd7 9. Bf4 g5 10. Bg3 Bg7 11. c3 a6 12. Nbd2 Ne7 13. O-O Rf8 14. Rad1 Kc8 15. Nb3 b5 16. Ne3 Kb7 17. Nd5 Nxd5 18. exd5 Rad8 19. Rfe1 {Stoicescu, V-Ting,A Dos Hermanas 2004 1-0 (31)}) (4... Nc6 5. Bb5 a6 6. Bxc6+ bxc6 7. exd6 cxd6 8. O-O Be6 9. Nd4 Qb6 10. Nxe6 fxe6 11. Qh5+ Kd8 12. Qf7 Nf6 13. e5 Ne4 14. Qxe6 Ra7 15. exd6 Nxd6 16. Be3 c5 17. Nc3 Rb7 18. Na4 Qc6 19. Nxc5 { Fjodorow,P (1846)-Imlau,R (925) Germany 2000 1-0}) 5. Bc4 Be7 $4 {cause more grief} (5... Nc6 $5 $16) 6. O-O (6. Qd5 {and White can already relax} Be6 7. Qxb7 Nd7 8. Bxe6 fxe6 $18) 6... Nd7 $2 (6... Nc6 7. Bd5 $18) 7. e6 (7. Qd5 $142 {keeps an even firmer grip} Nxe5 8. Nxe5 $18) 7... fxe6 8. Bxe6 Ngf6 (8... Bf6 9. Nd4 Ne7 10. a4 Bxd4 11. Qxd4 $18) 9. Nc3 (9. Nh4 Nf8 10. Bxc8 Qxc8 $18) 9... Nc5 10. Bxc8 Qxc8 11. e5 (11. Nd4 $142 $18) 11... Nfe4 $4 {the position was bad, and this mistake simply hastens the end} (11... dxe5 $142 12. Nxe5 Qf5 $16 ) 12. Nxe4 (12. Nd5 $142 $5 {might be the shorter path} Qd7 13. b4 O-O-O 14. bxc5 dxe5 15. Nxe7+ Qxe7 $18) 12... Nxe4 13. Qd5 Nc5 (13... Qf5 14. Qxb7 O-O $18) 14. exd6 cxd6 15. Re1 Qd7 16. Qh5+ Kd8 17. Be3 Qc6 (17... Rc8 {praying for a miracle} 18. Rad1 Rf8 $18) 18. Rad1 Ne4 (18... Kc8 {doesn't change the outcome of the game} 19. Bxc5 Qxc5 20. Qxc5+ dxc5 21. Rxe7 $18) 19. Ne5 Qe8 20. Nf7+ (20. Bb6+ Kc8 21. Qh3+ Kb8 22. Nd7+ Qxd7 23. Qxd7 Bd8 24. Rxe4 Bxb6 25. Re7 Ra7 26. Rxd6 Rc8 27. Rxb6 Rh8 28. Rxb7+ Ka8 29. Rxa7+ Kb8 30. Qb7#) 20... Kc7 21. Qa5+ Kb8 22. Nxh8 Bd8 23. Bb6 Bxb6 24. Qxb6 a5 25. Rxd6 Ra6 26. Rd8+ ( 26. Rd8+ Qxd8 27. Qxd8+ Ka7 28. Qd4+ Rb6 29. Rxe4 Ka6 30. Re8 Ka7 31. Re6 Kb8 32. Qd8+ Ka7 33. Qxb6+ Kb8 34. Re8#) 1-0