D01 Veresov Opening (1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 c6 4.Bg5)

The game I am sharing today was played nearly four years ago at GameKnot. The deciding moment of the game was seen after 11...Rfe8 when my opponent played 12.g4. Moving the pawn to g4 was a horrible idea that should be the losing move. While the king is still in the center, it may not be a good idea to start attacking. Sure the king was able to castle to queenside, but since the intention behind 12.g4 was to open lines in front of my king and it completely failing in view of my reply 12...f4, it was a waste of a move in my opinion.

After my reply 12...f4, it seemed obvious that I was on the better side of the board, my king was safe, I had some play against the central pawns and my opponent did not have any counterplay. My opponent then castled to the queenside and I replied with the sloppy 13...a5. A much stronger move for me would have been 13...fxe3. Had adamscheeks then taken back the pawn with its counterpart, I could have won a pawn with 14...Rxe3, the point is that Qxe3 would be horrible in view of Bf4. The rest of the game went downhill for adamscheeks and eventually I was able to end the game with a checkmate.

[Event "Let's play chess"] [Site "http://gameknot.com/chess.pl?"] [Date "2011.01.08"] [Round "?"] [White "adamscheeks"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D01"] [WhiteElo "1391"] [BlackElo "1666"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "62"] [EventDate "2011.??.??"] {[%evp 9,61,-39,-7,-18,-24,-24,-28,-31,-30,-39,-42,-54,-22,-65,-77,-180,-194, -178,-115,-240,-182,-329,-200,-383,-383,-822,-819,-895,-890,-892,-840,-1112, -958,-29983,-29984,-29984,-29985,-29988,-1680,-29990,-2401,-29991,-29992, -29992,-3988,-2676,-2609,-29992,-29993,-29996,-29997,-29997,-29998,-29999]} 1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 {D02 Queen's Pawn Game: Symmetrical Variation} 3. Nc3 c6 4. Bg5 {D01 Veresov Opening} Nbd7 (4... Bf5 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Be2 e6 7. Nh4 h6 8. Bxf6 Nxf6 9. Nxf5 exf5 10. Bd3 g6 11. h4 h5 12. g3 Bb4 13. a3 Bxc3+ {1/2-1/2 (13) Herrera,F (2295)-Darcyl,T (2395) San Martin 1987}) 5. Ne5 (5. Qd2 e6 6. g3 Be7 7. Bg2 h6 8. Bf4 Nh5 9. O-O Nxf4 10. Qxf4 Nf6 11. e4 O-O 12. e5 Nd7 13. Ne2 Qb6 14. Qc1 Qb5 15. Re1 b6 16. Nc3 Qa5 17. Nd2 c5 18. Nb3 Qb4 19. a3 Qxd4 {Julien Casteleiro,A (1585)-Aleman Sosa,B Las Palmas 2013 1-0}) 5... Qc7 $146 (5... Ng8 6. Nxd7 Qxd7 7. e4 dxe4 8. d5 e6 9. dxc6 Qxd1+ 10. Rxd1 f6 11. Bb5 Kf7 12. Be3 Bb4 13. cxb7 Bxb7 14. Rd7+ Ne7 15. Rxb7 Rhc8 16. Bd2 f5 17. a3 Bd6 18. O-O a6 19. Be2 Rd8 20. Rd1 {Prangemeier,D (1377) -Skoecz,H (1401) Dortmund 2003 1-0}) 6. Nxd7 (6. Bf4 {with more complications.} Qb6 7. Na4 Qa5+ 8. c3 Nxe5 9. Bxe5 Nd7 10. b4) 6... Bxd7 7. Bxf6 exf6 {[%mdl 32]} 8. e3 {Black has an edge.} Bd6 9. Be2 O-O 10. Qd2 f5 11. h3 {-0.65/27} (11. Bd3 $11 {-0.22/26 was preferrable. }) 11... Rfe8 12. g4 {-1.80/25} (12. Qd3 $17 {-0.77/26 was called for.}) 12... f4 $19 13. O-O-O a5 {-1.15/26} (13... fxe3 $19 {-1.78/24} 14. Qe1 Re7) 14. h4 { -2.40/27} (14. Kb1 $17 {-1.15/26 keeps fighting.}) 14... b5 {[%mdl 32]} 15. Bf3 {-3.29/24} (15. Kb1 {-1.82/25 was necessary.}) 15... a4 {...fxe3 is the strong threat.} 16. e4 $2 {-3.83/27 [#]} (16. Kb1 {-2.00/26}) 16... b4 17. Ne2 $2 { -8.22/25} (17. exd5 {-3.83/28} bxc3 18. Qxc3) 17... dxe4 18. Bxe4 Rxe4 19. f3 Re3 20. Ng1 b3 21. cxb3 axb3 22. a3 Be6 23. h5 Bd5 {-16.80/25} (23... Bxa3 $142 {-#12/26} 24. Ne2 {[%tqu "En","","","","e3e2","",10]} Rxe2 $1 {[%mdl 512]} 25. bxa3 Rxd2 26. Kxd2 Qa5+ 27. Kd3 b2 28. Ke4 {[%tqu "En","","","","e6g4","",10]} Bxg4 $1 {[%mdl 512]} 29. fxg4 Qd5+ 30. Kxf4 Rxa3 31. Rh3 Rxh3 32. Rd3 Rxd3 33. g5 Qxd4+ 34. Kf5 Rf3#) 24. Rf1 c5 {-24.01/26} (24... Bxa3 $142 {-#10/26} 25. bxa3 Rxa3 26. Kb1 Qa7 27. Qb2 Bc4 28. Rh2 Bd3+ 29. Rc2 bxc2+ 30. Kc1 Ra1+ 31. Kd2 Qa5+ 32. Qc3 Rxf1 33. Qxa5 c1=Q#) 25. dxc5 Qxc5+ 26. Kb1 Ra4 {-39.88/30} ( 26... Qc4 $142 {-#8/39} 27. Ne2 Rxe2 28. Rf2 {[%tqu "En","", "","","d5e4","", 10]} Be4+ $1 {[%mdl 512]} 29. fxe4 Qxe4+ 30. Kc1 Qxh1+ 31. Rf1 Qxf1+ 32. Qd1 Rc8+ 33. Kb1 Qxd1#) 27. Rc1 Rc4 28. Rxc4 Bxc4 {Black mates.} 29. h6 Bd3+ 30. Ka1 Be5 31. hxg7 Qxa3# {Accuracy: White = 10%, Black = 49%.} 0-1