E12 Queen's Indian: Unusual White 4th moves, 4.a3, 4.Nc3 Bb7 5.a3 and 4.Nc3 Bb7 (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.a3 Bb7 5.Nc3 Be7 6.g3 O-O 7.d5 d6)

The game you see below is a recent one and like most cases in my games, the opening variation played comes from unusual move order. The usual move order for this opening variation is otherwise the same as the order in the game, except for white's fourth and fifth moves should be other way around. As I typed about the weird time control numbers yesterday this one is also the amount of seconds players had at their disposal for each move. 604800 seconds equals to 7 days. If you find something that is wrong or bizarre in this blog, please let me know in the comments and I try answer as well as I can to what is maybe the reason why something is the way it is. The comments may contain questions about the puzzles or maybe some of my posts that did not make sense if there are any that is that were hard to understand. I do try to do things as simply as I can while maintaining a certain level of quality. I have added more puzzles to mate in ones, twos and threes.

[Event "Let's play chess"] [Site "http://gameknot.com/chess.pl?"] [Date "2014.09.13"] [Round "?"] [White "wwgia"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "E12"] [WhiteElo "1685"] [BlackElo "1694"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (5s), TV"] [PlyCount "64"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. d4 Nf6 (1... e6 2. c4 b6 3. Nc3 Bb7 4. a3 Nf6 {0-1 (26) Soppe,G (2455) -Tempone,M (2435) La Carlota 1995}) 2. c4 (2. Nf3 e6 {1-0 (41) Dimic,P (2257) -Soundarya,K (1691) Belgrade 2013}) 2... e6 (2... b6 3. Nf3 Bb7 4. Nc3 e6 { 1/2-1/2 (60) Ushenina,A (2451)-Hallaeva,B (2098) Batumi 2018}) 3. Nf3 b6 4. a3 Bb7 (4... Be7 5. Nc3 {0-1 (29) Kaunas,K (2210)-Beliajev,D (2195) Lithuania 2014 }) 5. Nc3 Be7 {E12 Queen's Indian Defense: Kasparov-Petrosian Variation. Marco Defense} 6. g3 (6. d5 O-O {0-1 (29) Kaunas,K (2210)-Beliajev,D (2195) Lithuania 2014} (6... d6 7. g3 {1/2-1/2 (60) Ushenina,A (2451)-Hallaeva,B (2098) Batumi 2018})) 6... O-O 7. d5 d6 {0.84/21 E12 Queen's Indian: Unusual White 4th moves, 4.a3, 4.Nc3 Bb7 5.a3 and 4.Nc3 Bb7} (7... exd5 $11 {0.00/22 remains equal.} 8. cxd5 Na6) 8. Bg2 {-0.03/21} (8. Bh3 $16 {0.84/21}) 8... Nbd7 {1.24/20} (8... exd5 $1 $11 {-0.03/21} 9. cxd5 c6) (8... e5 9. O-O {0-1 (26) Soppe,G (2455)-Tempone,M (2435) La Carlota 1995}) 9. Nd4 $146 (9. O-O e5 (9... Re8 10. Nd4 e5 11. Nc6 Bxc6 12. dxc6 Nc5 13. b4 Ne6 14. Ra2 Kh8 15. e3 Ng8 16. f4 g6 17. fxe5 dxe5 18. Rd2 Qc8 19. Rxf7 Rf8 20. Rxf8 Qxf8 21. Bb2 Bf6 22. Rd7 e4 23. Qe2 Ng7 24. Nxe4 {Obsivac,J (2287)-Jirasek,P (2265) Pardubice 2009 1-0}) (9... exd5 10. cxd5 a5 11. b3 Nc5 12. Nd4 Nfd7 13. Rb1 Bf6 14. Be3 Qe8 15. b4 axb4 16. axb4 Na6 17. h3 Ne5 18. Qb3 Nb8 19. Rfc1 Ba6 20. Ne4 Bd8 21. f4 Nc4 22. Rxc4 Bxc4 23. Qxc4 f5 24. Ne6 {Dimic,P (2257)-Soundarya,K (1691) Belgrade 2013 1-0 (41)}) 10. b4 a5 (10... c6 11. dxc6 Bxc6 12. Bb2 Rc8 13. Qb3 a6 14. Rac1 b5 15. cxb5 axb5 16. Nh4 d5 17. Nf5 Nb6 18. Rfd1 g6 19. Nxe7+ Qxe7 20. Nb1 Nc4 21. Nd2 Qe6 22. e3 h5 23. Qc3 d4 24. exd4 Bxg2 25. Kxg2 {Soppe,G (2455) -Tempone,M (2435) La Carlota 1995 0-1}) 11. Bb2 (11. Rb1 Re8 12. Ne1 Bf8 13. e4 h6 14. Nc2 g6 15. Ne3 Bg7 16. Qc2 Qe7 17. Bd2 axb4 18. axb4 Reb8 19. Rfc1 Bf8 20. Qd1 Kh7 21. Na4 Qd8 22. Qc2 Ra7 23. Nc3 Rba8 24. Ned1 Ba6 25. Nb2 Qb8 { Ushenina,A (2451)-Hallaeva,B (2098) Batumi 2018 1/2-1/2 (60)}) 11... Ng4 12. Nd2 f5 13. Nb3 axb4 14. axb4 Rxa1 15. Qxa1 Qc8 16. Qa7 e4 17. Nb5 Nde5 18. Rc1 Bg5 19. Rc2 f4 20. Bxe5 dxe5 21. Bh3 fxg3 22. hxg3 Qf5 23. e3 Bc8 {Kaunas,K (2210)-Beliajev,D (2195) Lithuania 2014 0-1}) 9... exd5 {1.72/18} (9... a5 $16 {0.97/23}) 10. Nf5 $2 {0.03/23 [#]} (10. cxd5 $18 {1.72/18} a5 11. O-O) 10... Re8 {0.63/19} (10... c6 $1 $11 {0.03/23}) 11. O-O {0.05/23} (11. cxd5 $14 { 0.63/19} a5 12. O-O) 11... Bf8 {0.62/19} (11... c6 $11 {0.05/23}) 12. cxd5 $14 Nc5 13. b4 Nce4 14. Nxe4 Nxe4 15. Qd3 $2 {-0.35/22} (15. Ne3 $1 $18 {1.61/22}) 15... Nf6 $2 {1.49/20} (15... Qf6 $15 {-0.35/22 stays ahead.} 16. Nd4 Ba6 17. Qxa6 Qxd4) 16. Bb2 {0.89/22} ({White should try} 16. Bg5 {1.49/20}) 16... g6 { 1.46/22} (16... a5 $142 {0.89/22}) 17. Nh6+ $2 {-3.88/23} (17. Nd4 $16 { 1.46/22 stays on course.}) 17... Bxh6 $19 18. e4 Bg7 19. f4 Nd7 20. Bxg7 Kxg7 21. Qd4+ Qf6 22. Qc4 Rac8 23. e5 $2 {-6.53/20} (23. Rac1 {-3.77/23}) 23... dxe5 {Black is clearly winning.} 24. fxe5 Qxe5 25. d6 Bxg2 26. Qxf7+ Kh8 27. Kxg2 Qxd6 {[#] aiming for ...Re2+.} 28. Rad1 Qc6+ 29. Kg1 Ne5 30. Qb3 Rf8 31. Qb2 Rxf1+ 32. Rxf1 Qe4 {Accuracy: White = 10%, Black = 30%.} 0-1