C00 French: Unusual White 2nd moves (1.e4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Qe2+)

Today I shall present to you this short game that I won on time. Even if my opponent had not flagged, the position for him was really bad anyway. This game was played in Sarah's Mini Cooper Tournament (No 52), the time control for the game was 3 days/move. There was at the start of the tournament 100 players that were divided into groups of five. From each group two of the best players will advance to the next round. I had to resign my last game of round one against a player who was around 450 points lower rated than me but played much better than his rating would suggest. I am actually surprised that he did not make it to round two. That game was also the only loss I suffered in round one in this tournament. In my other game against the player who was the only one that could beat me, I also had difficulties but I was able to get a win in that game. I will post that game at some point here, when I have analysed it. I should maybe avoid playing correspondence chess tournaments where the winner advances to the next round. This is because I may completely forget that tournament even exists before the next round starts. Assuming that I win my group, of course, it does not happen all the time. Today I noticed that my Red Hot Pawn games had increased from 133 to 141, so I started look what had caused this. After I found out what games had started, I figured out that one of the tournaments had moved on to the next round. I had forgotten all about that tournament. This meant that my games in progress is now 288, so the real chance of it getting over 300 is still there. I have added more puzzles to mate in ones, twos and threes today.

[Event "Sarah's Mini Cooper Tournament (No 52)"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2014.10.15"] [Round "?"] [White "FuadQasanov"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C00"] [WhiteElo "1253"] [BlackElo "1874"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (5s), TV"] [PlyCount "38"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. e4 e6 2. Nf3 {C00 French Defense: Knight Variation} d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. Qe2+ {C00 French: Unusual White 2nd moves} Be7 5. Ng5 (5. d4 Nc6 6. Nc3 Nf6 7. Bg5 Bg4 8. Bxf6 gxf6 9. O-O-O Qd6 10. Nb5 Qb4 11. Nxc7+ Kd7 12. Nxa8 Rxa8 13. h3 Bxf3 14. Qxf3 Qa5 15. Bd3 Qxa2 16. Bf5+ Ke8 17. Bxh7 Bb4 18. c3 Qa1+ 19. Kc2 Qa4+ {Vojtko,P-Nagy,Z (2250) Sarospatak 1995 1-0 (59)}) (5. Nc3 Nf6 6. d3 Bg4 7. h3 Bh5 8. Bg5 O-O 9. O-O-O Re8 10. g4 Bg6 11. Bg2 a6 12. Nh4 h6 13. Bxf6 Bxf6 14. Qd2 Bxh4 15. Nxd5 c6 16. Nc3 Qc7 17. f4 b5 18. g5 hxg5 19. fxg5 Qg3 { Romanova,E (1000)-Novomeska,K (1205) Slovakia 2018 0-1 (41)}) 5... Nf6 { -1.13/23} (5... c5 $19 {-1.84/21} 6. d3 Nf6) 6. Qe5 $146 {-4.76/18 [#]} (6. Nf3 $17 {-1.13/23}) (6. c4 dxc4 7. Qxc4 O-O 8. Bd3 Nc6 9. Qc2 g6 10. Nc3 Nb4 11. Qb1 Nxd3+ 12. Kd1 Nxf2+ 13. Ke1 Nxh1 14. Nb5 Bd7 15. Nd4 Ng4 16. h3 Bxg5 17. hxg4 Qe7+ 18. Ne2 Bxg4 19. Qd3 Rfe8 20. Kd1 Bxe2+ {Sanyal,S-Chung,E (60) Coventry 2015 0-1}) 6... Nc6 {-2.37/21} (6... O-O $142 {-4.76/18 ...Ng4 is the strong threat.} 7. Qc3 Nc6) 7. Bb5 $19 Bd7 8. Bxc6 {Black is clearly better.} Bxc6 9. d3 {-1.92/21} (9. O-O $17 {-1.42/20 might work better.}) 9... O-O { -1.35/22} (9... d4 $19 {-1.92/21} 10. O-O O-O) 10. Qf5 $2 {-4.29/21 [#]} (10. O-O $17 {-1.35/22 is a better defense.}) 10... d4 {-1.72/22} (10... Bd6 $142 { -4.29/21} 11. Nf3 Re8+ 12. Kf1 Qe7) 11. O-O g6 12. Qh3 Nh5 13. Ne4 {-2.05/22} ( 13. f4 $17 {-1.30/22 keeps fighting.}) 13... Bxe4 $2 {-0.52/21} ({Don't play} 13... f5 14. Ng3 $17) ({Better is} 13... Bd7 $19 {-2.05/22} 14. Qf3 f5) 14. dxe4 $15 Qd6 {0.09/21} (14... Re8 $15 {-0.52/21}) 15. Nd2 {-0.43/20} ({White should play} 15. Qd3 $11 {0.09/21}) 15... Rfe8 {0.00/22} (15... a5 $15 { -0.43/20}) 16. Nc4 {-0.87/22} (16. Qb3 $11 {0.00/22 keeps the balance.}) 16... Qc5 $36 {Black has good play.} 17. b3 $2 {-1.87/19} (17. Qd3 $11 {-0.25/23 and White is okay.}) 17... b5 $19 18. Na5 {-3.06/19} (18. Ba3 $142 {-1.68/24} Qc6 19. Bxe7 bxc4 20. Bg5) 18... Qxc2 {aiming for ...Bb4.} 19. Nc6 $2 {-7.60/19} ( 19. a3 {-2.79/23}) 19... Qxc6 {Accuracy: White = 6%, Black = 39%.} 0-1