A00 Irregular Openings (1.b4 e5 2.Bb2 Bxb4 3.Bxe5 Nf6 4.c4 Nc6 5.Bb2 O-O 6.e3)

It is a very rare thing that anyone plays this opening anymore, well, I have not faced it all that many times in my games. After several thousand games, I have maybe faced the move 1.b4, only like twenty or so times. It might be a bit more than that but not much. In this game I am clearly outplayed by my much stronger opponent. The ratings are not maybe giving the accurate description of the situation as these are not the ratings that we had back in 2006. The rating info is not saved, which is unfortunate. The first sign of real trouble for me saw the light of day when I played my 15th move Ne4.

My opponent, uffejaster, replied with the inaccurate 16.Nf3 and I got another opportunity keep the game heading more towards a draw than a loss. The strongest move according to the chess engine is 16.Nxe4 and you can see an example variation starting with that move in the notation. I then played 16...Qd6, but it was no longer a good move, moving the queen to e6 or d7 was a better idea. Luckily for me, also uffejaster made a second inaccurate move in a row and missed the change to seize a clear advantage. In the game my opponent chose to play 17.a3, which I guess was designed to control the square b4 so that I can't come there with my pieces, but the move that would have gained a clear advantage was 17.Ne5, an example of how the game could have continued can be seen in the game notation. My final journey towards a loss started with my 22nd move, Re8.

Uffejaster played a good move in reply, 23.e4. This was the third time my opponent was given the chance for a clear advantage and this time uffejaster used her or his chance. I then played 23...h5, which was the final nail in the coffin and the game quickly ended after that to my loss. I resigned after seeing the move 26.Qh4.

[Event "Corr game 26.11.2006-25.12.2006"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2006.11.26"] [Round "?"] [White "uffejaster"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A00"] [WhiteElo "2134"] [BlackElo "1844"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (30s)"] [PlyCount "51"] [EventDate "2006.??.??"] {[%evp 10,51,0,0,25,27,26,25,24,31,32,25,39,16,31,10,50,30,48,47,39,53,103,35, 85,27,73,60,82,22,12,14,41,43,51,39,104,98,234,234,518,527,518,504]} 1. b4 e5 2. Bb2 Bxb4 3. Bxe5 Nf6 4. c4 Nc6 5. Bb2 O-O 6. e3 {A00 Irregular Openings. LiveBook: 8 Games} d6 {[%mdl 32]} 7. Nf3 (7. Nc3 Bg4 8. Be2 Bxe2 9. Ngxe2 Ne5 10. d3 d5 11. cxd5 Nxd5 12. d4 Ng6 13. O-O c6 14. Ne4 Re8 15. N2g3 f5 16. Nc5 Qf6 17. Qc2 f4 18. Nf5 f3 19. gxf3 Bxc5 20. dxc5 Qg5+ 21. Kh1 Qh5 {Peredy,F (2205)-Meszaros,G (2425) Kecskemet 2010 0-1 (36)}) (7. a3 Ba5 8. Nf3 Re8 9. Be2 Ne5 10. O-O c6 11. d3 h6 12. Nbd2 Bf5 13. Nxe5 dxe5 14. Qc2 Qe7 15. e4 Bg6 16. Nf3 Nd7 17. Qa4 Bc7 18. Qb4 Bd6 19. Qc3 Nc5 20. Rfb1 Na4 21. Qb3 Nxb2 { Goldmund,H (1572)-Zeiger,F (1762) Rostock 2017 1/2-1/2 (32)}) 7... Bg4 8. Be2 Qe7 $146 {White has an edge.} (8... Bxf3 9. Bxf3 Ne5 10. Be2 Qd7 11. O-O Kh8 12. a3 Ba5 13. f4 Ng6 14. Nc3 c6 15. Rf3 Rae8 16. Rg3 Bxc3 17. Bxc3 Ne4 18. Qc2 Nxg3 19. hxg3 f5 20. Kf2 Kg8 21. Rh1 Qe6 22. Bd3 Rf7 23. Qd1 {Degen,M-Zura, J Colditz 1967 1/2-1/2 (56)}) (8... Re8 9. O-O Ne5 (9... Nd7 10. d4 Qe7 11. Qb3 Rab8 12. Nc3 Bxf3 13. Bxf3 Qg5 14. Na4 Ba5 15. Bc3 Bb6 16. Nxb6 axb6 17. a4 Nf8 18. Qb5 Qh6 19. Bxc6 bxc6 20. Qxc6 Rbc8 21. a5 bxa5 22. Rxa5 Re6 23. Qb7 Ree8 24. Rfa1 {Ramos Moreno,F (2109)-Quintana Perez,M (1583) Malaga 2013 1-0 (35)}) 10. d3 Nxf3+ 11. Bxf3 Bxf3 12. Qxf3 c6 13. Bxf6 Qxf6 14. Qxf6 gxf6 15. Rd1 Rad8 16. Nd2 d5 17. cxd5 Bxd2 18. Rxd2 Rxd5 19. d4 c5 20. Rad1 Red8 21. f3 f5 22. Kf2 b5 23. e4 {Genne,R-Soccoja,P Lenk 1989 1/2-1/2 (36)}) 9. O-O Rad8 10. d4 d5 11. Nbd2 Rfe8 12. Rc1 Bxd2 13. Nxd2 Bxe2 14. Qxe2 dxc4 15. Qxc4 Ne4 {1.03/25} ( 15... Nd5 $14 {0.53/26}) 16. Nf3 {0.35/27} (16. Nxe4 $16 {1.03/25} Qxe4 17. Qb3 ) 16... Qd6 {0.85/26} ({Better is} 16... Qe6 $14 {0.35/27}) 17. a3 {0.27/27} ( 17. Ne5 $16 {0.85/26} Nxe5 18. dxe5) 17... Re6 {0.73/26} (17... Qd5 $11 { 0.27/27 should be considered.}) 18. Qc2 Qd5 19. Nd2 {0.22/28} (19. Ne1 $16 { 0.82/24}) 19... Nxd2 $11 20. Qxd2 Rg6 {[#]} 21. f3 Qg5 {White should prevent .. .Nxd4!} 22. Qf2 Re8 {1.04/23} (22... Qe7 $14 {0.39/26}) 23. e4 {And now d5 would win.} h5 {2.34/25} (23... Qf4 $16 {0.98/26 keeps fighting.}) 24. Rc5 Qh6 $2 {5.18/26 [#]} (24... Qf6 {2.34/27} 25. Rxh5 Qf4) 25. Bc1 $18 Qh7 26. Qh4 { Accuracy: White = 53%, Black = 30%.} 1-0