C14 French: Classical System, 4.Bg5 Be7 main line (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e5 Nfd7)

When this game started I thought my opponent's handle seems familiar, so I had to check if I had played against him before. I had one game against him before this one and it was played almost exactly 10 years before this one! It is probably the longest time I have spend before the next game against the same opponent, no other example comes to mind. It seemed I was playing with the white pieces on both occasions, only the result and our ratings were different from our first encounter. Who knows, maybe our next game is nine years from now... Playing every ten years one game seems a bit silly though. I won the first game and drew this, so maybe next time I lose. If there is going to be a next time that is. For the first six moves the game continued evenly, but then I played 7.Bd3 and ended up in some trouble.

Bobla45 should have then attacked the weakest of the central pawns with the move 7...c5. My opponent did not find the right idea and instead continued the game with the move 7...a6. The reason why Bobla45 played that move I can't understand because I have no desire to go to b5 with my pieces and my opponent also never played b5 himself, which might be another reason to play a6. I should have then continued the game by playing 8.h4, but I chose the move 8.Qh5, which is a bit weaker alternative according to the chess engine called Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT. The game then continued with the moves 8...f5 9.exf6 Nxf6. At that point the position was roughly even. My 10th move was a horrible blunder and could have meant a loss for me.

In the game I played 10.Qh3, which placed the queen on an awkward square. Bobla45 went for the immediate 10...e5, which is not as accurate as playing 10...c5 first and later on move the e-pawn. While my opponent should be preferred in the game continuation, the position was not winning for Bobla45 anymore. The game continued to be played in more or less evenly manner until it came time for my opponent to play 19...Nf6. The square f6 was a good square to place a piece, just not the knight, but instead the bishop.

I then finally castled short, which is perhaps the most accurate move. My opponent blundered a second time in a row with the move 20...Bd6. I then had a chance to gain a winning advantage by playing either 21.f4 or 21.Na4, but I failed to see a good move and played the move 21.Bxd6 instead, which allowed my opponent to get back into the game again. A few moves later I went downhill so steep that I should have lost the game with my 24th move Qh3.

The huge problem with my 24th move was that it took the last safe square away from my knight and Bobla45 could have just played 24...h6 and I would have needed to sacrifice my knight to e4 in order to get at least a pawn for the piece. For some reason my opponent missed the move 24...h6 and moved the knight from b8 to d7 instead. I messed up again by moving my queen to h4 on my 25th move. A much better square for the queen was found from e3. The game continued clearly in my opponent's favor for a few moves, but then with his 27th move Qxg3, Bobla45 threw some of the advantage away and the game dwindled more towards a draw again. I was not out of trouble yet, I took another wrong path on move 37 with the move h4.

At first Bobla45 found the strongest reply 37...Rf8, but only after few moves later my opponent played a bit sloppy move 41...Rxg5 and the game headed likely towards a draw again. I replied with 42.Kg1 making my struggle for the draw more difficult again. With the 44th move Kf5 by my opponent the game started to head towards a draw again, this time for the last time and the game ended in a draw after my 47th move Nxf4.

[Event "Corr game 30.4.2014-14.5.2014"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2014.04.30"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "Bobla45"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C14"] [WhiteElo "1863"] [BlackElo "1495"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "93"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 {French Defense: Classical Variation. Normal Variation} 5. e5 Nfd7 {C14 French: Classical System, 4.Bg5 Be7 main line} (5... Ne4 {French Defense: Classical Variation. Tartakower Variation}) 6. Be3 (6. Bxe7 Qxe7 7. Bd3 {French Defense: Classical Variation. Tarrasch Variation} (7. f4 {French Defense: Classical Variation. Steinitz Variation}) (7. Nb5 {French Defense: Classical Variation. Alapin Variation}) ( 7. Qd2 {French Defense: Classical Variation. Rubinstein Variation}) (7. Qg4 { French Defense: Classical Variation. Pollock Variation})) 6... O-O 7. Bd3 $146 (7. Qh5 f5 8. f4 c5 9. Nf3 cxd4 10. Nxd4 Nc5 11. O-O-O Nc6 12. g4 Nxd4 13. Bxd4 g6 14. Qh3 fxg4 15. Qxg4 Rxf4 16. Qg3 Qf8 17. Bg2 Bh4 18. Bxc5 Qh6 19. Be3 Bxg3 20. hxg3 Qg5 21. Bxf4 Qe7 {Taubenhaus,J-Reggio,A Monte Carlo 1903 1-0}) (7. Qd2 c5 8. f4 Nc6 9. O-O-O Rb8 10. dxc5 Nxc5 11. Qf2 b6 12. Nf3 f6 13. Bb5 Qc7 14. exf6 Bxf6 15. Qd2 Bb7 16. Bxc6 Bxc6 17. Rhf1 Na4 18. Bd4 Nxc3 19. Bxc3 Bxc3 20. Qxc3 Qxf4+ 21. Kb1 Bb5 {Ebeling,M (1459)-Marais,N (1544) Khanty-Mansiysk 2016 1-0 (40)}) (7. f4 c5 (7... a6 8. Nf3 c5 9. Ne2 Nc6 10. c3 Qb6 11. Qd2 cxd4 12. Nexd4 Bc5 13. Be2 Nxd4 14. Nxd4 Qc7 15. O-O Bb6 16. b4 Rd8 17. Rac1 Nf8 18. Rf3 Bd7 19. Bd3 Rac8 20. Qe2 Bxd4 21. Bxd4 Qc6 22. g4 {Urbanc,V (1861)-Radenic,F (1612) Topusko 2013 1-0 (32)}) 8. Nf3 Qb6 9. Rb1 a6 10. Be2 Nc6 11. O-O cxd4 12. Nxd4 Bc5 13. Na4 Qa5 14. Nxc5 Qxc5 15. Kh1 Nb6 16. Qd2 Nc4 17. Bxc4 Qxc4 18. b3 Qb4 19. Qxb4 Nxb4 20. Nxe6 fxe6 21. Bc5 Rd8 {Tolosa,S-Bandoni,J San Luis 2006 1/2-1/2 (36)}) (7. f4 $11) 7... a6 {Black has a cramped position. Black's piece can't move: c8} (7... c5 $142 {and Black has air to breath} 8. f4 Nc6 $17) 8. Qh5 $16 f5 9. exf6 {White has a mate threat} (9. g4 $142 $5 c5 10. gxf5 $16) 9... Nxf6 $11 10. Qh3 $2 (10. Qh4 c5 11. dxc5 Nbd7 $11) 10... e5 ( 10... c5 $142 $5 11. g4 Nc6 12. dxc5 e5 $19) 11. Bf5 $15 Bxf5 {Black forks: c2+h3} 12. Qxf5 e4 {Black wins space} (12... exd4 13. Bxd4 Nc6 14. Nf3 $15) 13. Nge2 $11 c6 {Consolidates b5} 14. Nf4 Ne8 {Black king safety dropped} 15. Qg4 { Black king safety improved} (15. Qe6+ Rf7 $15) 15... Nf6 {Black threatens to win material: Nf6xg4} 16. Qh3 (16. Qf5 Rf7 $15) 16... Qd7 $15 17. Ne6 {White threatens to win material: Ne6xf8} Rf7 {Black's piece can't move: b8} (17... Re8 18. Nf4 $15) 18. Bf4 (18. Na4 Bb4+ 19. c3 Ba5 $11) 18... Nh5 {Black threatens to win material: Nh5xf4} 19. Be5 Nf6 (19... Bf6 20. O-O Re7 21. Bxf6 Nxf6 $11 (21... Rxe6 $143 22. Bg5 Qe8 23. Rae1 $14)) 20. O-O $16 Bd6 (20... b5 $142 $16) 21. Bxd6 $4 {throwing away the advantage} (21. f4 $142 {White has a promising position} Qe7 22. Ng5 $18) 21... Qxd6 $11 22. Ng5 {White threatens to win material: Ng5xf7} Re7 23. Qc8+ Re8 {Black threatens to win material: Re8xc8} 24. Qh3 $4 (24. Qf5 Nbd7 $17) 24... Nbd7 (24... h6 $142 {and Black can already relax} 25. f4 Nbd7 $19) 25. Qh4 $2 (25. Qe3 a5 $15) 25... Nf8 (25... Qb4 26. Ne2 Qd2 27. Rfe1 Qxc2 28. Qh3 $19) 26. Ne2 (26. a3 c5 27. Qg3 Qxg3 28. hxg3 h6 $17) 26... Ng6 (26... Qb4 $5 $17) 27. Qg3 Qxg3 (27... Qb4 28. Qc3 a5 29. a3 Qxc3 30. Nxc3 $15) 28. Nxg3 $15 Nf4 29. Rae1 h6 30. Nh3 Nxh3+ 31. gxh3 g6 {Covers f5+h5} 32. Re3 Nd7 (32... Kg7 33. f3 $15) 33. Ne2 (33. h4 Kg7 $11) 33... Nf8 (33... Re7 34. Ng3 $11) 34. Rg3 Kg7 35. Kh1 (35. f3 exf3 36. Nf4 Re4 37. Rgxf3 Nh7 $11) 35... Ne6 36. Rfg1 g5 37. h4 (37. f3 $5 $11 {is noteworthy}) 37... Rf8 $17 38. R1g2 (38. hxg5 hxg5 39. Kg2 Rf5 $17) 38... Rf5 (38... Rf3 39. Kg1 $17) 39. hxg5 hxg5 40. h4 (40. Rb3 b5 $17) 40... Kf6 (40... Rh8 $5 $17) 41. hxg5+ Rxg5 (41... Nxg5 42. Rh2 $17) 42. Kg1 (42. f3 $5 $11) 42... Rag8 43. Rxg5 Rxg5 44. Kf1 Kf5 (44... Rh5 $5 $17) 45. Rh2 $11 Rg7 46. Rh3 Nf4 47. Nxf4 1/2-1/2