B40 Sicilian: 2...e6, Unusual lines (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.b3 d5 4.exd5 exd5)

The game I am sharing now is one that was played last year at Red Hot Pawn in a tournament called 2014 September Grand Seven Fourteen III. The games I still have left in this tournament might very easily become the longest that I have ever played. So far the games have lasted a bit over six months and my longest game ever was a bit over 11 months so still a few months to go for that but they seem to progress relaxed enough fashion that they might still be ongoing several months from now. Not all of them but some might be in progress 11 months after they have started. I am not going to intentionally prolong them obviously and my move speed at Red Hot Pawn has maybe increased a bit since my busiest times. I have not started any games or tournaments there for some months I think so my game load should ease a bit eventually. As I still have 259 games in progress, this is still quite a busy time for me.

I have now played two tournaments at FIDE Online Arena and both were WORLD OPEN RAPID tournaments, the first one was a four round Swiss tournament and the second a five round Swiss. The first one went better than I would have dreamed of as I got 3,5 out of 4 and won the first tournament with a performance rating of 2069. The second one that I played I managed to be quite the opposite from the first one. I lost on the first round to a player who was rated 1607 or somewhere around that rating and then on the second round I lost to a player who was rated 1400... In my defense though he might have been quite good since he had a winning position against a player who was rated almost 2200. That game ended in a draw as the higher rated player was a bit lucky in the end. The next three rounds went down the drain for me as well because all my remaining opponents had logged off for some reason. I did get 3 out of 5 but not because of my ability to play chess. Due to the horrible first two rounds my performance rating was in the second tournament only 704... Quite a large drop from the previous day. Admittedly I was able to concentrate on the games better in the first tournament but still no excuses for the disaster that happened yesterday, the two opponents that I faced just were playing better chess than I was then, simple as that. I have not checked if there is another tournament scheduled for today around the same time if there is, I might need to take yet another try of getting the required games played. The games that are required for the title that is. I will start posting those FIDE Online Arena games sometime this week. I have added two mate in twos, one mate in nine and two mate in eleven puzzles today. This post was renamed June 5th 2015 because I noticed that it had the wrong name.

Game number two. This was played in the first round of the 2014 September Glacial Super Casual I tournament at Red Hot Pawn. This tournament started September 13th 2014 and the first round is still going June 5th 2015 and there is no sign of it ending anytime soon. I am currently leading my group but all eight players in the group have theoretical chances of winning the tournament, or at least sharing the win. The slow progress can be explained by the really long thinking times that this tournament has. Timeout is 21 days and you also have 21 days in your timebank. The game below ended in a nice tactical blow.

[Event "Grand Seven Fourteen"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2014.09.11"] [Round "1"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "dooser2004"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B40"] [WhiteElo "1827"] [BlackElo "1746"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (5s), TV"] [PlyCount "31"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. b3 {B40 Sicilian Defense: French Variation. Westerinen Attack} d5 4. exd5 exd5 {B40 Sicilian: 2...e6, Unusual lines} 5. d4 Nf6 { 0.17/21} (5... Nc6 $15 {-0.44/18}) 6. Be3 {-0.87/19} (6. Bd3 $11 {0.17/21}) (6. Bb5+ Nbd7 7. O-O Be7 8. dxc5 O-O 9. c6 bxc6 10. Bxc6 Rb8 11. Nc3 Ba6 12. Re1 Nb6 13. Bb5 Bb7 14. Bb2 Bd6 15. Ne2 Ne4 16. Ng3 Bc5 17. Bd4 Bxd4 18. Qxd4 Qf6 19. Qxf6 Nxf6 20. Nd4 g6 {Hosticka,F (2220)-Pekarek,A (2445) Ceske Budejovice 1992 1/2-1/2 (49)}) (6. Bb2 Be7 7. Be2 O-O 8. dxc5 Bxc5 9. O-O Nc6 10. h3 Bf5 11. Bd3 Ne4 12. Nc3 Re8 13. Na4 Bd6 14. Nd4 Nxd4 15. Bxd4 Qg5 16. Be3 Qg6 17. Qf3 Qf6 18. Rfe1 Qe5 19. g4 Bd7 20. Qg2 b5 {Dziendziel,M (1587)-Koziorowicz,M (1692) Kudowa-Zdroj 2018 0-1}) 6... cxd4 {-0.20/21} (6... Nc6 $1 $17 {-0.87/19} ) 7. Bxd4 $146 {-1.22/17} (7. Bb5+ $11 {-0.20/21 keeps the balance.} Nc6 8. Nxd4) (7. Nxd4 Bb4+ 8. c3 Ba5 9. Be2 O-O 10. O-O Nc6 11. Bf3 Ne5 12. Bg5 Be6 13. Re1 Nxf3+ 14. Qxf3 Re8 15. Nd2 h6 16. Bxf6 Qxf6 17. Qxf6 gxf6 18. Re3 Rac8 19. b4 Bc7 20. N2b3 Bf4 21. Rd3 Bg4 {Lana Rodriguez,D (2227)-Antonano Fernandez,A (2144) Spain 2011 1-0 (89)}) 7... Be7 {0.11/19} ({Black should play } 7... Nc6 $17 {-1.22/17}) 8. Be2 {-1.27/21} (8. Bd3 $1 $11 {0.11/19}) 8... O-O {-0.52/23} (8... Nc6 $17 {-1.27/21} 9. O-O O-O) 9. O-O $15 Nc6 10. Bb2 $1 Bf5 { -0.32/21} (10... Ne4 $1 $17 {-1.30/19} 11. Qc1 Bf6) 11. Nc3 {-0.89/19} (11. Nd4 $15 {-0.32/21} Bg6 12. Nd2) 11... a6 {-0.03/23} (11... Re8 $17 {-0.89/19}) 12. Nd4 {-0.74/21} (12. Bd3 $11 {-0.03/23 remains equal.} Ne4 13. Bxe4 dxe4 14. Nd2 ) 12... Nxd4 13. Qxd4 Bxc2 {0.00/24} ({Better is} 13... Rc8 $17 {-0.94/18}) 14. Bf3 {-0.61/21} (14. Rac1 $11 {0.00/24} Bg6 15. Rfd1) 14... Bg6 $2 {1.92/21} ( 14... Be4 $1 $15 {-0.61/21 keeps the upper hand.}) 15. Nxd5 $18 Nxd5 $2 { #1/21 [#]} (15... Rc8 $18 {1.76/24} 16. Rae1 Bc5 17. Nxf6+ gxf6 18. Qxd8 (18. Qxf6 Qxf6 19. Bxf6 b5 $16) 18... Rcxd8) 16. Qxg7# {Accuracy: White = 29%, Black = 9%.} ({Less strong is} 16. Qxd5 Rc8 $16) 1-0 [Event "Glacial Super Casual"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2014.09.13"] [Round "1"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "dooser2004"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B40"] [WhiteElo "1917"] [BlackElo "1633"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (5s), TV"] [PlyCount "49"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. b3 {B40 Sicilian Defense: French Variation. Westerinen Attack} d5 4. exd5 exd5 {B40 Sicilian: 2...e6, Unusual lines} 5. d4 Nf6 { 0.07/20} (5... Nc6 $15 {-0.42/19}) 6. Be3 {-0.87/20} (6. Bb5+ $11 {0.07/20} Bd7 (6... Nbd7 7. O-O Be7 8. dxc5 O-O 9. c6 bxc6 10. Bxc6 Rb8 11. Nc3 Ba6 12. Re1 Nb6 13. Bb5 Bb7 14. Bb2 Bd6 15. Ne2 Ne4 16. Ng3 Bc5 17. Bd4 Bxd4 18. Qxd4 Qf6 19. Qxf6 Nxf6 20. Nd4 g6 21. Re7 {Hosticka,F (2220)-Pekarek,A (2445) Ceske Budejovice 1992 1/2-1/2 (49)}) 7. a4) (6. Bb2 Be7 7. Be2 O-O 8. dxc5 Bxc5 9. O-O Nc6 10. h3 Bf5 11. Bd3 Ne4 12. Nc3 Re8 13. Na4 Bd6 14. Nd4 Nxd4 15. Bxd4 Qg5 16. Be3 Qg6 17. Qf3 Qf6 18. Rfe1 Qe5 19. g4 Bd7 20. Qg2 b5 {Dziendziel,M (1587)-Koziorowicz,M (1692) Kudowa-Zdroj 2018 0-1}) 6... cxd4 $1 $17 7. Nxd4 Bb4+ {-0.13/21} (7... Nc6 $17 {-1.11/18}) 8. c3 $11 {The position is equal.} Be7 $146 {0.36/20} (8... Bd6 $15 {-0.57/19}) (8... Ba5 9. Be2 O-O 10. O-O Nc6 11. Bf3 Ne5 12. Bg5 Be6 13. Re1 Nxf3+ 14. Qxf3 Re8 15. Nd2 h6 16. Bxf6 Qxf6 17. Qxf6 gxf6 18. Re3 Rac8 19. b4 Bc7 20. N2b3 Bf4 21. Rd3 Bg4 22. g3 Be5 23. f3 { Lana Rodriguez,D (2227)-Antonano Fernandez,A (2144) Spain 2011 1-0 (89)}) 9. Be2 {-0.34/21} ({White should try} 9. h3 $14 {0.36/20}) 9... O-O $15 10. O-O Nc6 {0.00/21} (10... Re8 $15 {-0.58/19}) 11. Nd2 {-0.54/20} ({White should play } 11. Qd3 $11 {0.00/21}) 11... Nxd4 {0.34/21} (11... Re8 $15 {-0.54/20}) 12. Bxd4 $14 Bf5 13. Bf3 Qc7 {0.88/20} (13... b6 $11 {0.09/22 remains equal.}) 14. Rc1 $2 {-0.64/19} ({Better is} 14. Re1 $16 {0.88/20}) 14... Ba3 {-0.16/24} ( 14... Rad8 $15 {-0.64/19 might be stronger.}) 15. Bxf6 {-1.25/23} (15. Ra1 $11 {-0.16/24}) 15... Bxc1 {-0.75/24} (15... gxf6 $142 {-1.25/23} 16. Bxd5 Bxc1 17. Qxc1 Rad8) 16. Qxc1 {[#] And now Bd4 would win.} gxf6 17. Bxd5 Rac8 {-0.23/24} (17... Rfe8 $17 {-1.16/20}) 18. c4 $1 $11 Be6 $2 {1.54/20} (18... Rfe8 $11 { -0.23/24}) 19. Bf3 $2 {0.00/25} (19. Ne4 $16 {1.54/20} Kg7 20. Ng3) 19... Bf5 20. Qc3 Qe7 21. Bd5 b6 {0.00/22} (21... b5 $15 {-0.41/19 is more appropriate.}) 22. Nf3 Bg6 23. Re1 Qd6 {[#] ...Qxd5! is the strong threat.} 24. Qd2 {-0.38/24} (24. Rd1 $11 {0.05/23 should be considered.} Qf4 25. Nd4) 24... Rce8 $2 { 10.35/19} (24... Kg7 $15 {-0.38/24}) 25. Bxf7+ $1 {Accuracy: White = 38%, Black = 26%.} 1-0