B56 Classical Sicilian: Unusual Lines (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Nb3 a6)

The game you see below now is from the fourth round of the third WORLD OPEN RAPID tournament that I have played at the FIDE Online Arena. This tournament was a good provider of content for this blog, let us see if it continues on the final round as well. The final round game I will post quite likely tomorrow. I would like to get back to my correspondence games for a bit as some games that interest me have finished, for example, I have lost my first chess960 game and would like to take a look at that. I think I suffered my first loss in my 19th chess960 game. It was a nice run while it lasted. The game below I think was one of my best during this tournament as I did only small inaccuracies but no clear mistakes in my opinion. My assumption that I could quite easily hold my rating in rapid games over 1700 for 50 games was proven wrong today as I lost one point too many in the tournament I played today and now my rapid elo rating at the FIDE Online Arena is 1699... I guess I will try my luck with blitz games next. I think I should avoid playing in tournaments unless there is a rating limitation, in order to better ensure that I would not lose that many rating points with each loss. The problem with blitz is that the game requirement is 100. I think it is much more unlikely for me to keep my rating in blitz for 100 games than it is for 50 rapid games, so the odds are not good but I will test how it goes. I have added two mate in twos, two mate in threes and one mate in five today.

[Event "Tournament 27969182"] [Site "online arena"] [Date "2015.03.16"] [Round "4"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "Balt88"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B56"] [WhiteElo "1799"] [BlackElo "1547"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (5s), TV"] [PlyCount "55"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. e4 (1. Nf3 d6 2. e4 Nf6 3. Nc3 c5 4. d4 cxd4 {0-1 (28) Manakova,M (2290) -Kontic,D (2400) Nis 1996}) 1... c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 {B56 Sicilian Defense: Classical Variation. General} (5... a6 6. Nb3 {0-1 (74) Praggnanandhaa,R (2471)-Gupta,A (2626) Zalakaros 2017}) 6. Nb3 a6 {0.74/19 B56 Classical Sicilian: Unusual Lines} (6... g6 $11 {-0.02/22}) 7. Be2 {-0.06/20} ( 7. Be3 $16 {0.74/19}) 7... b5 {1.08/20} (7... g6 $11 {-0.06/20 keeps the balance.}) (7... e6 8. g4 (8. a4 Be7 9. a5 O-O 10. Be3 Nd7 11. O-O Nc5 12. Nxc5 dxc5 13. Qxd8 Rxd8 14. Na4 Nd4 15. Bd1 e5 16. c3 Ne6 17. Bb3 Bd7 18. Bxe6 Bxa4 19. Bxf7+ Kxf7 20. Rxa4 Rac8 21. Rfa1 Ke6 22. Kf1 c4 {Quparadze,G (2471) -Agdelen,H (2300) Kahramanmaras 2018 1-0 (57)}) 8... b5 9. a3 Bb7 10. g5 Nd7 11. Be3 Be7 12. Qd2 O-O 13. f4 Re8 14. h4 Na5 15. Nxa5 Qxa5 16. O-O Bf8 17. Bf3 Rac8 18. Bd4 Qc7 19. Qf2 Nc5 20. Rad1 Bc6 21. f5 exf5 22. Bxc5 {Praggnanandhaa, R (2471)-Gupta,A (2626) Zalakaros 2017 0-1 (74)}) 8. Bf3 $146 {-0.74/20 [#]} ( 8. Nd5 $16 {1.08/20 stays on course.}) (8. a3 Bb7 9. O-O e6 (9... g6 10. f4 Bg7 11. Qe1 O-O 12. Bd3 Nd7 13. Nd5 Nc5 14. Ne3 Nxb3 15. cxb3 Nd4 16. Qd1 Rc8 17. f5 d5 18. e5 Bxe5 19. Ng4 Qd6 20. Nxe5 Qxe5 21. Bh6 Rfe8 22. Re1 Qf6 23. Qg4 Nxf5 24. Bxf5 {Daude Puvill,A-Videki,S (2470) Badalona 1995 0-1}) 10. Be3 Ne5 11. f3 Rc8 12. Qd2 Be7 13. Rad1 O-O 14. Qe1 Qc7 15. Qf2 Ned7 16. Rd2 d5 17. exd5 Nxd5 18. Nxd5 Bxd5 19. Rfd1 Nf6 20. Kh1 Rfe8 21. Bd3 Bd6 22. Qh4 Be7 { Enoiu,A-Ristea,T (2165) Eforie Nord 1999 0-1 (43)}) (8. a4 b4 9. Nd5 e6 10. Nxf6+ Qxf6 11. a5 Bb7 12. O-O d5 13. exd5 Rd8 14. Bd3 Ne5 15. dxe6 Rxd3 16. exf7+ Kxf7 17. cxd3 Nf3+ 18. gxf3 Qg6+ 19. Kh1 Qh5 20. Bf4 Bxf3+ 21. Kg1 Qh3 22. Qxf3 Qxf3 {Manakova,M (2290)-Kontic,D (2400) Nis 1996 0-1}) 8... e5 { 0.60/19} (8... Bb7 $17 {-0.74/20}) 9. O-O {0.06/22} (9. Bg5 $14 {0.60/19}) 9... Be7 $1 $11 10. Be3 Nd7 {1.74/21} ({Black should try} 10... h6 $14 {0.39/22}) 11. Nd5 $18 O-O {1.87/22} (11... Nc5 $16 {1.44/23} 12. c4 Be6) 12. Qd2 {1.07/22 } ({Better is} 12. Nxe7+ $18 {1.87/22} Qxe7 13. Qd5) 12... Rb8 {2.25/20} (12... Nf6 $16 {1.07/22 was necessary.}) 13. Rad1 Nf6 {2.46/21} (13... Re8 {1.74/23 was worth a try.} 14. Nxe7+ Qxe7 15. Qxd6 Nd4 16. Qxe7 Nxf3+ 17. gxf3 Rxe7) 14. Nxe7+ Qxe7 15. Qxd6 Qxd6 16. Rxd6 Bb7 17. Nc5 Nb4 $2 {5.68/20} (17... Ba8 { 2.59/25 is more resistant.} 18. Nxa6 Rbc8) 18. Nxb7 Rxb7 19. c3 Ne8 20. Rd8 Nc6 21. Ra8 {[#] Hoping for Bc5.} a5 $2 {5.53/20} (21... Nc7 {1.95/25 is a better chance.}) 22. Bc5 {White is clearly winning.} Rb8 23. Rxb8 Nxb8 24. Bxf8 Kxf8 25. Rd1 Nc6 26. Rd5 b4 27. Rc5 b3 28. axb3 {Accuracy: White = 29%, Black = 13%. } 1-0