A50 Queen's Fianchetto Defence (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 b6) (1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 e5 3.d5 Nce7 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Ng6 6.Nf3 Bc5 7.Be2 a6 8.O-O d6 9.a3)

I think after this post I will go back to my Red Hot Pawn games as I am quite far behind from the latest games that have finished there. There are, of course, a lot of games to go through in general. I may have gone through over 500 games but there are thousands still to go... In case I go through all the games I have played that have some sort of notation. The game below was played in a team match called Team United States Chess says Trick or Treat to the Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy.(og418). I play board 3 for the Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy. This match is played on 21 boards and the current score is 10,5 - 30,5 in favor of Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy, so we have already won the match against Team United States Chess. This match started on October 27th 2014 and the only game remaining is maybe not a huge surprise to anyone. It is my other game against TurboFish that is still ongoing in this match. The first blunder of the game was played by my opponent on move 15. TurboFish decided to reply to 15.e5 with the passive knight move Ne8. The knight on e8 has no good place to go from e8 and also removes the e8 square from the rook on f8, which might be a natural square for the rook to go otherwise.

The knight may have been able to get back into game, had I continued with 15...exd6, so that TurboFish could have replied with 16.Nxd6. I was not able to take advantage of this mistake, because I played 16.Ne4, which does bring the knight closer to the enemy king, but nothing more. The square e4 was a good square to go to, but only with the queen. Another good move for me was 16.Rad1. The game continued with the moves 16...Bf5 17.Bd3 and then with the next two moves TurboFish really destroyed his or her chances to fight for a draw.

In the game TurboFish played 17...Bg4, which started my opponent's downhill. I then moved my knight from e4 to d2, to which my opponent replied with the move 18...c6 and for the moment TurboFish was in a losing position. I needed to play 19.dxc6, but for some reason I decided to play 19.exd6 instead. Now that I look at this position, it seems obvious to me that dxc6 is much better. Maybe I have learned something about the game of chess over the years or maybe I just have looked at the position more than I did when this game was played. That being said, I should have still been in the preferred side of the board. The final blunder that lost the game for my opponent was 20...bxc6.

I played 21.c5, which both attacked the queen on d6 and more importantly blocked the diagonal for the bishop residing at a7. While I did not play the most accurate moves during the remainder of the game, I never played badly enough to let my opponent back into the game again.

[Event "Team United States Chess says Trick or"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2014.10.27"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "TurboFish"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A50"] [WhiteElo "1839"] [BlackElo "1890"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "85"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. e4 Nc6 2. d4 e5 3. d5 {Nimzowitsch Defense: Kennedy Variation. Linksspringer Variation} (3. dxe5 Bc5 {Nimzowitsch Defense: Kennedy Variation. Bielefelder Gambit} (3... d6 {Nimzowitsch Defense: Kennedy Variation. de Smet Gambit}) (3... f6 {Nimzowitsch Defense: Kennedy Variation. Hammer Gambit})) 3... Nce7 4. c4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Ng6 6. Nf3 Bc5 7. Be2 a6 8. O-O d6 9. a3 {A50 Queen's Fianchetto Defence (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 b6)} Bd7 10. b4 Ba7 11. Bg5 h6 12. Bd2 O-O 13. Qc2 Nf4 $146 (13... Qe7 14. Rac1 Nh5 15. Nd1 Nhf4 16. Be3 Bxe3 17. fxe3 Nxe2+ 18. Qxe2 f5 19. exf5 Bxf5 20. e4 Nf4 21. Qc2 Bd7 22. Ne3 g6 23. a4 Qe8 24. Ra1 Qe7 25. c5 Rac8 26. c6 bxc6 27. dxc6 Be6 28. Rab1 {Andrieu,P (1840) -Koenig,J (1850) Saint Quentin 2015 1-0 (57)}) (13... Re8 14. Be3 $11) 14. Bxf4 exf4 {Black has the pair of bishops} 15. e5 {White threatens to win material: e5xf6} Ne8 $2 (15... Ng4 16. exd6 cxd6 17. h3 $11) 16. Ne4 (16. Qe4 Bg4 17. Qxf4 Bxf3 18. Bxf3 $16 (18. gxf3 $6 g5 19. Qe4 f5 $14) (18. Qxf3 $6 dxe5 19. Rac1 Bd4 $14)) 16... Bf5 17. Bd3 Bg4 (17... dxe5 $5 {looks like a viable alternative} 18. Rfe1 f6 $11) 18. Ned2 $16 c6 (18... Bxf3 19. Nxf3 dxe5 20. c5 $16) 19. exd6 (19. dxc6 $5 bxc6 20. exd6 c5 $18) 19... Qxd6 (19... Bxf3 20. Nxf3 c5 21. d7 Qxd7 22. h3 $14) 20. dxc6 $16 bxc6 $2 (20... Bxf3 $142 $5 21. Nxf3 Qxc6 $16) 21. c5 $18 Qd7 $4 {simply worsens the situation} (21... Qc7 $142 $18) 22. Ne5 Qc8 23. Nxg4 (23. Bh7+ Kh8 $18) 23... Qxg4 24. Be4 Qd7 (24... Nf6 25. Bxc6 Rad8 26. Nf3 $18) 25. Nc4 Nf6 26. Bf5 (26. Rad1 $142 $5 {and White can already relax} Qc7 27. Bf3 Rad8 $18) 26... Qc7 27. Nd6 Rad8 28. Qc4 Nd5 $2 (28... Ne8 $142 29. Nxe8 Rfxe8 30. Qxa6 f3 $18) 29. Qxa6 g6 (29... Bb8 30. Rfe1 $18) 30. Bc2 (30. Be4 $142 $5 {seems even better} Ne7 $18) 30... Bb8 31. Qb7 ( 31. Rfd1 {keeps an even firmer grip} Qe7 32. Qxc6 Nc3 $18) 31... Qxb7 (31... Rd7 32. Qxc7 Bxc7 33. Ba4 $18) 32. Nxb7 Rd7 33. Na5 Ne7 34. Rad1 Rfd8 (34... Rxd1 35. Rxd1 Kg7 36. Be4 $18) 35. f3 (35. Rxd7 $142 $5 {might be the shorter path} Rxd7 36. Rd1 Rxd1+ 37. Bxd1 Kf8 $18) 35... Bc7 36. Nc4 (36. Rxd7 Rxd7 37. Rd1 Rxd1+ 38. Bxd1 Kf8 $18) 36... Nd5 (36... Rd4 37. Rxd4 Rxd4 38. Nb6 $18) 37. Rfe1 Nc3 (37... Kf8 38. Ba4 Ne7 39. Rxd7 Rxd7 40. Rd1 $18) 38. Rxd7 Rxd7 39. Kf2 (39. Be4 $5 Rd4 40. Nb6 Bd8 $18) 39... Kg7 40. Be4 Nxe4+ $2 (40... Rd4 $142 41. Nb6 Bd8 $18) 41. Rxe4 (41. fxe4 $6 Rd3 42. e5 Kf8 $18) 41... g5 (41... Kf8 {is no salvation} 42. Ke2 $18) 42. Ke2 f6 (42... Kf6 {there is nothing better in the position} 43. a4 Rd8 $18) 43. Re6 1-0