D46 Semi-Slav: 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3, Black avoids the Meran (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 c6 4.e3 Nbd7 5.Nc3 e6 6.Bd3 Be7 7.O-O O-O 8.a3)

This is one of the two games to which my opponent in this game, Jerzy, challenged me into. This was played at the Queen Alice Internet Chess Club. It is a site for correspondence chess only. I have been enjoying my games there quite a bit because I seem to do really well there usually as my current rating of 2199 would suggest when comparing it to my other similar ratings. However, in the last few months I have been really annoyed by one thing there and it is the fact that there are no automatic timeouts in tournament games. So if one player decides not to win a tournament game on time and that opponent is never going to be online again, then that will freeze the tournament forever. One of my tournaments has been stuck because of that for several months now. Of course the players involved do not have any chances of advancing to the next round, so they do not really care if those games are never finished... Because if they can't have the win, no one can... I do not understand people like that at all. I have even send messages to these two players who are prolonging the tournament unnecessarily and asked if they could claim their wins, one of them even replied to me and said that he would do that but nothing happened. Some time passed and I asked him why are those games still going and he replied it must be because he made the claims on his phone and for some reason they had not been registered, so he would do that again. Still nothing happened. To my latest request and suggestion that he would do that on a computer, I got no reply anymore. I guess it is useless to try and reason with some people. The other player did not even reply to my message, so that is hopeless thing at the moment. I also made a forum topic there that there should be automatic timeouts in tournaments but that had no effect either. I guess person or persons who have been taking care of the site in the past, have not done anything for it recently and have maybe disappeared all together.

On a more positive note, I got my standard rating at FICS up from 2127 to 2160 couple of days ago! It is definitely my highest rating at FICS and it starts to get close to my highest rating ever on any site, currently my highest rating resides in Queen Alice Internet Chess Club. Oh yes, almost forgot to mention that despite my loss, I did not lose any rating points due to the game below because my opponent has a provisional rating still. I have added one mate in two, three mate in threes and one mate in seven today.

[Event "Challenge"] [Site "http://www.queenalice.com/gam"] [Date "2015.04.14"] [Round "?"] [White "Jerzy"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D46"] [WhiteElo "2169"] [BlackElo "2199"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (5s), TV"] [PlyCount "43"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. d4 (1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 {1/2-1/2 (35) Althoff,F (2149)-Schmeing,W (2059) Germany 2008}) (1. c4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nf3 {1/2-1/2 (33) Ekstroem,R (2440) -Markotic,G (2345) Mendrisio 1988} (3. e3 Nf6 4. Nc3 {1-0 (41) Juergens,V (2115)-Bratimirova,D (2085) Sofia 1987})) 1... Nf6 (1... d5 2. c4 {1-0 (41) Juergens,V (2115)-Bratimirova,D (2085) Sofia 1987}) 2. Nf3 (2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. e3 c6 5. a3 Be7 6. Nf3 O-O 7. Bd3 {1/2-1/2 (49) Wittkugel,F (1941)-Muuss,K (2064) Buesum 2017}) 2... d5 3. c4 c6 (3... e6 4. Nc3 c6 5. e3 Be7 6. Bd3 { 1/2-1/2 (35) Althoff,F (2149)-Schmeing,W (2059) Germany 2008} O-O 7. O-O { 1-0 (41) Juergens,V (2115)-Bratimirova,D (2085) Sofia 1987}) 4. e3 (4. Nc3) 4... Nbd7 5. Nc3 e6 6. Bd3 (6. a3 Be7 7. Bd3 O-O {1/2-1/2 (33) Ekstroem,R (2440)-Markotic,G (2345) Mendrisio 1988}) 6... Be7 {D46 Semi-Slav Defense: Bogoljubov Variation} 7. O-O O-O 8. a3 {0.01/22 D46 Semi-Slav: 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3, Black avoids the Meran} ({Better is} 8. b3 $16 {0.81/19}) 8... dxc4 9. Bxc4 b6 $146 {1.11/20} (9... b5 $11 {0.02/23} 10. Be2 Bb7) (9... c5 10. e4 (10. dxc5 Nxc5 11. b4 Qxd1 12. Rxd1 Nce4 13. Nxe4 Nxe4 14. Bb2 a5 15. Bd3 Nf6 16. b5 Nd7 17. Bc2 a4 18. Ne5 Nc5 19. Nc4 Bd7 20. Nb6 Bxb5 21. Nxa8 Rxa8 22. Bc3 Nb3 23. Bxb3 axb3 24. Bb2 Bf6 {Ekstroem,R (2440)-Markotic,G (2345) Mendrisio 1988 1/ 2-1/2 (33)}) (10. Qe2 Nb6 11. Bd3 cxd4 12. exd4 Nbd5 13. Ne5 Bd7 14. Nxd5 exd5 15. Re1 Re8 16. Bg5 Rc8 17. Nxd7 Qxd7 18. Bb5 Qf5 19. Bxf6 Qxf6 20. Bxe8 Rxe8 21. Rac1 Kf8 22. Qe5 Qxe5 23. dxe5 b6 24. Kf1 a5 {Juergens,V (2115) -Bratimirova,D (2085) Sofia 1987 1-0 (41)}) 10... cxd4 11. Nxd4 Nb6 12. Be2 Bd7 13. Be3 Rc8 14. Qb3 e5 15. Nf3 Be6 16. Qb5 Nfd7 17. Rfd1 f6 18. Nd5 Bc5 19. Rac1 Bxe3 20. Nxe3 Rxc1 21. Rxc1 Qb8 22. a4 Rc8 23. Rxc8+ Qxc8 24. a5 {Althoff, F (2149)-Schmeing,W (2059) Germany 2008 1/2-1/2 (35)}) (9... Re8 10. e4 Nf8 11. e5 Nd5 12. Ne4 f5 13. exf6 Nxf6 14. Re1 b5 15. Ba2 Qc7 16. Nc5 Nd5 17. Ng5 Bf6 18. Nge4 Nd7 19. Bg5 Bxg5 20. Nxg5 Nxc5 21. dxc5 Qe7 22. Ne4 Bd7 23. Nd6 Rf8 24. Bxd5 {Wittkugel,F (1941)-Muuss,K (2064) Buesum 2017 1/2-1/2 (49)}) 10. e4 Bb7 {1.32/20} (10... Re8 $142 {0.88/23}) 11. e5 Nd5 12. Nxd5 exd5 13. Bd3 Re8 14. Bf4 {0.60/23} (14. Re1 $16 {1.33/20}) 14... Nf8 {1.22/19} (14... g6 $14 { 0.60/23}) 15. Rc1 {0.33/25} (15. Be3 $1 $16 {1.22/19}) 15... Ne6 $14 16. Be3 f6 {1.73/20} (16... Rc8 $14 {0.43/21}) 17. Re1 {0.92/20} (17. h4 $18 {1.73/20}) 17... fxe5 $2 {4.23/18} (17... g6 $16 {0.92/20 is tougher.}) 18. Nxe5 $18 { [#] Qh5 is the strong threat.} Qd6 {8.51/21} (18... Bf6 $142 {4.19/25} 19. Qh5 g6 20. Bxg6 hxg6 21. Qxg6+ Bg7) 19. Qh5 {White is clearly winning.} Nf8 20. Bxh7+ $1 Nxh7 21. Qf7+ Kh8 22. Ng6+ {Accuracy: White = 47%, Black = 16%.} 1-0