C18 French: 3.Nc3 Bb4: Main line: 7.h4 and 7.Qg4 (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Qg4 Qc7 8.Qxg7 Rg8 9.Qxh7 cxd4 10.Ne2 dxc3 11.f4 Bd7 12.Qd3 Nbc6 13.Rb1 Nf5 14.Qxc3 O-O-O)

This was played in the second round of the French 2014 thematic tournament at Chess.com. The second round is still in progress and I have two games left to finish. I have only gathered two points so far and I am on fourth place in this five player group. If I were to win my remaining games, I could have chances to get to third place and that would enable me to continue my way to the third round. However, it is something that I would like to avoid. I am still in the process of reducing my game load, though it does momentarily increase from time to time due to tournaments going to the next round and some important team matches. In the game below I started to get in trouble after my move 15...Nh4, which apparently was a novelty and not a good one at that. After that the position started to get more and more difficult for me to play and I tried to fight on but to no avail. The group #2 is the group I am playing in and it will be won by NM Ejarov but who will be finishing second, third or fourth is still unclear. Lasker64 is on second place with four points and one game left to finish, albatros1 is on third place with two points and four games left to finish. I have added one mate in one, two mate in threes and two mate in five puzzles.

[Event "French 2014 - Round 2"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2015.01.06"] [Round "?"] [White "Lasker64"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C18"] [WhiteElo "1983"] [BlackElo "1910"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (5s), TV"] [PlyCount "77"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. e4 e6 {Thematic Game - This is the starting position.} 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 (4... Ne7 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 {1/2-1/2 (53) Ankerst,M (2270)-Bukal,V (2335) Bled 1995}) 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Ne7 (6... Qc7 7. Qg4 {0-1 (30) Lovas,M (2042)-Csatlos,B (2169) Hungary 2015}) 7. Qg4 Qc7 8. Qxg7 Rg8 9. Qxh7 cxd4 10. Ne2 {C18 French Defense: Winawer Variation. Poisoned Pawn Variation Main Line} dxc3 (10... Nbc6 11. f4 dxc3 (11... Bd7 12. Qd3 {1/2-1/2 (53) Ankerst,M (2270) -Bukal,V (2335) Bled 1995}) 12. Qd3 {0-1 (30) Lovas,M (2042)-Csatlos,B (2169) Hungary 2015}) 11. f4 Bd7 12. Qd3 Nbc6 13. Rb1 (13. Qxc3 Nf5 {0-1 (30) Lovas,M (2042)-Csatlos,B (2169) Hungary 2015} (13... O-O-O 14. Rb1 {1/2-1/2 (53) Ankerst,M (2270)-Bukal,V (2335) Bled 1995})) 13... Nf5 14. Qxc3 O-O-O {1.34/23 C18 French: 3.Nc3 Bb4: Main line: 7.h4 and 7.Qg4} (14... d4 $11 {0.22/23 keeps the balance.} 15. Qd3 Nce7) 15. h3 $16 (15. g3 d4 16. Qc5 b6 17. Qc4 Nce7 18. Qxc7+ Kxc7 19. Bg2 Ba4 20. Be4 Bc6 21. Bxc6 Nxc6 22. Kd2 Na5 23. Rb4 Rd5 24. Rg1 Nc6 25. Rb3 Rc5 26. Rd3 Rh8 27. h4 b5 28. c3 dxc3+ 29. Nxc3 Ncd4 {Ankerst, M (2270)-Bukal,V (2335) Bled 1995 1/2-1/2 (53)}) 15... Nh4 $146 {1.91/22} ( 15... d4 $16 {1.07/23 was worth a try.} 16. Qc4 (16. Qc5 Be8 17. g4 Rd5 18. Qc4 Nh4 19. Ng3 Qa5+ 20. Kf2 Rc5 21. Qb3 Nd8 22. Ne4 Ba4 23. Nxc5 Bxb3 24. Nxb3 Qd5 25. Rg1 Qf3+ 26. Ke1 Qe4+ 27. Kd1 Nf5 28. Bd3 Ne3+ 29. Ke2 Qxf4 30. Nxd4 Qh2+ { Lovas,M (2042)-Csatlos,B (2169) Hungary 2015 0-1}) (16. Qd3 Na5 17. g4 Ba4 ( 17... Bc6 18. Rh2 Nh4 19. Rf2 a6 20. Ng3 Bb5 21. Qd2 Nc4 22. Qb4 Ne3 23. Rb2 Bxf1 24. Bxe3 dxe3 25. Rxf1 Rd2 26. Rh1 Nf3+ 27. Kf1 Rf2# {0-1 (27) Ginburg,V (2012)-Letov,P (2158) St Petersburg 2009}) 18. Rb2 Ne3 19. Bxe3 dxe3 20. Qc3 Bc6 21. Rh2 Qe7 22. g5 Qd7 23. Rb1 Nc4 24. Ng3 Nd2 25. Rxd2 Qxd2+ 26. Qxd2 exd2+ 27. Kd1 Rd4 28. Rb4 Rgd8 29. c3 Ba4+ 30. Rxa4 Rxa4 {Rubio Melo, H-Casallas Abril,D (1990) Bogota 2009 0-1 (31)}) 16... Na5 17. Qxc7+ Kxc7) 16. g3 $18 Nf5 17. Bg2 {1.15/25} (17. Kf2 $18 {2.12/20}) 17... Rg7 {1.82/20} (17... Kb8 $16 {1.15/25 keeps fighting.}) 18. Rg1 Rdg8 {2.00/21} (18... Na5 $16 { 1.58/24}) 19. g4 Nh4 {2.17/20} (19... Na5 $142 {1.62/24} 20. Qxc7+ Kxc7) 20. Bh1 Ng6 {2.75/20} (20... Na5 $142 {1.83/23} 21. Qxc7+ Kxc7) 21. Be3 Rh7 22. Bc5 Rgh8 {2.79/21} (22... Na5 $142 {1.90/23}) 23. Rg3 $1 b6 $2 {5.57/19 [#]} (23... Qa5 {2.47/22} 24. Bg2 Qxc3+ 25. Rxc3 b6) 24. Bd6 Qb7 25. a4 Kd8 26. a5 Qa6 { 5.72/19} (26... b5 $142 {3.98/23} 27. Bg2 a6) 27. Ra1 bxa5 28. Bg2 Nh4 {6.07/17 } (28... Qb6 $142 {4.15/22} 29. Qa3 Nb4) 29. Bf1 {White is clearly winning.} Qb6 30. Bc5 Qb7 31. Nd4 Ng6 32. Rf3 Nh4 33. Re3 Ng6 34. Rf3 Nh4 35. Rf2 Rh6 36. Nb5 Bc8 37. Nd6 Qd7 38. Bb5 Bb7 39. Rxa5 {Accuracy: White = 68%, Black = 7%.} 1-0