C12 French: Classical System, McCutcheon Variation (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4 5.e5 h6 6.exf6 hxg5 7.fxg7 Rg8 8.Qd3)

This game is from round two of the French 2014 thematic tournament that is being played at Chess.com. This has been quite a difficult tournament for me so far, in the first round I managed to barely advance to the second round, I got only half a point more than the player who finished fourth in the group. There were a FIDE Master and an International Master playing in the same group as I was on round one and against both I got what I thought a surprising amount of points. Against the FIDE Master who was rated at the time 2456, I managed to get a draw and lost a game. The IM I won in one of the games and the other I lost. All of those games can be seen in this blog. On round two I am very close of being eliminated from the rest of the tournament once again. I have only one game left to finish and if I win that game, I will advance to the third round, otherwise I am eliminated from the tournament. It might not be a surprise to anyone at this point that it is also the last game in this round. The game is played between me and albatros1, who I faced in the game below as well. I am not sure why my opponent agreed to draw this game but I am happy he or she did because I am quite lost in the final position. I have added two mate in one, one mate in three, one mate in six and one mate in eight puzzle today.

[Event "French 2014 - Round 2"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2015.01.06"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "albatros1"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C12"] [WhiteElo "1959"] [BlackElo "1980"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (30s)"] [PlyCount "89"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] {[%evp 15,89,0,0,-20,0,0,0,0,0,-10,-11,0,0,-40,-30,-79,-52,-116,-117,-188,-187, -181,-181,-197,-141,-291,-240,-280,-270,-360,-292,-844,-852,-712,-592,-1013, -989,-655,-636,-635,-599,-805,-797,-769,-750,-670,-246,-246,-49,-47,-32,-58,0, 0,0,0,0,0,169,0,169,169,645,633,652,270,220,-33,-12,-112,824,-332,-302,-319, -302,-1544]} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Bb4 5. e5 h6 6. exf6 {C12 French Defense: MacCutcheon Variation, Chigorin Variation} hxg5 7. fxg7 Rg8 8. Qd3 {C12 French: Classical System: McCutcheon Variation} Qf6 {LiveBook: 3 Games } 9. g3 $146 (9. Nf3 c5 10. Ne5 a6 11. O-O-O Nc6 12. Nxc6 bxc6 13. dxc5 Bxc5 14. f3 Rb8 15. h4 gxh4 16. Qh7 Be3+ 17. Kb1 Rxg7 18. Qh8+ Kd7 19. Rd3 Bg5 20. b3 Rg6 21. Qxf6 Bxf6 22. Ne4 Be7 23. c4 a5 {Pazo,A-Guimard,C Argentina 1936 0-1 (36)}) (9. O-O-O Rxg7 (9... a6 10. Qe3 Be7 11. g4 Nd7 12. Bg2 Nb6 13. Nge2 Bd7 14. Kb1 Qxg7 15. Nc1 O-O-O 16. h3 Bd6 17. Nb3 Kb8 18. a3 Bc8 19. Qf3 c6 20. Bf1 f6 21. Bd3 e5 22. Bf5 Rh8 23. Bxc8 Rxc8 24. Qg3 {Pons,A-Engels,L Montevideo 1941 1/2-1/2 (46)}) 10. Nf3 Nc6 11. Qe3 Bxc3 12. Qxc3 Bd7 13. Bb5 Qf4+ 14. Kb1 f6 15. g3 Qd6 16. h4 g4 17. Bxc6 Bxc6 18. Nd2 O-O-O 19. h5 Rh8 20. h6 Rgh7 21. Qe3 Bd7 22. Rh4 b6 23. Rdh1 e5 {Pastar,S (2249)-Skare,G (2278) Belgrade 2016 0-1 (61)}) (9. a3 Bxc3+ 10. Qxc3 Nc6 11. Bb5 Bd7 12. Nf3 O-O-O 13. Bxc6 Bxc6 14. Ne5 Rd6 15. O-O-O Qxg7 16. Qf3 Be8 17. g3 f6 18. Nd3 Bg6 19. Qe3 Bxd3 20. Rxd3 Rh8 21. h4 Rh5 22. f4 Qh8 23. Qf2 g4 {Collier,P-Welch,C Nottingham 1946 1-0 (34)}) 9... c5 10. a3 Bxc3+ {The position is equal.} 11. bxc3 c4 12. Qe3 Nc6 13. Nf3 Qxg7 14. Bg2 Bd7 15. O-O {-0.79/28} (15. h4 $11 { -0.30/29}) 15... O-O-O 16. Rfb1 {-1.16/25} (16. Ne5 $15 {-0.52/26}) 16... f5 $17 17. Rb2 {-1.88/28} (17. a4 $17 {-1.17/27}) {[%tqu "En","","","","f5f4","", 10]} 17... f4 $1 $36 {[%mdl 2560] Keeping White busy.} 18. Qe1 (18. gxf4 gxf4) 18... g4 19. Nh4 f3 {-1.41/25} (19... Rh8 $19 {-1.97/26} 20. a4 b6) 20. Bh1 { -2.91/25} (20. Bf1 $17 {-1.41/25}) 20... Rh8 21. Rab1 b6 22. Qe3 Qf6 23. h3 $2 {-8.44/29 [#]} (23. Nxf3 {-2.92/28} gxf3 24. Qxf3) 23... Rxh4 24. gxh4 Qxh4 25. Bxf3 gxf3 26. Qxf3 Ne7 27. Kh2 Rg8 28. Rg1 Rxg1 29. Kxg1 Qg5+ 30. Kh2 Ng6 $2 { -2.46/29 [#]} (30... Qc1 {-6.70/25} 31. Qf8+ Kc7) 31. Rb1 Qf4+ $2 {-0.49/29} ( 31... Qe7 $19 {-2.46/25 aiming for ...Nh4.} 32. Rg1 Be8) 32. Qxf4 $15 Nxf4 { [%tqu "En","","","","b1e1", "",10]} 33. Re1 $1 {[%tqu "En","","","","f4h5","", 10]} Kc7 {0.00/40} ({Better is} 33... Nh5 $1 $15 {-0.58/30}) 34. Kg3 $11 Ng6 35. h4 Kd6 36. h5 Ne7 $2 {1.69/35} (36... Nf8 $11 {0.00/38}) 37. Rh1 $2 { 0.00/34} (37. Kf4 $18 {1.69/35} Ba4 38. Re2) {[%tqu "En","","","","d7a4","",10] } 37... Nf5+ $2 {1.69/37} (37... Ba4 $1 $11 {0.00/34}) 38. Kf4 $18 {[%mdl 1024] White has strong compensation.} Nh6 $2 {6.45/31} (38... Ba4 {1.69/43} 39. h6 Bxc2) 39. Kg5 Nf7+ 40. Kg6 {2.70/34} (40. Kf6 $142 {6.52/33} Nh6 41. Kg6) 40... Ke7 41. Kg7 $2 {-0.33/34} (41. h6 $18 {2.20/28}) 41... Nd6 {[%tqu "En","","", "","h1g1","",10]} 42. h6 {-1.12/40} (42. Rg1 $1 $11 {-0.12/34 remains equal.}) 42... Nf5+ $2 {8.24/35 [%mdl 8192]} (42... Be8 $17 {-1.12/40}) {[%tqu "En","", "","","g7g6","",10]} 43. Kg8 $4 {-3.32/31 [%mdl 8192]} (43. Kg6 $1 $18 {8.24/35 }) {[%tqu "En","","","","d7e8","",10]} 43... Be8 $1 $19 44. Kh7 Kf6 45. Kg8 $2 {-15.44/31 [%mdl 32768] Accuracy: White = 22%, Black = 54%. . An unexpected result.} (45. Rh3 {-3.02/34} Kf7 46. Rh2) 1/2-1/2