A43 Schmid Benoni (1.e4 e6 2.d4 c5 3.d5 Nf6 4.Nc3 d6 5.Nf3)

This game features an opening variation that was played in a move order that you will not see in theory. The theoretical move order for this variation is 1.d4 c5 2.d5 e6 3.e4, you might also come across this variation with the name A43 Benoni Defense: Franco-Sicilian Defense. The game below was played in the third round of a rapid chess tournament that was played at FIDE Online Arena on April 7th 2015. On the previous two rounds I won a game against a lower rated opponent and lost a game against a higher rated opponent, so the tournament was going once again without any real surprises and this third game did not break that pattern. I have added two mate in two, two mate in four and one mate in six puzzle. I have also added one more analysed game to my post C90 Spanish Game: Closed Variations, Pilnik Variation.

All was well for both players until we reached the position after my 5th move Nf3 and that you can see below this paragraph. Bruno52 played 5...Nbd7, which allowed me to take on e6 without the bishop being able to take back the pawn. After the moves 6.dxe6 fxe6 7.Ng5 bruno52 played 7...Be7 and his position went further down the drain.

I typed that it should have been the losing move, but when we ended in the position below, I played 21.Be3, which would have allowed my opponent to get back into the game.

Bruno52 was not able to find the saving move and blundered the game away with the move 21...Rae8?? Bruno52 should have played 21...Nxe3 in order to fight for a draw. After this I was able to maintain my advantage and the game ended in a mate on move 31.

Game number two. This game was played on the third round of the French 2014 tournament. Up to this point in the tournament I had barely advanced from one round to the next round. On this third round I faced a bit too tough resistance and ended up being fourth in the final standings of group 2. The group consisted of 4 players, so things did not go all that well for me this round. I only managed to get half a point on round three. Lasker64 was third on the final standings with 3 points and also did not advance to the last round.

This game had a similar situation as you can see in the first game in this post, my opponent played Nbd7, which blocked the bishop's path. For some reason in the first game I understood to take on e6, but not on this game. A better alternative would be 8...Re8 or 8...exd5. Lasker64's 8th move was not as bad as the Nbd7 played in the first game of this post though. The 9th move played by Lasker64 was seen in the position below and that was the move that created my opponent some real problems. Or rather it would have created problems had I replied to 9...Qc7 by playing 10.dxe6.

I played 10.Qd2 which was not the best option, but I still remained on the slightly better side of the board. The advantage kept shifting quite a bit, but the next significant change in the advantage came only after I played 30.Qg3? The position where I played my 30th move can be seen below.

It would have been important to prevent 30...Qa1+, but I was not up to the task of playing the most accurate move. Luckily neither was my opponent since Lasker64 played 30...Qc6. The position should be quite even after Lasker64's 30th move. However, my 31st move, Bg5, threw the game away once again. Again Lasker64 played a passive move that enabled me to hang on in the game. That being said, I made a third consecutive blunder with my 32nd move, which could have allowed my opponent to take a clear advantage again. For the third consecutive time my opponent was unable to take the advantage. The move 32...f6 was good enough for a draw. Lasker64 should have played either 32...Qa8 or 32...Qa6 in order to take the advantage. The remainder of the game was played rather evenly, but I actually resigned after 40...Qe8. The reason for this was that I thought that I am in a completely lost position and could not see a saving move. There would have been a move that would have kept an even position and that move was 41.Ne4. This was not the first time that I have resigned because I have misjudged the position and it might not be the last, but I am trying my best to avoid that in the future.

[Event "Tournament 28708446"] [Site "online arena"] [Date "2015.04.07"] [Round "3"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "bruno52"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A43"] [WhiteElo "1855"] [BlackElo "1402"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (30s)"] [PlyCount "61"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 c5 3. d5 Nf6 4. Nc3 d6 5. Nf3 {A43 Schmid Benoni} Nbd7 {1.81/26} ({Black should try} 5... exd5 $14 {0.45/27} 6. Nxd5 (6. exd5 h6 $14) 6... Be7) (5... a6 6. dxe6 Bxe6 7. Ng5 b5 8. Nxe6 fxe6 9. g3 Nc6 10. Bg2 Qc7 11. O-O Be7 12. Ne2 Kf7 13. Nf4 Rhe8 14. a4 b4 15. g4 h6 16. h4 g5 17. Nh3 Nh7 18. f4 Kg7 19. hxg5 hxg5 20. fxg5 {Speelman,J (2535)-Suba,M (2490) Dortmund 1981 1-0 (52)} ) 6. dxe6 $146 (6. Bd3 e5 7. O-O a6 8. a4 g6 9. Bg5 Bg7 10. Qd2 h6 11. Bh4 O-O 12. h3 Qe8 13. Ne2 c4 14. Bxc4 Nxe4 15. Qb4 Ndc5 16. Rfe1 g5 17. Bg3 Bd7 18. a5 Qd8 19. Bd3 Nxd3 20. cxd3 Nxg3 {Koval,D (2209)-Bevington,T Parsippany 2006 1/ 2-1/2 (49)}) (6. Be2 Be7 7. O-O Nf8 8. Nd2 e5 9. a4 Ng6 10. Nc4 O-O 11. Be3 Re8 12. Qd3 Bd7 13. a5 Rb8 14. Rfb1 b5 15. axb6 axb6 16. Na3 Ng4 17. Bxg4 Bxg4 18. Nab5 Rf8 19. Ra7 f5 20. f3 fxe4 {Rodkin,F (2198)-Gratsianov,I (1906) St Petersburg 2005 1-0 (34)}) 6... fxe6 7. Ng5 Be7 $2 {5.26/24 [#]} (7... Nb8 { 1.91/27} 8. e5 h6) 8. Nxe6 {White is clearly winning.} Qb6 9. Nxg7+ Kf7 10. Nf5 Bd8 {15.09/23} (10... Ne5 $142 {4.89/25} 11. Nxe7 Kxe7) 11. Bc4+ d5 12. exd5 $2 {3.95/25} (12. Nxd5 {14.64/22} Qe6 13. Nxf6 Nxf6 14. Nd6+ Kg7 15. Bxe6 Bxe6 16. Qf3) 12... Ne5 13. Bd3 c4 $2 {5.38/23} (13... Nxd3+ {2.82/24 might work better. } 14. Qxd3 Bxf5 15. Qxf5 Re8+ 16. Kd1 Bc7) 14. Nh6+ Ke8 15. Bf5 Bxf5 16. Nxf5 Nfg4 {[#]} 17. O-O Qf6 18. Ng3 Qh4 19. h3 Bb6 20. Qe2 Kd7 21. Be3 $2 {0.00/27} (21. Nce4 $18 {9.98/24} Nxf2 22. Rxf2) 21... Rae8 $2 {11.45/25} (21... Nxe3 $11 {0.00/27} 22. Na4 Nxf1 23. Nxb6+ axb6 24. Qxe5 Nxg3 25. Qe6+ Kd8 26. Qxb6+ Kc8 27. Qc5+ Kb8 28. Qd6+ Ka7 29. Qa3+ Kb8 30. Qd6+ Ka7 31. Qa3+ Kb8 32. Qd6+) 22. Bxb6 axb6 23. Nce4 Rhf8 24. f4 Rxf4 25. Rxf4 Qxg3 26. Nxg3 {White mates.} Ng6 27. Qxg4+ Kd6 28. Rf6+ Kc5 29. Re6 Rd8 30. Ne4+ Kxd5 31. Rd1# {Accuracy: White = 39%, Black = 21%.} 1-0 [Event "French 2014 - Round 3"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2016.01.06"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "Lasker64"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A43"] [WhiteElo "1813"] [BlackElo "2088"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (30s)"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "rnbqkbnr/pppp1ppp/4p3/8/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 2"] [PlyCount "78"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 2. d4 c5 3. d5 Nf6 4. Nc3 d6 5. Nf3 {A43 Schmid Benoni} Be7 6. Be2 O-O 7. O-O a6 (7... Na6 8. h3 Nc7 9. a4 b6 10. Bf4 a6 11. dxe6 Bxe6 12. Ng5 Bc8 13. Bc4 h6 14. Nf3 Be6 15. Bxe6 Nxe6 16. Bh2 b5 17. axb5 axb5 18. Qe2 b4 19. Nd5 Nxd5 20. exd5 Rxa1 21. Rxa1 Ng5 22. Nd2 {Bergonzi,O (1930)-Franco Pinanez,M (1718) Asuncion 2016 1-0 (48)}) 8. a4 Nbd7 (8... exd5 9. exd5 Re8 10. Bf4 Bg4 11. h3 Bxf3 12. Bxf3 Nbd7 13. Qd2 Ne5 14. Be2 Ng6 15. Bh2 Bf8 16. a5 Rc8 17. Ra4 Rc7 18. f4 Qc8 19. g4 Nd7 20. Bg3 f5 21. gxf5 Ne7 22. Bg4 Nf6 23. Bh4 {Sakaev,K (2590)-Nun,J (2395) Pardubice 1997 1-0 (47)}) 9. Bf4 $146 {dxe6 is the strong threat.White is better.} (9. Nd2 exd5 10. exd5 Ne5 11. f4 Ned7 12. Nc4 Re8 13. Bd3 Rb8 14. Na3 {1/2-1/2 (14) Linn,P-Ward,T Troy 1993}) 9... Qc7 10. Qd2 { 0.30/29} (10. dxe6 $16 {0.85/24} fxe6 11. Ng5) 10... Rd8 {0.90/24} (10... exd5 $11 {0.30/29} 11. exd5 (11. Nxd5 Nxd5 12. exd5 Re8 $14) 11... Ne5) 11. Rfd1 { 0.29/29} ({White should play} 11. dxe6 $16 {0.90/24} fxe6 12. Bc4) 11... exd5 $11 12. Nxd5 (12. Qxd5 {looks sharper.} Ne5 13. Qd2 h6 14. h3 Be6 15. Qe3) 12... Nxd5 13. Qxd5 Nf6 14. Qd3 Bg4 15. h3 Bh5 16. b3 Bg6 17. Nd2 Rab8 {0.25/24 } (17... Qc6 {-0.19/29 was preferrable.}) 18. Bf3 Nd7 19. Qe3 b5 20. axb5 axb5 21. Ra6 Ne5 22. Be2 Rb6 23. Rda1 Rxa6 24. Rxa6 Qb7 {0.76/31} (24... Nc6 $1 $11 {-0.16/27 remains equal.}) 25. Ra2 {-0.15/26} (25. Ra5 $16 {0.76/31}) 25... Nc6 26. c3 b4 27. c4 Nd4 28. Bd3 Ra8 29. Rxa8+ Qxa8 30. Qg3 {-1.08/27} (30. Qe1 $11 {-0.23/28 keeps the balance.}) 30... Qc6 {0.00/32} (30... Qa1+ $17 {-1.08/27} 31. Kh2 Qc3) 31. Bg5 {-1.49/29} (31. Be3 $11 {0.00/32}) 31... Bf8 {0.00/33} ( 31... Bxg5 $17 {-1.49/29} 32. Qxg5 Qa8) 32. f4 {-0.86/28} (32. Be3 $11 {0.00/33 }) 32... f6 {0.00/35} ({Black should try} 32... Qa6 $17 {-0.86/28} 33. Qe1 f6) 33. f5 $1 {The position is equal.} fxg5 34. fxg6 h6 35. e5 dxe5 36. Qxe5 Bd6 37. Qe3 Qd7 38. Be4 Bf4 39. Bd5+ Kh8 40. Qd3 Qe8 {Accuracy: White = 34%, Black = 37%. . Loss on time!?} 0-1