C42 Petroff Defence: 3.Nxe5 and unusual White 3rd moves (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Qe7 4.d4 d6 5.Nf3 Nxe4)

The game below was played at the FIDE Online Arena in the first round of a rapid chess tournament. In this game I got outplayed by a player who was lower rated than me at the time this game was played by over 450 points... I am not all that knowledgeable of the Petrov's Defense or the Russian Game because it is a very rarely occuring opening in my games and I think my opponent may have known it better than me. I do not remember if my opponent in this game was one of those players whose official rating was very low compared to their unofficial rating but I have had a few of those people playing against me in these tournaments. Partly because of that I was not able to get the title of Arena International Master from the first 50 rapid games I played at FOA because I dropped below the rating requirement of that title. I have tried to play some games there from time to time but lately it has been difficult to get an official 15 minute game played there which is why I am still missing 18 games from the game requirement for the title. I have considered playing blitz games and see if I can get those games played faster and at the same time keep my rating above the rating requirement but I would need to play 100 games in the faster time controls and maintaining my rating over 1700 in that many blitz games might not be possible for me. Then again I might be completely wrong about my current blitz playing skills. After all, I have played blitz quite well over the board at least in the recent times and my national blitz rating is clearly higher than my national standard rating. But when I have played blitz on the internet, my ratings on different sites are usually quite low, over 200 points lower than my OTB blitz rating. Until tomorrow, my fellow chess enthusiasts!

[Event "Tournament 28743201"] [Site "online arena"] [Date "2015.04.08"] [Round "1"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "prashanth.p"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C42"] [WhiteElo "1861"] [BlackElo "1403"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (30s)"] [PlyCount "46"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 Qe7 4. d4 d6 5. Nf3 Nxe4 {C42 Petroff Defence: 3. Nxe5 and unusual White 3rd moves} 6. Qe2 {0.00/26 LiveBook: 5 Games} (6. Be2 $16 {0.76/23}) 6... d5 (6... Bf5 7. d5 Nd7 8. Bg5 Nxg5 9. Qxe7+ Bxe7 10. Nd4 Bg6 11. Bb5 Rd8 12. O-O O-O 13. Nc3 Bf6 14. Nde2 Bxc2 15. Rac1 Bg6 16. Nf4 Bf5 17. Nh5 Bg6 18. f4 Bxc3 19. Rxc3 Ne4 20. Rxc7 Ndc5 21. b4 {Huisamen,B (918) -Van den Berg,R (1003) Waterkloof 2015 0-1}) 7. Nbd2 Bf5 8. Nxe4 {The position is equal.} Bxe4 $146 (8... dxe4 9. Ne5 f6 10. Ng4 Qb4+ 11. c3 Qb6 12. Ne3 Bg6 13. Qg4 Nd7 14. Bc4 O-O-O 15. a4 c6 16. O-O Bd6 17. b4 Rhf8 18. Be6 Qc7 19. h3 Kb8 20. Nc4 f5 21. Qg5 Ka8 22. Nxd6 Qxd6 23. Bxd7 {Wich,M (1366)-Brandt,A Frankfurt 2013 1-0 (35)}) 9. c3 Nc6 10. Bf4 O-O-O 11. O-O-O h6 12. Nd2 g5 { 0.64/26} (12... Bg6 $11 {0.11/27}) 13. Bg3 {0.09/29} (13. Nxe4 $14 {0.64/26} gxf4 14. Nd2) 13... Bg6 14. Qb5 $2 {-1.30/24 [#]} (14. Qxe7 $1 $14 {0.34/27} Bxe7 15. h4) 14... f5 $40 {0.08/28 Black attacks.} ({Black should play} 14... h5 $1 $17 {-1.30/24 White must now prevent ...h4.} 15. h3 Bh6) 15. f4 $11 Bg7 { 0.64/23} ({Better is} 15... Qd6 $11 {0.14/25}) 16. Re1 Qf7 17. Nf3 {0.45/26} ( 17. Nb3 $16 {0.90/22} Rd6 18. Nc5) 17... Rhe8 $14 18. Ne5 {-0.80/25} (18. Rxe8 $14 {0.46/26 stays ahead.} Rxe8 19. Bd3) 18... Bxe5 $1 $17 19. fxe5 $2 { -2.85/26} (19. dxe5 $17 {-0.79/26} d4 20. Bc4) 19... f4 $19 20. Bf2 Qf5 21. Qb3 $2 {-#18/29 [#]} (21. Bd3 $19 {-3.86/27} Qxd3 22. Qxd3 Bxd3 23. g3) 21... Na5 { Black mates.} 22. Qd1 Qb1+ 23. Kd2 Qxb2+ {Precision: White = 10%, Black = 36%.} 0-1