D12 Slav Defence, 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bf5 (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 c6 4.e3 Bf5 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 Bg4 7.Qb3)

This game was played in the third round of the 2014 August Banded Threesomes I 1700-1800 tournament that is still in progress at Red Hot Pawn. I have two games left to finish and if I were to lose both of those games, I would have lost all of my games in this third round. Already this round has been really bad for me but it would be a disaster if I could not get a single point in this round. The battle for the win of the tournament is between Paullli (2068) and Rumdrum (1954), both have currently 9 points and their maximum possible score is 18. I have one game left to play against both these leading players, so even though I can't win anymore, I can at least have an affect on who wins the tournament. I have added one mate in one, one mate in two, two mate in five and one mate in seven puzzle today. I have also added one analysed game to my post D37 Queen's Gambit Declined: Three Knights Variation. General. Until tomorrow, my fellow chess enthusiasts!

The comments to this game starting with this paragraph have been added December 31st, 2016. In the game below I started to go wrong with the move 9...Bg6? and I should have instead played 9...Ne4. The position in which I played my 9th move can be seen below. The problem with the game move is that it allows chessicle to double my pawns.

I did get a chance to hang on in the game a few moves later when chessicle played 12.e4 in the position below. 12.O-O and 12.cxd5 were better alternatives for chessicle. Unfortunately for me, I replied to the move played in the game by playing 12...dxe4 and I was in some trouble once again. 12...Nxe4 was my best option and I would have been only slightly worse. In the game continuation I was clearly worse. Immediately chessicle took another inaccurate step and allowed me to get back into the game again with the move 13.Nxe4.

I was not able to maintain the game rather evenly fought for very long and when I made my 17th move in the position below, I took another step towards bigger problems. I castled long when I should have castled short. Chessicle was not able to find the strongest move 18.Kb1 and played 18.Qc3 instead.

I did hang on in the game for a few more moves, before I messed up once again with the move 22...Rd5?? The position where I played it can be seen below. My reluctance to take on c5 with the pawn was due to my need to keep my pawn structure in the best possible shape. Again chessicle played a rather sloppy move, this time it was 23.cxb6, which lost most of the advantage that my opponent had. With the move 23.Qa3 Stockfish thinks that chessicle had an advantage of around 1.5 pawns, but after the move 23.cxb6 the advantage drops to around 0.5 pawns.

I then took back with my a-pawn and chessicle replied with 24.Rc1. It would have been a tough struggle, but I might have been able to get a draw, had I not played 24...Kb7. I then was lost without hope of recovering. I continued playing moves for awhile, but when I saw the forced mate after 30.Rc7+, I resigned.

[Event "Banded Threesomes"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2015.07.04"] [Round "3"] [White "chessicle"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D12"] [WhiteElo "1956"] [BlackElo "1832"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "59"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. c4 c6 4. e3 Bf5 {Slav Defense: Quiet Variation, Schallopp Defense} 5. Nc3 (5. cxd5 cxd5 6. Nc3 (6. Qb3 Qc8 7. Bd2 e6 8. Na3 { Queen's Gambit Declined: Slav, Landau Variation}) 6... e6 7. Ne5 Nfd7 {Queen's Gambit Declined: Slav, Amsterdam Variation}) 5... e6 6. Nh4 Bg4 7. Qb3 { D12 Slav Defence, 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bf5} b6 8. h3 Bh5 9. g4 Bg6 10. Nxg6 hxg6 11. Bg2 Nbd7 (11... Be7 12. g5 (12. cxd5 exd5 13. g5 Ne4 14. Nxe4 dxe4 15. h4 Bd6 16. Bxe4 Qe7 17. Qc2 Bb4+ 18. Kf1 Nd7 19. Bxc6 Rc8 20. Qe4 Qxe4 21. Bxe4 Ke7 22. a3 Bd6 23. Bd2 Rh5 24. f4 Rch8 25. Be1 Nf8 26. Rc1 f6 {Gonzalez Acosta,B (2478) -Reboucas,D (2008) Praia da Pipa 2014 1-0 (32)}) 12... dxc4 13. Qxc4 Nd5 14. h4 b5 15. Qd3 Nd7 16. Bd2 N7b6 17. Nxd5 exd5 18. b3 Qd7 19. Rc1 Ba3 20. Rc2 Qg4 21. Bf1 Rc8 22. b4 Nc4 23. Rxc4 dxc4 24. Qxa3 Rd8 25. Rh3 Rxh4 26. Rxh4 { Hodgson,J (2575)-Hector,J (2510) Oxford 1998 1-0 (36)}) 12. e4 $146 (12. Bd2 Rc8 13. O-O-O Be7 14. Kb1 (14. e4 Nxe4 15. Nxe4 dxe4 16. Bxe4 Nf6 17. Bg2 Qxd4 18. Be3 Qe5 19. Qa4 Qc7 20. Rd2 Nd7 21. Rhd1 Nc5 22. Bxc5 Bxc5 23. Qxc6+ Qxc6 24. Bxc6+ Ke7 25. Rd7+ Kf6 26. Bb7 Rce8 27. g5+ Kxg5 28. Rxf7 Rxh3 { Schmouchkovitch,M (1984)-Gautier,E (1768) Sautron 2010 0-1 (36)}) 14... O-O 15. e4 Nxe4 16. Nxe4 dxe4 17. h4 c5 18. g5 cxd4 19. Qh3 Nc5 20. h5 Bxg5 21. hxg6 fxg6 22. Bxe4 Nxe4 23. Qxe6+ Rf7 24. Qxe4 Bxd2 25. Qxg6 Bb4 26. Qh7+ Kf8 { Damaso,R (2405)-Prie,E (2480) Clichy 1995 0-1 (34)}) (12. cxd5 cxd5 13. g5 Nh5 14. e4 dxe4 15. Bxe4 Rc8 16. Be3 Bd6 17. O-O-O Nf4 18. h4 Ne2+ 19. Kb1 Nxc3+ 20. bxc3 Qc7 21. Rc1 Bf4 22. Rh3 Ke7 23. Kb2 b5 24. Bd3 a6 25. Rf3 Bd6 26. Re1 Nb6 {Shalimov,V (2452)-Fingerov,D (2374) Alushta 2003 0-1 (71)}) 12... dxe4 ( 12... Nxe4 13. Nxe4 dxe4 14. Bxe4 $14) 13. Nxe4 (13. g5 Nh5 14. Be3 Bd6 $16) 13... Nxe4 $14 14. Bxe4 Qc7 15. Be3 Nf6 {Black threatens to win material: Nf6xe4} 16. Bg2 Bd6 17. O-O-O O-O-O (17... O-O 18. Kb1 $14) 18. Qc3 {White plans c5} (18. Kb1 $142 $5 Qb7 19. Rd3 $18) 18... Bf4 $14 19. Kb1 Bxe3 20. Qxe3 Rd7 21. Qf3 (21. g5 Nh5 $14) 21... Rd6 (21... Rhd8 22. g5 Nh5 23. d5 $11) 22. c5 {White threatens to win material: c5xd6} (22. g5 Nh5 23. Rhe1 $14) 22... Rd5 $4 {throwing away the advantage} (22... bxc5 $142 $5 {is an interesting alternative} 23. dxc5 Rxd1+ 24. Rxd1 Nd5 $11) 23. cxb6 (23. Qe2 $5 $18) 23... axb6 $16 24. Rc1 Kb7 $2 (24... Rd6 $142 $5 $16) 25. g5 $18 Nh5 26. Qb3 (26. Qe3 $142 Nf4 27. Be4 $18) 26... Rd6 $4 {shortens the misery for Black} (26... Nf4 $142 27. Bxd5 Nxd5 $16) 27. Rxc6 $1 $18 {Decoy: c6.} Rxc6 28. Rc1 Ka7 (28... Rc8 {what else?} 29. Bxc6+ Qxc6 30. Rxc6 Rxc6 $18) 29. Rxc6 Qd8 (29... Kb8 { cannot change what is in store for White} 30. Qb5 f5 31. Rxc7 Kxc7 32. Qc6+ Kd8 33. Qd6+ Ke8 34. Qxe6+ Kd8 35. Bc6 Nf6 36. gxf6 Kc7 37. Qd7+ Kb8 38. Qb7#) 30. Rc7+ $1 {Mate attack} (30. Rc7+ Qxc7 31. Qa4+ Kb8 32. Qa8#) 1-0