B20 Sicilian: Unusual White 2nd moves (1.e4 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nf3 g6 4.Nc3 Bg7 5.Be2)

This game was played in the third round of a tournament at Vammala in 2002. For some reason this was the only round where I had not marked the ratings of the players in the notation. I am not sure about the real reason behind this oddity, but it might be something to do with the fact that I had lost both of my previous games in this tournament.

It was quite an uphill battle for me to make any progress at all in chess in the early stages of my tournament playing career. Career might not be a suitable word to use in this situation because I have never played chess professionally, but I am not sure what other word would have the intended meaning. I think I played around 100 games in tournaments before I started to get my rating to a significantly higher level and also be able to keep it there with ease. The amount of games it actually took is not known for me because I did not really make a note of it at the time. I guess it would have been interesting for me to know now, but I did not regard it as being all that important to me at the time, I was only happy about the fact that my rating started to make its unstoppable climb, well for awhile anyway. I am not even sure about the details anymore, I think when I started that big climb, I was able to increase my rating 283 or 383 points in a year. There is a hundred point difference there, but I can't honestly remember anymore which one of those is the correct amount. As my over the board rating in standard is concerned, it is the biggest climb I have ever been able to do in a year. There have been a couple of times when I was able to increase my rating about a hundred points in a tournament, but sadly I have done the exact opposite as well and plummeted my rating around a hundred points, though that rating drop I think has only happened once.

[Event "Vammala"] [Site "?"] [Date "2002.08.31"] [Round "3"] [White "Hentunen, Jesse"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B20"] [Annotator "Stockfish 6 64 BMI2 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "57"] [EventDate "2002.??.??"] 1. e4 c5 2. c4 {Sicilian Defense: Staunton-Cochrane Variation} Nc6 (2... d6 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. g3 h5 {Sicilian Defense: Gloria Variation}) 3. Nf3 g6 4. Nc3 Bg7 5. Be2 {B20 Sicilian: Unusual White 2nd moves} e6 6. d3 Nge7 7. Bg5 (7. O-O a6 8. Be3 Nd4 9. Bxd4 cxd4 10. Nb1 b5 11. b3 O-O 12. Na3 bxc4 13. bxc4 d5 14. cxd5 exd5 15. Nd2 dxe4 16. Nxe4 Nd5 17. Qd2 Be6 18. Nc5 Bf5 19. Bf3 Ra7 20. Nc4 Nc3 21. Rfe1 Qc7 {Memic,M-Abel,L (2305) Wiesbaden 1990 0-1 (35)}) 7... Qb6 {N} ( 7... h6 8. Be3 Nd4 9. Qd2 d6 (9... g5 10. Bxd4 cxd4 11. Nb5 Nc6 12. Nd6+ Kf8 13. h3 Qc7 14. c5 b6 15. Nxc8 Qxc8 16. cxb6 axb6 17. O-O Bf6 18. Rfc1 Qd8 19. b4 Ra4 20. b5 Ne5 21. Qc2 Nxf3+ 22. Bxf3 Ra3 23. Qc4 Kg7 24. Bd1 {Chernov,V (2029)-Vrublevskaya,O (2157) St Petersburg 2005 0-1 (50)}) 10. h4 a6 11. Rb1 Nec6 12. Bf4 f5 13. g3 Nxe2 14. Qxe2 e5 15. Bd2 O-O 16. Nh2 Nd4 17. Qd1 b5 18. b3 Ra7 19. Be3 Raf7 20. Rb2 Nc6 21. f3 f4 22. Bf2 {Tarasov,V-Voitsekhovsky,S Nizhny Novgorod 2015 0-1 (38)}) (7... O-O 8. Qd2 Re8 9. O-O a6 10. Rac1 Rb8 11. a4 Nd4 12. Nxd4 cxd4 13. Nd1 d5 14. exd5 exd5 15. c5 Bf5 16. f4 Qd7 17. a5 Rbc8 18. b4 Nc6 19. h3 Nxb4 20. g4 Rxe2 21. Qxe2 Bxd3 22. Qd2 {Boerding,T (1726) -Tempelman,K (1961) Germany 2012 0-1 (35)}) 8. Qc2 O-O 9. Rb1 Re8 10. a3 { Covers b4} a5 11. O-O Nd4 (11... d6 12. Qd2 {=}) 12. Nxd4 {+/=} Bxd4 (12... cxd4 13. Na4 Qc6 14. Qb3 {+/=}) 13. Nb5 {+/-} Bg7 14. Bf4 e5 {Black threatens to win material: e5xf4} 15. Bd2 Nc6 16. f4 (16. Qd1 Nd4 17. Nxd4 exd4 {+/=}) 16... Nd4 (16... exf4 $5 17. Kh1 Qd8 {=}) 17. Nxd4 {+/-} exd4 18. f5 (18. b4 cxb4 19. axb4 axb4 20. Rxb4 Qc7 {+/-}) 18... a4 19. fxg6 (19. Bg4 Be5 {+/=}) 19... fxg6 {=} 20. Rf2 Qb3 (20... d6 21. h4 {=}) 21. Qc1 Ra6 $4 {cause more grief} (21... b5 22. Bd1 Qxd3 {+/-}) 22. Bh6 {+-} Rae6 (22... Qb6 23. Bxg7 Kxg7 {+-}) 23. Bg4 (23. Qg5 {and White has it in the bag} Qb6 24. Bxg7 Kxg7 25. Rbf1 {+-}) 23... R6e7 (23... Qxd3 $5 24. Bxe6+ Rxe6 25. Bxg7 Kxg7 {+/-}) 24. Bxg7 { +-} Kxg7 25. Qd2 Qb6 26. Rbf1 Qd8 27. Qg5 Re5 $4 {Black crumbles in face of a dire situation} (27... d6 28. Bxc8 Qxc8 29. Qf6+ Kg8 30. Qxd6 Rd7 {+-}) 28. Rf7+ Kg8 29. Qh6 (29. Qh6 g5 30. Qxh7#) 1-0