B23 Closed Sicilian: Lines without g3 (1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.d3 g6 4.Be3)

I am starting to go through my over the board games again after a long break. When I published them on the blog, I did not post all that many of them. That will most likely change in the near future, or so it would seem at this time anyway. I will go through the database starting from the earliest examples and at some point I will be able to get to my most recent OTB games. It will take some time because there are around 500 of them. I do not even have all of them in my database just yet because in the past few years, I have not been bothered to put them in any database. Even after starting to do this blog I have rarely put any of my OTB games into a database, mainly because I have preferred the games that I have played in the different correspondence chess sites as a content provider for the blog. Now though it seems like a suitable time to do this change as my correspondence games are not ending fast enough to provide enough content and also because I have, at least for the moment, gone through all the games that I have played at the FIDE Online Arena.

The notation below is the only notation I have from this rapid chess tournament that was played at Salo over thirteen years ago. I do not remember much from those games, but I do remember the place where this tournament was held back then. I have fond memories of playing there even though my results were never all that great. It somehow had this old time feel to it, which I really like. These days the tournaments that I have participated in have this modern feel to them and they can't in my opinion bring the same kind of atmosphere to the tournaments that I experienced while playing in this old place so many years ago and in one other place where tournaments where used to being held. I kind of miss those times and tournaments being held in those places, even if the places that tournaments are held now are more spacious and in other ways much better than the old places. If I remember correctly, the copy of the notation was given to me by my opponent, I did not mark my moves in these rapid chess tournaments back then and after all these years have passed, I am quite sad that I did not do that. It would have been nice to look at those games after all this time.

[Event "Salon nopean shakin turnaus"] [Site "?"] [Date "2002.05.11"] [Round "1"] [White "Torkkola, Jari"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B23"] [WhiteElo "1837"] [BlackElo "1303"] [Annotator "Stockfish 6 64 BMI2 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "43"] [EventDate "2002.05.11"] [EventType "rapid"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 {Sicilian Defense: Closed Variation, Traditional} 3. d3 (3. f4 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bc4 e6 6. f5 {Sicilian Defense: Grand Prix Attack, Schofman Variation}) (3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. d3 d6 6. Be3 {Sicilian Defense: Closed Variation} (6. f4 e5 7. Nh3 Nge7 {Sicilian Defense: Closed Variation, Botvinnik Defense I, Edge Variation})) 3... g6 4. Be3 {B23 Closed Sicilian: Lines without g3} e6 (4... Nd4 5. Nce2 Bg7 6. c3 Nxe2 7. Nxe2 b6 8. g3 Bb7 9. Bg2 Nf6 10. O-O O-O 11. h3 Qc7 12. c4 e6 13. f4 Ne8 14. Nc3 Rd8 15. Bf2 d5 16. cxd5 exd5 17. e5 d4 18. Ne4 Kh8 19. Re1 {Smyslov,V (2510)-Bacrot,E (2470) Albert 1996 0-1 (62)}) 5. g3 {N} (5. Be2 d5 6. exd5 exd5 7. d4 Bg7 8. Nf3 Bg4 9. Bb5 Bxf3 10. gxf3 Nge7 11. Qd2 O-O 12. Ne2 c4 13. c3 Nf5 14. O-O-O a6 15. Ba4 Qa5 16. b3 b5 17. bxc4 Qxa4 18. cxd5 Nce7 19. Nf4 Rfd8 {Pagerka, M-Langnerova,K Mureck 2004 0-1}) (5. Qd2 Qa5 (5... Bg7 6. Be2 Nge7 7. Bh6 O-O 8. Bxg7 Kxg7 9. h4 Qb6 10. O-O-O a5 11. h5 gxh5 12. Rxh5 a4 13. Qh6+ Kg8 14. Qxh7# {1-0 (14) Beranova,K-Malkova,A Kouty nad Desnou 2013}) 6. f4 d6 7. Nf3 Bg7 8. d4 Nge7 9. Be2 O-O 10. g4 cxd4 11. Nxd4 Nxd4 12. Bxd4 Qb4 13. Bxg7 Kxg7 14. O-O-O e5 15. f5 Bd7 16. f6+ Kxf6 17. Qh6 Ke6 18. g5 f5 19. gxf6 Rxf6 { Rawlinson,C (2058)-Lamont,R (1894) England 2015 1-0}) (5. d4 Bg7 6. dxc5 Qa5 7. Nge2 Nf6 8. f3 b6 9. cxb6 d5 10. Nd4 Nxd4 11. Bxd4 O-O 12. e5 Nd7 13. b4 Qxb4 14. Rb1 Qa5 15. b7 Bxb7 16. Rxb7 Nxe5 17. Rb5 Qc7 18. Be2 Rfc8 19. O-O Ng4 { Karasev,V (2412)-Novogrudsky,N (2226) Odintsovo 2008 1-0}) (5. d4 d5 6. Bb5 Bg7 {=}) 5... d5 6. exd5 exd5 7. d4 (7. Qe2 Be6 8. Nf3 {=}) 7... c4 (7... Bg7 8. Nge2 Bg4 {=/+}) 8. Bg2 {White threatens to win material: Bg2xd5} Be6 9. Nge2 Bg7 10. O-O Nge7 11. Nf4 {d5 becomes the focus of attention} Qd7 12. Nb5 (12. b3 cxb3 13. axb3 O-O {+/=}) 12... O-O {=} 13. Nxe6 fxe6 (13... Qxe6 $2 14. Nc7 Qd7 15. Nxa8 Rxa8 16. c3 {+-}) 14. c3 {Prevents intrusion on b4} a6 {Black threatens to win material: a6xb5} 15. Na3 b5 16. Nc2 Rab8 17. Bf4 Rb7 18. a3 { Secures b4} a5 19. Re1 Nf5 20. Qe2 {White threatens to win material: Qe2xe6} Qe7 $4 (20... Nd8 {+/= saving the game}) 21. Qxe6+ {+-} Qxe6 22. Rxe6 (22. Rxe6 Nce7 23. Ra6 {+-}) 1-0