D02 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 sidelines, including 2...Nf6 3.g3 and 2...Nf6 3.Bf4 (1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.e3 Bd6 5.Bxd6 Qxd6)

This post is only done in order to correct a mistake I did in the past. Sometimes I find a game where I have wrongly categorised the opening. This does not happen all that often, but I have corrected similar mistakes also in the past. The reason why I even look at my older posts is that I have found something in the game I am currently looking at that makes me think that I may have done a mistake in naming the opening variation in the older games. This time I looked a recent game from Red Hot Pawn which was played against someone who I had faced before and because that player had played a similar opening against me, I knew that at least that game is under the wrong post. I also found other games in that same post and there are still some work to be done before I have corrected all that were wrongly placed in my post A45 Indian Game: General. The new opening explorer at the new Chess.com site version has been very helpful tool to me lately. It is much better than the old version of the opening explorer in my opinion. In order to be perfectly clear, I have only done some maintenance today, I have not added new games or puzzles today. The normal posts will continue on Monday. The move order in theory for this opening is 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bf4.

This was played in the second round of the only 20 minute tournament I have ever played at the FIDE Online Arena and probably the last one too. The only reason I will not play in that tournament again is because there are no official elo games played in it. I do not see any reason to play at the FIDE Online Arena if the games are not official. That is because you can only achieve something by playing official games. After two rounds I had two wins and despite the nature of the games I always play to win. It does not work all the time obviously but the will to win is always there.

[Event "Tournament 28136926"] [Site "online arena"] [Date "2015.03.22"] [Round "2"] [White "jojojosh"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D02"] [WhiteElo "1675"] [BlackElo "1837"] [Annotator "Stockfish 6 64 BMI2 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "128"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 (2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. cxb5 a6 5. bxa6 (5. e3 {Benko Gambit: Accepted. Modern Variation}) (5. f3 {Benko Gambit: Accepted. Dlugy Variation}) 5... Bxa6 (5... g6 6. Nc3 Bxa6 7. f4 {Benko Gambit: Accepted. Central Storming Variation}) 6. Nc3 g6 7. Nf3 d6 8. g3 Bg7 9. Bg2 {Benko Gambit: Accepted. Fianchetto Variation}) 2... e6 3. Nf3 {Indian Game: London System} d5 4. e3 Bd6 5. Bxd6 Qxd6 {D02 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 sidelines, including 2...Nf6 3.g3 and 2...Nf6 3.Bf4} 6. a3 O-O 7. c4 (7. Nbd2 c5 8. Be2 b6 {1/2-1/2 (8) Cvar,S (1995) -Vrankic,Z (2113) Celje 2008}) (7. Bd3 Nbd7 8. Nbd2 e5 9. dxe5 Nxe5 10. Nxe5 Qxe5 11. c3 Bg4 12. Be2 Bf5 13. Nf3 Qe7 14. O-O c5 15. Re1 Rad8 16. Nh4 Be6 17. Qa4 a6 18. Bd3 g6 19. Nf3 Bg4 20. Nd2 Rfe8 21. f3 Bd7 {Santacroce,F (1574) -Orsatti,M (1976) Udine 2012 0-1 (33)}) 7... c5 8. cxd5 Nxd5 {N} (8... exd5 9. Nc3 a6 10. dxc5 Qxc5 11. Rc1 Qa5 12. Bd3 Nc6 13. O-O Bg4 14. h3 Bxf3 15. Qxf3 Ne5 16. Qe2 Rfe8 17. Rfd1 Rad8 18. Qc2 Rc8 19. Qb1 g6 20. Ne2 Nc4 21. Bxc4 dxc4 22. Rd4 b5 23. Rcd1 {Szasz,J (1860)-Vizkeleti,P (1828) Hungary 2010 1-0 (39)}) 9. Nc3 cxd4 10. Qxd4 Nc6 {Black threatens to win material: Nc6xd4} 11. Qd2 Rd8 12. Nxd5 exd5 13. Be2 Bg4 14. O-O {Black has an active position} Qg6 15. Nh4 { White threatens to win material: Nh4xg6} Qh5 16. Bxg4 Qxg4 17. Nf3 Rd6 (17... d4 18. h3 Qe4 19. exd4 Nxd4 20. Nxd4 Rxd4 21. Qc3 {=}) 18. Rfd1 Rg6 {Black has a mate threat} 19. Ne1 Rd8 20. f3 {White threatens to win material: f3xg4} Qh4 21. e4 (21. Qf2 $5 {is a viable option} Qe7 22. Rac1 {=}) 21... dxe4 {+/-} 22. Qe3 exf3 (22... Re6 $5 23. fxe4 Rxd1 (23... Qxe4 24. Rxd8+ Nxd8 25. Qxa7 {=}) 24. Rxd1 Rxe4 {+/-}) 23. Nxf3 {=/+} Qf6 24. Rxd8+ (24. Rd7 $1 {= is interesting }) 24... Qxd8 {+/-} 25. Re1 Re6 26. Qf2 Rxe1+ 27. Nxe1 Qd4 28. Qxd4 Nxd4 29. Kf2 Kf8 30. Ke3 Ne6 31. Ke4 Ke7 32. h3 (32. Kd5 $5 {+/-}) 32... Kd6 {-+} 33. Nf3 f6 34. Nd4 $4 {terrible, but the game is lost in any case} (34. Kf5 {+/-}) 34... Nxd4 {-+} 35. Kxd4 (35. h4 {desperation} Nb3 36. h5 {-+}) 35... f5 36. h4 g6 37. g3 b5 38. b3 h6 39. a4 a6 (39... bxa4 40. bxa4 g5 41. hxg5 hxg5 42. a5 a6 43. Kc4 Ke5 44. Kd3 Kd5 45. Ke3 Kc5 46. Ke2 Kb5 47. Kd3 Kxa5 48. Kc4 Kb6 49. Kd4 a5 50. Kc4 g4 51. Kd5 a4 52. Ke5 a3 53. Kxf5 a2 54. Kxg4 Kc5 55. Kf3 a1=Q 56. Kf4 Qg7 57. g4 Kd4 58. Kf5 Qf7+ 59. Kg5 Ke3 60. Kh4 Qf6+ 61. Kg3 Qf2+ 62. Kh3 Kf3 63. g5 Qg3#) 40. axb5 axb5 41. b4 (41. Kd3 {does not win a prize} Kd5 42. h5 gxh5 43. b4 h4 44. gxh4 h5 45. Ke3 Kc4 46. Kf4 Kxb4 47. Kg5 Kc4 48. Kxh5 b4 49. Kh6 b3 50. h5 b2 51. Kg7 b1=Q 52. h6 Qb7+ 53. Kg6 Qb2 54. h7 Kd5 55. Kxf5 Qe5+ 56. Kg6 Ke6 57. h8=Q Qxh8 58. Kg5 Qd4 59. Kh6 Kf6 60. Kh7 Qd7+ 61. Kh8 Qg7#) 41... g5 42. hxg5 (42. Kd3 {cannot undo what has already been done} Kd5 43. h5 f4 44. gxf4 gxf4 45. Ke2 Ke4 46. Kf2 f3 47. Kf1 Kf4 48. Kf2 Kg4 49. Kf1 Kxh5 50. Ke1 Kg4 51. Kd1 h5 52. Ke1 h4 53. Kf2 Kf4 54. Ke1 Ke3 55. Kf1 h3 56. Ke1 f2+ 57. Kd1 f1=Q+ 58. Kc2 h2 59. Kc3 h1=Q 60. Kb2 Qa1+ 61. Kb3 Qhb1#) 42... hxg5 43. Kc3 (43. Ke3 {doesn't get the cat off the tree} Kd5 44. Kd3 f4 45. g4 Ke5 46. Ke2 Ke4 47. Kf2 f3 48. Kf1 Kf4 49. Kf2 Kxg4 50. Ke3 Kg3 51. Kd2 f2 52. Ke2 Kg2 53. Kd3 f1=Q+ 54. Kc2 Qc4+ 55. Kb2 Qxb4+ 56. Kc2 Kf3 57. Kd3 Qc4+ 58. Kd2 g4 59. Kd1 Ke3 60. Ke1 Qc1#) 43... Ke5 44. Kd3 Kd5 45. g4 (45. Kc3 {cannot change destiny} Ke4 46. Kd2 Kf3 47. g4 f4 48. Kd3 Kxg4 49. Kd4 f3 50. Ke3 Kg3 51. Kd2 Kf4 52. Kd3 g4 53. Kc3 Ke3 54. Kc2 f2 55. Kc3 f1=Q 56. Kc2 g3 57. Kc3 Qc4+ 58. Kb2 g2 59. Ka1 g1=Q+ 60. Kb2 Qgc1#) 45... fxg4 (45... f4 46. Kd2 Kc4 47. Ke2 Kxb4 48. Kd3 Kc5 49. Ke4 b4 50. Kd3 b3 51. Kc3 f3 52. Kd3 b2 53. Ke3 b1=Q 54. Kxf3 Qc2 55. Kg3 Kc4 56. Kh3 Kd3 57. Kg3 Ke3 58. Kh3 Kf2 59. Kh2 Qh7#) 46. Ke3 (46. Ke2 {does not help much} Kc4 47. Kf1 Kxb4 48. Ke2 Kc4 49. Ke3 b4 50. Kf2 b3 51. Kg3 b2 52. Kxg4 b1=Q 53. Kxg5 Qe4 54. Kf6 Kd5 55. Kf7 Kd6 56. Kg8 Qg4+ 57. Kf7 Qg5 58. Kf8 Ke6 59. Ke8 Qe7#) 46... Kc4 47. Kf2 (47. Ke4 {does not solve anything} Kxb4 48. Kd4 g3 49. Ke3 Kc4 50. Ke2 b4 51. Kf3 b3 52. Kxg3 b2 53. Kg4 b1=Q 54. Kxg5 Qe4 55. Kf6 Kd5 56. Kf7 Qf5+ 57. Kg8 Ke6 58. Kh8 Kf6 59. Kg8 Qg4+ 60. Kh8 Qg7#) 47... Kxb4 48. Kg3 (48. Kg2 {doesn't change anything anymore} Kc3 49. Kf1 b4 50. Kg2 b3 51. Kg3 b2 52. Kxg4 Kd4 53. Kxg5 b1=Q 54. Kf6 Kd5 55. Kg5 Ke5 56. Kg4 Qb3 57. Kh5 Kf5 58. Kh6 Qb7 59. Kh5 Qh1#) 48... Kc3 (48... Kc5 49. Kf2 b4 50. Kg2 b3 51. Kg3 b2 52. Kxg4 b1=Q 53. Kxg5 Qe4 54. Kf6 Kd6 55. Kf7 Qg4 56. Kf6 Qh5 57. Kg7 Ke6 58. Kg8 Kf6 59. Kf8 Qf7#) 49. Kxg4 b4 50. Kxg5 b3 51. Kf4 (51. Kf6 {is not much help} b2 52. Ke5 b1=Q 53. Kf6 Qb6+ 54. Ke5 Qg6 55. Kf4 Kd4 56. Kf3 Qf5+ 57. Ke2 Qg4+ 58. Ke1 Qg2 59. Kd1 Kd3 60. Kc1 Qc2#) 51... b2 52. Ke3 (52. Ke5 {doesn't improve anything} Kc4 53. Kf6 b1=Q 54. Ke5 Qg6 55. Kf4 Kd4 56. Kf3 Qg5 57. Kf2 Qg4 58. Ke1 Qg2 59. Kd1 Kd3 60. Kc1 Qc2#) 52... b1=Q 53. Kf4 Qe1 (53... Kd4 54. Kf3 Qe4+ 55. Kg3 Ke3 56. Kh2 Kf3 57. Kg1 Qg6+ 58. Kf1 Qb1#) 54. Kf5 (54. Kg4 {doesn't change the outcome of the game} Qe5 55. Kf3 Kd3 56. Kf2 Qg7 57. Kf3 Qg5 58. Kf2 Qg4 59. Kf1 Ke3 60. Ke1 Qg1#) 54... Kd4 55. Kf6 Qe8 56. Kf5 (56. Kg5 {hardly improves anything} Ke4 57. Kf6 Kf4 58. Kg7 Kf5 59. Kh7 Kf6 60. Kh6 Qg6#) 56... Qe5+ ( 56... Ke3 57. Kg5 Qe6 58. Kh4 Qg6 59. Kh3 Kf3 60. Kh4 Qg4#) 57. Kg4 (57. Kg6 { a fruitless try to alter the course of the game} Ke4 58. Kh7 Kf5 59. Kg8 Kf6 60. Kh8 Qg3 61. Kh7 Qg7#) 57... Qf6 (57... Ke3 58. Kh3 Qg5 59. Kh2 Kf3 60. Kh3 Qg3#) 58. Kg3 Ke3 59. Kg4 Qf4+ (59... Qg6+ 60. Kh4 Kf4 61. Kh3 Qg3#) 60. Kh5 Qg3 (60... Qf7+ 61. Kh6 Ke4 62. Kg5 Qg7+ 63. Kh5 Kf5 64. Kh4 Qg4#) 61. Kh6 Kf4 62. Kh7 Kf5 63. Kh8 Kf6 64. Kh7 Qg7# 0-1

Chess960 SP186

The game below was played at ChessRex between December 25th 2015 and January 17th 2016. Both players had 4 days to use for each of their moves. This was the 8th game I have played at the site and I have so far finished 9 games there, four chess960 games and five chess games. I have won all of them, but I think my first loss is fast approaching. Currently I have three games in progress there, two of which are chess960 games. The first move by both players could be seen also in a lot of chess games, but on my second move anyone seeing just the notation would realise that this is a chess960 game. There are probably a lot of good options to develop the pieces in this starting position, but I think that I moved my a-knight to the best square it can go from its starting square. I am not sure if my opponent's second move is a good one. I know that it is aggressive and tries to take the iniative by attacking my pawn on e4. The reason why I have my doubts about this move is that it blocks the pawn on d7 and may interfere with the bishops or at least restrict their options a bit. I reply to the threat to the pawn by moving the g-pawn to g3 and open the diagonal for my queen to protect the pawn. My opponent increases the pressure on the pawn with the move f5, to which I do not answer in the best possible way according to Stockfish anyway. The line it offers in this analysis to be better than the one I played is not really convincing to me. Even though Stockfish thinks that after 6...Qxf5 the position is equal, I would slightly prefer black at least with my first glance of the position.

The move 4...c6 made by ALZ112, did not make much sense to me in the game continuation especially when it took a long time for him to play the a-kinght to c7. Only after he had moved the c-pawn the second time on move 26, did he play his knight to c7. 4.fxe4 that the engine suggests does seem to be a better way to continue. Had ALZ112 taken on e4, he could have gotten the bishop pair and my queen would end up on potentialy shaky square e4. The game continues in rather balanced way until ALZ112 plays 7...Nf7 after which I start to gain some real advantage. I am mostly able to maintain my advantage as clear or winning until I play the rather weak and sloppy move 16.Bh3. The game continuation allows me to gain some advantage again, but I am almost throwing it away again when I play 18.Qf3. From move 19 onwards my play gets more consistent and I did not lose my advantage during the rest of the game anymore. I have added one mate in two, two mate in three and two mate in four puzzles today. Until Monday, my fellow chess and chess960 enthusiasts!

Chess960 SP444

Time for some chess960 again, this time I will share two games that were played at lichess.org ten days ago. The rating difference between these two players does show in both of these games as they both were pretty much decided in less than ten moves. The second game did continue longer than the first one, but it featured a similar blunder by my opponent around the same move number as in the first game.

This game starts with both players trying to control the center with their pawns. Perfectly reasonable way to start the game in my opinion. Then I played 2.h3 in order to develop my bishop to h2. The other option is to develop the bishop along the g1-a7 diagonal, but that would require me to move the f-pawn and that is something that I do not like to do in this position. After three moves my opponent has grabbed more space than me due to his pawn moves, but I have developed a bishop and I am also prepared to castle now. On move 4 I play a3, intending to develop my other bishop to a2. I did not want to commit to castling to kingside just yet, but instead keep my options open as long as I can. After 5...f6 I traded the light-squared bishops, I am not sure why I did that because it is not necessary to do so. I have used two moves to trade a bishop that has not moved in the game, usually not a good idea unless there is a clear purpose behind it. After bishop takes on g8, my opponent can't castle short anymore. I am not sure that he or she would have wanted to do so anyway after weakening his or her kingside. After the trade, I continue with my piece development, but my opponent ignores development and plays Nd4, which might have been an annoying move if my knight would not have defended c2. I just play 8.Ne2 in response and maybe on the next move trade knights on d4 or ignore that knight for now and castle. My decision on what to do is made easy after my opponent blunders with the move 8...Nxc2 which I happily take with my knight and be up a piece for a pawn. I have added one mate in two, two mate in three and two mate in four puzzles today.

Game number two. This one has a similar start to the first game except that my opponent is one move ahead. Similarities continue for the first three moves. After 5.f3 it is clear to me once again that my opponent does not prioritise development for these pawn moves. I am, however, one of those players who like to get their pieces developed as soon as possible and I had my bishop and a knight developed in that position after 5.f3, where my opponent had in my opinion wasted time and just moved his or her pawns. On move six, my opponent finally develops a piece. I answer that by a clumsy looking Bd6, with the idea of just to control c5 with my pieces and besides I did not find a better square for my dark-squared bishop. The bishop is clumsy there because it stands in front of the d-pawn which I may want to play to d5 at some point. Not immediately of course because I would lose a pawn after 6...d5 7.exd5 cxd5 8.Nxe5. All things considered, this second encounter went a lot better for my opponent than the first encounter. Well, until the self-destruction that my opponent started on move 9 anyway. After that the game went clearly in my favor to the end.

C84 Closed Spanish Game: Unusual White 6th moves (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.d3 b5 7.Bb3 O-O)

The game below was third loss in a row for me in correspondence chess at Chess.com. Out of the last ten games there I have lost five, played one draw and won three, though two out of those three wins can't really be counted because my opponent did not move in either of those and lost therefore on time. Especially two out of those losses are really subpar performances from me that should not happen to me with these long thinking times. Obviously I am not using the whole time per move that I would be allowed or even most of it, but I would expect better moves from me than the ones I did in some of those games anyway. Well, it is true that time on my clocks does suggest that I would use a lot longer to make my moves than I am actually using, but because I have 120 or so games to play at the same time, I can't really use all that much time on every single move I make.

This game was played in a team match called Remedy for OCD - BtDW. It is being played on 20 boards between Blade, The Daywalker and Obsessive Chess Disorder!! The rating range for this team match is 1300 - 1900. At the moment this match started, I was the highest participant of this category in OCD, so I play on board 1. During the match the ratings have changed so that I would now only qualify for board 3. The reason for that is that I have unfortunately destroyed my rating, but also the players on second and third boards have increased theirs, which is a more positive thing. The match has been quite evenly fought so far as the current score 17.5 - 16.5 suggests. The score is in favor of Blade, The Daywalker.

[Event "Remedy for OCD - BtDW - Board 1"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2015.10.11"] [Round "?"] [White "peterkp99"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C84"] [WhiteElo "1797"] [BlackElo "1815"] [Annotator "Stockfish 7 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "89"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. d3 {Spanish Game: Closed Variations, Martinez Variation} (6. d4 exd4 7. e5 Ne4 8. c3 dxc3 { Spanish Game: Closed Variations, Center Attack, Basque Gambit}) (6. Nc3 { Spanish Game: Closed Variations, Morphy Attack}) (6. Qe2 b5 7. Bb3 d6 {Spanish Game: Closed Variations, Worrall Attack, Delayed Castling Line}) 6... b5 7. Bb3 O-O {C84 Closed Spanish Game: Unusual White 6th moves} 8. Be3 d6 9. Nbd2 (9. Nc3 Na5 10. Nd5 Nxd5 11. Bxd5 c6 12. Bb3 Nxb3 13. cxb3 f5 14. exf5 Bxf5 15. d4 Bg4 16. dxe5 Qc7 17. Qd4 Bxf3 18. gxf3 Rxf3 19. Bf4 Qd7 20. Bg3 d5 21. Rfe1 Qe6 22. Re3 Raf8 23. Rae1 h5 {Shtyka,A-Zherebukh,Y (2371) Bila Tserkva 2004 0-1}) ( 9. c3 h6 10. h3 Bb7 11. Re1 d5 12. Nbd2 Qd6 13. exd5 Nxd5 14. Nf1 Rad8 15. Ng3 Qg6 16. Bc2 f5 17. Bd2 Bc5 18. Nxe5 Nxe5 19. Rxe5 Qxg3 20. d4 Qg6 21. Bb3 Bb6 22. Qf3 c6 23. Rae1 Bc8 {Macko,P (2035) -Balogh,P (2128) Tatralandia 2015 0-1}) 9... Na5 10. c3 c5 {N} (10... Nxb3 11. axb3 c5 12. c4 Bd7 13. Qe2 a5 14. Ra2 b4 15. Rfa1 Qc7 16. Ne1 Ra6 17. h3 Rfa8 18. f4 a4 19. bxa4 Rxa4 20. Rxa4 Rxa4 21. Rxa4 Bxa4 22. b3 exf4 23. Bxf4 Bc6 24. Qd1 Nd7 25. Nef3 {Vlcek,P (1758)-Adamko, P (2105) Zilina 2013 1/2-1/2 (44)}) 11. Qc2 Qc7 12. a4 Nxb3 13. Qxb3 Bd7 14. Rfe1 (14. axb5 axb5 15. h3 Rfb8 {=/+}) 14... bxa4 {+/-} 15. Qc2 Rfb8 16. Nh4 $2 {The idea is Nf3-h4-f5-e7-d5} (16. Bg5 h6 17. Bh4 Ra7 {=/+}) 16... Rb7 (16... Nxe4 $5 17. Nf5 Bxf5 18. dxe4 Bd7 {-+}) 17. Nf5 Bf8 (17... Bd8 18. Ng3 {+/-}) 18. Bg5 {=/+} Ne8 19. Nc4 (19. Ne3 Qb8 20. Ndc4 a5 {=/+}) 19... g6 {Black threatens to win material: g6xf5} (19... d5 20. Na3 Bxf5 21. exf5 f6 {+/-}) 20. Ne7+ $4 (20. Nfe3 {=}) 20... Kg7 $4 {Loses material. a weak move, ruining a winning position} (20... Bxe7 {and Black takes home the point} 21. Bxe7 f6 {-+} ) 21. Nd5 {+/= Praise the knight!} Qc6 $2 (21... Qb8 22. Qc1 Kg8 23. f4 {=}) 22. f4 $4 {White threatens to win material: f4xe5. throwing away the advantage} (22. Qd2 Kh8 23. Na5 Qb5 24. Nxb7 Qxb7 {+-}) 22... Qb5 $2 (22... h6 {is a viable option} 23. Bh4 exf4 {+/=}) 23. fxe5 {+/-} dxe5 24. Nxe5 (24. Qd2 $5 Kh8 25. Bh6 {+-}) 24... Be6 {+/-} 25. Qf2 (25. Bc1 f6 26. Nc4 Nc7 {+/-}) 25... Bxd5 (25... Qxb2 26. Bd2 {=}) 26. exd5 {+/= Exerts pressure on the backward pawn} f6 $2 (26... Qxb2 $5 {must be considered} 27. Bd2 Kg8 {+/=}) 27. Rf1 (27. Bc1 Re7 28. d6 Rxe5 29. Rxe5 Qxd3 30. Qe2 Qxe2 31. Rxe2 Bxd6 32. Rxa4 {+-}) 27... Be7 $4 {terrible, but the game is lost in any case} (27... f5 28. Bc1 Qb3 {+-}) 28. Ng4 (28. Rae1 {and the result of the game is clear: White will win} f5 29. c4 { +-}) 28... f5 $2 (28... Qxb2 29. Bh6+ Kh8 30. Qxb2 Rxb2 31. Rxa4 {+/=}) 29. Bh6+ (29. Bxe7 {would have given White a clear advantage} Rxe7 30. Rae1 {+-}) 29... Kg8 {+/=} 30. Qe3 (30. Qe2 $5 Qd7 31. Rae1 Qxd5 32. Ne3 {+/=}) 30... Qd7 {= Black threatens to win material: Qd7xd5} (30... fxg4 $4 {will give the opponent a chance to mate in} 31. Qe6+ Kh8 32. Qf7 a3 33. Qf8+ Bxf8 34. Rxf8#) 31. Rae1 Raa7 $4 {forfeits the advantage} (31... Qxd5 32. Qe2 Nf6 {=} (32... fxg4 $4 {a terrible mistake} 33. Qxe7 Nf6 34. Qxf6 {+-})) 32. c4 {+-} Rxb2 ( 32... Ra8 33. Ne5 Qd6 {+-}) 33. Ne5 Qd6 34. Nc6 Rbb7 35. g4 (35. Qf2 {and White wins} Rc7 36. Nxa7 Rxa7 {+-}) 35... Ng7 36. Nxa7 (36. gxf5 $5 {seems even better} Bf6 37. Bxg7 Kxg7 38. fxg6 hxg6 {+-}) 36... Rxa7 37. Bxg7 Kxg7 38. gxf5 Bf6 (38... Bh4 {is not much help} 39. Qe8 Qd8 40. fxg6 hxg6 41. Qxd8 Bxd8 42. Re6 {+-}) 39. Qe6 Bd4+ (39... Qd7 {praying for a miracle} 40. Qb6 Qc7 41. Qxc7+ Rxc7 {+-}) 40. Kh1 Qd8 41. Re4 (41. Qc6 {makes it even easier for White} Rc7 42. Qxa4 gxf5 43. Rxf5 {+-}) 41... a3 (41... Rf7 {no good, but what else?} 42. f6+ $1 {Double attack: d8/g7} Rxf6 43. Qe7+ Qxe7 44. Rxe7+ Kh8 45. Rxf6 Bxf6 {+-}) 42. Rxd4 (42. fxg6 hxg6 43. Rg4 Qf6 44. Rxf6 Bxf6 {+-}) 42... cxd4 ( 42... Rf7 {is no salvation} 43. Rdf4 Rf6 44. Qe5 {+-}) 43. f6+ Kf8 44. f7 a2 45. Qe5 (45. Qe5 Rxf7 46. Qh8+ Ke7 47. Rxf7+ Kxf7 48. Qxd8 a1=Q+ 49. Kg2 {=}) 1-0

A90 Dutch Defence: Miscellaneous and Modern Stonewall (with ...Bd6) (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 e6 4.Nf3 f5 5.g3 Nf6 6.Bg2 Bd6 7.O-O O-O 8.Bg5)

This game is just one of many where the move order in the beginning of the game does not follow the theoretical path. Theoretical move order for this opening is 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c6. The game below was played in a team match called La Belle France vs Grupo Países e Regiões Lusófonos at Chess.com. The match was played on 11 boards and I played on board 4 for La Belle France. I was able to win my other game against agosoxo. I could have also won this game if I had not made a huge blunder on move 44. I made the move Nf6 because I thought that I will win in all variations, but of course I missed the obvious check 44...Qa7+, which is actually probably the only move that makes the move Nf6 a mistake. When I saw the move Qa7+, I was really disappointed in me for not seeing this move. I mainly looked the lines where my opponent takes on e5 in reply to Nf6 because I may care too much on not giving any material unless there is a good reason. The match ended with a score of 14 - 8 in favor of La Belle France!

[Event "La Belle France vs Grupo Países e"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2015.10.01"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "agosoxo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A90"] [WhiteElo "1830"] [BlackElo "1771"] [Annotator "Stockfish 7 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "90"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 e6 {Semi-Slav Defense: Accelerated Move Order} 4. Nf3 (4. e3 f5 5. g4 {Semi-Slav Defense: Anti-Noteboom, Stonewall Variation, Portisch Gambit}) (4. e4 dxe4 5. f3 {Semi-Slav Defense: Gunderam Gambit}) 4... f5 (4... Nf6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Qc2 {Semi-Slav Defense: Stoltz Variation}) 5. g3 Nf6 6. Bg2 Bd6 7. O-O O-O 8. Bg5 {A90 Dutch Defence: Miscellaneous and Modern Stonewall (with ...Bd6)} h6 9. Bf4 (9. Bxf6 Qxf6 10. Qc2 Nd7 11. e3 dxc4 12. Ne2 e5 13. Qxc4+ Kh8 14. dxe5 Nxe5 15. Qc2 Nxf3+ 16. Bxf3 Be5 17. Rab1 Be6 18. b3 Rfd8 19. Rbd1 {1/2-1/2 (19) Froehlich,P (2390)-Varga,Z (2475) Altensteig 1993}) 9... Bxf4 10. gxf4 Nbd7 (10... Ne4 11. Qc2 Nd7 12. e3 Qf6 13. Ne5 g5 14. Ne2 Qg7 15. Nxd7 Bxd7 16. fxg5 hxg5 17. f4 Rf6 18. Bxe4 fxe4 19. Kh1 Kh8 20. fxg5 Rxf1+ 21. Rxf1 Qxg5 22. Nf4 Rg8 23. c5 e5 24. dxe5 Bg4 25. Qc1 {Martin Catalan,J (2087)-Fontana Sotomayor, L (2302) Aragon 2015 0-1}) 11. e3 {N} (11. c5 Ne4 12. Qc2 Nxc3 13. Qxc3 Nf6 14. Ne5 Bd7 15. e3 Be8 16. f3 Kh7 17. b4 a6 18. Rf2 Nd7 19. Nd3 Rg8 20. a4 Bh5 21. Rb1 g5 22. b5 axb5 23. axb5 g4 24. Kh1 gxf3 25. Bxf3 Bxf3+ {Taze,B (1791) -Celebi,O (1909) Antalya 2013 0-1 (66)}) ( 11. cxd5 cxd5 12. Rc1 Nb6 {=}) 11... Ne4 (11... dxc4 12. a4 {=}) 12. Qd3 Ndf6 ( 12... b6 13. cxd5 cxd5 14. Rfc1 {=}) 13. Ne5 {+/= Praise the knight!} Nd7 14. cxd5 exd5 15. Ne2 g5 (15... Ndf6 16. Qc2 {+/=}) 16. f3 {+/= White threatens to win material: f3xe4} Nd6 17. Ng3 Qf6 18. Rac1 Nb6 19. b3 a5 (19... Bd7 20. a4 Be8 21. fxg5 hxg5 22. a5 {+/=}) 20. Bh3 (20. Kh1 Kh7 {+/-}) 20... a4 21. Rc2 axb3 22. axb3 Be6 23. Qc3 Ra3 $4 {another bit of territory lost} (23... Kh7 24. Rg2 Nd7 {+/-}) 24. Qb4 (24. Qc5 {keeps an even firmer grip} Rxb3 25. Qxd6 Bc8 26. Qxf6 Rxf6 {+-}) 24... Rxb3 (24... Nb5 {is still a small chance} 25. Rg2 Nc8 26. fxg5 hxg5 {+-}) 25. Qxb3 Nbc4 26. Ra1 Bc8 (26... Qd8 {doesn't do any good} 27. Rg2 {+-}) 27. Bf1 gxf4 (27... Rd8 {+- otherwise it's curtains at once}) 28. exf4 (28. Nh5 {and the result of the game is clear: White will win} Qd8 29. Rg2+ Kh8 30. Ng6+ Kh7 31. Nxf8+ Qxf8 32. exf4 Nd2 33. Rxd2 Kg6 {+-}) 28... Kh7 29. Ra7 (29. Rg2 Rg8 30. Nh5 Qf8 31. Bxc4 Rxg2+ 32. Kxg2 Nxc4 {+-}) 29... Qh4 ( 29... Nb5 {does not improve anything} 30. Rg2 Rg8 31. Bxc4 dxc4 32. Qxc4 Nxa7 33. Qxg8+ Kxg8 34. Nh5+ Kf8 35. Nxf6 Be6 {+-}) 30. Ne2 (30. Qb4 {it becomes clear that White will call all the shots} Qf6 31. Bxc4 dxc4 32. Nxc6 {+-}) 30... Rg8+ 31. Ng3 (31. Kh1 {might be the shorter path} Nb5 32. Ra8 Nbd6 {+-}) 31... Qxf4 $4 {there were better ways to keep up the pressure} (31... Rf8 32. Qb4 Qf6 33. Bxc4 dxc4 34. Nxc6 {+-}) 32. Qc3 (32. Kh1 {and White can already relax} Qxd4 33. Nxc6 Qc5 {+-}) 32... Nxe5 $4 {gives away a clear win} (32... Nb5 {the only rescuing move} 33. Qa1 Nxe5 34. dxe5 Qe3+ (34... Nxa7 35. Qxa7 Qxf3 36. Qc5 {+/-}) 35. Kg2 Qxa7 36. Qxa7 Nxa7 {=}) 33. dxe5 {+-} Nc4 (33... Nf7 {the only chance to get some counterplay} 34. e6 $1 {Deflection: b7} d4 {+- }) 34. Bxc4 dxc4 35. Ra5 (35. Ra8 {seems even better} c5 36. Qxc4 Qxe5 37. Qxc5 Qxc5+ 38. Rxc5 {+-}) 35... b5 (35... Qg5 {is the last straw} 36. Rg2 Qd8 {+-}) 36. Ra7+ Kg6 37. Rc7 (37. Rg2 b4 38. Ne2+ Qg4 39. Rxg4+ fxg4 40. Qd4 gxf3 41. Ng3 f2+ 42. Qxf2 Kg5 43. Rf7 Rg7 44. Rxg7+ Kh4 45. Qf6+ Kh3 46. Qxh6#) 37... Qh4 38. Rxc6+ Kh7 39. Rg2 (39. Rc7+ Kg6 40. Rg2 Rd8 41. Qe3 Bd7 42. Qb6+ Kh7 43. Nf1 Kh8 44. Qg6 Qd4+ 45. Kh1 Qg4 46. fxg4 f4 47. Qf6+ Kh7 48. Qxd8 c3 49. Rxd7+ Kg6 50. Qg8#) 39... f4 40. Ne4 (40. Rc7+ Rg7 41. Rxg7+ Kxg7 42. Nf5+ Kf7 43. e6+ Kxe6 44. Rg6+ Kf7 45. Qg7+ Ke8 46. Qh8+ Kd7 47. Qh7+ Qe7 48. Qxe7#) 40... Rxg2+ 41. Kxg2 Bh3+ 42. Kg1 Qe7 43. Qc2 Kg7 44. Nf6 (44. Qb2 {and the rest is a matter of technique} b4 45. Rxc4 {+-}) 44... Qa7+ 45. Rb6 (45. Rc5 { does not win a prize} Qa1+ 46. Qb1 Qxb1+ 47. Kf2 Qf1#) 45... Qa1+ (45... Qa1+ 46. Qb1 Qxb1+ 47. Kf2 Qf1#) (45... Qxb6+ $6 {is a useless try} 46. Kh1 Qd8 47. Qh7+ Kf8 48. Qxh6+ Ke7 49. Qxh3 Qd1+ 50. Kg2 Qd2+ 51. Kf1 Qd1+ 52. Kg2 Qe2+ 53. Kh1 Qd1+ 54. Kg2 {=}) 0-1

E17 Queen's Indian, 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.O-O O-O 7.Re1 c5)

I have not played against anyone rated over 2600 before this game, in correspondence chess that is. I have, however, played one blitz game over the board against a player of similar rating as my opponent in this game couple of years ago if I recall correctly. The game below was played at Queen Alice Internet Chess Club between December 26th 2015 and January 21st 2016. This game started to go a bit wrong for me around move 9.

I played 9...Na6 in the position above because I wanted to finish the development of my pieces as quickly as possible. I also thought that I could get my knight to c7 and it could be the best place for my knight. The whole idea of maneuvering the knight to c7 turned out to be a bad idea and it was the start of my downfall. After 12.e4 patoche was clearly better and did not give me any chance to get back into the game for the rest of the game.

I have lost most of my correspondence games recently and despite of the bad results, I have started more games again. I know I would be better off not starting more games and doing something else instead, but I can't seem to help it... I have now 120 games in progress and if I keep adding more and more, I could soon be back over 200+ games in progress which was very time consuming the last time I had that many games in progress. Lately though, I have just made moves and not cared that much about the result of the games. I mean I still want to win, but I am more accustomed to losing at this point and it has appeared in some of my games that everything goes in favor of my opponents, regardless of what I do. That is what I feel anyway. I did even resign one game after 8 moves because I thought that my opponent wins a piece by force. After I had resigned, I looked that position with the computer and it turned out that I resigned too quickly and I could have avoided the loss of the piece... The continuation was not even that hard to see, I just ended my thought process one move too early. I have added two mate in two, one mate in three and two mate in four puzzles today.

[Event "Let's Play Chess!"] [Site "http://www.queenalice.com/gam"] [Date "2015.12.26"] [Round "?"] [White "patoche"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E17"] [WhiteElo "2630"] [BlackElo "2203"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "53"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Bb7 5. Bg2 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. Re1 {Queen's Indian Defense: Fianchetto Variation, Kramnik Variation} (7. b3 {Queen's Indian Defense: Euwe Variation}) (7. d5 exd5 8. Nd4 {Queen's Indian Defense: Classical Variation, Taimanov Gambit} (8. Nh4 {Queen's Indian Defense: Classical Variation, Polugaevsky Gambit})) 7... c5 8. d5 exd5 9. Nh4 Na6 (9... Ne4 10. cxd5 Bxh4 11. Bxe4 Bf6 12. Nc3 d6 13. Qc2 (13. Bg2 Re8 14. Bf4 a6 15. Ne4 Be7 16. h4 b5 17. h5 a5 18. h6 g6 19. Qd2 b4 20. b3 Na6 21. Qb2 f6 22. Bxd6 Bxd6 23. Nxf6+ Kf7 24. Nxe8 Kxe8 25. Qh8+ Kd7 26. Qxh7+ Qe7 27. Qxg6 Rf8 { Girya,O (2452) -Bosch Garcia,J (2011) Baku 2016 1-0 (33)}) 13... g6 14. Bg2 Bg7 15. Ne4 Na6 16. Bg5 f6 17. Bf4 Nb4 18. Qd2 g5 19. Bxd6 Re8 20. Bxc5 bxc5 21. Nxc5 Bxd5 22. Qxb4 Rb8 23. Qa3 Bxg2 24. Kxg2 {Akopian,V (2660)-Kotsur,P (2587) Dubai 2000 1-0 (50)}) 10. cxd5 d6 11. Nf5 Nc7 $146 {[%cal Rb7d5,Rc7d5,Rf6d5, Gd1d5,Gg2d5] Will d5 fall?} (11... Re8 12. e4 Bf8 13. Nc3 Nc7 14. Bg5 Bc8 15. Qf3 Bxf5 16. Qxf5 Qd7 17. Qf3 Be7 18. h4 h6 19. Bf4 b5 20. a3 a5 21. a4 b4 22. Nb1 Ng4 23. Nd2 Bf6 24. Bh3 h5 25. Nc4 Ra6 26. Kg2 {Nilsen,J (2229)-Diesen,B (2156) Norway 2012 1-0 (41)}) (11... Re8 $5 $14 {is worth looking at}) 12. e4 $16 Re8 (12... Nfe8 13. f4 $16) 13. e5 Nfxd5 $2 (13... dxe5 $142 14. d6 Bxg2 15. Kxg2 Bxd6 16. Nxd6 Re6 $18) 14. exd6 $18 Bxd6 (14... Bf6 {hardly improves anything} 15. Rxe8+ (15. dxc7 $6 Rxe1+ 16. Qxe1 Qxc7 $18) 15... Qxe8 16. dxc7 $18) 15. Rxe8+ Nxe8 16. Bxd5 Be5 17. Nh6+ $1 {Decoy: h6} gxh6 (17... Kf8 { doesn't get the bull off the ice} 18. Nxf7 Qxd5 19. Qxd5 Bxd5 20. Nxe5 $18) 18. Qg4+ Ng7 19. Bxb7 Rb8 20. Be4 Qf6 (20... h5 {is not much help} 21. Qe2 $18) 21. Nc3 $1 {takes home the point} Bxc3 (21... Re8 {doesn't change the outcome of the game} 22. Nd5 Qe6 23. Qf3 $18) 22. bxc3 Qxc3 (22... Re8 {does not save the day} 23. Bd2 $18) 23. Rb1 Qf6 (23... Qe1+ {doesn't do any good} 24. Kg2 Re8 25. Be3 $18) 24. Qf4 (24. Bb2 $142 {and White wins} h5 25. Qd7 Rd8 26. Qxa7 Qe6 $18 ) 24... Qxf4 25. Bxf4 ({Weaker is} 25. gxf4 Re8 26. f3 f5 27. Bd5+ Kf8 $18) 25... Re8 26. Bf3 Re6 (26... Nf5 $18 {is one last hope}) 27. Rd1 1-0

C45 Scotch Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Qh4 5.Nc3 Bb4 6.Qd3 Nf6)

The game below was played in group D, on the fourth round of the weekend tournament that was played at Turku in 2006. This was the first and also the last win in this tournament for me. After four rounds I had won one, drawn one and lost two games. In the last game I played a 15 move draw which is not a common result for me. I do not like to play short draws, but at this time I was really depressed about the bad results and did not care all that much about the result of the last game anymore. The win I received from this game, did not really improve my mood because I only won due to a horrible blunder by my opponent. Had the game been a hard fought one, then I would have had more confidence in my playing skills again and I might have declined the draw offer in the last game.

This is the 450th different opening variation to appear in the blog!! I know for sure that I have played at least one more different variation in my games, but I think all of those games that feature it, are still in progress. There might be others as well coming and according to Master Chess Openings there are 3636 recognized openings, so I am a very long way from covering all of them. Until Monday, my fellow chess enthusiasts!

[Event "TSY"] [Site "?"] [Date "2006.04.02"] [Round "4"] [White "Norri, Roger"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C45"] [WhiteElo "1516"] [BlackElo "1644"] [Annotator "Stockfish 6 64 BMI2 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "27"] [EventDate "2006.04.01"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Qh4 5. Nc3 Bb4 {Scotch Game: Modern Defense} 6. Qd3 Nf6 {C45 Scotch Game} 7. Ndb5 O-O (7... Nxe4 8. Nxc7+ Kd8 9. Nxa8 Re8 10. Be2 Nxf2 11. Bg5+ Qxg5 12. Kxf2 Bc5+ 13. Kf1 Nd4 14. Ne4 Qf4+ 15. Bf3 Nxf3 16. gxf3 b6 17. Re1 Ba6 18. c4 Bxc4 {0-1 (18) Radoja,D (2222)-Terzic, G (2300) Nis 2013}) 8. a3 {N} (8. Bd2 Bxc3 (8... d5 9. exd5 Re8+ 10. Be2 Bxc3 11. bxc3 Bg4 12. Be3 Nxd5 13. g3 Bxe2 14. Qxe2 Qe4 15. O-O-O a6 16. Nd4 Nxc3 17. Qd3 Nxd4 18. Qxe4 Rxe4 19. Rxd4 Ne2+ {0-1 (19) Hidegh,E-Eberth,Z (2235) Sarospatak 1998}) 9. Nxc3 Nxe4 10. g3 Qe7 11. Nxe4 f5 12. f3 fxe4 13. fxe4 Ne5 14. Qb3+ Kh8 15. O-O-O d6 16. Bd3 b6 17. Rhf1 Bh3 18. Rf4 Ng6 19. Rxf8+ Rxf8 20. Be3 a5 21. Qb5 Bg2 22. Re1 Bxe4 {Klapsic,M (2220)-Zelic,M (2354) Pula 1999 0-1 (47)}) (8. Nxc7 Rb8 9. Bd2 Bxc3 10. bxc3 Qxe4+ 11. Qxe4 Nxe4 12. Bf4 Nxc3 13. Bd3 b6 14. a4 d5 15. Nb5 Nxb5 16. axb5 g5 17. Bxb8 Nxb8 18. Rxa7 Nd7 19. Kd2 Nc5 20. Re1 Nxd3 21. cxd3 Bf5 22. Re5 Be6 {Husovic,N (1892)-Vukovic,K (2008) Andrijevica 2012 1-0 (41)}) 8... Bxc3+ (8... Nxe4 $5 9. axb4 Nxf2 {=/+}) 9. Nxc3 {= White has the pair of bishops} ({Not} 9. bxc3 Nxe4 10. Qe3 d6 {+/-}) 9... Re8 {e4 draws heavy fire} 10. g3 {White threatens to win material: g3xh4} Qh5 11. Bg2 (11. Be2 Qg6 12. f3 Ne5 {+/=}) 11... a6 (11... d5 12. h3 Nxe4 13. Nxe4 Bf5 {+/-} (13... Rxe4+ $6 14. Bxe4 dxe4 15. Qe2 {+/=}) (13... dxe4 $6 14. Qe3 {+/-})) 12. O-O $1 {=} d6 13. h4 Ne5 14. Nd5 0-1

D30 Queen's Gambit Declined: Systems without Nc3 (1.c4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Bf4 e6 5.e3)

Today I have continued on going through my old over the board games and I will continue to do so tomorrow, but I think that next week I will go back to my latest correspondence games. The game below was played on the second round of a tournament that was played at Turku in 2006. On the first round of this tournament I drew against a player who was lower rated than me by 40 points. I was on a path of misery on the next round as well and lost to a lower rated player. Then on the fourth round I received a small consolation in form of a win against a player who was rated 1516. Considering how badly I had played the first four rounds, the last round game did not matter all that much to me anymore and I drew it against a member of the same team I represent. Therefore I ended up having only two points out of the possible five. I played on group D and I was 43rd in the final standings. There were 46 players in this tournament. The opening is not played in a theoretical move order in the game below, the move order in theory is 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6. I do not always remember to mention when the move order is not the same as in theory, but maybe it does not always matter that much. However, I will try to remember to do that in the future.

I learned today that you can actually play both correspondence chess and live chess at Chess Tempo, which is interesting since I had not been there in a very long time, even though I like the site very much because of its Standard tactics solving feature. It means that you can use as much time as you want into solving the puzzles and you are not penalised for it. I may give the playing part of the site a try in the nearish future. That being said, I am already playing correspondence chess on six different sites and I have 119 games in progress at the same time at the moment. They take a bit too much of my time I think, but for some reason when I got to under 70 games in progress, I started a lot of games again... I may have some serious problems in that area. At the moment it would seem that there will never be a time when I would not be playing correspondence games. One of the reasons why I have so many games in progress is that I would like to get as much out of the sites I am playing at. Of course I should divert my time to solving tactics and maybe start going through chess books again in order to get my level of play higher than it is now.

[Event "TSY"] [Site "?"] [Date "2006.04.01"] [Round "2"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "Salmi, Marko"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D30"] [WhiteElo "1644"] [BlackElo "1664"] [Annotator "Stockfish 6 64 BMI2 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "86"] [EventDate "2006.04.01"] 1. c4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nf3 Nf6 {Slav Defense: Modern} 4. Bf4 (4. Bg5 {Slav Defense: Bonet Gambit}) (4. cxd5 cxd5 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bf4 Bf5 7. e3 e6 8. Qb3 Bb4 {Slav Defense: Exchange Variation, Trifunovic Variation}) (4. e3 Bf5 5. cxd5 cxd5 6. Nc3 e6 7. Ne5 Nfd7 {Queen's Gambit Declined: Slav, Amsterdam Variation} ) 4... e6 5. e3 {D30 Queen's Gambit Declined: Systems without Nc3} Bd6 6. Bd3 { N} (6. Bxd6 Qxd6 7. Bd3 (7. c5 Qd8 8. Nc3 b5 9. b4 a6 10. a3 Bb7 11. Bd3 Nbd7 12. O-O O-O 13. a4 Qc7 14. a5 h6 15. Re1 Rfe8 16. Qc2 e5 17. dxe5 Nxe5 18. Nxe5 Qxe5 19. Ne2 Bc8 20. Nd4 Bd7 21. Rad1 {1/2-1/2 (21) Valderrama Dahmen,M (1822) -Brizuela Veliz,J Antofagasta 2015}) 7... O-O 8. O-O dxc4 9. Bxc4 Nbd7 10. Nc3 a6 11. Rc1 b5 12. Bb3 c5 13. dxc5 Qxd1 14. Nxd1 Rd8 15. Nd4 Ne5 16. Nc3 Nd3 17. Rc2 Nxc5 18. h3 Nxb3 19. Nxb3 Bb7 20. Na5 Rab8 {Aleshin,N (2254)-Bakutin,A (2327) Tula 2007 1/2-1/2}) (6. Bg3 Bxg3 7. hxg3 Nbd7 8. Nc3 O-O 9. Bd3 h6 10. Ne5 Qc7 11. Nxd7 Qxd7 12. g4 dxc4 13. Bxc4 e5 14. g5 hxg5 15. Ne4 Qg4 16. Nxf6+ gxf6 17. Be2 Qf5 18. g4 Qe4 19. Bf3 Qg6 20. Be2 {1/2-1/2 (20) Cyrus,P (1925) -Nurlanov,Z Kemer 2009}) (6. Nc3 Bxf4 7. exf4 Nbd7 8. c5 b6 9. b4 bxc5 10. bxc5 Qa5 11. Qd2 Ba6 12. Be2 Bxe2 13. Kxe2 O-O 14. Rhb1 Rab8 15. Ne1 Rfc8 16. f3 Nf8 17. g3 N6d7 18. Nd3 f6 19. Rxb8 Rxb8 20. Rb1 Rxb1 {Orenda,O (2146)-Muslija,I (2211) Croatia 2010 0-1 (39)}) 6... Bxf4 7. exf4 O-O 8. O-O Qd6 9. g3 dxc4 10. Bxc4 b5 11. Bb3 (11. Be2 Bb7 {+/=}) 11... Bb7 {=} 12. Nbd2 a5 13. a4 Nbd7 14. Re1 Nb6 (14... h6 15. Bc2 {=}) 15. Bc2 (15. Qc2 Qb4 {=}) 15... Rfd8 (15... g6 16. Re5 {=}) 16. Qe2 (16. Ne4 Nxe4 17. Bxe4 g6 (17... Nxa4 $2 {doesn't lead to the expected results} 18. Bxh7+ Kxh7 19. Ng5+ Kg8 20. Qh5 {+-}) (17... bxa4 $4 {the pawn is safe and cannot be captured without dire consequences} 18. Bxh7+ Kxh7 19. Ng5+ Kg8 20. Qh5 {+-}) 18. axb5 Rdb8 19. Bxc6 Bxc6 20. bxc6 Qxc6 {+/=} ) 16... b4 {Black gains space} (16... Nxa4 $5 17. Ne4 Nxe4 18. Bxe4 g6 {=}) 17. Ne4 Nxe4 18. Qxe4 (18. Bxe4 g6 {+/=}) 18... g6 {=} 19. Red1 (19. Bb3 Rab8 20. Ne5 c5 21. dxc5 Qxc5 {=}) 19... Nd5 (19... Qe7 20. Qe2 {=/+}) 20. Rac1 Nf6 { Black threatens to win material: Nf6xe4} 21. Qe5 {White threatens to win material: Qe5xf6} Qe7 22. Ng5 Rd5 {Black threatens to win material: Rd5xe5} 23. Qe3 Rad8 (23... c5 $5 24. dxc5 Rc8 {=} (24... Qxc5 $4 25. Qxc5 Rxc5 26. Bxg6 { +-})) 24. Bb3 R5d6 25. Rc5 {White threatens to win material: Rc5xa5. Praise the rook!} Nd5 {Black threatens to win material: Nd5xe3. A valuable piece} ( 25... Ng4 26. Qe2 Nh6 {=} (26... Rxd4 27. Rxd4 Rxd4 28. Rxa5 {+/-})) 26. Qe2 Ra8 27. Nf3 (27. Ne4 Rdd8 {+/-}) 27... Qc7 (27... Nf6 28. Rcc1 {+/=}) 28. Rdc1 Qb6 (28... Nf6 29. Qe3 {+/=}) 29. Ne5 {+/-} Ne7 $2 (29... Qd8 {+/-}) 30. Nc4 { +-} Qa6 (30... Qc7 31. Nxd6 Qxd6 {+-}) 31. Rxa5 Qxa5 32. Nxa5 (32. Nxd6 $6 Bc8 {+-}) 32... Rxa5 33. Qe4 (33. Qe1 {might be the shorter path} Ra8 {+-}) 33... Nf5 34. Rd1 Ra8 35. Qe5 (35. g4 {and White wins} Ne7 36. f5 gxf5 37. Qe5 {+-}) 35... Rad8 36. Qc5 Nxd4 37. Rxd4 {White forks: b4+d6} (37. Qxb4 $5 R8d7 38. Kf1 {+-}) 37... Rxd4 {+/-} 38. Bc4 Ba8 $2 (38... b3 {+/= and Black can hope to survive}) 39. b3 {+-} Rd1+ 40. Kg2 Rc1 (40... Bb7 41. a5 {+-}) 41. Kh3 Rc2 42. f3 $4 {spoils everything} (42. a5 {+- and the result of the game is clear: White will win}) 42... Rd5 {! -+ Deflection: c4} 43. Qe7 (43. Bxd5 Rxc5 { Deflection Pinning}) 43... Rh5+ (43... Rh5+ 44. Qh4 Rxh4+ 45. Kxh4 Rxc4 46. bxc4 c5 47. f5 b3 48. fxe6 fxe6 49. Kh3 b2 50. g4 g5 51. Kg3 b1=Q 52. Kf2 Qd3 53. f4 gxf4 54. h3 Bf3 55. h4 Qe2+ 56. Kg1 Qg2#) 0-1

D53 Queen's Gambit Declined: 4.Bg5 Be7: Early deviations (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nf6 6.Bg5 Be7 7.Nf3 O-O 8.Bc4 c6)

It is time once again to take a look back on my old over the board games. This one was played on the fourth round of a tournament that was played at Tampere between March 18th and March 19th 2006. I lost on the first round against a player who was rated 1876, then on the second round I won a game against a player who was rated 1447. On the following two rounds I lost against players who were rated 1588 and 1540. On the last round I was able to win again, this time against a player who was rated 1619. Of course that last round game did not help much in turning this a good tournament to me, but instead only lessened the downhill that my rating experienced. I played in group B that consisted of 32 players and I was 27th in the final standings.

Two milestones for this blog were reached this week, the post I did on Monday was the 500th post I have published and the second one is that I also shared the 1200th analysed chess game yesterday! The current amount is 1206 and that will increase by four this week. By the end of the year it is possible that the amount of games goes over 2000, but I can't say that for certain yet. It also seems that I need to upgrade the analysis engine again because a newer version of Stockfish is ready to be downloaded and actually while I typed this, I already did download it. I also searched when they have published Stockfish 7 and it was already January 2nd, so I am a bit late to upgrade my engine, but I still think that the old version is really strong and that the quality of analysis is good enough for me. That being said, I have analysed a lot of games in preparation for the blog with the old version, so it might take awhile until I publish games where the engine used is the new one. I also now follow Stockfish Chess on Twitter, so that I may get the news of the new versions as they are published.

[Event "Tammer-Shakki"] [Site "?"] [Date "2006.03.19"] [Round "4"] [White "Hakaniemi, Joonas"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D53"] [WhiteElo "1540"] [BlackElo "1682"] [Annotator "Stockfish 6 64 BMI2 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "57"] [EventDate "2006.03.18"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 {Queen's Gambit Declined: Exchange Variation} Nxd5 (4... exd5 5. Bg5 (5. Nf3 Nbd7 6. Bf4 {Queen's Gambit Declined: Exchange Variation, Saemisch Variation}) 5... c6 (5... Be7 6. e3 O-O 7. Bd3 Nbd7 8. Qc2 Re8 9. Nge2 Nf8 10. O-O-O {Queen's Gambit Declined: Exchange, Chameleon Variation}) 6. Qc2 {Queen's Gambit Declined: Exchange Variation, Reshevsky Variation}) 5. e4 Nf6 6. Bg5 Be7 7. Nf3 O-O 8. Bc4 c6 {D53 Queen's Gambit Declined: 4.Bg5 Be7: Early deviations} (8... b6 9. Qe2 Bb7 10. h4 h6 11. Bxf6 Bxf6 12. O-O-O c6 13. g4 Nd7 14. g5 Be7 15. gxh6 gxh6 16. e5 f5 17. Bxe6+ Kh7 18. Qd3 Qc7 19. Rdg1 c5 20. Bxf5+ Kh8 21. Qe3 Qc6 22. Bxd7 Rxf3 23. Bxc6 { Begic,S (2282)-Cehic,A Tuzla 2015 1-0 (32)}) 9. Rc1 {N} (9. O-O b5 (9... Nbd7 10. Bb3 (10. Rc1 Nb6 11. Bb3 h6 12. Bh4 Bd7 13. Qe2 Nh5 14. Bxe7 Qxe7 15. Ne5 Nf6 16. Bc2 Rfd8 17. Rfe1 Be8 18. Nf3 Qb4 19. e5 Nh7 20. a3 Qe7 21. Ne4 Nd5 22. Nd6 Nf8 23. Nd2 Rd7 24. N2e4 f5 {Fernandez Trivino, D-Lozano de Prado,T Asturias 1998 1-0 (68)}) 10... c5 11. e5 Ng4 12. Bxe7 Qxe7 13. h3 cxd4 14. Qxd4 Nh6 15. Bc2 f6 16. Rad1 Nf5 17. Bxf5 exf5 18. Rfe1 b6 19. Qd5+ {1-0 (19) Yoshioka,A (1718)-Felippe E Silva,G (1282) Sao Paulo 2015}) 10. Bd3 a6 11. Qe2 Nbd7 12. Rfd1 Bb7 13. Rac1 Re8 14. Bb1 Qa5 15. e5 Nd5 16. Ne4 Bf8 17. Bd2 Qb6 18. Nfg5 Re7 19. Qh5 h6 20. Nd6 N7f6 21. exf6 Nxf6 22. Qh4 hxg5 23. Bxg5 Rd7 { Rusjan,M (2225)-Skoberne,D Nova Gorica 1997 1-0}) 9... b6 10. Qe2 Bb7 11. O-O Nbd7 12. Rfd1 Rc8 (12... Re8 13. e5 Nd5 14. Ne4 {+/-}) 13. a3 Re8 14. Ba2 { Black has a cramped position} Nf8 15. Bxf6 (15. Ne5 N6d7 16. Bf4 Nxe5 17. dxe5 Nd7 {+/-}) 15... Bxf6 {=} 16. e5 {White wins space} Bg5 $2 (16... Be7 {= is the best option Black has}) 17. Nxg5 {+-} Qxg5 18. Ne4 Qg6 $2 (18... Qe7 19. Nd6 {+-}) 19. Nd6 (19. Bb1 {might be the shorter path} Qh6 20. Nd6 Rb8 21. Nxe8 Rxe8 {+-}) 19... Ba8 (19... Rb8 20. Nxe8 Rxe8 21. Bb1 {+-}) 20. Bb1 (20. f4 { seems even better} Red8 21. f5 Qg5 {+-}) 20... f5 (20... Qg5 {+-}) 21. exf6 Qxf6 22. Nxc8 Rxc8 23. Qe5 (23. d5 {makes it even easier for White} exd5 24. Rxd5 c5 {+-}) 23... Qd8 (23... Qxe5 24. dxe5 c5 25. Ba2 {+-}) 24. Ba2 Qd7 25. Re1 Re8 (25... a5 {does not help much} 26. Bxe6+ Nxe6 27. Qxe6+ Qxe6 28. Rxe6 { +-}) 26. Rc3 (26. d5 $5 {might be the shorter path} Qe7 27. dxc6 h6 {+-}) 26... Qb7 27. Qd6 c5 (27... Qe7 {hardly improves anything} 28. Qxe7 Rxe7 29. f4 {+-}) 28. Rf3 (28. f3 {makes it even easier for White} Qe7 29. dxc5 bxc5 30. Qxc5 Qb7 {+-}) 28... Qc8 (28... Qb8 {a last effort to resist the inevitable} 29. Qxb8 Rxb8 {+-}) 29. Rxf8+ $1 {Decoy: f8} (29. Rxf8+ Rxf8 30. Bxe6+ Kh8 31. Bxc8 Rxc8 32. dxc5 Rg8 33. c6 h6 34. Qg6 Bxc6 35. Qxc6 Rf8 36. Re8 Rg8 37. Rxg8+ Kxg8 38. Qe8+ Kh7 39. f4 h5 40. Qxh5+ Kg8 41. Qe8+ Kh7 42. g4 b5 43. Qf7 b4 44. g5 b3 45. g6+ Kh6 46. Qf5 a6 47. Qg5#) 1-0

C45 Scotch Game (1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 e5 3.Nf3 exd4 4.Nxd4 Qf6 5.Be3 Bc5 6.c3 Qg6 7.Nd2 Nf6)

I thought about whether or not to post the game below for awhile due to it being a very short timeout win. The game did go far enough, so that the opening could be categorised and also far enough to feature some mistakes or maybe inaccuries would be more appropriate in this occasion. Even though this variation is in theory, it might not be the best line to play with the black pieces because white can reply 6...Qg6 with 7.Nb5 and black is in trouble. White is better after that but maybe not winning. I would recommend to avoid playing this line and play the move 6...Nge7 instead of 6...Qg6 which would lead to a more even position than the move played in the game.

This game was played on the first round of one of the strongest tournaments that I have ever played and certainly the strongest I have played at Red Hot Pawn. The tournament is called 2015 October Grand Split Three Seven I 1800+ and it started with 30 players that were divided into two groups of 15. I am playing in group 1 and I am currently the 7th highest rated player in the group with a rating of 1888. The strongest player in the group is rated 2539 and the second highest is rated 2425. This tournament has three players with a rating of 2400+ and five players are rated over 2100. It is true that those players are divided evenly to both groups. As I am playing on group 1, the average rating of all the players is higher than it is on group 2. Only the winner or winners will advance to the second round, so the second round may only consist of two players. I have so far finished five games in this tournament, out of which I have won four and sadly all four have been won on time. Not only that but the game below might be the longest of these four in view of how many moves were played. I have also lost one game, it was a proper game at least, against the second highest rated player of the group. I have no delusions of winning this group, due to its strong participants, but I will do what I can in order to get a good result from the tournament.

[Event "Grand Split Three Seven"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2015.12.21"] [Round "1"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "rookguy"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C45"] [WhiteElo "1877"] [BlackElo "1761"] [Annotator "Stockfish 6 64 BMI2 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "15"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. e4 Nc6 2. d4 e5 {Black threatens to win material: e5xd4} 3. Nf3 (3. dxe5 Nxe5 4. Nf3 Bd6 {+/=}) 3... exd4 {=} 4. Nxd4 {White has a very active position} Qf6 {Black threatens to win material: Qf6xd4} (4... Nf6 5. Nc3 {=}) 5. Be3 { Black's piece can't move: c8} Bc5 6. c3 {Controls b4} Qg6 {Scotch Game: Classical Variation, Millennium Variation. Black threatens to win material: Qg6xe4} (6... Nge7 7. Nc2 {Scotch Game: Meitner Variation} (7. Qd2 {Scotch Game: Classical Variation, Blackburne Attack})) (6... Nge7 7. Bc4 {=}) 7. Nd2 ( 7. Nb5 $5 {is an interesting idea} Bxe3 8. Nxc7+ (8. fxe3 Kd8 {=/+}) 8... Kd8 9. Nxa8 {+/=}) 7... Nf6 {C45 Scotch Game} 8. Qf3 1-0

Chess960 SP607

This one started in a similar manner like other starting positions where the bishops are on g1, g8, h1 and h8, on my part that is. I again opened up the diagonals for the bishops as soon as I could. I think this and similar starting positions are the hardest for me to play because it is not clear where I would like to castle. The reason for that is that I would need to push pawns too much in both sides of the board in order to get the pieces out of the way, in order for me to castle. I guess further testing in these positions are required for me to figure out how to best develop my pieces. I think my first dubious move comes when I play 4...Qe5. I knew that my queen would be kicked around, but somehow I still wanted to play that move.

Very soon I discoved that my knights had very few good squares to which they could go to. After 14.f4, for instance, I thought that my position is very bad and it seemed very hard to get anything done. The losing move might have been 15...dxc5 which I played because I somehow thought that it would give me more play. I should have played 15...d5 like Stockfish suggests in this after game analysis. Unfortunately I did not even consider that move during the game. As I now look at the position after 15...d5, it looks a much more maintainable position than the one resulted after the game move. When my opponent played 21.Qe2, I was sure that I am completely lost now. I thought that after I reply with 21...Rd6, my opponent would play 22.Re1 and I would have maybe resigned at that point because there are no reasonable moves left that I could see. Valera7777 had something else in mind and I have to admit it is very strong idea as well or so I thought. I did not really see anything at this time, I completely failed to see the idea of Na6 via c5, which was the final nail in my coffin. I have added one analysed game to the following posts: D43 Semi-Slav Defense: General, C45 Scotch Game: Classical Variation, C10 French Defense: Rubinstein Variation. Blackburne Defense and B92 Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation. Opocensky Variation. I have also added one mate in three, three mate in four and one tactic puzzle today.

Chess960 SP515

I played two chess960 games today, out of which only this second one can be posted here at this time. Maybe I can get around the problem that I have with that other game, but for now I can't do that. The game below starts with my opponent opening the long diagonal for the bishop on h1. I thought about mirroring my opponent's play, but then I thought it better to take the center under my control instead. Then on move 3, I make a dumb mistake. I protected my e-pawn by playing g6, which does protect the e-pawn, but I did not consider the fact that xfqybxtr2 can play dxe5, which also threatens the d-pawn with both the bishop on h1 and the queen on d1. For some reason my opponent does not take on d5 even though he or she could have taken that pawn for a couple of moves. I did see the possibility of losing that d-pawn right after my opponent played 5.dxe5.

The game went along without all that much of a balance shift to either way until my opponent played 10.Bf3. I am not at all certain what was the reason behind this move. I did not reply to my opponent's move in the most accurate way, but my move was not that bad either. I played 11...c5 because I wanted to push the knight back, so that my knight could go to f5 and attack the e3 square. After my knight landed on f5, I thought that I was on the better side of things. The problem for white is how to protect the pawn on e3. Actually, I do not think it is even possible. Playing 15.e4 was an interesting idea by my opponent to keep the material balance. At first I thought that it would save my opponent due to the fact that if the following continuation 15...dxe4 16.Nxe4 Bxe4 17.Bxe4 Qxe4 takes place, my opponent could play 18.Qxd7 and the material would be even. What I did not see then was that I could reply 18.Qxd7 with 18...Rbd8 and I should be in a clearly winning position. Because I only thought that line up to 18.Qxd7 and did not see it being good enough continuation, I decided to play 16...Rbd8 in order to protect the knight and threaten some discoveries on the d-file and have that piece winning threat of Bxe4 also in the air. Xfqybxtr2 replied with N2c3 which was I guess the best that white can do at this point. Then I played Nf6 attacking both the queen and the knight on e4. My opponent defended against the threats with the move Qe2, which allowed my knight to jump on d4, which then forked the queen and the bishop. I thought that when the queen moves, I will take the bishop and then I take on e4 and I have won a piece and the game would become rather easy to play after that. That did not happen and the move my opponent chose made things even easier for me and the game ended to xfqybxtr2's resignation on move 20. I have added one mate in two, one mate in three, two mate in four and one mate in five puzzle today. Until Monday, my fellow chess and chess960 enthusiasts!

Chess960 SP528

While I played the game below, I also tried to do some live commentary on it. I think I should keep on exercising that so that maybe some day I would be prepared to share those videos... Who knows if those ever see the light of day, but it is not impossible. One of the reasons why I would like to do them, is that it would be a welcomed change to the things I do. I was able to make quite decent moves despite trying to verbalize my thoughts at the same time. I think the first time I did not agree with the moves of my opponent was when he played 4.Be4. It does pin my knight on c6 and prevents me from playing 4...e5, which I wanted to play next. It prevents it because in case I play 4...e5, I will lose a pawn due to the fact that my opponent would answer by 5.Bxc6 and then take on e5 with his knight. Having seen that continuation, I decided to play 4...Nf6 which threatens the bishop on e4. I did expect the reply my opponent played, but I was not all that worried about my doubled pawns. I took back on f6 with the e-pawn because I think it leads to a better pawn structure and because now I can get my queen to e7 and castle on the next move.

I was surprised to see my opponent play 7.d3 as a reply to 6...Qe7. I thought that the best reply would have been 7.Nc3. The problem with the game continuation was that the bishop on e4 gets almost trapped. The bishop was never really trapped, but the threat of it was in the air for awhile. I do not think that either player did huge mistakes until my opponent played 11.Ng4??, which does have an interesting idea behind it. Had I played 11...f5 and forked the knight and bishop with my pawn, I would have lost, because my opponent would have replied with 12.Qh6+ and it does not matter if I go to h8 or g8 with my king, my opponent would have replied both moves with 13.Ng5 which threatens both my queen and mate on h7. Had that happened, I would have resigned. The problem with the move 11.Ng4 comes apparent in the game continuation, the knight can't move so that the knight would defend the otherwise undefended queen on h3. The game did continue, but it was clearly over after that blunder. I have added three mate in three and two mate in four puzzles today.

Chess960 SP364

This was the first of three games that I played yesterday against communistdefense at lichess.org. This one, like all three games were played with 10 minute time controls, but where time was added to both players clocks by the players. I only added time to my opponents clock when communistdefense did so to my clock and obviously I added the same amount to my opponent's clock that I received. This game started quite well for me, I was able to get the center under my control and I managed to develop my pieces the way I wanted. Developing the pieces seemed to be more problematic for my opponent. The first move by my opponent that did not seem to make much sense to me was when he or she played 5...b6. I am also not sure if 3...g6 is the right way to go, but the reason behind that move I can at least understand. After my move 10.Ne2, I was very happy with my position. My pieces have room to move whereas my opponent can hardly make useful moves with his or her pieces. With the move 10...Nh6, commmunistdefense's position starts to crumble because I can now win a pawn for free. My opponent's 19th move gives me another pawn for free and makes the game even easier for me. Maybe 19...Qc7 or the move offered by Stockfish in this after game analysis 19...Rb8 would have been required to keep the game more difficult for me. Admittedly the move I offered, 19...Qc7 seems to put the queen into an akward position. The rest of the game goes without any real counterplay by my opponent as he or she is only defending at this point. I even get one more pawn for free and the game soon ends when I get to play 35.Nc5 after which communistdefense resigns. I have added one analysed game to my post C46 Four Knights Game: Italian Variation. I have also added one mate in one, one mate in three and three mate in four puzzles today.

Second game. This was a rematch offered by my opponent. The second attempt in this starting position went better for my opponent than the first one. I think I made the first inaccuracy in this game. I played 4...h6 in order to get my bishop to h7 and prepare to castle to the kingside as soon as possible. Now I think that 4...c5 should have been played instead so that my opponent can't double my pawns. I do not think that my position is all that bad after the game continuation, but I would have preferred to keep my pawn structure intact. When the queens were traded and the white pawn resided on d5, I was confident about winning that pawn. In the game continuation I indeed am able to take that pawn with ease, but only because my opponent missed a tactic. Instead of 15.Nh4, I think he or she should have played 15.Nxe7 Kxe7 and now 16.Nxd4! because the pin prevents me from taking the knight. After that continuation white would have been better. The next critical moment and one that required a lot of thought from me was the position after 19.dxc3, I thought very long for the possibility of playing 19...Rxc3 with the idea if my opponent takes it, I play 20...Nxc3+ and then I take the rook on e2 next. I ended up rejecting that idea because I thought that my opponent would get counterplay on the seventh rank. The game continuation was better, but I was not able to convert my extra pawn into a win, I did try but my techinque was not good enough this time and I had to agree to a draw on move 48.

Chess960 SP533

The game below was played at lichess.org today. It was my third game against this same opponent. All of these three games featured one aspect that is very rare in my games, both players used the add time to opponent button that lichess provides. All of these three games started as a 10 minute games without any increment, but at some point during the first game, my opponent add time to my clock. Because I did not want to take advantage of the kind offer, I added the same amount of time to my opponent's clock. This thing kept happening multiple times during our encounters. I am not sure how much time was added per game and I am not sure if it actually saved either player from losing on time. I could if I wanted, calculate the exact times that were added because that information is stored in the game chat. I am not going to do that because it does not really matter to me.

This game had a promising start and I expected that I would win the game quite quickly. After 10...Qxa8 I had a couple of moves that I considered and I think I played the wrong one. The other move I thought about was b3, which I probably should have played, so that I can answer Qb8 with Bb2 and it would seem to me that I would be in total control of the game. When my opponent took the pawn on e5, I was not at all happy with my position anymore because communistdefense started to get more play than I would like. I was able to improve my position a bit with Bf4, but I was not able to figure out a good plan on move 18 and my position started to get worse. The on move 21 I blunder and the advantage shifts into my opponent's favor. After that it is downhill for me and I decided to finally resign on move 28. I have added one analysed game to these posts: C18 French Defense: Winawer Variation. Poisoned Pawn Variation Main Line, C41 Philidor Defense and C68 Spanish Game: Exchange Variation. General. I have also added one mate in one, two mate in three, one mate in four and one mate in five puzzle.

C44 Ponziani Opening and Scotch Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Be2 Nf6 4.d3 d5)

This was played mostly because these two players are playing in a club tournament, but could not play the game over the board or should I say that this way of playing the game suited both players better. The game below was played quite evenly until my opponent played 6.Bg5, which is a bad move because it loses time. It does attack my queen, but with my reply 6...Be7, it shows why the move 6.Bg5 loses time. If knuutson273 now plays Bxe7, he has used two moves to trade my bishop that has moved only once. If he moves the bishop away to d2, for example, then he has also lost time. 6.Bg5 does not lose the game, however, but it does give me a small advantage. The obviously losing move of the game is 7.O-O which allows me to win a piece. After that mistake the game soon ends. If my opponent had played 10.Bf3, I would have most likely continued with 10...Bh3 because it was the only move I even considered of playing during the game. The move 10...Nd4 that Stockfish gave as a suggestion in this after the game analysis seems like an interesting idea also.

[Event "Chess.com"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2016.01.01"] [Round "6"] [White "knuutson273"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C44"] [WhiteElo "813"] [BlackElo "1848"] [Annotator "Stockfish 6 64 BMI2 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "20"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Be2 {King's Pawn Game: Tayler Opening} Nf6 4. d3 (4. d4 exd4 5. e5 {King's Pawn Game: Tayler Opening, Basman Gambit}) 4... d5 {C44 Ponziani Opening and Scotch Gambit} 5. exd5 (5. Nbd2 {King's Pawn Game: Tayler Opening, Inverted Hanham}) 5... Nxd5 6. Bg5 (6. O-O Bd6 7. Nbd2 Nb6 8. b3 O-O 9. Bb2 f5 10. Re1 Re8 11. Bf1 Bd7 12. g3 Qf6 13. Bg2 a5 14. a3 Rad8 15. Nf1 Kh8 16. Qd2 h6 17. Kh1 Kh7 18. h4 Be6 19. Rad1 Bf7 20. Kh2 Bh5 {Kortes,M-Stamnov,A (2235) Bela Crkva 1989 0-1}) (6. b3 f6 7. c4 Nb6 8. O-O Be6 9. Be3 Qd7 10. Qc2 O-O-O 11. Nbd2 Nb4 12. Qc3 Nxd3 13. Rab1 Bb4 14. Qc2 Nf4 15. Rfd1 Nxe2+ 16. Kf1 Nd4 17. Nxd4 exd4 18. Ne4 d3 19. Qc1 Qc6 20. f3 Bf5 {Nguyen,V (923)-Schnabel,L (1457) Willingen 2015 1/2-1/2 (59)}) 6... Be7 {Black threatens to win material: Be7xg5} 7. O-O {?? N} (7. Bxe7 Qxe7 8. Nbd2 O-O 9. O-O Bg4 10. h3 Bh5 11. Nd4 Nxd4 12. Bxh5 Nf4 13. Bf3 Qg5 14. Kh2 Nxf3+ 15. Qxf3 Nxh3 16. Ne4 Qf4+ 17. Kxh3 Qh6+ 18. Kg3 f5 19. Rh1 Qg6+ 20. Kh2 fxe4 21. Qe3 exd3 {Konstantinov,G (1985) -Stoykov,G Sofia 2004 1/2-1/2 (46)}) (7. Bd2 O-O 8. O-O Bf5 9. Nc3 Re8 10. Ne4 Qd7 11. Ng3 Rad8 12. Nxf5 Qxf5 13. c3 Kh8 14. Qc2 Rd6 15. Be3 Rg6 16. Kh1 Nf4 17. Bxf4 exf4 18. Rac1 Bf6 19. Rfe1 {1/2-1/2 (19) Pham,T-Pham,M Vung Tau 2004}) (7. Bxe7 {would be a reprieve} Qxe7 8. O-O {=/+}) 7... Bxg5 {-+} 8. Nxg5 Qxg5 9. Qc1 (9. Bf3 {what else?} Be6 10. Nc3 {-+}) 9... Nf4 10. Bd1 (10. Bf3 { desperation} Nd4 11. Qd1 Nxg2 12. Kh1 {-+}) 10... Qxg2# 0-1

Chess960 SP442

I was happy with the way I played the first few moves, until my opponent played 6.d5. At that point I was not really sure about my position anymore. I was not sure if my reply 6...Nd4 was the best, but other replies seemed inferior to me at the time. I was somewhat worried during the game that my opponent would trade the dark square bishops. Asuman should have definetely traded them because my dark squared bishop pretty much won the game on its own. When I played 10...Qc8, I thought about the possibility of 11.b3 and considered it to be the losing move. Therefore I was very happy to see it being played. This short game was played at lichess.org yesterday. It could have been shorter, but I went for material instead of the mate. Pretty much right after I had played 12.Bxa1, I noticed that I could have played Bd4+ and deliver the mate in the next move. When my opponent saw the move Bd4+ on the board, I think asuman thought for awhile and then left the game. So the time kept going because my opponent did not actually resign the game. I waited for a bit, but then claimed the win because I would have won the game even if my opponent would have come back to finish it. I have added one analysed game to the following posts: A36 English Opening: Symmetrical Variation. Botvinnik System, C45 Scotch Game: General, A10 English Opening: General and A20 English Opening: King's English Variation. General. I have also added one mate in one, one mate in two, one mate in three and two mate in four puzzles today. Until Monday, my fellow chess and chess960 enthusiasts!

A06 Réti Opening: 1.Nf3 d5 (1.Nf3 d5 2.b3 c5 3.Bb2 Nf6 4.e3 Nc6 5.Bb5 Bg4 6.h3 Bh5)

This was played on the third round of a close chess tournament that was played at Helsinki in January 2006. In the first two rounds of this tournament, I had already lost two games and this game continued on in that grim path. That path did not end here and I actually lost the fourth round game as well. Only on the fifth and final round did I manage to get a win under my belt. Of course that was too late to make the tournament a good one for me and I indeed lost a lot of rating points as a result. The only thing that kept my rating plummeting faster, was the fact that four of my five opponents were higher rated than me. Not only did the year 2006 start very poorly for me, but it also continued in that same downward path the whole year and I think this was the worst chess year of my life, so far anyway... Whenever I have played well in over the board tournaments, I have been able to fully concentrate on the games, but when things happen outside the board that are constantly diverting my thoughts away from the game, it clearly shows in the results of the games.

[Event "KäpSK"] [Site "?"] [Date "2006.01.21"] [Round "3"] [White "Akkanen, Timo"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A06"] [WhiteElo "1806"] [BlackElo "1760"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "49"] [EventDate "2006.01.20"] 1. Nf3 d5 2. b3 {A06 Nimzo-Larsen Attack: Classical Variation} c5 3. Bb2 Nf6 4. e3 Nc6 5. Bb5 Bg4 6. h3 Bh5 {0.73/23 A06 Réti Opening: 1.Nf3 d5} (6... Bd7 $11 {0.00/26 keeps the balance.}) 7. Bxc6+ bxc6 8. g4 Bg6 9. Ne5 {0.21/22} (9. d3 $14 {0.64/24}) 9... Qb6 {1.44/22 [#]} (9... Nd7 $11 {0.21/22}) 10. d3 {0.56/23} (10. h4 $1 $16 {1.44/22}) 10... e6 {1.44/23} (10... Nd7 $1 $14 {0.56/23}) 11. h4 $16 {Black must now prevent h5.} h6 {1.75/25} (11... h5 $16 {0.99/24 is a better defense.}) 12. Nd2 {1.17/25} (12. Qf3 $18 {1.75/25}) 12... Bd6 {1.86/21} (12... c4 $16 {1.17/25}) 13. Nxg6 {1.00/23} (13. Qe2 $18 {1.86/21}) 13... fxg6 14. f4 $146 {0.27/24} (14. Qf3 $18 {1.66/22}) (14. Qe2 Qb4 15. Rg1 c4 16. dxc4 Ne4 17. a3 Qxd2+ 18. Qxd2 Nxd2 19. Kxd2 dxc4 20. Bxg7 Rh7 21. Bc3 cxb3 22. cxb3 Rb8 23. Kc2 Rhb7 24. Rgd1 Be7 25. Be5 Rc8 26. h5 Rb5 27. f4 gxh5 28. gxh5 Bf8 { Saheli,N (2102)-Cruz,K Negombo 2003 1-0 (43)}) (14. c4 Ke7 15. Qe2 Bc7 16. O-O-O a5 17. g5 hxg5 18. hxg5 Nh5 19. Kc2 Rhb8 20. Rxh5 gxh5 21. Qxh5 Rg8 22. Qg6 Qb8 23. Bxg7 Qe8 24. Bf6+ Kd7 25. Qxe8+ Raxe8 26. f4 Bd8 27. Bxd8 Kxd8 28. Nf3 Ke7 {Ganichev,B (2060)-Sharoyko,M Kemerovo 2011 1-0 (70)}) 14... d4 $2 { 1.83/21 [#]} (14... c4 $11 {0.27/24}) 15. Nc4 {1.16/24} ({White should try} 15. Qe2 $1 $18 {1.83/21}) 15... Qc7 16. exd4 $2 {-0.54/23} (16. Qe2 $18 {1.86/21}) 16... cxd4 {0.82/22} (16... Bxf4 $15 {-0.54/23 stays ahead.} 17. Qe2 cxd4) 17. Qe2 {-0.07/26} ({White should play} 17. Bxd4 $16 {0.82/22 Threatens to win with Qe2.} Bxf4 18. Qe2) 17... Bb4+ $11 18. Kd1 Qxf4 {0.36/25} (18... O-O-O $1 $11 {-0.07/27}) 19. a3 $36 {White has good play.} Be7 {1.52/23} (19... Bc3 $1 $14 {0.36/28}) 20. Qxe6 $2 {-0.10/30} (20. Ne5 $16 {1.52/23} Rg8 21. Rf1 (21. Nxc6 Rc8 $14) (21. Nxg6 Qxg4 22. Qxg4 Nxg4 $14)) 20... Qf3+ 21. Kd2 Qf2+ $4 { 5.11/23} (21... Qf4+ $11 {0.00/31 and Black stays safe.} 22. Ke2 Qxg4+ 23. Qxg4 Nxg4) 22. Kc1 $18 {White is clearly winning.} Qf4+ 23. Kb1 c5 24. Re1 Qc7 25. Nd6+ {Accuracy: White = 23%, Black = 14%.} 1-0

Chess960 SP834

This game was played at lichess.org today. It was a 10 minute challenge created by my opponent. I thought that the game started very well for me and the developing my pieces seemed to be easy. I was already up a pawn after move 5, so this seemed like a game that I could easily win. How wrong was I with that assumption. On move 10, I played Qe3 because I thought that if my opponent answers with 10...g6, I can go to h4 with my knight without problems. At that point, I thought that my opponent could only attack the knight on h4 with the g-pawn in which case I could go back to f5 with the knight. However, after my opponent played g6, I noticed that I had blundered with the move 10.Qe3. My initial idea does not work because after my knight is on h4, greisfc can play Be7 and win the knight on h4. I decided to mix things a bit and played 11.Bxe5 and after my 13th move Nxf5, I had three pawns for the piece, so the material was about even at that point. The problem for me is that the dark squares around my king are very weak and indeed I meet me end on the dark squares. It seems that my initial idea of Nh4 would have been a decent move, at least according to Stockfish. After the blunder 11.Bxe5, I found myself in a position where my opponent has a clear advantage that only increased towards the end of the game. I have added one analysed game to these two posts: A15 English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense. Mikenas-Carls Variation and C64 Spanish Game: Classical Variation. Charousek Variation. In addition, I did add two analysed games to my post A10 English Opening: General. I have also added one mate in two, two mate in three and two mate in four puzzles today.

Game number two. This was played yesterday at lichess and it was a rematch offered by my opponent. I thought originally to share this yesterday, but I kind of run out of time. This went a lot better than the first game. Already on move 4, I think my opponent goes a bit wrong. I do not see any good reason to move the knight for the second time instead of just developing the other knight, for example. The game continued quite evenly until my opponent made the huge blunder of playing 25.Bf5 which loses a piece and also the game. The game did continue quite a long time after this blunder and I thought that my technique was quite good during the game. Not only was I up on material, but at the end I was also up on time. Only just before I was going to promote my pawn to a queen, my opponent had enough of the game and resigned.

B41 Sicilian: Kan Variation: 5.c4 (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.c4 Qc7 6.Bd3)

I started playing at GameKnot again near the end of last year. The game below is the first game that ended after my comeback to the site. This was played in the atadros's mini-tournament V. There are 11 players in this tournament. The number of simultaneous games is limited to four games at the same time. Therefore it will take quite awhile to play all the 20 games. It is one of the aspects of these mini-tournaments that I do not like that much. I could play all the games at the same time and finish games much quicker. This mini-tournament is called high-stakes tournament because the tournament entry cost is higher than normal, but it also rewards more points. The time control for these games is 3 days at the start and it has a 1 day increment. The increment is limited, so that you can have maximum of 5 days to think about your next move. I am currently on 9th place, but a lot can still change as I have only finished one game. I am the lowest rated player in the tournament, so unless I can outperform higher rated players, my place in the final standings might not be that high.

The game below went very wrong quite fast because I faced moves that I have not faced before that really messed up my thinking during the game. It is true that I placed my bishop also into a square where I have not usually played it to when I played 6.Bd3. I may have faced a position that I am more use to had I played 6.Be2 instead. The game continuation after that went into a strange path and already on move 10 I went wrong a bit. I played the losing move of the game on move 14. I played bxa5 because I thought that if I play Bb2 or something else than bxa5, I will lose more than a pawn. I thought that if I take the knight on a5, I will only lose a pawn. I was of course wrong and had to resign after 15...Ne5.

[Event "atadros's mini-tournament V"] [Site "http://gameknot.com/chess.pl?"] [Date "2015.12.25"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "atadros"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B41"] [WhiteElo "1759"] [BlackElo "2005"] [Annotator "Stockfish 6 64 BMI2 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "30"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. c4 {Sicilian Defense: Kan Variation, Maroczy Bind, Reti Variation} Qc7 (5... g6 {Sicilian Defense: Kan Variation, Maroczy Bind, Hedgehog Variation}) (5... Nf6 6. Nc3 Bb4 7. Bd3 Nc6 8. Bc2 {Sicilian Defense: Kan, Maroczy Bind, Bronstein Variation}) 6. Bd3 { B41 Sicilian: Kan Variation: 5.c4} Bd6 {Black threatens to win material: Bd6xh2 } (6... d6 7. O-O b6 8. Nc3 Bb7 9. Be3 Nf6 10. f3 Nbd7 11. Rc1 Be7 12. g3 O-O 13. Qd2 Rac8 14. Rfd1 Rfe8 15. Bf1 Qb8 16. Qf2 Bd8 17. g4 Be7 18. g5 Nh5 19. Nde2 g6 20. Ng3 Nxg3 21. hxg3 {Karolyi,T (2440)-Videki,S (2440) Kecskemet 1990 1/2-1/2}) 7. Qg4 {N White threatens to win material: Qg4xg7} (7. Nc3 b6 (7... Nc6 8. Nxc6 bxc6 9. Be3 Rb8 10. Qd2 Nf6 11. c5 Be5 12. f4 Bxc3 13. Qxc3 Rg8 14. O-O Ng4 15. Bd4 f6 16. h3 Nh6 17. Be2 a5 18. Rad1 Nf7 19. Qg3 Kf8 20. Qh4 Rb4 21. Qxh7 Rh8 22. Qg6 {Schmitz,P (2183) -Burov,I (2075) Werther 2014 1-0}) 8. Be3 Bb7 9. h3 Nf6 10. O-O Nc6 11. Rc1 Ne5 12. f4 Nxd3 13. Qxd3 Bb4 14. e5 Bxc3 15. exf6 Bxd4 16. Qxd4 Qc6 17. Rf2 gxf6 18. Rcc2 Ke7 19. Bd2 Qc5 20. Qd3 f5 21. b4 Be4 {Perez Gutierrez,N (2044) -Thoene,R (1953) Santa Cruz de Tenerife 2015 1-0}) (7. h3 Nc6 8. Nxc6 dxc6 9. Qg4 g6 10. f4 Bc5 11. Nc3 b5 12. Bd2 Bb7 13. O-O-O O-O-O 14. Qe2 Bd4 15. cxb5 cxb5 16. Kb1 Qb6 17. e5 f5 18. exf6 Nxf6 19. Ne4 Kb8 20. Ng5 Rhe8 21. Nf7 Rd5 {Aay,A (1839)-Taher,Y Jakarta 2012 1-0 (63)}) 7... Ne7 8. Nc3 {Black has a cramped position. Black's piece can't move: c8} ( 8. Qxg7 $2 {is a blank shot} Be5 9. Qh6 Bxd4 {-+}) 8... Ng6 9. Nf3 {White has a very active position} Nc6 10. a3 {Controls b4} (10. O-O {!? =}) 10... Na5 { =/+ Black threatens to win material: Na5xc4} 11. Nd2 Bf4 {White has a very active position} (11... O-O 12. Qd1 {=/+}) 12. Qe2 O-O 13. b4 {White threatens to win material: b4xa5} (13. g3 Bxd2+ 14. Bxd2 Ne5 {=/+}) 13... Qe5 {Black threatens to win material: Qe5xc3} (13... Nxc4 14. Bxc4 d5 15. exd5 b5 {=/+}) 14. bxa5 $4 {with this move White loses his initiative} (14. Bb2 {was much better} Bxd2+ 15. Qxd2 {=}) 14... Qxc3 {-+} 15. Rb1 Ne5 (15... Ne5 16. O-O Nxd3 {-+} (16... Qxd3 17. Qd1 {-+})) 0-1

Chess960 SP273

This was played at ChessRex as a correspondence game. Both players had 4 days to use for each move. However, neither player did use all that much time to make their moves as you might notice from the quality of some of the moves. This game started on December 25th and ended on January 1st, so this is by far one of the fastest correspondence games I have played maybe in years. With the first few moves I lull into sleep and do not recognise the danger that lurks in the position. When my opponent played 5.c4, I started to see the problem of the pin on the c-file that would have enabled my opponent to take on d5 in such a way that I would have lost a pawn. The other pin on the long diagonal also makes it really hard for me to get out these pins. My opponent continues on the right path on the next move, but then misses the move that probably would have won the game for him. Had I seen the move 7.Bxd5 being played, I would have maybe resigned the game right there.

The game continues evenly for awhile until I blunder again on move 10. I played 10...c5 because I had suffered from the pins so long that I thought to get away from the long diagonal pin possibilities while I can. It turned out to be a bad decision. EXTREME was playing for the win again after that. During the game when the white queen landed on b7 I thought that EXTREME would be taking on a7 soon after, but it never happened. Then on move 17, EXTREME throws away his advantage with the move Qd5. I played 17...h6 because I wanted to get my queen to h7 and invade white's position along the light squares. The after game analysis shows that Stockfish prefers to play 17...Rfe8 there and I guess the idea is that if the white queen does not move, then black could take on e5 with the knight due to the fact that the queen is now under attack and the knight is defended, so white does not want to take on e5 with the queen. After I was able to play the move 20...Rd7, I was getting confident again about my chances, because I thought that the immediate problems had been averted. Surviving even this long was a surprise to me after that horrible start to the game. The win started to manifest itself to me when I found the move 24...Rc7+ after that the game is rather easy to play on my side of the board. I have added one mate in two, one mate in three, two mate in four and one mate in five puzzle today.

C84 Closed Spanish Game: Unusual White 6th moves (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.d4 exd4 7.e5)

Last year ended with me posting a loss of mine and the new year starts with a loss, so it kind of tells you how my games have been going lately. The game below was played in a team match called Russia Central Federal District vs DORU-66 & HIS BEST FRIENDS. It is played on 78 boards and I am playing on board 21 for DORU-66 & HIS BEST FRIENDS. The current score in the match is 59 - 57 in favor of Russia Central Federal District. This has been quite even match, but the balance has shifted in favor of Russia Central Federal District for the most of the match. Unfortunately I have been one of the weakest links in our team in this match and my other game against igrinyuk does not look that good, so this might be a bit disappointing performance from me again.

I think my tactical blindness is a major weakness that I need to get rid of. I missed some easy tactics in this game, like on move 16 I should have played Rxd4, which would have been much better than the move I played in the game. Then on move 24 I made a huge blunder because I completely missed that my opponent can take on g6 and no matter how I reply to that I am lost. Basically I lost this game because of one serious oversight. It is annoying to lose games like this, but at the moment I am just not tactically alert enough to see all the possibilities in a position. I have done more tactical training in the last month than maybe in years, however it is not saying much because I did not do almost any tactical training in several years. In order for me to get my rating back to where I like to see it, I really need to get my tactical awareness to a point where I can see most tactics, because it may be unrealistic to think that I would see all the tactical possibilities all the time.

[Event "Russia Central Federal District vs DORU-"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2015.11.13"] [Round "?"] [White "igrinyuk"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C84"] [WhiteElo "1901"] [BlackElo "1845"] [Annotator "Stockfish 6 64 BMI2 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "49"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] [TimeControl "1"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. d4 {Spanish Game: Closed Variations, Center Attack} exd4 7. e5 {C84 Closed Spanish Game: Unusual White 6th moves} Nd5 (7... Ne4 8. c3 dxc3 {Spanish Game: Closed Variations. Center Attack Basque Gambit}) 8. Bxc6 (8. Nxd4 Nxd4 9. Qxd4 Nb6 10. Bb3 O-O 11. Bf4 c5 12. Qd3 Qc7 13. c4 Qc6 14. Nc3 Qg6 15. Qxg6 hxg6 16. Rad1 Re8 17. a4 Ra7 18. Rc1 Na8 19. Nd5 Bd8 {1-0 (19) Pinal,N (2405) -Garcia Gonzales,G (2515) Cienfuegos 1983}) 8... dxc6 9. Qxd4 O-O 10. Nc3 {N} (10. Rd1 Nb6 11. Nc3 Qxd4 12. Nxd4 Bc5 13. Ne4 Bxd4 14. Rxd4 Bf5 15. Nc5 Rad8 16. c3 Bc8 17. Be3 Rxd4 18. Bxd4 Nd5 19. c4 Nf4 20. Be3 Ne6 21. Ne4 Rd8 22. Rf1 Kf8 23. f4 Ke8 24. Kf2 b6 { Putz,E (1836)-Stadler,H (1770) Germany 2007 1/2-1/2 (70)}) 10... Nxc3 (10... Bf5 11. Nxd5 cxd5 12. c3 {=/+}) 11. Qxc3 Bg4 (11... Re8 12. b3 {=}) 12. Bf4 ( 12. h3 Bxf3 13. Qxf3 Qd4 {=}) 12... Qd5 {=/+} 13. Rfd1 {White threatens to win material: Rd1xd5} Qe4 {Black threatens to win material: Qe4xf4} 14. Rd4 { White threatens to win material: Rd4xe4} Qf5 15. Qd3 Rad8 16. Rd1 (16. Qxf5 Bxf5 17. e6 Bxc2 18. Bxc7 Rxd4 19. Nxd4 Be4 {=/+}) 16... Qc8 (16... Rxd4 $5 17. Qxd4 Qxc2 {+/-}) 17. Qe4 {=/+ Black has a cramped position} Bf5 {Black threatens to win material: Bf5xe4} 18. Qe2 {Black has a cramped position} Bc5 19. R4d2 Rxd2 {Black forks: c2+e2} 20. Rxd2 Rd8 21. Qc4 {White threatens to win material: Qc4xc5} Bb6 22. Ng5 Bg6 (22... Rd7 {!? =/+ deserves consideration }) 23. e6 {=} fxe6 24. Qxe6+ (24. Nxe6 $4 Rxd2 25. Bxd2 Bf7 {-+}) 24... Kh8 $4 {forfeits the clear win} (24... Qxe6 {would bring relief} 25. Rxd8+ Qe8 26. Rxe8+ Bxe8 {=}) 25. Qxg6 {!! +- Mate threat} (25. Qxg6 Bxf2+ 26. Kf1 hxg6 27. Rxd8+ Qxd8 28. Nf7+ Kg8 29. Nxd8 {+-}) 1-0