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