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