B37 Sicilian: Maroczy Bind with 5...Bg7, sidelines (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.c4 Bg7)

It has been some time since I last shared a game from GameKnot, so today and tomorrow I am sharing a couple of my recent games from there. The game you can replay below was played in the paweljaniak's mini-tournament I against the creator of the tournament. The rating that you see in the notation is a bit misleading on my opponent's part, paweljaniak is currently rated 2057. The ratings are taken from the time this game was played. The rating climb of pawejaniak is pretty impressive in this short amount of time. My rating on the other hand does not change all that much there for some reason and it stays in the 1700+ category no matter what I do. There was a time when I played openings at GameKnot that I do not usually play which probably held my rating back a bit, but now that I have went back to lines that I have more experience, I am close of hitting my rating peak there. I am still quite far away from the ratings I am more used to at other sites.

I am currently on 7th place in this tournament that only consists of seven players, so things have not gone the way I would have liked. I have finished three games and I have experienced all the possible results so far, so I have 1.5 points at the moment I type this. Paweljaniak leads the tournament, he has won 9 out of 10 games so far and only has two games left to finish. The win is still not guaranteed to go to paweljaniak as the current number two can still overtake him. It would require paweljaniak to lose both of his remaining games, one of which is against me, and ledzepp who is on second place to win all of his remaining games. There is still also one other possibility, I could win the tournament still, but it would require for me to win all my remaining games. That may be too much to ask from me though. I will obviously play as well as I can, but I doubt that I can do it.

[Event "paweljaniak's mini-tournament I"] [Site "http://gameknot.com/chess.pl?"] [Date "2016.01.16"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "paweljaniak"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B37"] [WhiteElo "1759"] [BlackElo "1696"] [Annotator "Stockfish 6 64 BMI2 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "68"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. c4 Bg7 {B37 Sicilian: Maroczy Bind with 5...Bg7, sidelines} 6. Nf3 (6. Be3 Nf6 7. Nc3 Ng4 {Sicilian Defense: Accelerated Dragon, Maroczy Bind, Breyer Variation}) 6... Qb6 {N} (6... d6 7. Be2 Nf6 8. Nc3 O-O 9. O-O Bg4 (9... Bd7 10. h3 Rc8 11. Bd2 Na5 12. b3 Re8 13. Qc2 Nc6 14. Rad1 a6 15. Be3 Qc7 16. Nd5 Nxd5 17. exd5 Bf5 18. Qd2 Nd8 19. Bh6 Bh8 20. Nd4 Bd7 21. Qe3 e5 22. dxe6 fxe6 23. Nf3 Nf7 24. Rd2 {Cermak,J (1518) -Kosina,V (1874) Brno 2010 1/2-1/2 (38)}) 10. Be3 Rc8 11. Rc1 Qd7 12. Qd2 Rfd8 13. Rfd1 Bxf3 14. Bxf3 Ne5 15. b3 Nxf3+ 16. gxf3 Qh3 17. Qe2 Rd7 18. Rd3 Bh6 19. Rcd1 Qh4 20. e5 Ne8 21. Rd4 {Veksler,A (1946)-Stumpf,W (1996) Templin 2004 0-1 (60)}) (6... Nf6 7. Nc3 d6 (7... O-O 8. Be2 b6 9. O-O Bb7 10. a3 Rc8 11. Rb1 Na5 12. b3 Nxe4 13. Nd5 Bxd5 14. cxd5 Nc3 15. Qd3 Nxb1 16. Qxb1 Rc3 17. b4 Nb7 18. Re1 e6 19. Qa2 Qe7 20. Ng5 Rfc8 21. Be3 Rxe3 22. fxe3 {Bordon Sanchez, J (1519)-Rodriguez Manzaneda,I (1684) Gran Canaria 2012 0-1}) 8. h3 O-O 9. Be2 Nd7 10. O-O Nc5 11. Bd3 Bxc3 12. bxc3 Ne5 13. Bc2 Be6 14. Bh6 Re8 15. Nxe5 dxe5 16. Qe2 Qa5 17. Qe3 Bxc4 18. Rfd1 Red8 19. f4 exf4 20. Bxf4 Ne6 21. Bh6 { Pihajlic,A (2080)-Bojkovic,N (2365) Cetinje 1992 0-1 (41)}) (6... Nh6 7. h3 f5 8. Bd3 Nb4 9. e5 Nf7 10. Bf4 Nxd3+ 11. Qxd3 d6 12. Nc3 O-O 13. Qe2 Qa5 14. O-O dxe5 15. Bd2 Be6 16. Nb5 Qd8 17. Bc3 Qc8 18. b3 a6 19. Na3 e4 20. Nd4 Bd7 21. Qc2 {Ennigrou,A-Anastasopoulos,A Munich 1958 0-1 (36)}) 7. Nc3 Nf6 8. Be2 { White has a very active position} d6 {White has an active position} 9. O-O O-O 10. Nd5 Nxd5 11. cxd5 Nd4 12. Nxd4 Qxd4 13. Qxd4 Bxd4 14. Rb1 Bd7 15. b3 { Secures a4} Rac8 16. Bh6 Bg7 17. Bxg7 Kxg7 18. Rbc1 h6 19. Rfe1 Rxc1 20. Rxc1 Rc8 21. Rxc8 Bxc8 {A bishop endgame occured} 22. Kf1 (22. f4 Kf6 {=}) 22... g5 23. Bd3 (23. f3 $5 {= is noteworthy}) 23... Kf6 {+/-} 24. Ke2 Ke5 25. Ke3 f5 26. f3 (26. Bb1 fxe4 27. Bxe4 b5 {+/-}) 26... f4+ 27. Kd2 Kd4 28. Be2 h5 { Black intends g4} 29. Bd1 g4 30. Be2 (30. Ke2 h4 31. Bc2 Bd7 32. fxg4 Bxg4+ 33. Kd2 f3 34. gxf3 Bxf3 {-+}) 30... g3 31. hxg3 (31. h4 {-+}) 31... fxg3 32. Bd3 ( 32. Bc4 {does not solve anything} Bh3 33. Bf1 Bd7 {-+}) 32... h4 33. Bf1 Bd7 34. a4 a5 (34... a5 35. f4 Kxe4 36. Bd3+ Kxf4 {-+}) 0-1