B44 Sicilian: Taimanov: 5.Nb5 (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Bd3 Nc6 6.Be3 d5 7.Nxc6 bxc6)

Another loss against a much higher rated opponent. This was played on the first round of the 2015 December Quartets I 1800+ tournament at Red Hot Pawn. I am playing in group 3, which is actually already been decided because TheBigKat won all of his or her games. It was not all that surprising because TheBigKat is not only the highest rated player in that group by over 200 points, but is also the second highest rated player on the site. Group 3 is also the strongest group of the five groups that players were divided into. Though not by much because the average rating in group 3 is 2178.5, in group 5, which has the second highest average rating, it is 2174.5. Do not get me wrong, I like to face strong players, but it just means that I will not get that many points. Actually I might not get any from this group, which might be the first time in a very long time that I do not get any points in a tournament.

As you might have noticed if you visited this blog before, I have changed the layout a bit. I prefer the current layout to the one I had before, but this may cause some problems for people who use smaller monitors as you might not get all of the blog in view horizontally at the same time without scrolling left or right. If that causes anyone who comes to see this blog annoyance, please let me know in the comments. One of the aspects that I would also like to change, but I do not know how to fix, is how the games can be replayed when you are viewing this blog in a smart phone. The chess games can be viewed without seeing the notation in my phone at least in a decent way, but I would like it to be so that you could follow both the board and the notation at the same time. Then again trying to fit all that in a small viewing space of a smart phone, might prove to be a very difficult task. Especially because I would like to get not just the moves played in the game, but also all the annotations shown at the same time too. Maybe that is too much to ask. The preferred way might be that it only shows a few moves at a time and the notation just moves when you go the game back and forth. If only I could make a game replayer myself that would change to a proper size and shape according to the device you are looking the games at. Obviously I do not possess such skills, so I have to rely on the game replayers that I am using now.

[Event "Quartets"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2015.12.21"] [Round "1"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "TheBigKat"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B44"] [WhiteElo "1887"] [BlackElo "2474"] [Annotator "Stockfish 7 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "42"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 {Sicilian Defense: French Variation, Normal} 5. Bd3 (5. Nc3 Bb4 (5... Nc6 6. Ndb5 Bc5 {Sicilian Defense: Four Knights Variation, Cobra Variation}) 6. Bd3 (6. e5 {Sicilian Defense: Pin Variation, Koch Variation}) 6... e5 {Sicilian Defense: Pin Variation, Jaffe Variation}) 5... Nc6 6. Be3 d5 7. Nxc6 bxc6 {B44 Sicilian: Taimanov: 5.Nb5} 8. exd5 (8. O-O dxe4 9. Be2 Bd6 10. c4 Qc7 11. h3 O-O 12. Qc2 Bf4 13. Qc3 c5 14. Nd2 Bb7 15. Nb3 Bxe3 16. fxe3 Nd7 17. Na5 Ba6 18. Rf4 f5 19. Raf1 Ne5 20. g4 Rad8 21. gxf5 exf5 22. Rxf5 Rxf5 {Coda,C-Fiorito,F (2459) Mar del Plata 2000 1/ 2-1/2 (57)}) 8... exd5 9. O-O Bd6 10. Re1 {N} (10. h3 O-O 11. c4 (11. Nd2 Be5 ( 11... Re8 12. c3 c5 13. Qf3 Rb8 14. Rab1 Bb7 15. Bg5 Be5 16. Rfe1 d4 17. Bxf6 Qxf6 18. Qxf6 Bxf6 19. cxd4 Bxd4 20. Nb3 {1/2-1/2 (20) Kochseder,G (1976) -Boeven,M (2005) Bergen 2007}) 12. c3 Re8 13. Nf3 Bc7 14. c4 Bb6 15. Bxb6 axb6 16. Re1 Rxe1+ 17. Qxe1 Ba6 18. Ne5 c5 19. cxd5 Bxd3 20. Nxd3 Qxd5 21. Qc3 Rxa2 22. Rxa2 Qxa2 23. Qe5 h6 24. Nf4 Qb3 25. Kh2 Qb4 {Vlacil,V (2092)-Shanel,J (2206) Moravia 2003 0-1 (36)}) 11... Be5 12. Bc1 Be6 13. Qe2 Qc7 14. Nc3 Rfe8 15. cxd5 cxd5 16. Nb5 Bh2+ 17. Kh1 Qb8 18. Qf3 Be5 19. Be3 a6 20. Nd4 Qxb2 21. Nf5 Qb7 22. Rab1 Qd7 23. Rb6 d4 24. Bg5 Bd5 {Sandvik,T (2047)-Kivisto,M (2271) Espoo 2010 0-1 (40)}) 10... O-O 11. c4 (11. h3 $5 {=/+ is interesting}) 11... Ng4 {+/-} 12. g3 (12. h3 Bh2+ 13. Kh1 Be5 {+/-}) 12... Be5 13. Qc2 $2 (13. a3 $5 dxc4 14. Bxc4 Nxe3 15. fxe3 Bxb2 16. Ra2 {+/-}) 13... Rb8 {-+} 14. Bc1 (14. Nc3 d4 15. Rad1 f5 {-+} (15... dxe3 $6 16. Bxh7+ Kh8 17. Rxd8 exf2+ 18. Qxf2 Rxd8 19. Qc2 {+/-}) (15... Nxe3 $6 16. fxe3 g6 17. exd4 Bxd4+ 18. Kh1 {+/-})) 14... Bd4 15. Rf1 f5 16. Nc3 (16. Kh1 f4 17. f3 Ne5 {-+}) 16... f4 17. Bxh7+ ( 17. Ne2 {does not help much} fxg3 18. hxg3 Rxf2 19. Rxf2 Bxf2+ 20. Kg2 Qf6 {-+} ) 17... Kh8 18. cxd5 (18. Ne2 {doesn't improve anything} fxg3 19. hxg3 Rxf2 20. Rxf2 Bxf2+ 21. Kg2 Qf6 {-+}) 18... cxd5 (18... fxg3 {it becomes clear that Black will call all the shots} 19. hxg3 Nxf2 {-+}) 19. Ne2 fxg3 20. Nxd4 (20. hxg3 {is still a small chance} Rxf2 21. Rxf2 Bxf2+ 22. Kg2 {-+}) 20... gxf2+ 21. Kh1 Qd6 (21... Qd6 22. Rxf2 Rxf2 23. Nf3 Rxf3 24. Be3 Rf2 25. Qxf2 Nxf2+ 26. Bxf2 Rxb2 27. Rf1 Qf4 28. Kg2 Qg4+ 29. Kh1 Qf3+ 30. Kg1 Bh3 31. Be4 dxe4 32. a3 Qg2#) 0-1