B22 Sicilian: 2.c3 (1.e4 e6 2.d4 c5 3.c3 Nc6)

This was played on the third round of a rapid chess tournament at the FIDE Online Arena. On the first round of this tournament I won on time because my opponent did not make any moves. Then on the second round I lost because my opponent made better moves than me. It was nice to end this tournament with a win, but this tournament experiment did not bring me as close to the game requirement for the title as I would have liked. I was very determined to get the title on December 12th, so I continued playing at FOA after this game as long as it took to get the remaining games played.

The game below starts to go a bit wrong for my opponent with the move 7...Nxf3+, absolutes should have played 7...Ng6 instead, for instance. Due to my inaccuracy on move 10, I let my opponent off the hook a bit and the position evens out a bit again. Absolutes replies with 10...O-O-O, which is a blunder because I can take advantage of the fact that the queen and rook are on the same diagonal by playing Bg5. After Bg5 I am clearly better and after my opponent blunders even more with 18...Ng4, the game is completely lost for absolutes. The rest of the game is just a matter of style and technique on how one likes to finish the game. Until Monday, my fellow chess enthusiasts!

[Event "Tournament 35874027"] [Site "online arena"] [Date "2015.12.12"] [Round "3"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "absolutes"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B22"] [WhiteElo "1847"] [BlackElo "1552"] [Annotator "Stockfish 7 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "49"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 c5 {Queen's Pawn Game: Franco-Sicilian Defense} 3. c3 (3. Nf3 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Nc3 {Sicilian Defense: Kan Variation, Knight Variation}) 3... Nc6 {B22 Sicilian: 2.c3} (3... d5 4. e5 Nc6 5. Nf3 Qb6 6. a3 {French Defense: Advance Variation, Main Line}) 4. d5 exd5 5. exd5 Ne5 6. Bf4 (6. f4 Ng6 7. Nf3 d6 8. Bd3 Nf6 9. O-O Be7 10. c4 Bg4 11. h3 Bxf3 12. Qxf3 O-O 13. Nc3 Re8 14. Bd2 Nd7 15. Ne4 Nh4 16. Qf2 Nf5 17. Bc3 g6 18. a4 a6 19. a5 Ng7 20. f5 gxf5 {Braga,F (2455)-Florit Mulet,M Mallorca 2000 1-0}) 6... d6 (6... Bd6 7. Nh3 Qe7 8. Be2 Ng6 9. Bg5 Nf6 10. O-O Qe5 11. g3 h6 12. Bxf6 Qxf6 13. Bf3 O-O 14. Re1 Ne5 15. Bg2 Qf5 16. Nf4 b6 17. Be4 Qg5 18. Nd2 f5 19. Bg2 Rb8 20. a4 Ba6 21. Qc2 {Vallejos,J (1917)-Santa Isabel,M (1705) Sao Paulo 2014 1-0 (53)}) 7. Nf3 {N} (7. Be2 Ng6 8. Bg3 Nf6 9. Nf3 Be7 10. O-O O-O 11. Na3 Bg4 12. Re1 h6 13. Bd3 Ne5 14. Bxe5 dxe5 15. Rxe5 Bd6 16. Re1 Nxd5 17. Nb5 a6 18. Nxd6 Qxd6 19. c4 Rad8 20. cxd5 Qxd5 21. Be4 Qc4 {Gu,S (1837)-Christian,K Parramatta 2009 1-0 (65)}) 7... Nxf3+ 8. Qxf3 Bd7 9. Be2 Qf6 10. Qg3 (10. Nd2 g5 11. Qe3+ Be7 12. Bg3 {+/-}) 10... O-O-O (10... Ne7 {= and Black has air to breath}) 11. Bg5 {+/-} Qg6 12. Bxd8 Qxg3 13. hxg3 Kxd8 14. Bd3 Nf6 15. c4 g6 16. Nc3 a6 17. O-O-O Bg7 18. Ne4 (18. f3 {+/-}) 18... Ng4 $4 {causes further problems for White} (18... Nxe4 19. Bxe4 h5 {+/-}) 19. f3 (19. Nxd6 {makes it even easier for White} Kc7 20. Nxf7 Rf8 {+-}) 19... Ne3 $2 (19... Ne5 20. Nxd6 Kc7 21. Ne4 {+-}) 20. Rd2 (20. Rde1 {keeps an even firmer grip} f5 21. Nxd6 Kc7 22. Nxb7 Kxb7 23. Rxe3 Bf6 {+-}) 20... h5 $4 {Black crumbles in face of a dire situation } (20... Kc7 21. Ng5 h6 22. Nxf7 Rf8 23. Bxg6 Nxc4 {+-}) 21. Nxd6 Nf5 (21... Kc7 {desperation} 22. Nxf7 Rf8 23. d6+ Kb8 24. Bxg6 Nxc4 {+-}) 22. Bxf5 (22. Nxf7+ {seems even better} Kc7 23. Bxf5 Bxf5 24. Nxh8 Bxh8 {+-}) 22... Bxf5 ( 22... Ke7 {there is nothing better in the position} 23. Nxf7 $1 {Deflection: d7 } Kxf7 24. Bxd7 Be5 {+-}) 23. Nxf7+ Kd7 24. Nxh8 Bxh8 25. g4 $1 {Deflection: h5 } (25. g4 Bd3 26. Rxd3 {+-}) 1-0