E18 Queen's Indian: Old Main Line (4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.O-O O-O 7.Nc3) (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.O-O O-O 7.Nc3 d6 8.Qc2 Nbd7 9.e4 e5 10.Rd1)

The game I am sharing today was played at Red Hot Pawn, in a tournament called 2015 October Grand Split Three Seven I 1800+. There are 30 players participating in this tournament and the players were divided into two groups of 15. I am playing in group 1, which is the stronger group of the two because the highest rated player went to group 1, the second highest to group 2, third highest to group 1 and so on. My opponent, MarcusRemius, is the second highest rated player in group 1 and he is also the sixth highest rated player on Red Hot Pawn in the active player list. In comparison, I am currently the 460th highest rated player there. There seem to be 9638 players on that list at the moment I type this. Which would mean that I am currently in the 95.2 percentile if I calculated correctly.

The opening variation played in the game below is actually in the move order it is in theory too, which is something that rarely happens in my games. This is one of the three losses I have suffered in this tournament so far. Two of those losses were against MarcusRemius and the third one was against cenerentola (2546), who is not only the highest rated player in the group, but also on this site as well. I have also won five games in the tournament, four of them were short timeout wins, but the latest win I got was a proper game. Those five wins put me in 15 points because you get 3 points for a win. My maximum possible score is 75, which still means that I have theoretical chances to win the group. It does not mean any realistic chances though as the duo that leads group 1 are way too strong for other players in the group, or that is my opinion anyway.

[Event "Grand Split Three Seven"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2015.12.21"] [Round "1"] [White "MarcusRemius"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E18"] [WhiteElo "2420"] [BlackElo "1878"] [Annotator "Stockfish 6 64 BMI2 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "41"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Bb7 5. Bg2 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. Nc3 {Queen's Indian Defense: Classical Variation, Traditional Variation} d6 (7... d5 { Queen's Indian Defense: Classical Variation, Traditional Variation, Nimzowitsch Line}) (7... Na6 {Queen's Indian Defense: Classical Variation, Tiviakov Defense}) (7... Ne4 8. Qc2 Nxc3 9. Qxc3 {Queen's Indian Defense: Classical Variation, Traditional Variation, Main Line}) 8. Qc2 Nbd7 9. e4 e5 10. Rd1 {E18 Queen's Indian: Old Main Line (4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.O-O O-O 7.Nc3) } Qe8 (10... Qb8 11. h3 (11. b3 Re8 12. Bb2 Bf8 13. b4 a5 14. a3 axb4 15. axb4 Rxa1 16. Rxa1 g6 17. d5 Nh5 18. Qa4 Ndf6 19. Qa7 Qc8 20. Bc1 Ng7 21. Bd2 Nfh5 22. Rc1 Nf6 23. Ra1 Be7 24. Ra2 Rf8 25. Ng5 Ng4 {Papamattheou,P-Hookham,J (2104) Aghios Kirykos 2014 0-1 (51)}) 11... c6 12. Be3 Re8 13. Rd2 Bf8 14. Rad1 Qc7 15. Nh4 Rad8 16. Nf5 Bc8 17. g4 g6 18. Ng3 h6 19. Rf1 Bg7 20. d5 cxd5 21. cxd5 Ba6 22. Rc1 Rc8 23. Bf1 Bxf1 24. Kxf1 Qc4+ 25. Qd3 {Seres,L (2400)-Arnold, F (2335) Budapest 1990 1/2-1/2 (50)}) 11. b3 exd4 12. Nxd4 Bd8 {N} (12... Ne5 13. f4 Ng6 14. e5 Bxg2 15. exf6 Bxf6 16. Kxg2 Qd7 17. Nd5 {1-0 (17) Franco Valencia,B (2206)-Buitrago,B (1880) Bogota 2013}) 13. f4 Nc5 14. b4 Na6 (14... Ne6 15. Nf5 Rb8 {+-}) 15. a3 {+-} Nd7 (15... Rc8 16. Bb2 Rb8 17. Re1 {+-}) 16. Bb2 Bf6 (16... Rb8 {+-}) 17. e5 Bxg2 (17... dxe5 {is not much help} 18. fxe5 Bxg2 19. exf6 (19. Kxg2 $6 Bxe5 (19... Qxe5 20. Nf3 Qe8 21. Re1 {+/-}) (19... Nxe5 20. Re1 {+/-}) 20. Nd5 f6 {=}) 19... Nxf6 20. Qxg2 Qe3+ 21. Kh1 {+-}) 18. exf6 (18. Kxg2 $6 {is impossible} dxe5 19. Nf5 g6 20. fxe5 Bxe5 21. Nh6+ Kg7 { +/-}) (18. Qxg2 $6 {is easily refuted} dxe5 19. Re1 exd4 20. Rxe8 Raxe8 {+/-}) 18... Bb7 (18... Nxf6 {does not help much} 19. Kxg2 c5 20. bxc5 Nxc5 21. Nf5 { +-}) 19. Re1 Qd8 (19... Nxf6 {otherwise it's curtains at once} 20. Rxe8 Nxe8 { +-}) 20. fxg7 Kxg7 21. Nd5 (21. Nd5 Kg8 22. Ne7+ Qxe7 23. Rxe7 Rfe8 24. Rxd7 Be4 25. Nf5 Re6 26. Qc3 f6 27. Re7 Bxf5 28. Rxe6 Nc5 29. Rxf6 Nd7 30. Rxf5 Ne5 31. fxe5 Rf8 32. exd6 Rf6 33. Qxf6 b5 34. Rg5#) 1-0