A25 English Opening vs King's Indian with ...Nc6 but without early d3 (1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.g3 d6 4.Bg2 g6 5.e3 Bg7 6.Nge2 f5 7.d3 Nf6 8.O-O Be6 9.Nd5 O-O 10.Rb1 Qd7 11.Nec3)

The game below was played in a team match called GREECE_LOVERS vs Alexander Grischuk Chess Club. There is only game left in this match consisting of 25 boards and that is my other game against celeron. That last game does not matter as far as the match is concerned because the winner of the match has already been decided. The score in the match is 16.5 - 32.5 in favor of Alexander Grischuk Chess Club. Which is a bit unfortunate for me and the team I represent in this match, because I play on board 3 for GREECE_LOVERS.

Even though I mainly start my games with 1.e4, when I am contolling the white pieces, for some reason I decided to go for 1.c4 this time. I guess I needed a bit of a change because my rating had been slowly, but steadily going down and I had to try something else. Obviously it did not work against my higher rated opponent and I dropped my rating to 1802. The last time I had my rating this low was in the latter part of 2014. Then my rating was actually going up. I still have not dropped my rating below 1800 and I actually am slowly climbing back up again. While I suffered a lot of terrible games in a row at Chess.com, at Red Hot Pawn I have been actually improving a bit. For awhile now I have been able to maintain a 1900+ rating at Red Hot Pawn and my current rating there is 1920, only 15 points away from my peak rating there. At Chess.com I hit my peak rating in Daily chess in January, 2009. Actually I am not sure if I can break that record anymore unless I find some time to improve tactics and my play in the endgame. I think I would desperately need that, especially since in recent games I have struggled quite a bit in both areas.

This game went without any major mistakes until I played 25.Ng2. At this point in the game I was not sure what my plan should be and I chose rather poorly. I wanted to reroute my knight to c6 and maybe to e5 later on. I thought that my knight would be better placed in either of those squares than on f4. Obviously my plan would take a long time, but I did not think of anything better, so I went along with that plan. I should have played 25.h4 instead. After the move played in the game, I am slightly worse. 29.Na3 is probably the losing move, after that there is no real possibility for a draw anymore. I think celeron accurately takes advantage of my mistakes and does not give me any counterplay opportunities in the remaining moves. Happy International Women's Day!!

[Event "GREECE_LOVERS vs Alexander Grischuk Ches"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2015.12.27"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "celeron"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A25"] [WhiteElo "1802"] [BlackElo "2050"] [Annotator "Stockfish 7 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "76"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nc6 {English Opening: King's English Variation, Reversed Closed Sicilian} 3. g3 d6 (3... g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. d3 (5. e3 d6 6. Nge2 Be6 { English Opening: King's English Variation, Bremen-Hort Variation}) (5. Rb1 { English Opening: King's English Variation, Hungarian Attack}) 5... d6 6. e4 { English Opening: King's English Variation, Botvinnik System}) 4. Bg2 g6 5. e3 Bg7 6. Nge2 f5 7. d3 Nf6 8. O-O Be6 9. Nd5 O-O 10. Rb1 Qd7 11. Nec3 {A25 English Opening vs King's Indian with ...Nc6 but without early d3} (11. b3 Ne8 12. Ba3 Nd8 13. Qd2 c6 14. Ndc3 Nf6 15. f4 Re8 16. Rbe1 Nf7 17. d4 Qc7 18. d5 cxd5 19. Nxd5 Nxd5 20. Bxd5 Bxd5 21. Qxd5 Qb6 22. Nc3 exf4 23. Na4 Qc6 24. Qxc6 bxc6 25. exf4 Re4 {Miles,A (2588)-Akesson,R (2535) Las Vegas 1999 1/2-1/2 (42)} ) (11. Qc2 Rae8 12. b4 Nd8 13. Ndc3 c6 14. b5 Nh5 15. Kh1 f4 16. Ng1 fxg3 17. fxg3 Rxf1 18. Bxf1 Rf8 19. Bg2 Nf6 20. h3 e4 21. d4 Bxc4 22. bxc6 bxc6 23. Nxe4 Nxe4 24. Bxe4 Qe6 25. Rb8 d5 {Asvestopoulos,H (1928)-Alexakis,D (2221) Nikaia 2014 0-1 (51)}) 11... Rab8 {N} (11... g5 12. f4 exf4 13. exf4 g4 14. Be3 Nd8 15. Qd2 Nxd5 16. Nxd5 c6 17. Nc3 d5 18. cxd5 cxd5 19. Bc5 Re8 20. Qf2 Nc6 21. Ne2 b6 22. Ba3 Rac8 23. Rbc1 Bf7 24. b3 Rc7 25. Rc2 Nd4 26. Nxd4 {Petran,P (2346)-Machalova,E (2006) Kaskady 2002 1-0 (57)}) (11... Nd8 12. Nxf6+ (12. b3 Nh5 13. Ne2 c6 14. Nb4 Kh8 15. d4 Nf6 16. dxe5 dxe5 17. Ba3 Nf7 18. Qc2 Rfd8 19. Rbd1 Qe8 20. Nd3 Nd7 21. f4 Rac8 22. Bb2 Qe7 23. Kh1 e4 24. Bxg7+ Kxg7 25. Nf2 Nf8 26. g4 Rxd1 {Troyke, C (2375)-Beuchler,H (2220) Germany 1994 1-0 (34)}) 12... Bxf6 13. Qc2 c6 14. b4 d5 15. c5 Bf7 16. Ne2 Ne6 17. Rd1 d4 18. a4 dxe3 19. Bxe3 Rad8 20. b5 g5 21. bxc6 bxc6 22. f4 Bh5 23. Rb4 gxf4 24. gxf4 e4 25. d4 Nxc5 26. Qxc5 {Stephan, A-Ludwig,K (2040) Germany 1997 0-1 (48)}) 12. b4 Ne7 13. Bd2 c6 {Controls b5} 14. Nxf6+ Bxf6 15. b5 {White gains space} d5 16. cxd5 cxd5 17. Qa4 b6 18. d4 e4 {This push gains space} 19. Ne2 Nc8 20. Bb4 {White threatens to win material: Bb4xf8} Be7 21. Rfc1 Bxb4 22. Qxb4 Nd6 23. Nf4 Bf7 24. Bf1 Rfc8 25. Ng2 Nc4 {Menacing} 26. Ne1 g5 27. Nc2 f4 28. exf4 gxf4 29. Na3 (29. Qe1 Bg6 30. Rb3 Na5 {=}) 29... e3 30. Nxc4 exf2+ (30... dxc4 $6 31. fxe3 fxg3 32. hxg3 {=}) 31. Kxf2 fxg3+ 32. hxg3 dxc4 33. Rd1 $4 {the position is going down the drain} (33. Qc3 {+/-}) 33... Bd5 {-+} 34. Kg1 (34. Bg2 Rf8+ 35. Kg1 Bxg2 36. Kxg2 Qd5+ 37. Kg1 {-+}) 34... Qg4 35. Qc3 (35. Rd2 Qxg3+ 36. Rg2 Bxg2 37. Bxg2 Qe3+ 38. Kh1 {-+}) 35... Qe4 36. Re1 (36. Rb2 {doesn't change anything anymore} Qh1+ 37. Kf2 Rf8+ 38. Ke2 Qh2+ 39. Ke1 Rxf1+ 40. Kxf1 Rf8+ 41. Ke1 Re8+ 42. Qe3 Rxe3+ 43. Kf1 Qxb2 44. Rd2 Qxd2 45. a3 Qg2#) 36... Qh1+ 37. Kf2 Qh2+ 38. Ke3 Rf8 (38... Rf8 39. Bg2 Qxg2 40. Re2 Rbe8+ 41. Kd2 Rxe2+ 42. Kc1 Rf1+ 43. Qe1 Rexe1#) 0-1