C28 Vienna Game: 2...Nf6 3.Bc4 Nc6 (1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3 Be7 5.f4 d6 6.Nf3 Bg4 7.h3 Bxf3 8.Qxf3 Nd4 9.Qf2)

The last post of the week features a game played over nine years ago, on the first round of a weekend tournament that was held at Salo. I played in group D at the time, due to the fact that the year 2006 meant a downhill for my rating everytime I played chess over the board. This tournament was not the much needed exception for the rule. This was already the second loss in the tournament and it did not get much better on the following rounds either, I lost the third round game, then somehow managed to win on round four and the fifth round brought me the most familiar result of the year again, a loss. I had started the year with a rating of 1760 and after this tournament my rating had already dropped to 1522. Unfortunately this was not even the last time of the year that I went to play over the board chess, I had to play one more team match later on in the year, which I of course lost and dropped my rating to 1514. At that time I decided I had to stop playing over the board games for a long time. It took me about nine months before I was ready to play over the board chess again. The break had done me good and I was able to get a positive score again.

Before I get too distracted from this game and type more things that are unrelated to it, I think I need to focus again on the game below. The move order in theory differs slightly from the move order used in the game and the theoretical move order is 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 Nc6 4.Nc3. I played the first mistake of the game on move 9. Instead of Qd7, I should have either castled or played 9...c6. This one mistake was the starting point for the things to come. My position just got worse and worse over time and my opponent finished the game quite nicely with 20.Bxh6. After that I saw the forced mate and therefore I resigned. Until Monday, my fellow chess and chess960 enthusiasts!

[Event "SalSK"] [Site "?"] [Date "2006.11.04"] [Round "2"] [White "Shiyu, Miao"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C28"] [WhiteElo "1535"] [BlackElo "1600"] [Annotator "Stockfish 7 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "39"] [EventDate "2006.11.05"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d3 {Bishop's Opening: Vienna Hybrid} Be7 ( 4... Bb4 5. Nge2 {Bishop's Opening: Vienna Hybrid, Hromadka Variation}) 5. f4 d6 6. Nf3 Bg4 7. h3 Bxf3 8. Qxf3 Nd4 9. Qf2 {C28 Vienna Game: 2...Nf6 3.Bc4 Nc6 } Qd7 (9... c6 10. Be3 b5 11. Bb3 a5 12. a3 Nxb3 13. cxb3 Nh5 14. O-O O-O 15. f5 d5 16. Ne2 d4 17. Bc1 Bg5 18. g4 Bxc1 19. Raxc1 Qg5 20. Rxc6 Nf6 21. Kh2 h5 22. Rxf6 Qxf6 23. gxh5 Rfc8 24. Ng1 {Kortschnoj,V (2635)-Rabascall,J (2140) Bordeaux 1989 0-1}) 10. Be3 Nc6 11. O-O-O {N} (11. f5 a6 12. a3 b5 (12... Bf8 13. O-O-O h6 14. g4 Nh7 15. h4 f6 16. g5 fxg5 17. hxg5 Qe7 18. Nd5 Qd7 19. gxh6 O-O-O 20. Nb6+ {1-0 (20) Hernandez,C (2139)-Rico Amortegui,O (1497) Yopal 2012} ) 13. Ba2 b4 14. Nd5 bxa3 15. bxa3 Rb8 16. g4 Nd8 17. Nxf6+ gxf6 18. h4 h6 19. Qd2 Bf8 20. Rg1 Nc6 21. g5 Nd4 22. Bxd4 exd4 23. g6 fxg6 24. Rxg6 Qe7 25. h5 { 1-0 (25) Depauli,C (2125) -Pissano, R Villa Ballester 1998}) 11... O-O (11... exf4 12. Bxf4 Na5 13. Rhe1 {+/-}) 12. f5 a6 (12... Nd4 $5 {+/-}) 13. g4 {+-} b5 14. Bd5 (14. g5 Nh5 15. Bd5 g6 {+-}) 14... Nxd5 $2 (14... b4 $5 15. Ne2 Bd8 { +/-}) 15. Nxd5 {+-} f6 (15... Bd8 16. f6 Bxf6 17. Nxf6+ gxf6 18. Rdf1 {+-} (18. Qxf6 $6 Qe6 19. Qh4 f6 {+/-})) 16. Rdg1 b4 (16... Kh8 17. g5 fxg5 18. h4 {+-}) 17. g5 a5 (17... Rae8 18. g6 hxg6 19. fxg6 {+-}) 18. Qh4 (18. h4 {keeps an even firmer grip} b3 19. axb3 {+-}) 18... Qd8 (18... fxg5 19. Qg4 g6 20. Bxg5 Bxg5+ 21. Qxg5 Kh8 22. fxg6 Qg7 23. Nxc7 Nd4 24. Nxa8 Ne2+ 25. Kb1 Nxg1 26. Rxg1 Rxa8 {+-}) 19. g6 h6 20. Bxh6 $1 {Mate attack} (20. Bxh6 gxh6 21. Qxh6 Rf7 22. g7 b3 23. Qh8#) 1-0