C42 Petroff Defence: 3.Nxe5 and unusual White 3rd moves (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 Be7 6.Bd3 Nf6 7.O-O O-O 8.h3 Nc6)

The game below started with a position that arises after the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4. Therefore the first move that could be played in this game was made by my opponent, Levimitch, who controlled the black pieces. This was played at Chess.com in a team match called 12/30/2015 , Rusian Game : Classical Attac. The typos were in the match name, not added later by me. The match is played on 12 boards between MY FRIENDS, International, Moji prijatelji&Φίλοι μου and CALABARZON CHESS TEAM. I played on board 5 for MY FRIENDS, International, Moji prijatelji&Φίλοι μου in this match and I won both of my games against Levimitch on time. It annoys me a bit sometimes when I face a new opening variation, my opponents will time out and the games are a bit unfinished because of it. Mostly this has happened at Chess.com for some reason, but it has happened on other sites as well. I guess it is a good thing that this game at least lasted this long so that there is something to look at. Sometimes these timeout wins last less than 10 moves and are therefore not that interesting.

The current score in the match is 13 - 7 in favor of MY FRIENDS, International, Moji prijatelji&Φίλοι μου, so we have secured the win in the match already! CALABARZON CHESS TEAM has suffered 8 losses on time, which made a huge contribution towards our win. The first mistake of the game is the move 13...Bxf3. I am not sure why my opponent chose to take on f3 because it only helps me to get my pieces into better squares. Maybe Levimitch thought that a continuation starting with c4 harassing the bishop would be problematic for him, but there really is no threat yet. If Levimitch thought that only options to answer c4 would be either taking on f3 or Be6, then of course the former is better because the latter loses a piece for a pawn due to the fact that by playing d5 after Be6, the pawn forks the knight and the bishop. The move 13...Bxf6 started a downhill that my opponent was not able to recover from. Levimitch actually makes things worse by playing 14...a6 after which I should go on to win the game. Even though I am not able to make the most accurate moves in the remainder of the game, I am still able to maintain a minimum of clear advantage on my side.

[Event "12/30/2015 , Rusian Game : Classical Att"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2015.12.31"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "Levimitch"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C42"] [WhiteElo "1818"] [BlackElo "1550"] [Annotator "Stockfish 7 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "rnbqkb1r/ppp2ppp/3p4/8/3Pn3/5N2/PPP2PPP/RNBQKB1R b KQkq - 0 5"] [PlyCount "26"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] {Russian Game: Classical Attack} 5... Be7 (5... d5 6. Bd3 Bd6 (6... Be7 7. O-O Nc6 8. c4 Nb4 9. Be2 {Russian Game: Classical Attack, Chigorin Variation, Main Line}) 7. O-O O-O 8. c4 Bg4 {Russian Game: Classical Attack, Tarrasch Variation } (8... c6 9. Re1 Bg4 {Russian Game: Classical Attack, Marshall Variation, Chinese Gambit})) 6. Bd3 {White threatens to win material: Bd3xe4} Nf6 7. O-O { White castles and improves king safety} O-O 8. h3 {Black has a cramped position } Nc6 {C42 Petroff Defence: 3.Nxe5 and unusual White 3rd moves} 9. c3 {Covers b4} Re8 10. Bg5 h6 {Black threatens to win material: h6xg5} 11. Bh4 Be6 (11... Nh5 12. Bxe7 Nxe7 13. Re1 {=}) 12. Nbd2 (12. Bg3 Bf8 {=}) 12... Bd5 (12... Nh5 13. Bxe7 Qxe7 14. Bc2 {=}) 13. Re1 Bxf3 $2 (13... Nh5 {= and Black has air to breath}) 14. Qxf3 {+/-} ({Worse is} 14. gxf3 Qd7 15. Bg3 Qxh3 {=}) 14... a6 ( 14... Nd7 15. Bg3 {+/-}) 15. Re2 (15. Rxe7 Qxe7 16. Ne4 Qxe4 17. Bxe4 Nxe4 {+-} ) 15... Nd5 $2 (15... Nd7 16. Bc4 Rf8 17. Bxe7 Nxe7 18. Qxb7 Nb6 {+-}) 16. Bxe7 $4 {a weak move, ruining a winning position} (16. Rae1 {finishes off the opponent} Rf8 17. Qe4 {+-} (17. Qxd5 $6 Bxh4 18. g3 Bf6 {+-})) 16... Ndxe7 ( 16... Ncxe7 $5 17. Rae1 Qd7 {+/-}) 17. Rae1 Qd7 18. Qg3 1-0