E20 Nimzo-Indian: 4.g3 and 4.f3 (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.g3 d5 5.Bg2 O-O 6.Nf3 b6)

The game below was played on the first round of the 2015 December Quartets I 1800+ tournament. The tournament is played at Red Hot Pawn and the first round is still in progress. I am playing in group 3, which was the first group to be decided, in other words it is the only group of the five where the person who advances to the second round is already known. The player who won our group and will get to play on the next round is called TheBigKat (2473). It was not a huge surprise because TheBigKat was clearly the strongest player of the group. I have been the lowest rated player of this group of four players all the time and I probably will be the lowest rated player to the end of the tournament. I only have one game in progress and after that is finished, this tournament will be just another memory to me. Despite being the lowest rated player of the group, I will not be on the last place in the final standings. That place is secured by joesheppe, who lost all of his games in this tournament. To be honest, I was quite certain when this tournament started that I would finish on last place, but I guess I got a bit lucky in my games against joesheppe because I won both of my games against him on time. Those two timeout wins also increased my rating nicely and after I had claimed the timeout wins, my rating had climbed to 1964! It is not only my current rating there, but it is also my peak rating at Red Hot Pawn. If I can get similar timeout wins, my rating might get over 2000... My current rating means that I am the 298th highest rated active player at Red Hot Pawn. If I could get into top ten someday, it would be really awesome, but it would require a lot stronger play from me. Those who know me, know that I would prefer to win by outplaying my opponents and not win on time, but I will take these wins too when I can get them. It is true that I was in trouble in this game and had my opponent just kept making moves, I would have most likely lost this game.

[Event "Quartets"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2015.12.21"] [Round "1"] [White "joesheppe"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "E20"] [WhiteElo "2035"] [BlackElo "1964"] [Annotator "Stockfish 7 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "40"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. g3 {Nimzo-Indian Defense: Romanishin Variation (#2)} d5 (4... c5 5. Nf3 cxd4 6. Nxd4 O-O 7. Bg2 d5 8. cxd5 Nxd5 { Nimzo-Indian Defense: Romanishin Variation, English Hybrid}) 5. Bg2 O-O 6. Nf3 b6 {E20 Nimzo-Indian: 4.g3 and 4.f3} 7. Ne5 (7. O-O c6 8. Ne5 Qe7 9. Qb3 Ba6 10. a3 Bd6 11. cxd5 {1/2-1/2 (11) Kiss,P (2435)-Vojtek,V (2335) Slovakia 1999}) (7. cxd5 exd5 8. Bg5 h6 9. Bxf6 Qxf6 10. Ne5 c6 11. Qa4 Bxc3+ 12. bxc3 Ba6 13. Bf3 Qd6 14. O-O Bb5 15. Qc2 Nd7 16. a4 Ba6 17. Nxd7 Qxd7 18. Rfb1 Bc4 19. e4 dxe4 20. Bxe4 Rae8 21. Re1 Re7 {Hebert,J (2402)-Bolduc,S (2233) Montreal 2005 1/2-1/2}) 7... Bb7 {N} (7... Ne4 8. Qb3 Bxc3+ 9. bxc3 Bb7 10. f3 Nd6 11. c5 Nf5 12. Nd3 Nc6 13. e4 Nfe7 14. Nf4 Qd7 15. O-O h6 16. Re1 Na5 17. Qc2 Rae8 18. cxb6 cxb6 19. Bh3 f5 20. exf5 Nxf5 21. Ba3 Rf7 22. Rxe6 {Cordes,H-Bruss,R Germany 1978 1-0 (32)}) 8. O-O Nbd7 9. Bg5 Bxc3 10. bxc3 h6 (10... Qc8 11. cxd5 exd5 12. Bh3 {+/=}) 11. Nxd7 {+/-} Qxd7 12. Bxf6 gxf6 13. cxd5 Bxd5 14. e4 Bb7 15. Qg4+ Kh7 16. Qh4 {White threatens to win material: Qh4xf6} Qd8 17. d5 Rg8 ( 17... Rc8 18. Qf4 {+/-}) 18. Rad1 (18. dxe6 fxe6 19. Rad1 Qf8 {+/-}) 18... Qe7 19. dxe6 fxe6 20. e5 Bxg2 (20... Bxg2 21. exf6 Qf7 22. Kxg2 Raf8 {+/-}) 0-1