E51 Nimzo-Indian: Rubinstein: 4...O-O 5.Nf3 d5 (1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nc6 3.c4 e6 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.e3 Nf6 6.Bd3 O-O 7.O-O Bxc3 8.bxc3)

I am once again going through my over the board games, so that someday I would cath up to my most recent efforts in that area. The game below was played slightly over 8 years ago on the first round of a tournament that was played during Easter at Helsinki. If my memory serves me right, this was the first time that I played this tournament and it is also the last time I have played this tournament. At the time I felt that the time controls were too long for me and it might be true also to this day. Well, too long for over the board chess that is. My longest games have lasted over a year...

This tournament was played between March 20th and March 24th and it consisted of 7 rounds. This was the second tournament that I played in 2008, the first one being a huge success for me, I won group C with 4.5 points and my rating increased 133 points. This second tournament was far from the success that I had in the first one. Admittedly the average rating of my opponents was also considerably higher, so that had obvious impact on how many points I was able to gather. This ended up being also a positive tournament, but only slightly, as I managed to increase my rating only by 5 points.

I was able to hang on in the game for about 11 moves without messing up, but after that I started to get a bit on the worse side of things and on move 16 I played the game losing move Rec8. My opponent finished the game accurately and did not give me any change to get back into the game.

[Event "HSL Pääsiäisturnaus"] [Site "Shakkikoti"] [Date "2008.03.20"] [Round "1"] [White "Rautanen, Sari"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E51"] [WhiteElo "1971"] [BlackElo "1672"] [Annotator "Stockfish 7 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "45"] [EventDate "2008.??.??"] 1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nc6 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. e3 Nf6 6. Bd3 O-O 7. O-O { Nimzo-Indian Defense: Ragozin Defense} Bxc3 (7... dxc4 {Nimzo-Indian Defense: 4.e3, Ragozin Variation}) 8. bxc3 {E51 Nimzo-Indian: Rubinstein: 4...O-O 5.Nf3 d5} b6 (8... Re8 9. Qc2 h6 10. Re1 (10. Rd1 b6 11. cxd5 exd5 12. Bb5 Bd7 13. Bxc6 Bxc6 14. Ne5 Re6 15. f3 Qe8 16. a4 a5 17. c4 Rd8 18. Bd2 Nd7 19. cxd5 Bxd5 20. Nxd7 Qxd7 21. e4 Bxe4 22. fxe4 Qxd4+ 23. Kh1 Qf2 24. Rf1 Qxd2 {De Oliveira, H (2106)-Brito,L (2285) Juazeiro do Norte 2014 0-1}) 10... e5 11. cxd5 Nxd5 12. e4 Nf4 13. Nxe5 Nxd3 14. Nxd3 Qh4 15. f4 b5 16. a4 b4 17. d5 b3 18. Qxb3 Ba6 19. g3 Qf6 20. Nc5 Rab8 21. Qc2 Nb4 22. cxb4 Qxa1 23. Nxa6 {Gutov,A (2483) -Markin,I (2158) Tomsk 2008 1-0}) 9. Ba3 {N White threatens to win material: Ba3xf8} (9. cxd5 exd5 10. Qc2 h6 11. a3 a6 12. c4 dxc4 13. Bxc4 Na5 14. Ba2 Be6 15. Bxe6 fxe6 16. e4 Rc8 17. e5 Nd5 18. Bxh6 Qe8 19. Bd2 Nb7 20. Ng5 g6 21. Qd3 a5 22. Qh3 Qe7 23. Qh6 Rce8 {Kienel,N (1882) -Steffen,G (2023) Dresden 2012 0-1 }) 9... Re8 10. cxd5 exd5 11. c4 Ba6 {Black threatens to win material: Ba6xc4} 12. Rc1 Na5 (12... dxc4 13. Bxc4 Bxc4 14. Rxc4 {+/=}) 13. cxd5 {+/=} Bxd3 14. Qxd3 Nxd5 15. Rc2 (15. Rfe1 Qf6 {+/-}) 15... Qd7 (15... c6 16. Re1 {+/=}) 16. Rfc1 (16. Ne5 Qe6 17. e4 {+/-}) 16... Rec8 $2 (16... f6 {= and Black hangs on}) 17. Ne5 {+-} Qd8 18. Qf5 (18. e4 Ne7 19. Bb4 {+-}) 18... Nf6 $4 {Black crumbles in face of a dire situation} (18... Qf6 19. Qxf6 gxf6 {+/-}) 19. Bb4 ( 19. g4 {seems even better} h6 20. h4 c5 {+-}) 19... Nb7 (19... Qd5 20. Rxc7 Rxc7 21. Rxc7 Qe6 22. Qxe6 fxe6 23. Bxa5 bxa5 {+-}) 20. Nc6 Nd6 21. Qxc8 (21. Nxd8 $6 {is a useless try} Nxf5 22. Nc6 Re8 {+/=}) 21... Rxc8 22. Nxd8 Rxd8 23. Bxd6 (23. Bxd6 cxd6 24. Rc8 {+-}) 1-0