B70 Sicilian Dragon: 6.g3 and 6.Be2 (without a later Be3) (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Be3 d6 7.Bc4 Nf6 8.Bb3 Ng4 9.Nxc6 bxc6 10.Qd2 Nxe3 11.Qxe3 O-O 12.O-O)

Last post of the week, unless something unexpected happens, features once again over the board game that was played a bit over eight years ago at a tournament in Helsinki. This is a fifth round game of the Easter tournament that was held there. At this point in the tournament I had won one game, drawn the game below and lost three games, so things were not going so well for me. If nothing else, at least this draw ended my losing streak that actually never even properly started. That is because I had only one loss between a win and this draw. I was able to get a draw and a win from the remaining two rounds, so I finished the tournament having scored 3 points in 7 games. It was enough to barely increase my rating, due to the fact that most of my opponents were higher rated than me.

I do not remember the reason anymore why I chose to play 1...c5 instead of 1...e5 because I almost never play the Sicilian. It might have something to do about the fact that I faced Otto Mäkinen also in my previous tournament and on our previous game I had played 1...e5 and did not get a position that I would have liked to play again. I very rarely change the openings I play because of the opponent I play against, unless I play a longer match against that same player, then I may change things quite a lot. Now that I look at this game, it feels a bit strange seeing myself playing the Sicilian and not being completely awful at it. I think it may have something to do with the fact that I watched quite a lot of chess videos at the time where titled players commented their games or went through games of other players and commented on them. I think those were really helping me to play the game better. I sometimes watched a chess video and immediately after it played some blitz games and tried to take advantage of my newly acquired knowledge. Sometimes the games seemed easier, but maybe more often than not I could not get into similar positions, so the knowledge acquired was not that useful.

The game below is one of those wasted opportunities that I can't believe ended like the way it did. Already on move 10 I started to gain a small advantage, which increased over time, though occasionally due to inaccurate moves, my advantage dissipated a bit. Despite of all this, I did keep my advantage almost the full game, I only stumbled near the end, on my 40th move. It was hard to accept a draw after such a good game, but one mistake is all it takes to spoil even the greatest of games. I am not implying that this would fall under that category though. Until Monday, my fellow chess and chess960 enthusiasts!

[Event "HSL Pääsiäisturnaus"] [Site "Shakkikoti"] [Date "2008.03.23"] [Round "5"] [White "Mäkinen, Otto"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "B70"] [WhiteElo "1691"] [BlackElo "1672"] [Annotator "Stockfish 7 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "93"] [EventDate "2008.??.??"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Be3 d6 7. Bc4 Nf6 { Sicilian Defense: Dragon Variation, Modern Bc4 Variation} 8. Bb3 Ng4 9. Nxc6 bxc6 10. Qd2 (10. Bg5 Qa5 11. Qd2 O-O 12. f3 Nf6 13. O-O-O Be6 14. Bh6 Bxb3 15. cxb3 Rfc8 16. Bxg7 Kxg7 17. Kb1 c5 18. h4 c4 19. h5 gxh5 20. b4 Qxb4 21. g4 Rab8 22. g5 Nd7 23. Rxh5 Nf8 24. Rdh1 Rb7 {Walek,M (2325)-Chytilek,R (2349) Czech Republic 2015 1-0 (43)}) 10... Nxe3 11. Qxe3 O-O 12. O-O {B70 Sicilian Dragon: 6.g3 and 6.Be2 (without a later Be3)} (12. O-O-O a5 (12... Qb6 13. Qxb6 axb6 14. Rd3 Ba6 15. Rf3 c5 16. a3 Bb7 17. Bd5 Rab8 18. Re1 e6 19. Bxb7 Rxb7 20. Nb5 d5 21. exd5 exd5 22. Rd3 d4 23. Kb1 Bf6 24. Rf3 Re7 25. Rxe7 Bxe7 26. Kc1 Bg5+ 27. Kd1 {Skamkochaishvili,M-Bechvaia,M Poti 2011 0-1 (78)}) (12... Qa5 13. h4 h5 14. f3 Rb8 15. Qd2 Be6 16. Kb1 Rfc8 17. Ne2 Qa6 18. Nd4 Bxb3 19. Nxb3 c5 20. c3 Qb6 21. g4 c4 22. Nc1 Bh6 23. Qe2 Rc5 24. Rd5 hxg4 25. fxg4 e6 26. Rxc5 Qxc5 27. Rf1 {Asvang,J-Haugstad,E (2032) Tromsoe 2008 0-1 (45)}) 13. h4 Bd7 14. h5 gxh5 15. Qg5 Be6 16. Rxh5 Bxb3 17. axb3 f6 18. Qf5 h6 19. Qg6 Qe8 20. Rxh6 Qxg6 21. Rxg6 Kf7 22. Rg3 Rh8 23. Kd2 Rag8 24. Ke2 Bh6 25. Kf3 Rxg3+ 26. Kxg3 Rg8+ {Stoevesand,E (1864)-Klarner,A (1889) Oberhof 2011 1-0 (36)}) 12... a5 13. a4 (13. Na4 $5 {=/+ might be a viable alternative}) 13... Ba6 {+/- } 14. Rfd1 Qc7 15. Rab1 Rab8 16. Kh1 Rb7 17. Ba2 (17. Qd2 Rb4 {+/-}) 17... Qb8 (17... e6 18. Bb3 {-+}) 18. b3 (18. Bb3 e6 {+/-}) 18... Rd8 (18... Qa7 19. Qd2 Qc5 20. Ne2 Qxf2 21. c4 {-+}) 19. Qf3 (19. Ne2 $5 {+/-}) 19... e6 {-+} 20. Qe3 d5 21. exd5 $2 (21. Ne2 Rbd7 22. Ng3 Qb4 {-+}) 21... cxd5 (21... exd5 $5 { makes it even easier for Black} 22. Qc5 Bf8 23. Qxa5 {-+}) 22. Ne2 Bxe2 (22... Rc8 $5 23. c3 Qe5 {-+}) 23. Qxe2 {+/-} Bc3 24. Rd3 Rc8 25. Rbd1 Rbc7 26. Bb1 Qb4 27. Rh3 Qd6 28. Qe3 Qe5 (28... e5 29. Ba2 Qa3 30. Bb1 {+/-}) 29. Qxe5 Bxe5 30. Kg1 Bc3 31. f4 d4 32. Kf1 f6 33. Ke2 e5 34. fxe5 fxe5 35. Kd3 $2 (35. Rh4 Rf8 {+/-}) 35... Rf7 $4 {Black is ruining his position} (35... e4+ $5 36. Ke2 Rf8 {-+}) 36. b4 (36. Rf3 Rxf3+ 37. gxf3 Kf7 {+/-}) 36... Rf2 (36... Rf4 37. Ke2 Bxb4 38. Ba2+ Kg7 39. Bb3 {+/-}) 37. bxa5 (37. b5 Kh8 38. Rf3 Rxg2 {+/-}) 37... Bxa5 (37... Rxg2 $6 38. a6 Kg7 39. Ba2 {=}) 38. Rg3 $2 (38. Ke4 Rd8 {+/-} ) 38... Bc3 (38... Kg7 $5 {-+}) 39. Ba2+ {+/-} Kg7 (39... Kh8 40. Rb1 {+/-}) 40. Bb3 (40. Rb1 {=/+}) 40... Rcf8 $4 {allows the opponent back into the game} (40... Rc5 {+/- Black would have gained the upper hand}) 41. Bd5 {=} Rb8 42. Rf3 Rxf3+ 43. Bxf3 Rb4 44. Bc6 Rb6 45. Bd5 Ra6 {Black threatens to win material: Ra6xa4} 46. Bb3 Rf6 47. Bd5 1/2-1/2