C90 Closed Spanish Game with 7...d6: Early deviations (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 O-O 8.a4 Bb7 9.d3 d6 10.c3 h6 11.Nbd2 Na5 12.Bc2 c5 13.Nf1 Nc6)

The game below was played in a team match called Chess Match Championship 1200+. It is a 76 board match between Chess lovers & CHESScom-International_EUROPE and Kopaonik. I played on board 18 for Kopaonik and managed to win both of my games against chesszardoz. The score in the match at the moment I type this is 63 - 70 in favor of Kopaonik.

I think I should start commenting this game from the position after 16.h3. That is because I think that the moves that were played before my 16th move were kind of normal looking and maybe not that exciting. I replied with 16...Ne7 with the intention of getting rid of the knight on f5. True, this might not be the all that exciting either, but chesszardoz's follow up move does make things more exciting. The move 17.g4 does make trading the knight on f5 seem like a bad idea because chesszardoz would take back on f5 with the g-pawn, opening the g-file for attack. Because trading on f5 seemed too dangerous even if my opponent can't take advantage of the g-file in a few moves, I decided to play 17...Kh7, which turned out to be a waste of a move due to chesszardoz's reply 18.Bb3 basically forcing the king back to g8. The idea behind Kh7 was to follow it up with g6, in order to drive the knight away from f5. I obviously could not play g6 first, because that would have left the h6-pawn inadequately defended. Chesszardoz continued by playing 19.Be3 and I think White should be preferred in that position.

On my 19th move, I decided finally to get rid of the knight on f5, so I played 19...Nxf5. Like I had expected, chesszardoz took back with the g-pawn. I continued with 20...Qc7 in order to prepare c4. In the game continuation I did not have time to play c4 and it was actually my opponent who went for c4 first. The problem with 23.c4 was that I could take on c4 with my b-pawn and chesszardoz was forced to take back with the bishop. Admittedly taking with the bishop does look like the more natural move in any case, but because I could follow up with 24...d5, chesszardoz's pawn structure falls apart. This is because the e-pawn must take on d5 in order to prevent loss of material. After 26...Nxd5, I was happy with my position, I had much better pawn structure compared to my opponent and my pieces were somewhat more active than those of my opponent's. Despite of the horrible pawn structure, four pawn islands where in one of them are doubled pawns, it was easier for chesszardoz to form an attack towards my king than it was for me to generate attack towards chesszardoz's king. While I went after the pawns and tried to win them, chesszardoz targeted my king, which was probably his best chance to alter the course of the game. I admit that it started to look a bit dangerous for me after 31.h4 and I was not sure how well I can defend againt the threats. I had to very careful what I play especially after 33...fxg6 because it seemed that my king is a bit too open for my liking. The pawn on f6 was very annoying as well, limiting my options. I was able to play quite well in my opinion and I wanted to finish this game with a nice tactic, but unfortunately I was denied of it, because chesszardoz saw the threat. I am typing about the possibility after 44...c2 if 45.Kf1, for example, then 45...Ba3 wins the game. If queen takes the bishop, then c1=Q+ and I have traded a pawn and a bishop for a queen and I would have an easy win. Well, the remainder of the game was reasonably easy regardless, so I did not mind too much. I have added one mate in one, two mate in three and two mate in four puzzles today.

[Event "Chess Match Championship 1200+ - Board 1"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2016.02.06"] [Round "?"] [White "chesszardoz"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C90"] [WhiteElo "1792"] [BlackElo "1822"] [Annotator "Stockfish 7 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "98"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. a4 {Spanish Game: Closed, Anti-Marshall 8.a4} (8. c3 d5 (8... d6 9. a3 {Spanish Game: Closed Variations, Suetin Variation}) 9. exd5 e4 {Spanish Game: Marshall Attack, Steiner Variation} (9... Nxd5 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. Rxe5 c6 12. d4 Bd6 13. Re1 Qh4 14. g3 Qh3 15. Be3 Bg4 16. Qd3 Rae8 17. Nd2 Re6 18. a4 Qh5 {Spanish Game: Marshall, Main Line, Spassky Variation})) 8... Bb7 9. d3 d6 10. c3 h6 11. Nbd2 Na5 12. Bc2 c5 13. Nf1 Nc6 {C90 Closed Spanish Game with 7...d6: Early deviations} 14. Ng3 Re8 15. Nf5 {N} (15. d4 exd4 16. cxd4 Bf8 17. d5 Ne5 18. Nd2 Ng6 19. Ndf1 Rc8 20. axb5 axb5 21. f4 c4 22. h3 Qc7 23. Be3 c3 24. bxc3 Qxc3 25. Bd3 Nh4 26. Rb1 Re7 27. Rxb5 Qa3 28. Rb3 Qa4 29. Qb1 Ba6 {Mancini,M (2301)-Fernandez,R Chambery 2002 1-0 (46)}) 15... Bf8 16. h3 {Covers g4} Ne7 17. g4 (17. N3h4 d5 {=}) 17... Kh7 (17... Nxf5 $5 18. gxf5 d5 {=/+}) 18. Bb3 { White threatens to win material: Bb3xf7} Kg8 19. Be3 (19. Bc2 {= and White has air to breath}) 19... Nxf5 {+/-} 20. gxf5 Qc7 (20... c4 $5 21. dxc4 bxc4 22. Bxc4 Bxe4 {+/-}) 21. axb5 (21. Nd2 Red8 {=/+}) 21... axb5 {+/-} 22. Rxa8 Rxa8 23. c4 (23. Nd2 Rd8 {+/-}) 23... bxc4 24. Bxc4 d5 25. exd5 Bxd5 (25... Nxd5 26. Bd2 Bd6 27. Bc3 Nxc3 28. bxc3 {+/-}) 26. Bxd5 Nxd5 27. Nd2 Nb4 (27... Rd8 28. Ne4 {+/-}) 28. Ne4 {=/+ The knight feels good on e4} Rd8 {Black threatens to win material: Rd8xd3} (28... Qc8 29. Qg4 Qc6 30. Kh2 Nxd3 31. Rg1 {=/+}) 29. Qg4 (29. Bxh6 $5 {has some apparent merit} gxh6 30. Re3 {=}) 29... Qc6 {=/+} ( 29... Nxd3 $2 {fails because of} 30. Bxh6 f6 31. Nxf6+ Kh8 32. Bg5 gxf6 33. Bxf6+ Bg7 34. Bxd8 Qxd8 35. Rd1 {+-}) 30. f6 $2 (30. Kh2 $5 {is a viable option } Rxd3 31. Rc1 {+/-}) 30... g6 {-+} 31. h4 Kh7 $4 {Black is ruining his position} (31... Nxd3 {the advantage is on the side of Black} 32. Rd1 h5 {-+}) 32. h5 {=} Rxd3 $4 (32... g5 {= would bring relief}) 33. hxg6+ (33. Bxh6 $5 { might be the shorter path} Bxh6 34. hxg6+ fxg6 {+-}) 33... fxg6 34. Ra1 (34. Bxh6 Bxh6 35. Qh4 Rd4 36. Ng5+ Kg8 37. f7+ Kg7 38. f8=Q+ Kxf8 39. Qxh6+ Ke7 40. Rxe5+ Kd7 41. Qh3+ Kd6 42. Re6+ Kc7 43. Rxc6+ Kxc6 44. Qc8+ Kd6 45. Qb8+ Kd5 46. Qg8+ Kc6 {+-}) 34... Rd7 $4 (34... Qd7 35. Qe2 Qc8 36. Ra7+ Kh8 37. Rf7 {=} ) 35. Rc1 (35. Ra8 $1 {and White has triumphed} Rf7 36. Rc8 {+-}) 35... Nd3 { = Black threatens to win material: Nd3xc1. Black forks: b2+c1} 36. Rd1 c4 37. Rd2 Rb7 38. f3 Rxb2 39. Rxb2 Nxb2 {Black has a new passed pawn: c4} 40. Bd2 ( 40. Bxh6 $5 {should be examined more closely} Bxh6 41. Qh3 {=}) 40... Nd3 {+/-} 41. Qh4 (41. Bxh6 Bxh6 42. Qh3 Nf4 43. Ng5+ Kg8 44. f7+ Kg7 45. f8=Q+ Kxf8 46. Qxh6+ Ke8 47. Qh8+ Kd7 48. Qxe5 Nd5 49. Qg7+ Kc8 50. Qg8+ Kb7 {+/-}) 41... Nf4 $1 {Decoy: f4} 42. Bxf4 (42. Kh2 $5 Nh5 43. Bc3 {+/-}) 42... exf4 {-+} 43. Qxf4 $4 {an oversight. But White was lost anyway..} (43. Qf2 Qc7 44. Qc2 {-+}) 43... c3 44. Qc1 (44. Nf2 {doesn't improve anything} Bd6 45. Qe3 c2 {-+}) 44... c2 45. Kf2 (45. Kg2 Kg8 46. Nf2 Qc4 {-+}) 45... Bb4 (45... Qb6+ 46. Ke2 Qb1 47. Qe3 Qd1+ 48. Kf2 c1=Q 49. Qxc1 Qxc1 50. Ke2 Qc2+ 51. Kf1 Bc5 52. Nxc5 Qxc5 53. Ke2 Kg8 54. f4 Qd4 55. f5 gxf5 56. f7+ Kxf7 57. Kf3 Qd2 58. Kg3 Kf6 59. Kf3 h5 60. Kg3 Qe2 61. Kh3 f4 62. Kh4 Qh2#) 46. Ke2 (46. f7 Kg7 47. f8=Q+ Kxf8 48. Qxh6+ Ke8 49. Qc1 {-+}) 46... Qc4+ 47. Kf2 g5 48. Ke3 Qb3+ 49. Ke2 (49. Kd4 { doesn't change anything anymore} Ba3 50. Qxc2 Qxc2 51. f7 Qd1+ 52. Ke3 Bc5+ 53. Nxc5 Qg1+ 54. Kd2 Qxc5 55. Kd3 h5 56. Ke4 h4 57. f4 h3 58. Kd3 h2 59. f8=N+ Qxf8 60. fxg5 h1=Q 61. g6+ Kxg6 62. Kd4 Qb4+ 63. Ke3 Qhe4+ 64. Kf2 Qbe1#) 49... Qb1 (49... Qb1 50. Qe3 Qd1+ 51. Kf2 c1=Q 52. Qxc1 Qxc1 53. Ke2 Qc2+ 54. Ke3 Bc5+ 55. Nxc5 Qxc5+ 56. Kd2 Kg6 57. Kd3 Kxf6 58. Ke4 Qc4+ 59. Ke3 Ke5 60. f4+ gxf4+ 61. Kd2 f3 62. Kd1 f2 63. Kd2 f1=Q 64. Ke3 Qcd3#) 0-1