B31 Sicilian: 2...Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 (1.Nf3 c5 2.e4 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.O-O Bg7 5.c3 Qb6 6.Ba4)

The game below was played over seven years ago at Espoo in a weekend tournament. This game is from round 4. I played in group B and before this round I had only managed to get one draw, so the tournament continued to go downhill for me with this game. I lost also my last round game, so I only got 0.5 out of 5, which is one of my worst results to this day. My rating dropped 58 points because of this really bad result. I ended being on last place in the group of 20 players. My opponent finished 16th in the group.

It did not take long for me to be in a lost position in this game, in fact after my 8th move my position was completely hopeless. However, the position below is taken after 7.Na3. At that point the position is roughly even.

My reply was 7...a6 in order to prevent 8.Nb5. It was actually a huge mistake and the only move that could have kept me in the game was 7...Nge7. I did get another chance to hold the position when my friend played 8.Re1. It does leave White in a slightly better position, but 8.Nc4 would have been the move that has the possibility to fight for a clear advantage. Unfortunately for me, I did not use my last chance and played the horrible 8...d6 for some reason. I can't really remember the reason for that move anymore. My best option was to play 8...Nge7. After the gigantic blunder 8...d6, Tomi was able to find a strong continuation that should have resulted in my resignation, but for some reason I wanted to suffer a bit longer and only resigned after the move 22.Nc5.

[Event "MatSK"] [Site "?"] [Date "2009.03.01"] [Round "4"] [White "Tocklin, Tomi"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B31"] [WhiteElo "1834"] [BlackElo "1734"] [Annotator "Stockfish 7 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "43"] [EventDate "2008.??.??"] 1. Nf3 c5 2. e4 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 {Sicilian Defense: Nyezhmetdinov-Rossolimo Attack, Fianchetto Variation} 4. O-O Bg7 5. c3 Qb6 (5... e5 6. d4 {Sicilian Defense: Nyezhmetdinov-Rossolimo Attack, Fianchetto Variation, Gufeld Gambit}) (5... Nf6 6. d4 {Sicilian Defense: Nyezhmetdinov-Rossolimo Attack, Fianchetto Variation, Lutikov Gambit}) 6. Ba4 {B31 Sicilian: 2...Nc6 3.Bb5 g6} e6 7. Na3 ( 7. d4 cxd4 8. cxd4 Nxd4 9. Na3 Ne7 10. Nc4 Qa6 11. Nxd4 Qxc4 12. Be3 O-O 13. Rc1 Qb4 14. a3 Qxb2 15. Qd3 Qb6 16. Nf5 Qd8 17. Nxg7 Kxg7 18. Qd6 Nc6 19. Rfd1 f6 20. Bxc6 bxc6 21. e5 f5 {Timman,J (2610)-Short,N (2650) Hilversum 1989 1/ 2-1/2 (40)}) 7... a6 (7... Nge7 8. Nb5 O-O 9. d4 cxd4 10. Nbxd4 a6 11. Re1 Qc7 12. Nxc6 Nxc6 13. Be3 b5 14. Bc2 Ne5 15. Bf4 Rd8 16. a4 Bb7 17. axb5 axb5 18. Rxa8 Bxa8 19. Nd4 Qb6 20. Bg5 Re8 21. Nb3 d5 22. Be3 {Savic,D (2109)-Civric,Z (2211) Sabac 2014 1/2-1/2 (54)}) 8. Re1 {N} (8. Nc4 Qc7 9. Bxc6 Qxc6 10. e5 Ne7 11. Nd6+ Kf8 12. d4 b6 13. Ng5 f6 14. exf6 Qxd6 15. fxe7+ Kxe7 16. Qf3 { 1-0 (16) Horvath,A (2245)-Bastys,R Rimavska Sobota 1996}) (8. Nc4 Qc7 9. Bxc6 { +/-}) 8... d6 {?? Prevents intrusion on e5} (8... Nge7 {+/= was possible}) 9. d4 {+-} cxd4 10. cxd4 Bd7 (10... Kf8 11. Nc4 Qd8 {+-}) 11. d5 Nb8 (11... Ne5 { no good, but what else?} 12. Bxd7+ Kxd7 13. dxe6+ fxe6 {+-}) 12. dxe6 fxe6 ( 12... Bxa4 {does not save the day} 13. exf7+ Kxf7 14. Qd5+ Ke7 15. Ng5 {+-}) 13. Nc4 Qb4 (13... Qc7 {does not help much} 14. Bxd7+ Qxd7 15. Nb6 {+-}) 14. Nxd6+ Ke7 (14... Kf8 {doesn't get the bull off the ice} 15. Bxd7 Nxd7 16. a3 { +-}) 15. Bg5+ Bf6 16. Bxd7 (16. e5 {and White can already relax} Bxg5 17. Nxg5 Nc6 {+-}) 16... Nxd7 (16... Qxd6 {is one last hope} 17. Qxd6+ Kxd6 18. e5+ Kxd7 19. exf6 Nc6 20. Rad1+ Ke8 21. Rxe6+ Kf7 {+-}) 17. e5 Bxg5 18. Nxg5 Nh6 19. Rc1 Raf8 20. Nde4 (20. Rc7 Rd8 21. Nc8+ Ke8 22. Nxe6 Nf5 23. Nxd8 Qd4 24. e6 Nc5 25. Qxd4 Nxd4 26. Nxb7 Ncxe6 27. Re7+ Kf8 28. Nbd6 Nf3+ 29. gxf3 Ng5 30. Rd7 Nxf3+ 31. Kh1 Nxe1 32. Rf7+ Kg8 33. Ne7#) 20... Nf5 21. Rc7 Nd4 22. Nc5 (22. Nc5 Rd8 23. Nge4 {+-}) 1-0