11 Aug 2016

C45 Scotch Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 Nxd4 4.Nxd4 exd4 5.Qxd4 Qf6 6.Be3)

C45 Scotch Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 Nxd4 4.Nxd4 exd4 5.Qxd4 Qf6 6.Be3)

It has been what seems to me like a very long time since I last shared a correspondence game in this blog, but that time has come once again. The game below was played in a clan challenge between Metallica and The White Hats. I played on board 1 for The White Hats in this clan challenge that consisted of three boards. I was able to win my other game against Johannes Goethe, but it did not help our clan all that much and with a score of 4 - 2, Metallica won the challenge. It was interesting that out of the six games played in the challenge, in five of them it was the player with the black pieces who won the game. The variation of the Scotch that was played in this game, I do not remember playing ever before and the evidence I have gathered from the games I have analysed support that fact. There are of course hundreds of games that still wait to be analysed, so therefore I can't really be certain that this was the first time that I faced this variation. Then again there are also a couple of thousand over the board blitz games that I can never analyse afterwards, so I may never know the truth for absolute certainty.

I am reasonably happy with how I played the first six moves of this game. The move 6...Bd6 was a bit odd looking move in my opinion and I did not know how to best reply to it. The idea behind the move is to put the bishop to e5. I ended up playing 7.c3, which does not look like a good move. The other option I had in mind was possibly Qxf6 and in case I ever get into this position again, it is likely the move I am going to play. I avoided that option in this game because I did not want to help my opponent to develop his pieces. Had I taken on f6, I think that it would have been easier to play that position. When Johannes Goethe played 7...Be5, I had to decide where to place my queen. For some reason I thought that moving the queen back to d1 was the best thing to do. I may have thought that from d1 the queen is not restricting the movement of my other pieces and it controls quite a lot of squres. It turns out that I went one square too far and I should have stopped the queen's journey to d2. It seems like the obvious move to make at the moment and maybe I remember to do it when I end up in a similar position next time.

Not much happened in the game until it came time to make my 15th move. I decided to go after the h7-pawn and played 15.Ng5. I thought that it would give me some play, but it seems to be like a bad idea. Had my opponent replied with 15...Nd5 and continued accurately, I would have been in some trouble. However, Johannes played 15...Bf5, which would lead into an even game with accurate play. I was not up to the task of even playing one accurate move after 15...Bf5 and instead I blundered with 16.Qc2. The problem with my move is that it would have been a waste of a move had my opponent taken on d3 because I would need to take back with the queen. I would have basically used two moves to capture the bishop that could have been done with one move. Even though Johannes did not take the bishop, he remained on the better side of the board in the game continuation. Then on my 18th move I made a huge blunder that could have been the losing move, but my opponent made a mistake on move 19 that would have allowed to get back into the game. Unfortunately I let my chance go by and played the move 20.Rae1, which was the final nail in my coffin. I have added mate in one puzzle 510, mate in two puzzles 726 & 727, mate in three puzzle 649 and mate in four puzzle 518 today.

[Event "Clan challenge"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2016.05.19"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "Johannes Goethe"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C45"] [WhiteElo "1941"] [BlackElo "1893"] [Annotator "Stockfish 7 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "76"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 Nxd4 {Scotch Game: Lolli Variation} 4. Nxd4 exd4 5. Qxd4 (5. Bc4 {Scotch Game: Napoleon Gambit}) 5... Qf6 6. Be3 {C45 Scotch Game} Bd6 7. c3 (7. Nc3 Be5 8. Qc4 c6 9. O-O-O Bf4 10. Qd3 Ne7 11. Kb1 Bxe3 12. Qxe3 O-O 13. Qd4 Qxd4 14. Rxd4 Rd8 15. g3 d5 16. exd5 Nxd5 17. Nxd5 Rxd5 18. Rxd5 cxd5 19. Bg2 Be6 20. Rd1 Re8 21. Kc1 Rd8 {Vera Osorio,F-Perez,M Bogota 2011 1/ 2-1/2}) 7... Be5 {Black threatens to win material: Be5xd4} 8. Qd1 {N} (8. Qd2 Qh4 9. Bd3 (9. Qc2 d6 10. Be2 Nf6 11. Nd2 Ng4 12. Qd3 Nxe3 13. Qxe3 Bf4 14. Qd3 Bxd2+ 15. Kxd2 Qxf2 16. Raf1 Qb6 17. Kc2 Be6 18. Qb5+ Qxb5 19. Bxb5+ Ke7 20. a3 f6 21. Rf2 Bf7 22. h4 a6 23. Bd3 h5 {Koskinen,J-Kiltti,J (2235) Pori 1996 1-0 (91)}) 9... d6 10. Bg5 Qg4 11. f4 Bf6 12. Bxf6 Nxf6 13. O-O Qh5 14. e5 dxe5 15. fxe5 Ng4 16. Qf4 Nxe5 17. Re1 f6 18. Nd2 O-O 19. Bc2 Qf5 {1/2-1/2 (19) Dvornitzky,B (1968) -Revi,Z (1878) Hungary 2007}) (8. Qa4 Ne7 9. Be2 O-O 10. g3 g5 11. h4 gxh4 12. gxh4 Bf4 13. Rg1+ Kh8 14. e5 Bxe5 15. Bg5 Qc6 16. Bb5 Qc5 17. Bxe7 Qxe7 18. Kf1 d6 19. f4 Bh3+ 20. Kf2 Qxh4+ 21. Ke3 Bf6 22. Nd2 c6 { Gimard,Y-Durgeau,A Saint Quentin 1999 0-1}) (8. Qd2 c6 {+/-}) 8... Ne7 {=} 9. Bc4 O-O {Black castles and improves king safety} 10. O-O c6 {Covers b5+d5} 11. Nd2 d5 {Black threatens to win material: d5xc4} 12. Bd3 (12. exd5 Nxd5 13. Bxd5 cxd5 {=}) 12... Bc7 13. f4 dxe4 14. Nxe4 Qh6 15. Ng5 (15. Bc5 Bb6 {=}) 15... Bf5 (15... Nd5 16. Bd2 f6 17. Ne4 {=/+}) 16. Qc2 (16. Bxf5 {!? is worth consideration} Nxf5 17. Bc5 {=}) 16... Qg6 (16... Nd5 17. Bd2 Bxd3 18. Qxd3 { +/-}) 17. Bxf5 Nxf5 18. Bd2 {??} (18. Bc5 {=/+ is just about the only chance}) 18... h6 (18... Bb6+ {!? might be the shorter path} 19. Rf2 Bxf2+ 20. Kxf2 {-+} ) 19. Nf3 Qh5 {Loses material} (19... Bb6+ {seems even better} 20. Rf2 Rfe8 {-+ }) 20. Rae1 {?} (20. c4 {!? =/+ is a viable option}) 20... Bb6+ {-+} 21. Nd4 Nxd4 (21... Rad8 {!?} 22. h3 {-+}) 22. cxd4 Bxd4+ 23. Be3 Qd5 24. a3 Rfe8 25. Bf2 Rxe1 26. Rxe1 Rd8 27. Kf1 Qb5+ 28. Re2 c5 29. b3 Re8 (29... g6 30. a4 Qa6 31. Qe4 {+/-}) 30. Bxd4 cxd4 31. b4 {?} (31. Qc4 Qxc4 32. bxc4 {+/-}) 31... Rxe2 {-+} 32. Qxe2 d3 33. Qd2 Qf5 (33... Qa6 34. Kf2 Qxa3 35. Ke3 {-+}) 34. Kf2 Qe4 35. Qe3 Qc4 36. Qe8+ Kh7 37. Ke3 f5 38. Qe5 Qe4+ {! Black stays in the lead } (38... Qe4+ 39. Kd2 Kg6 {-+}) 0-1

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