D03 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bg5, including Torre Attack with early ...d5 (1.d4 d5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bg5 e6 4.e3 Be7 5.Nf3 O-O)

On last weekend I played at the Finnish Championships of Team Blitz Chess and discovered that I am very slow at over the board blitz. Even though I thought that I was moving around the same speed or sometimes faster than my opponent, the clock was still adamant that I had less time than my opponent. I played on board 1 of the team I represented and on day 1, the average rating of the people I faced was 1967. The lowest rated opponent on day 1 was 1425 and the strongest of the 25 opponents I faced that day was a player whose rating was 2521. Before the tournament started I was very confident that I can most of the time keep a level of play that I am happy with. However, when the games started it almost seemed like I have not played this game before... It did not help that the chairs we were sitting were really horrible. I was also the one in our team that needed to write the results of each game. It was of course not that hard, but it was a thing that distracted me a bit and I could not really concentrate on playing the games. Now that the explanations are done, I can type about my score. I was only able to get 8 points out of the possible 25, which I was not satisfied with. My rating performance was 1828, which meant that I was not really playing as well as my rating of 1872 would suggest. It was not a horribly bad performance from me, but I was certainly disappointed with it.

On the second and last day of the tournament we played 20 games in the group we got into based on the way our team ranked against other teams on day 1. On day 2 I was able to get more out of myself and ended up getting 10 points out of the possible 20 against opponents, whose average rating was close to my rating. The lowest rated player I faced on day 2 was rated 1757 and the highest one was rated 2088. The highest rated player I was able to win during these two days was rated 2041. My best draw was against a player rated 2023. Both my best win and my best draw happened on the first day interestingly enough. Unfortunately I was not able to maintain a good level of play in all my games. In some games I just gave material too freely and in one particular game I missed a mate in one that my opponent could do... In that game I was up in material and I was only concentrating on keeping my attack going and did not see the counterplay opportunities from my opponent.

Okay, enough for the unrelated stuff and now it is time to concentrate to the game below. This was part of the 100 game practise match I played against a friend of mine. I think we both played reasonable moves until Kojjootti played 6.h4. I am not sure about the purpose of this move because it seems like a bit premature aggression towards my castled king. The move 6.h4 is not a horrible one, but certainly not something I would recommend. I played 6...b6 with the idea of trading the light-squared bishops off the board. The plan was simple and not a good one, but in order to prove that Kojjootti would have needed to play accurate moves, which he was not able to do at that time. I should have played either 7...c5 or 7...Nbd7 instead of 7...Ba6, but because I was able to trade the bishops on my terms, the position was even. Had my opponent played 8.Bxa6 instead of 8.h5, he might have been slightly on the better side of the board. The game went on without any big mistakes until we reached the position below after 15.Bf2.

I am not sure why Kojjootti played that passive move. The pawn on h5 is not under a real threat, because Nxh5 will be answered with Bxe7 and White wins. My opponent played an even worse move on his next move and after 16.Qe2 the position should be completely winning for me. I was able to proceed with the right idea at first, but then I played a couple of sloppy moves that enabled my friend to get back into the game. One huge blunder on my opponent's 21st move made things really bad for him again. After that I was on my way to victory until I made a huge mistake and played 39...Qb2. You can see the position below.

Kojjootti could have won the game in three moves, 40.Qxe6+ Kh8 41.Qxf6+ Kg8 42.h7#. Had I gone to b1 with the queen, I would have had an easy win. It did not matter that Kojjootti was not able to find the fastest mate in the time trouble because in the end he was able to find the checkmate.

[Event "Live Chess"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2016.07.21"] [Round "?"] [White "Kojjootti"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D03"] [WhiteElo "1708"] [BlackElo "1806"] [Annotator "Stockfish 7 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "87"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. d4 d5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Bg5 {Richter-Veresov attack} e6 (3... Bf5 4. Bxf6 { Queen's Pawn Game: Veresov attack, Veresov variation} (4. f3 {Queen's Pawn Game: Veresov Attack, Richter Variation})) 4. e3 (4. Nf3 {Queen's Pawn Game: Veresov attack, Classical Defense}) 4... Be7 5. Nf3 O-O {D03 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bg5, including Torre Attack with early ...d5} 6. h4 (6. Bd3 b6 7. Ne5 Bb7 8. O-O Ne4 9. Bxe7 Qxe7 10. Ne2 f6 11. Nf3 Nd6 12. Nd2 e5 13. dxe5 fxe5 14. Ng3 Nd7 15. e4 d4 16. Nc4 g6 17. Nxd6 Qxd6 18. h4 Qe7 19. h5 Qh4 20. hxg6 hxg6 { Quigley,S (2270)-McAllan,I (2200) Chester 1979 1/2-1/2}) 6... b6 7. Bd3 Ba6 {N} (7... Nbd7 8. g4 Bb7 9. Bxf6 Nxf6 10. Ng5 c5 11. Qf3 cxd4 12. exd4 Bb4 13. Kf1 Bxc3 14. bxc3 Qc7 15. Re1 Rac8 16. Rh3 Bc6 17. Re5 Qd7 18. Qe2 a6 19. Rf3 Bb5 20. Rxf6 gxf6 21. Nxh7 Bxd3 22. Nxf6+ {Gardner,B-Adams,N Chicago 1989 1-0}) ( 7... h6 8. Bxf6 Bxf6 9. g4 g6 10. g5 Bg7 11. h5 Kh7 12. gxh6 Bxh6 13. Ne5 Qf6 14. hxg6+ fxg6 15. Rxh6+ Kxh6 16. Ng4+ Kg7 17. Nxf6 Rxf6 18. e4 dxe4 19. Nxe4 Rf4 20. Qd2 Rh4 21. Qg5 Rh1+ 22. Kd2 {Opitz,F-Engel,R Chemnitz 1998 1-0}) (7... c5 8. Ne5 {=}) 8. h5 (8. Bxa6 Nxa6 9. Qe2 Nb8 {+/=}) 8... Bxd3 9. Qxd3 Nc6 ( 9... h6 10. Bxf6 Bxf6 11. e4 {=}) 10. a3 {Consolidates b4} a6 {Prevents intrusion on b5} 11. b4 (11. h6 g6 {=}) 11... Nb8 (11... h6 12. Bxf6 Bxf6 13. O-O {=}) 12. Ne5 (12. h6 g6 {=}) 12... Qd6 (12... h6 13. Bf4 {=/+}) 13. f4 (13. Bf4 {!?} Qd8 14. h6 {=}) 13... h6 {= Black threatens to win material: h6xg5} 14. Bh4 Nbd7 15. Bf2 (15. g4 {!? has some apparent merit} Nh7 16. Bf2 Nxe5 17. dxe5 {=/+} (17. fxe5 Qd7 {∓})) 15... c5 {∓} 16. Qe2 {?} (16. bxc5 bxc5 17. Kf1 {∓}) 16... cxb4 {-+} 17. axb4 (17. Nb1 Ne4 {-+}) 17... Qxb4 18. Qd3 (18. Qd2 {cannot change what is in store for White} Rfc8 19. Nxd7 Nxd7 20. Na2 {-+}) 18... a5 (18... Nxe5 {and Black has prevailed} 19. dxe5 Ne4 {-+}) 19. Rb1 Qd6 ( 19... Qa3 {!?} 20. Nb5 Qxd3 21. cxd3 Nxe5 22. dxe5 Ng4 {∓}) 20. Nb5 {=/+ White threatens to win material: Nb5xd6. A valuable piece} Qb8 21. Qe2 {??} ( 21. Nc6 {saving the game} Bb4+ 22. Rxb4 {=}) 21... Nxe5 {-+} 22. fxe5 Ne4 23. g4 (23. O-O Rc8 {-+}) 23... Bg5 (23... f6 {might be the shorter path} 24. exf6 Bxf6 25. O-O {-+}) 24. Bh4 (24. O-O {does not help much} f6 25. Be1 fxe5 26. Rxf8+ Kxf8 {-+}) 24... a4 (24... Bxh4+ {seems even better} 25. Rxh4 f6 26. g5 Nxg5 27. Kd1 fxe5 28. Kc1 exd4 29. Rxd4 {-+}) 25. Bxg5 Nxg5 (25... hxg5 {?!} 26. Qh2 {-+}) 26. Nd6 (26. Rf1 {doesn't do any good} Ne4 27. Qd3 Qd8 {-+}) 26... a3 (26... f6 {!? keeps an even firmer grip} 27. Ra1 {-+}) 27. O-O Qc7 ( 27... f6 {and Black can already relax} 28. c4 fxe5 29. dxe5 Rxf1+ 30. Rxf1 Qc7 31. cxd5 Qc3 32. dxe6 a2 {-+}) 28. Rf4 (28. Ra1 {-+ is the last straw}) 28... Nh3+ 29. Kg2 (29. Kh2 {a last effort to resist the inevitable} Nxf4 30. Qd2 {-+ }) 29... Nxf4+ 30. exf4 a2 31. Ra1 Qc3 32. Qd1 Ra4 (32... Ra3 33. Qd3 Qxa1 34. Qxa3 Qb1 35. Nf5 exf5 36. e6 a1=Q 37. Qxa1 Qxa1 38. g5 Rc8 39. exf7+ Kxf7 40. c4 Rxc4 41. g6+ Kf8 42. Kf2 Qb2+ 43. Kg3 Rc3+ 44. Kh4 Qh2#) 33. g5 hxg5 (33... Rxd4 34. Qxd4 Qxd4 35. Rxa2 hxg5 36. f5 Qxe5 37. f6 Qxd6 38. fxg7 Kxg7 39. h6+ Kxh6 40. c3 Rh8 41. Rf2 Kg7 42. Kf1 Qe5 43. c4 Qe3 44. Rxf7+ Kxf7 45. cxd5 Rh1+ 46. Kg2 Rg1+ 47. Kh2 Qg3#) 34. fxg5 Rfa8 (34... Rxd4 35. Qxd4 Qxd4 36. Rxa2 Qxe5 37. Nb5 d4 38. c4 dxc3 39. Nxc3 Qxg5+ 40. Kf1 Rc8 41. Ne2 Qf5+ 42. Ke1 Qb1+ 43. Kd2 Qxa2+ 44. Ke3 Rc2 45. h6 Rxe2+ 46. Kf4 Qa3 47. h7+ Kxh7 48. Kg5 Qg3+ 49. Kh5 Rh2#) 35. g6 f6 (35... Rxd4 36. Ne4 dxe4 37. gxf7+ Kf8 38. h6 Rxd1 39. hxg7+ Kxg7 40. Rxd1 Qf3+ 41. Kg1 Qxd1+ 42. Kf2 Qf3+ 43. Ke1 a1=Q+ 44. Kd2 Qad1#) 36. exf6 (36. Qd3 {cannot change destiny} Qxd4 37. h6 Qg4+ 38. Qg3 gxh6 39. Qxg4 Rxg4+ 40. Kh3 Rxg6 {-+}) 36... gxf6 (36... Rxd4 37. h6 Rd2+ 38. Qxd2 Qxd2+ 39. Kf1 Qxh6 40. Nf7 Qh1+ 41. Ke2 Qxa1 42. Nh6+ gxh6 43. f7+ Kf8 44. c3 Qxc3 45. g7+ Kxf7 46. g8=Q+ Kxg8 47. Kd1 a1=Q+ 48. Ke2 Ra2#) 37. h6 (37. Qe2 { desperation} Kf8 38. Nb5 {-+}) 37... Ra3 (37... Rxd4 38. h7+ Kg7 39. Ne8+ Rxe8 40. Qxd4 Qxd4 41. Rxa2 Qd2+ 42. Kf1 Rc8 43. Kg1 Kxg6 44. Rb2 Qc1+ 45. Kf2 Qxb2 46. Kg3 Rc3+ 47. Kf2 Rxc2+ 48. Kg3 Qa3+ 49. Kh4 Rc4#) 38. Qg4 (38. Qd3 { is no salvation} Qxa1 39. h7+ Kg7 40. Ne8+ Rxe8 41. Qxa3 Qb1 42. Qa7+ Kxg6 43. Qa3 Qxc2+ 44. Kf3 Rh8 45. Ke3 Rxh7 46. Qd3+ Qxd3+ 47. Kxd3 a1=Q 48. Ke2 Qa2+ 49. Kf3 Rh3+ 50. Kg4 Qg2+ 51. Kf4 Qe4#) 38... Qxc2+ 39. Kh1 (39. Kf1 {doesn't change anything anymore} Qb1+ 40. Kf2 Qb2+ 41. Qe2 Qxd4+ 42. Kg2 Re3 43. Qf2 Qg4+ 44. Kf1 Rf3 45. h7+ Kg7 46. Ke1 Rxf2 47. Kxf2 Qd4+ 48. Ke2 Qb2+ 49. Kd1 Qxa1+ 50. Kc2 Qb1+ 51. Kd2 Qb2+ 52. Ke3 Ra3+ 53. Kf4 Qe5+ 54. Kg4 Qg5#) 39... Qb2 (39... Qb1+ {!} 40. Qg1 Qb2 41. Qf1 Rg3 42. Rd1 Rxg6 43. Qg1 Rg5 44. h7+ Kxh7 45. Qh2+ Qxh2+ 46. Kxh2 Rag8 47. Rd3 Rg2+ 48. Kh3 a1=Q 49. Rd1 Qxd1 50. Nc4 Qg4#) 40. Qxe6+ Kh8 41. Nf7+ {White has a mate attack} (41. Qxf6+ Kg8 42. h7#) 41... Kg8 42. Ng5+ Kh8 43. Qxf6+ (43. g7#) 43... Kg8 44. Qg7# (44. h7#) 1-0