E01 Catalan: Early deviations (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Nf3 c6 5.Qc2 Nbd7 6.Bg2 Bb4+ 7.Bd2)

This game was played on the third round of a weekend tournament that was held at Loimaa in February, 2011. On the previous two rounds I had lost to a player who was rated 1965 and drew against a player who was rated 1891 at the time. On the fourth round I received my only win in the tournament against a player who was rated 1848. On the last round I lost again, so I managed to gather only 1.5 points against higher rated opponents, on the last round I faced an opponent who was rated 1884. Because I can't seem to find the results of this tournament anywhere anymore, I have no idea what my final standing was.

The game below was a rather straightforward one, my opponent never gave me a fighting chance. Well, the only exception might have been the position after 10.Nc3. Had I replied with 10...Bxf4, I might have been ever so slightly better. I played 10...e5, which leads to a slightly favorable position for my opponent.

After I handed over the advantage on move 10, my opponent never let it go. I was able to maintain a decent position until I made things worse for me and played 19...Rd8. The position below this paragraph is the position where I played my 19th move and started my final descent into the loss.

My last move of the game 31...Re8 was also the worst move of the game and of course my opponent took full advantage of my mistake and played 32.Rxe6! After that there was no point of me continuing the game, so I resigned. I have added a mate in two puzzle 746, a mate in three puzzle 671 and mate in four puzzles 534 & 535 today.

[Event "LoimSK"] [Site "?"] [Date "2011.02.05"] [Round "3"] [White "Torkkola, Henri"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E01"] [WhiteElo "2000"] [BlackElo "1845"] [Annotator "Stockfish 7 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "63"] [EventDate "2011.??.??"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 {Catalan Opening} 4. Nf3 (4. Bg2 Be7 5. Nf3 O-O 6. O-O Nbd7 7. Nc3 (7. Qc2 c6 8. Nbd2 b5 {Catalan Opening: Closed Variation, Rabinovich Variation} (8... b6 {Catalan Opening: Closed Variation, Traditional Variation})) 7... c6 8. Qd3 {Catalan Opening: Closed Variation, Botvinnik Variation}) 4... c6 5. Qc2 Nbd7 6. Bg2 Bb4+ 7. Bd2 {E01 Catalan: Early deviations} Qe7 8. O-O O-O 9. Bf4 (9. Bxb4 Qxb4 10. Nbd2 c5 11. a3 Qb6 12. cxd5 exd5 13. dxc5 Nxc5 14. Rac1 Ne6 15. Qb3 Qa6 16. e3 Bd7 17. Qb4 Bb5 18. Rfd1 Rac8 19. Nd4 Nxd4 20. Qxd4 Be2 21. Re1 Qd3 22. Qxd3 Bxd3 23. Bh3 Rc2 {Loehr,M (2210)-Trescher,M (2260) Germany 2001 1/2-1/2 (66)}) (9. a3 Bxd2 10. Nbxd2 Re8 11. Rfe1 Qd6 12. e4 Nxe4 13. Nxe4 dxe4 14. Qxe4 Nf6 15. Qe3 Bd7 16. Ne5 Rec8 17. b4 Be8 18. Rab1 Rc7 19. a4 Rd8 20. Red1 a6 21. c5 Qe7 22. Nc4 g6 23. Nd6 Nh5 {Cusnariov,N (2131)-Bachran,B (1975) Berlin 2015 0-1 (71)}) 9... Bd6 {N} ( 9... dxc4 10. Qxc4 Bd6 11. Bxd6 Qxd6 12. Nc3 e5 13. Rad1 exd4 14. Nxd4 Nb6 15. Qb3 Qe7 16. Qc2 Be6 17. e4 Rfd8 18. e5 Nfd5 19. Nxd5 Nxd5 20. a3 Bg4 21. Bf3 Bxf3 22. Nxf3 Nb6 23. h4 h6 24. Qb3 {Ritter,U (2000)-Erkelenz,R (1946) Dortmund 2002 1/2-1/2 (65)}) 10. Nc3 (10. Bxd6 Qxd6 11. Nbd2 b6 {=}) 10... e5 ( 10... Bxf4 {!? and Black can hope to live} 11. gxf4 dxc4 {=}) 11. dxe5 {+/=} Nxe5 12. Nxe5 Bxe5 13. Bxe5 Qxe5 14. cxd5 cxd5 15. Rfd1 Be6 16. e3 Rac8 17. Qa4 a6 {Controls b5} 18. Rd4 Rc7 19. Rad1 Rd8 (19... Rd7 20. Qb3 {+/=}) 20. e4 {+/- } Bd7 (20... Qd6 21. Qc2 {+/-}) 21. Qa5 Rdc8 22. Nxd5 (22. f4 Qh5 23. e5 Ng4 { +/-}) 22... Nxd5 23. Qxd5 (23. exd5 {??} Qxd4 {Deflection: c1} 24. Bf3 Qxb2 {-+ }) 23... Qe8 24. Qg5 (24. e5 Bc6 25. Qd6 Bxg2 26. Kxg2 g6 {+/-}) 24... f6 ( 24... h6 25. Qf4 {+/-}) 25. Qe3 Be6 26. b3 Bg4 27. Bf3 Be6 (27... Bh3 28. Qf4 { +/-}) 28. Kg2 (28. e5 fxe5 29. Qxe5 Bf7 {+-}) 28... Qe7 29. R4d2 Rc3 30. Qb6 R3c7 31. Rd6 Re8 {?? another step towards the grave} (31... Bd7 {+/-}) 32. Rxe6 {! +- Deflection: c7} (32. Rxe6 Qxe6 33. Qxc7 {+-}) 1-0