C62 Spanish Game: Steinitz Defence (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 d6 4.d4)

This game was played in the "paweljaniak's mini-tournament I". I was 2nd in the final standings with 8.5 points. My opponent in this game, zanoni, finished 6th and was able to gather 2.5 points in 12 games. There were 7 players in total in this mini-tournament. Zanoni's 4th move was a blunder that could have cost my opponent the game. I am not sure what I thought during this game because I replied to the move 4...a6 by moving my bishop to e2. Had I played the correct move 5.Bxc6, I could have continued towards an easy game.

Due to my sloppy move the game continued to be fought evenly. I did get another chance to take the clear advantage in the position below when zanoni played 10...Ne5. The moves 10...g6 and 10...Be7 were better alternatives for my opponent. I did not find the strongest move, but the move 11.Qg3 is enough to get a clear advantage. 11.f4 seems to be the move the engine likes the best. Then zanoni played the horrible move 11...h6 and my opponent was in serious trouble.

I should have played f4 again, but I let my opponent off the hook a bit with the move 12.Bf4. So instead of playing the move that could have been the reason why I win, I played a move that lost most of my advantage. The game looked to be going well for me until we reached the position you can see below. While I knew that I can't win a piece with 17.f5 because of the intermediate move 17...Ne5, I could not think of a better move, so I played 17.f5. What I did not realise at the time is that 17.e5 would have blocked the e5 square from the knight and really threatened the move f5 on the next move. It would have also threatened to win a pawn on d6, so it would have been my best choice of all the moves.

With my 17th move all my advantage disappeared. I continued to try and find good moves and I started to get back on the favorable side of the board a few moves later when zanoni made two consecutive mistakes, first 21...Bxf4 in the position below and then 22...f6 in reply to 22.Qxf4. After the first move I should have a small advantage and after the second move I should have a clear advantage, or at least quite close to one. The only move that could have kept my advantage was 23.Qd2, which I did not play because I thought I can create an attack towards the king by lifting the rook to f4 and getting it to the h-file.

It was not the right idea and my opponent was able to defend quite easily. A few moves later I was able to win a pawn, but at that point my rook at h4 was out of play and my opponent had full compensation for the pawn. Actually, quite quickly after I had won the pawn, my position started to fall apart. In the position below I played 29.Rxd8, which was, all things considered, a bad move. It gives up the control of the d-file for my opponent, something that I would not normally do. However, at the time I thought that I had nothing better. The only better move seems to be 29.Rd3.

I had a small disadvantage for the following moves 29...Rxd8 30.Qe3 Bxa2. Then on my 31st move played g4 in desperation, in order to give room for my king and threaten Nxa2. The immediate Nxa2 was, of course, out of the question. I did get one final chance to hold the game when my opponent played 43...Bh5 in the position below. Actually, maybe already a move earlier 42...Qxg4 took some of the pressure off and I might have survived with accurate play.

That being said when I replied with the move 44.Qb7, it was all over for me. In order to rescue the game, I would have needed to play 44.Qc3 and continue accurately after that. I did continue my struggle, but when I faced a forced mate, I resigned after the move 49...Qd2+.

[Event "paweljaniak's mini-tournament I"] [Site "http://gameknot.com/chess.pl?"] [Date "2016.05.09"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "zanoni"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C62"] [WhiteElo "1772"] [BlackElo "1700"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "98"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 d6 {Spanish Game: Steinitz Defense} 4. d4 {C62 Spanish Game: Steinitz Defence} a6 (4... Bd7 5. Nc3 (5. c4 {Spanish Game: Old Steinitz Defense: Semi-Duras Variation}) 5... Nf6 6. Bxc6 {Spanish Game: Steinitz Defense. Nimzowitsch Attack}) (4... exd4 5. O-O {Spanish Game: Steinitz Defense. Center Gambit}) 5. Be2 (5. Bc4 Bg4 6. Bxf7+ Kxf7 7. Ng5+ Qxg5 8. f3 Qg6 9. fxg4 Qxe4+ 10. Kf1 Nxd4 11. Nc3 Qg6 {1/2-1/2 (11) Nemec,J-Vemola, S Brno 2013}) 5... exd4 $146 (5... Bg4 6. c3 (6. dxe5 Bxf3 7. Bxf3 Nxe5 8. Be3 Qf6 9. Be2 c5 10. Nc3 Ne7 11. O-O g6 12. Nd5 Nxd5 13. Qxd5 Rb8 14. f4 Nc6 15. e5 Qe6 16. Qxe6+ fxe6 17. exd6 Bxd6 18. c3 O-O 19. Rad1 Rbd8 20. Rxd6 Rxd6 { Chermashentsev,V (1825)-Kornev,S (1620) Voronezh 2013 1/2-1/2 (32)}) 6... Nf6 7. d5 Ne7 8. h3 Bd7 9. Nbd2 Ng6 10. g3 Be7 11. Qc2 b5 12. c4 Qc8 13. Bf1 c5 14. Bg2 Bd8 15. h4 h6 16. h5 Nf8 17. b3 N8h7 18. Nf1 Bg4 19. Ne3 Ba5+ 20. Bd2 { Hotze,K (1539)-Kock,R (1401) Pinneberg 2012 1-0}) 6. Nxd4 Nxd4 7. Qxd4 Be6 { Black has a cramped position} 8. O-O Ne7 9. Nc3 {Black has a cramped position. Black's piece can't move: f8} Nc6 {Black threatens to win material: Nc6xd4} 10. Qe3 Ne5 (10... g6 $5 $14) 11. Qg3 (11. f4 Nc6 $16) 11... h6 (11... h5 12. f4 h4 13. Qe1 $16) 12. Bf4 {White threatens to win material: Bf4xe5} (12. f4 $5 Nc6 $18) 12... Ng6 (12... h5 13. h3 $16) 13. Bd2 $16 c6 (13... Be7 14. f4 Bh4 15. Qe3 $16) 14. Kh1 (14. f4 $5 Bd7 15. Bh5 Qh4 16. Qxh4 Nxh4 $18) 14... Be7 $16 15. f4 Bh4 16. Qd3 O-O 17. f5 {White threatens to win material: f5xe6. White forks: e6+g6} (17. e5 $142 $5 $16) 17... Ne5 $11 {Black threatens to win material: Ne5xd3. A sound move} 18. Qh3 {White has an active position} Bd7 19. Bf4 {Black has a cramped position} Bg5 20. Rad1 {White threatens to win material: Rd1xd6} Qe7 21. Qg3 Bxf4 (21... Bh4 22. Qe3 Rad8 23. Na4 $11) 22. Qxf4 $14 f6 23. Qg3 (23. Qd2 $142 $5 $16) 23... Be8 $11 24. Rf4 Rc8 25. Rh4 Nf7 (25... Kh8 $5 $15) 26. Bc4 $11 {Black has a cramped position} Kh8 27. Bxf7 Bxf7 28. Rxd6 Rcd8 29. Rxd8 Rxd8 30. Qe3 Bxa2 (30... b5 $142 31. a3 a5 $17) 31. g4 $2 (31. b3 $142 {and White can hope to survive} Qe5 32. g3 $11) 31... Bf7 $19 32. Rh3 b5 33. Rf3 (33. Kg2 $142 $5 $17) 33... Qe5 $19 34. b3 (34. Qf4 Qxf4 35. Rxf4 Rd2 $19) 34... b4 35. Ne2 c5 (35... Qb2 $142 {makes it even easier for Black} 36. Kg1 Qxc2 37. e5 fxe5 38. f6 $19) 36. Ng3 $2 (36. Nf4 Rd4 37. Nd3 Qxe4 38. Qxe4 Rxe4 39. Kg1 $19) 36... c4 37. Qb6 (37. h4 a5 38. Rf1 cxb3 39. cxb3 $19) 37... Rd1+ 38. Kg2 cxb3 (38... Rd2+ {seems even better} 39. Rf2 Rxf2+ 40. Kxf2 cxb3 41. cxb3 $19) 39. cxb3 Rd2+ 40. Rf2 Rxf2+ 41. Kxf2 Qf4+ (41... a5 42. Qe3 Qb2+ 43. Ne2 Qxb3 44. Qxb3 Bxb3 45. Ke1 $19) 42. Kg2 $2 (42. Ke2 Qxg4+ 43. Ke3 $19) 42... Qxg4 (42... Qd2+ $142 {it becomes clear that Black will call all the shots} 43. Kh3 Bxb3 $19) 43. Qxb4 $15 Bh5 44. Qb7 $4 (44. Qc3 $142 $11 {this is the best bet to save the position}) 44... Qf3+ 45. Kg1 (45. Kh3 { does not win a prize} Bg4+ 46. Kh4 Qf4 47. Qc8+ Kh7 48. Qc1 Qxc1 49. Kxg4 Qd1+ 50. Kf4 Qxb3 51. e5 a5 52. Nf1 a4 53. exf6 Qc4+ 54. Ke3 Qxf1 55. f7 Qxf5 56. h3 a3 57. h4 Qxf7 58. h5 a2 59. Ke2 a1=Q 60. Kd3 Qf5+ 61. Kd2 Qb2+ 62. Ke3 Qbf2#) 45... Qe3+ 46. Kf1 (46. Kg2 {is no salvation} Bf3+ 47. Kf1 Bg4 48. e5 Bh3+ 49. Qg2 Qf3+ 50. Ke1 Qxg2 51. e6 Qxh2 52. b4 Qxg3+ 53. Kd2 Bxf5 54. e7 Qe5 55. b5 axb5 56. e8=Q+ Qxe8 57. Kd1 Qe4 58. Kd2 Qd3+ 59. Ke1 Qe3+ 60. Kd1 Qf2 61. Kc1 Qc2#) 46... Bg4 47. Kg2 (47. Qa8+ {does not improve anything} Kh7 48. e5 Bh3+ 49. Qg2 Qf3+ 50. Ke1 Qxg2 51. exf6 Bg4 52. h3 Qxg3+ 53. Kd2 Bxf5 54. Ke2 gxf6 55. b4 Qxh3 56. b5 axb5 57. Kd1 Qd3+ 58. Ke1 Qe3+ 59. Kd1 Qf2 60. Kc1 Qc2#) 47... Qf3+ (47... Qd2+ 48. Kg1 Bh3 49. Qc8+ Kh7 50. Qg8+ Kxg8 51. b4 Qg2#) 48. Kg1 $19 Qd1+ 49. Kf2 Qd2+ (49... Qd2+ 50. Ne2 Qxe2+ 51. Kg1 Qe3+ 52. Kg2 Bh3+ 53. Kh1 Qc1#) 0-1