C66 Spanish Game: Steinitz Defence (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 d6 4.d4 exd4 5.Nxd4 Bd7 6.Nc3 Be7 7.O-O Nf6 8.Re1 Nxd4 9.Qxd4 O-O 10.Bg5 Bxb5 11.Nxb5 a6 12.Nc3)

This was played in a team match called Open Challenge ♕♖ChEsS MaTeS♕♖. It is played between ♕♖ChEsS MaTeS♕♖ and Philippine Critical Movers on 26 boards. I played on board 4 for ♕♖ChEsS MaTeS♕♖ and my score was one win and one loss. This game I won on time, but the position was already a forced win for me, so there was no doubt about the winner anymore. There were a lot of timeouts in this match, the winner has been decided 24 times on time, so nearly half of the games, which is too high percentage on timeouts in my opinion. And the match is not even over yet, so who knows what will happen on the remaining games. The winner of the match has already been decided and it will be ♕♖ChEsS MaTeS♕♖ as soon as the remaining games end, the score at the moment is 32 - 18.

The first position of interest is the one seen below. In that position pauljohn2013 played 16...c5. Before I had only a small advantage, but after I was clearly to be favored in the position. Pauljohn2013 should have played either 16...f6 or 16...g6.

Some of my advantage was lost in the position below. I played 20.Nf4, planning to maneuver the knight to a better attacking position and maybe increase the pressure on the pawn on d6. I should have played either 20.h4 or 20.Qe2. The idea behind 20.h4 is to weaken the pawn structure in front of my opponent's king. 20.Qe2 has a different approach. It is designed to give the knight opportunity to maneuver to f5 via e3. At that point the knight would be ideally placed. It would threaten the d-pawn and increase the pressure towards g7. It would also threaten a fork on h6.

The next blunder was played by me in the position below. I played 23.f3 in order to protect the pawn on e4. The problem with the move is that I can't really defend the pawn and my queen and rook are no longer protecting each other. The reason why the pawn is lost would have become clear had my opponent played 23...f5. Instead of the move 23.f3 I should played either 23.h3 or 23.Qd3.

For some reason pauljohn2013 did not play the move 23...f5 and I was saved for the time being. My opponent played 23...Ne5 and the game continued rather evenly after that for some time. The next critical moment of the game came when we reached the position below. Pauljohn2013 played 32...Ra1+, this move started to get my opponent in trouble again, but it was his next move 33...Rb1 that could have been the losing move of the game or quite close to it. Instead of finding the strongest move or even one of the decent replies, I threw my advantage away with the move 34.f5.

34.Rd5 seems to be the strongest move that Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT can find, but it also thinks that 34.b4 should be good enough for a winning advantage. I continued my struggle to find good moves and I made things even harder for me when, in the position below, I played 41.Rh4. A few moves before I could have played for the win, but after I played my 41st move, it was difficult task for me to even get a draw. I was clearly worse and it seemed that I have messed up another game.

Then pauljohn2013 moved his rook to a2 instead of b1 and I could have been close to draw again, had I played 42.Nd3. I moved my knight to g4 instead, thinking that I can still make something out of my attack. It was a bad decision and pauljohn2013 replied with the correct move 42...Nf7. I answered with the move 43.Qd3 and then I was already in a lost position. I did not resign, I fought against the odds and I got my reward in the position below. Pauljohn2013 has the winning advantage in that position, but with one horrible move, 50...g6, the tables turned and it was me who was winning again.

The best move would have been 50...Re1 for my opponent. While I did not find the crushing move 51.Nxf6+, I found the second best move 51.fxg6 and I was on the better side of the board after that. My advantage was very short-lived because to my opponent's next move, 51...hxg6, I replied with 52.Nf4. I still should have played Nxf6+ as it was the only way for me to keep the advantage. The game could have been played evenly after my 52nd move, but pauljohn2013 made a huge blunder 52...f5, which turned out to be the losing move.

[Event "Open Challenge ??ChEsS MaTeS?? -"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2015.07.11"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "pauljohn2013"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C66"] [WhiteElo "1881"] [BlackElo "1909"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "115"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 d6 {Spanish Game: Steinitz Defense} 4. d4 exd4 (4... Bd7 5. Nc3 (5. c4 {Spanish Game: Old Steinitz Defense: Semi-Duras Variation}) 5... Nf6 6. Bxc6 {Spanish Game: Steinitz Defense. Nimzowitsch Attack}) 5. Nxd4 (5. O-O {Spanish Game: Steinitz Defense. Center Gambit}) 5... Bd7 6. Nc3 Be7 7. O-O Nf6 8. Re1 Nxd4 9. Qxd4 O-O 10. Bg5 Bxb5 11. Nxb5 a6 12. Nc3 {C66 Spanish Game: Steinitz Defence} Nd7 (12... Rb8 13. Rad1 Re8 14. Qc4 b5 15. Qd4 b4 16. Ne2 Nxe4 17. Bxe7 Rxe7 18. Nf4 Nf6 19. Nd3 Rxe1+ 20. Rxe1 h6 21. Qa7 Rb6 22. h3 Qb8 23. Qxb8+ Rxb8 24. Re7 Rb7 25. Kf1 Kf8 26. Re3 a5 27. Nf4 {Miralles,N (2061)-Lopez,A Trinidad 2010 0-1 (47)}) 13. Bxe7 Qxe7 14. Nd5 Qd8 15. Re3 $146 (15. Rad1 Ne5 16. f4 Nc6 17. Qc3 Ne7 18. e5 Nxd5 19. Rxd5 Qb8 20. exd6 cxd6 21. Re7 Re8 22. Rxe8+ Qxe8 23. Rxd6 h6 24. Qd2 Rc8 25. c3 Qe4 26. Rd7 Re8 27. h3 h5 28. b3 h4 29. Rd8 Qe7 {Martin del Campo,J (2395)-Smith,A (2205) Thessaloniki 1988 1-0 (39)}) (15. Rad1 Re8 $14) 15... Ne5 (15... Re8 16. Rd3 $14) 16. Rg3 $14 c5 (16... g6 17. Rd1 $14) 17. Qe3 f6 18. b3 b5 19. Rd1 Rf7 20. Nf4 Qe7 21. Rd5 {Menacing} Nc6 22. c3 {Controls b4+d4} Re8 23. f3 (23. h3 b4 $14) 23... Ne5 (23... f5 $142 $5 24. Rd1 fxe4 25. fxe4 Qxe4 26. Qxe4 Rxe4 $17) 24. Qd2 $11 Rd8 25. Nd3 Rc8 26. Nf4 Rc6 (26... Rd8 27. h4 $14) 27. Nh3 (27. Ne2 Rf8 $14) 27... Ng6 (27... c4 28. Nf2 $11) 28. Rh5 (28. f4 c4 29. f5 Nf8 $14) 28... a5 (28... c4 29. b4 $11) 29. Nf2 (29. Nf4 Nxf4 30. Qxf4 g6 $14) 29... a4 {This push gains space} (29... b4 30. f4 $11) 30. f4 axb3 31. axb3 Ra6 32. h3 Ra1+ (32... Qb7 33. Rd5 $14) 33. Kh2 $16 Rb1 (33... Qa7 34. Qxd6 Qc7 35. Qxc7 Rxc7 $16) 34. f5 (34. Rd3 $142 $5 Nf8 35. Rxd6 Rxb3 36. Rhd5 $16) 34... Nf8 $11 35. Qc2 { White threatens to win material: Qc2xb1} Ra1 36. Ng4 Kh8 37. c4 b4 {Black gains space} 38. Qd3 (38. Rh4 Qe8 $11) 38... Nd7 (38... Re1 39. Nf2 $15) 39. Qd5 Rf8 40. Nf2 (40. Rh4 Rb8 $11) 40... Ne5 (40... Rb1 41. Qd2 $15) 41. Rh4 ( 41. Nd3 Nxd3 42. Rxd3 Qe5+ 43. Qxe5 dxe5 $11 (43... fxe5 $2 44. Rxd6 h6 45. Re6 $18)) 41... Ra2 {Black threatens to win material: Ra2xf2} (41... Rb1 42. Nd3 Rxb3 43. Nxe5 Rxg3 44. Nc6 $17) 42. Ng4 (42. Nd3 $142 $5 $11 {must be considered}) 42... Nf7 $17 43. Qd3 $2 (43. Ne3 $142 $5 Qe5 44. Rhg4 Qxd5 45. Nxd5 $17) 43... Ng5 $19 44. Ne3 $2 (44. Re3 $142 $19) 44... Qe5 45. Nd5 (45. Qd1 {is no salvation} Rfa8 46. Qf1 Nxe4 47. Rxe4 Qxe4 $19) 45... Rf2 46. Kg1 Ra2 (46... Rd2 $142 $1 {and Black has prevailed} 47. Qxd2 Qxg3 $19) 47. Nf4 ( 47. Kh2 $142 $5 $11 {is the best option White has}) 47... Kg8 48. Rhg4 (48. Qd5+ $142 Qxd5 49. exd5 $19) 48... Rf7 $4 {releasing the pressure on the opponent} (48... Nxe4 $142 49. Re3 Ra1+ 50. Kh2 Rh1+ 51. Kxh1 Nf2+ 52. Kg1 Nxd3 53. Rxe5 Nxe5 $19) 49. Nh5 $4 {a transit from better to worse} (49. Qd5 $142 $11 {had to be tried to avoid defeat}) 49... Ra1+ $19 50. Kh2 g6 $4 {ruins a clearly superior position} (50... Re1 $142 {and Black can celebrate victory} 51. Qd2 Qa1 $19) 51. fxg6 (51. Nxf6+ $142 $5 Rxf6 52. Rxg5 $18) 51... hxg6 $16 52. Nf4 (52. Nxf6+ $142 Qxf6 53. Rxg5 $16) 52... f5 $4 {throws away the game} ( 52... Re1 53. h4 Qa1 $11 (53... Rxe4 $4 {Black will choke on that pawn} 54. Nxg6 Rxg4 55. Nxe5 Rxh4+ 56. Rh3 Rxh3+ 57. gxh3 dxe5 58. Qd5 $18)) 53. Rxg5 Qxf4 (53... Rg7 {hardly improves anything} 54. Nxg6 Qd4 55. Ne7+ Kf8 56. Qxd4 cxd4 57. Rxg7 Ra7 58. e5 Rxe7 59. Rg8+ Kf7 60. exd6 Re6 61. R3g7+ Kf6 62. d7 Rd6 63. Rg6+ Ke7 64. R8g7+ Kf8 65. Rxd6 Kxg7 66. d8=Q d3 67. Qc7+ Kh8 68. Rd8#) 54. Rxg6+ Kf8 55. exf5 (55. Qd5 Raa7 56. Qe6 Qxg3+ 57. Rxg3 fxe4 58. Qxd6+ Rae7 59. Qh6+ Ke8 60. Rg8+ Kd7 61. Qd2+ Kc6 62. Qd5+ Kb6 63. Qd6+ Ka7 64. Qb8+ Ka6 65. Rg6+ Rf6 66. Rxf6+ Re6 67. Rxe6+ Ka5 68. Qb5#) 55... Ra6 56. Qd5 Rxf5 ( 56... Qxf5 {is not the saving move} 57. Rg8+ Ke7 58. Re3+ Qe5+ 59. Rxe5+ dxe5 60. Qb7+ Kf6 61. Qxa6+ Kf5 62. Qg6+ Kf4 63. Qxf7+ Ke3 64. Rd8 e4 65. Kg3 Ke2 66. Qf2#) 57. Rg8+ Ke7 58. Qb7+ (58. Qb7+ Ke6 59. Re8+ Kf6 60. Qe7#) 1-0