B00 Queen's Fianchetto Defence, Nimzowitsch Defence (1.e4 b6 2.d4 Bb7 3.Nc3 g6)

The game has appeared in the blog before, but I have added diagrams and comments that were not present on the original publication of the game. I have also since my last post, put all the mate in x number of moves puzzles in a replayer, so that the person solving them can check the answer by using the engine in the replayer. Lot of puzzles have been removed or relocated in order to improve the accuracy and perhaps the quality of the puzzle pages. So maybe that can be called phase two of the blog changes. The next one being the one where I go through my already posted games and do the commentary and the opening classifications all over again when necessary.

This game started on December 26th, 2015 and finished on February 18th, 2016. This was my 2nd game after coming back from a break of few months from playing at the Queen Alice Internet Chess Club. Also my second loss in a row and the game that dropped my rating back under 2200. I had a great start for this game, but unfortunately I started to play too sloppy moves which were not able to hold the advantage and by move 17, the position had started to be quite even. Perhaps the first time during the game when things started to go wrong for jizaias was when my opponent played 7...Nf6 in the diagram position below.

Admittedly I was maybe playing too happily for a draw and I did not mind if pieces were traded off the board. In my younger days I would have always played to win, but these days I am maybe too willing to take draws against higher rated players. If I play against lower rated players, I still fight on and will not agree to a draw unless the position is a clear draw. The next position to be shown in the diagram below has been taken after jizaias' 14th move O-O. I played the passive move 15.c3 and allowed my opponent time to play 15...e6.

The game continued evenly until my opponent played 22...Qe8 in the diagram position below. That move gave me another chance to fight for the win. I played the sloppy move 23.Qd2 in reply and with that I let go of some of my advantage. The best move for me was 23.Rh3. Jizaias made an even worse move in response, 23...Ra7. It was a huge mistake that could have lost the game for my opponent. I had the great opportunity to play 24.Bxh6!! Unfortunately I did not find the right idea and played 24.Rh3 instead.

My 24th move was a good move, but not as strong as 24.Bxh6. In the diagram position below I played 26.gxh5, thinking that I had a good position. I have to admit that I did not see the move 26...e5, at that point I was almost certain that I will lose this game. At the very least I understood that I had messed up a bit and my position was not as good as it was before. Actually the position after 26...e5 is roughly even.

When I had three pawns for the bishop, I was a bit more confident again of my chances in this game. I did not follow the right path and my chances for the draw started to be just a distant dream the further the game went. The final downhill for me started when I played 41.Re1 in the position shown in the diagram below.

I did not play 41.Qe6+ most likely because I did not know whether or not trading the queens is good for me. Had I played that I might have been able to hang on in the game with accurate play. Jizaias replied with the most accurate move 41...a5 and then I played 42.Qd3, which was the final nail in the coffin and the game was definetely lost at that point.

[Event "Let's Play Chess!"] [Site "http://www.queenalice.com/gam"] [Date "2015.12.26"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "jizaias"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B00"] [WhiteElo "2202"] [BlackElo "2239"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "100"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. e4 b6 {Owen Defense: General} 2. d4 Bb7 3. Nc3 (3. Bd3 f5 4. exf5 Bxg2 5. Qh5+ g6 {Owen Defense: Matovinsky Gambit}) (3. Bg5 {Owen Defense: Naselwaus Gambit}) (3. f3 e5 {Owen Defense: Wind Gambit}) 3... g6 {B00 Queen's Fianchetto Defence, Nimzowitsch Defense} 4. Nf3 (4. h4 Nf6 5. e5 Nd5 6. Nxd5 Bxd5 7. h5 h6 8. hxg6 fxg6 9. Bd3 Bf7 10. Qg4 h5 11. Qxg6 Rg8 12. Qe4 c6 13. Nh3 Rg4 14. Qe2 e6 15. Be3 Rxg2 16. O-O-O h4 17. Nf4 Rg8 18. Nh5 Be7 {Jansa,V (2525)-Lachat,M Andorra 1995 1-0}) 4... h6 5. Bc4 Bg7 $146 {Black is behind in developement} (5... e6 6. O-O d6 7. Re1 a6 8. Bf4 Nd7 9. d5 e5 10. Be3 Bg7 11. Qd2 Ngf6 12. Rad1 Qe7 13. h3 Nh5 14. Qd3 b5 15. Bb3 O-O 16. Qd2 Kh7 17. Nh2 f5 18. f3 Rf6 19. exf5 gxf5 20. Bf2 {Marn,J (1384)-Slejko,V (1942) Sentjur 2013 0-1 (71)}) 6. O-O a6 {Consolidates b5} 7. a4 {Black has a cramped position} Nf6 {Black should quickly conclude development.} 8. Re1 d5 (8... e6 $5 9. e5 Nd5 $16) 9. exd5 $18 Nxd5 10. Nxd5 Bxd5 11. Bxd5 Qxd5 12. Bf4 Qd7 (12... c5 13. dxc5 Qxd1 14. Raxd1 (14. Rexd1 $143 bxc5 15. Rab1 Nd7 $14) 14... bxc5 15. Be5 Bxe5 16. Nxe5 $16) 13. Qe2 (13. Ne5 Qf5 14. Qd2 g5 $18) 13... Nc6 $16 14. Rad1 O-O 15. c3 (15. d5 $142 $5 Na7 16. b3 $18) 15... e6 $14 16. Ne5 (16. b3 Rfe8 $14) 16... Nxe5 $11 17. Bxe5 ({Worse is} 17. dxe5 Qxa4 18. Rd4 Qb5 $15) 17... Qxa4 18. Bxc7 Qc6 {Black threatens to win material: Qc6xc7} 19. Bf4 Rfe8 20. Qd2 (20. h4 h5 $11) 20... Kh7 21. Qc1 Rec8 (21... Red8 22. Be5 $11) 22. Rd3 Qe8 $2 (22... h5 $5 $11) 23. Qd2 (23. Rh3 Qd7 24. Bxh6 $18) 23... Ra7 $2 (23... Qc6 24. Rh3 Rh8 25. Bxh6 $16) 24. Rh3 (24. Bxh6 $142 $5 {and White can already relax} Qf8 25. Bg5 $18) 24... h5 $16 25. g4 Qd7 26. gxh5 (26. f3 $142 e5 27. Bxe5 $16) 26... e5 $11 {Black threatens to win material: e5xf4. Black forks: d4+f4} 27. hxg6+ {Black is in double check} Kg8 28. gxf7+ Kxf7 29. Rg3 exf4 30. Qxf4+ Kg8 31. Rge3 (31. Re5 Qc6 $11) 31... Rf8 $15 32. Qg5 (32. Qg3 b5 $15) 32... Qf7 33. R1e2 Qf6 {Black threatens to win material: Qf6xg5} 34. Qg4 Qf7 35. Qg5 b5 36. Re7 (36. Qc5 $5 $11 {is worth looking at}) 36... Rxe7 $17 37. Qxe7 Qg6+ (37... a5 $17) 38. Kh1 $2 (38. Kf1 $5 $15) 38... Qf5 (38... a5 39. Qe3 $17) 39. Qe3 Qd5+ (39... a5 $5 $17) 40. Kg1 b4 {Deflection: d4} 41. Re1 ( 41. cxb4 Qc4 {Decoy Double attack} (41... Qxd4 {Deflection})) 41... a5 $17 42. Qd3 $2 (42. Qg3 $5 $17) 42... a4 (42... bxc3 $142 {might be the shorter path} 43. bxc3 a4 $19) 43. Ra1 $4 {the pressure is too much, White crumbles} (43. cxb4 $142 Qg5+ 44. Kh1 $19) 43... a3 $1 {the decision} 44. bxa3 bxc3 45. Rd1 Rf4 46. Qxc3 Rg4+ 47. Kf1 Qg2+ 48. Ke2 Re4+ 49. Kd3 Rxd4+ 50. Qxd4 (50. Ke2 { does not solve anything} Qg4+ 51. f3 Qg2+ 52. Ke3 Qg5+ 53. Ke2 Rxd1 54. Qb3+ Rd5 55. Qc4 Kh8 56. Qc8+ Rd8 57. Qh3+ Bh6 58. f4 Qb5+ 59. Kf2 Qb2+ 60. Ke1 Qd2+ 61. Kf1 Qxf4+ 62. Kg2 Rd2+ 63. Kh1 Qe4+ 64. Kg1 Qb1+ 65. Qf1 Be3+ 66. Kh1 Qxf1# ) 50... Bxd4 (50... Bxd4 51. Rd2 Bxf2 52. Rb2 Qf3+ 53. Kc4 Kf7 54. Rd2 Qe4+ 55. Kb3 Bd4 56. h3 Ke6 57. Kc4 Be3+ 58. Kc3 Bxd2+ 59. Kxd2 Kd5 60. Kc3 Qf3+ 61. Kb2 Kc4 62. a4 Qe2+ 63. Ka1 Kc3 64. h4 Qb2#) 0-1