B40 Sicilian: 2...e6, Unusual lines (1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd8 4.d4 e6 5.Nf3 c5)
I am back into posting after using my time to other things for awhile and this time the posts will be published more regularly than in a long time. The posts should be appearing five times a week again. I am still going through my previously posted games and changing the names of the openings played in the games according to how Deep Fritz 14 categorizes them. When I get far enough in the future with these improvements, I will also start adding new Chess960 games to look at. Also when I get things going properly again, I will start doing videos to YouTube again.
While Deep Fritz 14 classifies this opening to include the move 5...c5, it is not the best move. Moves like 5...Nf6 and 5...Be7 are better according to the engine Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT. My opponent should have been in some problems after the 5th move, but in the position below my opponent made a move that could have cost Marko Krale the game. My opponent played 8...Qc7 and with correct play I would have been on my way to victory. I played 9.Bd3 in the game, which was not the best decision. I should have played either 9.O-O-O or 9.Bf4. After my 9th move the position should be slightly better for me. In order to keep the situation in control, my opponent should have played 9...Nd7, but he played 9...Nc6 instead, which allowed me to increase my advantage again with the move 10.Nxc6.
The next turning point came when we reached the position that can be seen in the diagram below. I played 13.Bd3 in order to save my bishop pair, but it was more important to get a new piece into the game. In reply Marko Krale played 13...h6, which was a bad choice. Because my opponent was clearly behind in development, it was important to get pieces out as fast as possible. The move 13...h6 is just too slow. Therefore moves like 13...Bd6 and 13...Bd7 are better options than the move Marko Krale played.
The next position of interest was reached after my 18th move Qg3. It can be seen in the next diagram. My opponent decided to defend the pawn on g7 by moving the bishop to f8. It left the king in the center and development of the kingside became very difficult. It may look scary to place the king on the same file as my queen and go on the side of the board where also my bishops are aiming, but there is no real danger yet, because the kingside is sufficiently defended. The move Marko Krale played was horrible enough to result in a lost position. I took my chance to weaken the pawn structure on the kingside immediately and played 19.Bxf6, which is the strongest reply according to Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT. After the obvious 19...gxf6, I played 20.Re2, which is a step in the wrong direction. A more accurate move was 20.Bf5. That being said, I should be doing well also in the game continuation.
The next position that I am going to take out of the game was seen in the game after 20...Qb8. In the game I played 21.Qh4, in order to keep my opponent on the defensive. Had Marko Krale played 21...Be7, it would have been clearer that I made a mistake on my 21st move. Concentrating my efforts towards e6 was a better idea. After 21.Qh4, the position should be roughly even. It would have required an accurate play from my opponent and the only good move for my opponent would have been the aforementioned 21...Be7. In the game Marko Krale played 21...Bg7, which was another step towards a loss.
My 22nd move, Ne4, was a bad idea from me, which would have let my opponent back in the game, had he played either 22...Qe5 or 22...Qd8 in reply. 22.Qb4 was my best choice. Neither 22...Qe5 nor 22...Qd8 was played, my opponent instead chose to play 22...Bxe4, which is one way of protecting the pawn on f6, but not a good one. The light-squared bishop could have offered my opponent some counterplay especially if combined with the rook on the half open g-file and perhaps with the queen. I then should have taken the bishop with my queen, in order to centralize it and prevent my opponent from castling. I instead played 23.Rxe4 and the game was quite evenly played for a little while. The next turning point came in the diagram position below.
Marko Krale did not castle, but instead moved the queen to c7 on move 24. Maybe he thought that the king is more secure on e8 than on g8, which I can understand to some degree, but since there was a clear threat of Bxf5, I would have taken my chances and castled. I happily took the free pawn and probably was confident about my chances of winning the game at that point in the game. My opponent blundered with 25...Rd8 and at that point I had the chance to force a mate in four. This was definetely my best chance to win the game, but unfortunately I missed the mating sequence and made things unnecessarily difficult for me. The game continued favorably for me even after that with the moves 26.Rxd8+ Qxd8, but then I traded queens and the game seemed to go towards a draw from that point on. The next diagram shows the position after 32.Re3. It was in this position that my opponent started to give me play again and maybe with accurate play, I could have even won the game.
The game game continued with the moves 32...Bg7 33.Bd3 Ra1 34.a4 Rd1. With each of his three moves, Marko Krale made his position worse. I was not making the best moves either and instead of 34.a4, I should have played 34.Rf3. I played it a move later and it was still a good move, keeping me firmly in the driver's seat. After some mistakes from both sides, we reached the position seen in the diagram below, taken after 40...Be5. I played 41.Rd3+ and the game went on peacefully and draw was agreed upon on move 50.
This paragraph was typed when I originally shared this game. This is from the 2014 August Grand Seven Fourteen III tournament that is still ongoing at Red Hot Pawn. I had my chances to win this game but I was not able to take advantage of them and the game ended in a draw. I may have a pawn more in the end position but I do not have any way to improve my position as my opponent's pieces are restricting my actions quite a lot. So he has enough compensation for the pawn to draw this game with ease.
[Event "Grand Seven Fourteen"]
[Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2014.08.11"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Vierjoki, Timo"]
[Black "Marko Krale"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B40"]
[WhiteElo "1895"]
[BlackElo "1719"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"]
[PlyCount "99"]
[EventDate "2014.??.??"]
1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 {Scandinavian Defense: Mieses-Kotroc Variation} 3. Nc3
Qd8 (3... Qa5 4. d4 (4. b4 {Scandinavian Defense: Main Lines. Leonhardt Gambit}
) 4... e5 (4... Nf6 5. Nf3 Bf5 6. Ne5 c6 7. g4 {Scandinavian Defense:
Grünfeld Variation}) 5. Nf3 Bg4 {Scandinavian Defense: Anderssen
Counterattack. Collijn Variation}) 4. d4 e6 5. Nf3 c5 {B40 Sicilian: 2...e6,
Unusual lines} (5... c6 6. Be2 Nf6 7. O-O Bd6 8. Bg5 h6 9. Bxf6 Qxf6 10. Ne4
Qe7 11. a4 a5 12. c3 Nd7 13. Qb3 O-O 14. Rfe1 Bc7 15. g3 b6 16. Bc4 Kh8 17.
Rad1 Ba6 18. Bxa6 Rxa6 19. Qc4 Nb8 20. Re2 {Roehlich,D (1982)-Burow,R (1476)
Frankfurt 2013 1/2-1/2 (39)}) 6. Be3 cxd4 7. Nxd4 (7. Qxd4 Qxd4 8. Nxd4 a6 9.
O-O-O Nf6 10. Be2 Be7 11. g4 O-O 12. a3 Nbd7 13. Rhg1 Rd8 14. f4 Nf8 15. f5 Ne8
16. fxe6 Nxe6 17. Nf5 Bf8 18. Bf3 Nd6 19. Nd5 Nc4 20. Bf2 Ne5 21. Bh1 h6 {
Peptan,C (2434)-Smailovic,R (2209) Bar 2005 1-0 (31)}) 7... a6 8. Qf3 $146 (8.
Bd3 Nf6 9. h3 Bb4 10. Nde2 Nd5 11. Bd2 Nc6 12. O-O Nxc3 13. Nxc3 Qh4 14. Re1
Bc5 15. Ne4 Be7 16. Bf1 g5 17. Bc3 Rg8 18. Bf6 Qf4 19. g3 Qc7 20. Qh5 Rg6 21.
Bxe7 Nxe7 22. Qxh7 f5 {Kornasiewicz,S (2350) -Marzec,J (2135) Slask 1996 1-0
(51)}) 8... Qc7 (8... Bb4 9. O-O-O Nd7 $16) 9. Bd3 (9. Bf4 Bd6 10. Bxd6 Qxd6
$18) 9... Nc6 $2 (9... Nd7 $142 $5 $14 {and Black can hope to live}) 10. Nxc6
$16 Qxc6 11. Be4 Qc7 12. O-O {White has a king attack} (12. O-O-O $5 Nf6 13.
Bf4 $18) 12... Nf6 (12... f5 13. Bd3 Bd6 14. Qh5+ Kf8 15. Rfe1 $11) 13. Bd3 {
Black has a cramped position} (13. Rad1 Be7 14. Bf4 e5 $16) 13... h6 {White
has a very active position} (13... Bd6 $5 14. g3 Bd7 $11) 14. Rfe1 Be7 {
Black should quickly conclude development.} (14... Bd7 15. Bf4 Qb6 16. Ne4 $14)
15. Rad1 (15. Bf4 Qb6 $14) 15... Bd7 $14 {White has an active position} 16. Bf4
{White threatens to win material: Bf4xc7} Qc8 (16... Qb6 17. Be4 Bc6 18. Bxc6+
Qxc6 19. Qxc6+ bxc6 20. Na4 $14) 17. Be5 {Black has a cramped position} Bc6 18.
Qg3 Bf8 $4 (18... O-O $142 $14 {was possible}) 19. Bxf6 $18 gxf6 20. Re2 (20.
Bf5 $142 $1 {and White has triumphed} Be7 21. Qg7 $18) 20... Qb8 21. Qh4 $4 {
White threatens to win material: Qh4xf6. White loses the upper hand} (21. Qg4
$142 Qc8 22. Bf5 $18) 21... Bg7 $4 (21... Be7 22. Be4 f5 23. Bxc6+ bxc6 $14)
22. Ne4 (22. Qb4 $142 {secures victory} Qc7 23. Rxe6+ fxe6 24. Bg6+ Qf7 25. Qg4
$18 (25. Bxf7+ $6 Kxf7 26. Ne4 Bf8 $18)) 22... Bxe4 (22... Qe5 23. f4 Qxb2 24.
Nd6+ Ke7 25. Bc4 $11) 23. Rxe4 (23. Qxe4 $142 $5 Qc7 24. Qa4+ Kf8 25. Red2 $16)
23... f5 $11 {Black threatens to win material: f5xe4} 24. Re2 Qc7 (24... O-O
$142 $5 $11 {is worthy of consideration}) 25. Bxf5 $16 Rd8 $4 {the position is
going down the drain} (25... Qe7 26. Qf4 O-O 27. Bd3 $16) 26. Rxd8+ (26. Rxe6+
fxe6 27. Bg6+ Kf8 28. Rxd8+ Qxd8 29. Qxd8#) 26... Qxd8 $16 27. Qxd8+ (27. Qb4
Qd4 28. Qxd4 Bxd4 $16) 27... Kxd8 $14 28. Be4 Kc7 29. b3 Rd8 30. g3 Rd1+ 31.
Kg2 Bc3 32. Re3 {White threatens to win material: Re3xc3} Bg7 (32... Bd4 33.
Rd3 Rxd3 34. Bxd3 $14) 33. Bd3 $16 Ra1 (33... Bd4 34. Re4 Bc5 35. Rf4 $16) 34.
a4 (34. Rf3 f6 35. Rf4 f5 $18) 34... Rd1 (34... Kd7 $142 $5 $16) 35. Rf3 $18 f5
36. Re3 (36. g4 $5 Re1 $18) 36... Kd6 37. Kf3 (37. Bc4 e5 $16) 37... a5 (37...
Rd2 38. Bc4 Be5 39. Rd3+ Rxd3+ 40. Bxd3 $14) 38. Ke2 (38. Bc4 e5 $16) 38... Rh1
(38... Rc1 $142 $16) 39. h4 (39. Bc4 Be5 $18) 39... Rh2 $2 (39... Bd4 $142 {
and Black has air to breath} 40. Rf3 Ke5 $11) 40. Bc4 $16 Be5 41. Rd3+ (41. Kf1
$142 $5 f4 42. gxf4 Bxf4 43. Rxe6+ Kc7 44. Bd5 $18) 41... Ke7 $14 42. Bb5 {
The white bishop is well posted.} Bd6 43. c3 {Covers b4} (43. Rc3 Bb4 44. Rc8
Bd6 $14) 43... Bc5 $11 {Black threatens to win material: Bc5xf2} 44. Rf3 b6 45.
Kf1 Rh1+ 46. Kg2 {White threatens to win material: Kg2xh1} Rb1 47. Bc4 Rb2 48.
Rf4 Rc2 {Black threatens to win material: Rc2xc3} 49. Rf3 Kd6 50. Rd3+ 1/2-1/2
