B36 Sicilian: Maroczy Bind: Gurgenidze System (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 d6 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 g6 7.Be2 Bg7 8.Nf3 O-O)

The game that will be seen today was previously located in the post B32 Sicilian Defense: Open #3. That post was renamed to B32 Sicilian: Löwenthal and Kalashnikov Variations (7...Nf6). This game was played in a team match called Open Challenge Magnus Carlsen Group. It is played between Magnus Carlsen Group and DORU-66 & HIS BEST FRIENDS. I will never understand the fixation of all caps in a team name but then again it does not bother me as much as it does some people. This match is played on 21 boards and I played board 4 for Magnus Carlsen Group. I won both my games in the match, this game on time and the other with my opponent's resignation. Even though there are still games left to play, DORU-66 & HIS BEST FRIENDS have already won the match as the score is at the moment I type this 12,5 - 24,5 in favor of our opponent.

Up to the move 5.c4 this game followed one of my previously shared games in this blog. In the other game my opponent played 5...e5 and in this game kroksis played 5...Nf6. The reason why this game ended in my victory was not due to the move 5...Nf6, the reason came later on in the game. The first time my advantage became a clear one was after the move 12...b6 and it was played in the position below.

While the downhill might have started with the move 12...b6, the final mistake was seen after my 16th move Bg4. The position below has been taken after the move 16.Bg4.

Kroksis played 16...e5 and the game was lost for my opponent. 16...Rf6 is probably a better move, but it is unlikely that kroksis would be able to hang on in the game for long regardless.

[Event "Open Challenge Magnus Carlsen Group - B"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2014.11.05"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "kroksis"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B36"] [WhiteElo "1918"] [BlackElo "1718"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "41"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 {Sicilian Defense: Open (#3)} d6 (4... e5 5. Nb5 d6 {Sicilian Defense: Kalashnikov Variation}) (4... g6 5. c4 Nf6 6. Nc3 Nxd4 7. Qxd4 d6 {Sicilian Defense: Accelerated Dragon. Maroczy Bind Gurgenidze Variation}) 5. c4 Nf6 6. Nc3 g6 7. Be2 Bg7 8. Nf3 (8. Nxc6 bxc6 9. O-O O-O 10. f4 Rb8 11. Kh1 Nd7 12. Qc2 Nc5 13. Be3 Qa5 14. a3 Rxb2 15. Qxb2 Bxc3 16. Qc2 Bxa1 17. Rxa1 Bd7 18. Bd2 Qa4 19. Qxa4 Nxa4 20. Rb1 Nc5 21. Be3 Ra8 22. Bxc5 dxc5 {Vijayalakshmi,S (2329)-Gokhale,J (2369) India 1999 1/2-1/2 (57)}) 8... O-O {B36 Sicilian: Maroczy Bind: Gurgenidze System} 9. O-O Be6 { White has an active position} (9... a6 10. Qc2 Bg4 11. h3 Bxf3 12. Bxf3 Rc8 13. Ne2 Ne5 14. Nf4 Rxc4 15. Qe2 Qc8 16. Bd2 Nxf3+ 17. Qxf3 Nxe4 18. Bc1 Qc6 19. Rd1 Nf6 20. Qe3 e5 21. Ne2 Rc8 22. Nc3 e4 23. g4 b5 24. g5 {Galeano,O (1591) -Velez Alvarez,L (1871) Bogota 2016 0-1 (33)}) 10. Ng5 $146 (10. Be3 Rc8 11. Qd2 Ng4 12. Bf4 f5 13. h3 Nge5 14. Bh6 Qd7 15. Bxg7 Kxg7 16. Qg5 Nxf3+ 17. Bxf3 Ne5 18. Be2 Bxc4 19. Bxc4 Rxc4 20. Nd5 e6 21. Ne3 Rc5 22. Rad1 Qc7 23. Qg3 { 0-1 (23) Perez Velazco,D (1443)-Orbezo Rosales,X (1799) Cali 2011}) 10... Ne5 ( 10... Bc8 11. Be3 $11) 11. Nxe6 $14 {White forks: d8+f8} fxe6 {White has the pair of bishops} 12. Be3 b6 13. Rc1 Rc8 14. b3 Nfd7 (14... Nc6 15. f4 $16) 15. f4 Nc6 16. Bg4 e5 (16... Rf6 $5 $16) 17. f5 $18 Nd4 (17... Qe8 $18) 18. fxg6 Rxf1+ (18... Ra8 19. gxh7+ Kh8 20. Rxf8+ Nxf8 21. Nb5 $18) 19. Qxf1 hxg6 20. Nd5 Rb8 21. Qf2 (21. Qf2 Nf6 22. Qh4 Nxd5 23. cxd5 $18 (23. exd5 $6 Bf6 24. Qh6 Qf8 25. Qxg6+ Qg7 26. Qxg7+ Bxg7 $18)) 1-0