C01 French: Exchange Variation (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Bd3 Nf6 5.Bg5)

Previously one of my opponents has played the move 4.Nf3 and I have played the move 4.Be2. Even though the game where I played the move 4.Be2 was successful for me, I chose to play 4.Bd3 in this game. All of the three options are perfectly playable and none of them actually decided the game. The game was played quite well by both players until I took my first step towards the loss in the position below.

I played 13.dxc5 and ended up in some small trouble. In order to keep the position equal, I should have played 13.Na3, 13.Bb5 or 13.Rc1. The game continued with the following moves 13...bxc5 14.Na3 Ne5. In that position I moved my bishop to f5, which was my second unfortunate step towards the loss. Foogie1 played 15...Bxf5 and had a clear advantage. Foogie1's pieces were all well placed, maybe apart from the rook on a8. My knight on a3 was placed badly, it could not easily get into the game. Also my pawn on b2 was rather weak and easily attackable. While my position was rather difficult, it was not lost until I played 17.Qg3 in the position below.

Instead of 17.Qg3, I should have played 17.Qd6, but even there, the position does not look promising for me. I played a few more moves, but had to accept my defeat after the move 23...Nfh3+.

[Event "atadros's mini-tournament V"] [Site "http://gameknot.com/chess.pl?"] [Date "2016.05.13"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "foogie1"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C01"] [WhiteElo "1804"] [BlackElo "2258"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "46"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 {French Defense: Exchange Variation} exd5 4. Bd3 (4. c4 {French Defense: Exchange Variation, Monte Carlo Variation}) (4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Bg5 {French Defense: Exchange Variation, Svenonius Variation}) 4... Nf6 5. Bg5 {C01 French: Exchange Variation} h6 6. Bf4 (6. Bh4 Be7 7. Nf3 O-O 8. O-O Nc6 9. c3 Ne4 10. Bxe7 Nxe7 11. Nbd2 Nd6 12. Qc2 Bf5 13. Rae1 Bxd3 14. Qxd3 Qd7 15. Ne5 Qf5 16. Re2 Qxd3 17. Nxd3 Rfe8 18. Rfe1 Kf8 19. f3 Ng6 20. Ne5 Nf4 { Simacek,P (2477)-Markowski,T (2577) Poronin 2012 1/2-1/2 (42)}) (6. Qe2+ Be7 7. Bxf6 gxf6 8. Nf3 Nc6 9. Nbd2 Nb4 10. a3 Nxd3+ 11. Qxd3 Qd6 12. O-O-O Qf4 13. Rhe1 Kf8 14. Qe3 Qxe3 15. Rxe3 Bd7 16. Rde1 Bd6 17. g3 Be6 18. Nh4 Kg7 19. f4 Rhe8 20. Nf5+ Kf8 {Ferreira,L (1683) -Berbel,E (1855) Batatais 2014 1-0 (36)}) 6... Bd6 7. Qd2 Bxf4 $146 (7... Nc6 8. Bb5 O-O 9. c3 Ne4 10. Qc1 Re8 11. Ne2 a6 12. Bd3 b5 13. O-O b4 14. Be3 Qh4 15. g3 Qd8 16. Nd2 Bh3 17. Rd1 Qf6 18. Nf4 Bxf4 19. Bxf4 bxc3 20. bxc3 Nxd2 21. Qxd2 Qd8 22. Rab1 {Beltz,F-Leim,C Guben 1996 0-1 (33)}) 8. Qxf4 O-O {Black castles and improves king safety} 9. Ne2 b6 10. O-O c5 11. c3 Re8 12. Ng3 Nc6 13. dxc5 (13. Na3 Bd7 $11) 13... bxc5 $15 14. Na3 Ne5 15. Bf5 (15. Bc2 $5 $15) 15... Bxf5 16. Nxf5 Ng6 17. Qg3 $2 (17. Qd6 $142 $17) 17... Rb8 $19 18. b3 Re5 19. Qf3 Ne4 20. Rfd1 $4 {an oversight. But White was lost anyway.} (20. Rfe1 Qf6 21. Ng3 Qxf3 22. gxf3 Nxc3 23. Rec1 $19) 20... Ng5 21. Qd3 (21. Nxh6+ {doesn't improve anything} gxh6 22. Qg3 Ne4 $19) 21... Nf4 22. Qb1 (22. Qf1 {the only chance to get some counterplay} Rxf5 23. f3 $19) 22... Qf6 23. Ne3 Nfh3+ $1 {Clearance: f4} (23... Nfh3+ 24. Kh1 Nxf2+ 25. Kg1 Ngh3+ 26. gxh3 Nxh3+ 27. Kh1 Qf3+ 28. Ng2 Re2 29. Qh7+ Kxh7 30. b4 Qxg2#) 0-1