C64 Spanish Game: Classical Defence (3...Bc5) except 4.O-O Nf6 (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Bc5 4.O-O Nge7 5.Nc3)

The game below was played in the 2014 August Grand Seven Fourteen II tournament that was held at Red Hot Pawn. This is still the most successful tournament I have played at the site and I think my next tournament win there if there ever will be a second one, will be far in the future. With the way I play these days, I am not that confident of my abilities to win a game or even a tournament. That being said, my results have been a bit better lately in correspondence chess, though it may be only due to the fact that my opponents have been lower rated on average compared to the time not so long ago when I lost almost every game.

While some inaccurate moves were played before the move 11.c4, it is the 11th move by my opponent that made a real weakness in Diapason's position. Moving the pawn to c4 allowed me to control the square d4 dominantly. The move hardly lost the game, but it made playing the game more difficult for my opponent.

The game went further down the drain for Diapason, when my opponent played 15.d3. After that move the engine thinks that White is quite lost or at least very close to being lost. The strongest reply seems to be 15...Bh5, though I would prefer 15...Qf7 with the idea of increasing the pressure towards White's pinned knight and perhaps winning some material as well.

Diaposon's position quickly fell apart completely, the clearest losing blunder being 17.g3, after which it was crystal clear that I was on my way to win the game, which I was able to do by checkmating my opponent on move 20.

[Event "Grand Seven Fourteen"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2014.08.11"] [Round "1"] [White "Diapason"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C64"] [WhiteElo "1514"] [BlackElo "1827"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "40"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Bc5 {Spanish Game: Classical Variation} 4. O-O Nge7 (4... Nf6 5. c3 O-O 6. d4 Bb6 7. Bg5 {Spanish Game: Classical Variation. Modern Main Line}) 5. Nc3 {C64 Spanish Game: Classical Defence (3...Bc5) except 4.O-O Nf6} a6 {Black threatens to win material: a6xb5} 6. Bd3 $146 (6. Ba4 Ba7 (6... d6 7. d3 h6 8. Be3 Ba7 9. Bxa7 Rxa7 10. d4 Bd7 11. d5 Na5 12. Bxd7+ Qxd7 13. Nd2 b6 14. f4 c6 15. fxe5 dxe5 16. b4 Nb7 17. Nc4 cxd5 18. exd5 Qc7 19. Qd3 b5 20. Nb2 O-O 21. Rf3 {Apaza,J-Perez,J Cochabamba 2015 0-1 (43)}) 7. d3 O-O 8. Bg5 f6 9. Be3 Kh8 10. Bxa7 Nxa7 11. d4 d6 12. Ne2 Bg4 13. Qd3 b5 14. Bb3 Nac6 15. a3 Na5 16. Ba2 c5 17. b4 c4 18. Qe3 Nac6 19. d5 Nb8 20. h3 Bh5 {Reinup,H (1433)-Stuhr,F (1740) Shrivenham 2016 0-1 (46)}) (6. Bc4 b5 (6... O-O 7. Ng5 Qe8 8. Qh5 h6 9. Nxf7 Rxf7 10. Bxf7+ Qxf7 11. Qxf7+ Kxf7 12. d3 b5 13. Be3 Bd4 14. Nd1 Bb7 15. c3 Bxe3 16. Nxe3 Rf8 17. f3 Kg8 18. Kh1 Ng6 19. Rg1 Nce7 20. h3 Nf4 21. Kh2 {Duriez,A-Stotskaja,E Rimavska Sobota 1992 1-0 (38)}) 7. Bb3 d6 8. Ng5 d5 9. Nxd5 Nxd5 10. Bxd5 Qxg5 11. Bxc6+ Bd7 12. Bxd7+ Kxd7 13. d4 Qg6 14. dxc5+ Ke7 15. Qf3 Qc6 16. Be3 b4 17. Rfd1 a5 18. Rd5 f6 19. Rad1 Rhd8 20. Rxd8 Rxd8 {Pecha,T (2212)-Maracek,I (2103) Slovakia 2013 1-0 (34)}) ( 6. Bxc6 $5 Nxc6 7. Nxe5 Nxe5 8. d4 $14) 6... O-O 7. a3 {Covers b4} d6 8. b4 { White threatens to win material: b4xc5} (8. Bc4 b5 9. Ba2 Bg4 $11) 8... Ba7 $15 9. Nd5 (9. Bc4 b5 10. Ba2 Nd4 11. Nxd4 Bxd4 $15) 9... Be6 (9... Nxd5 10. exd5 Ne7 11. c4 $15) 10. Nxe7+ (10. Bc4 Bxd5 11. Bxd5 Nxd5 12. exd5 Nd4 $11) 10... Qxe7 11. c4 (11. c3 f5 12. exf5 Bxf5 13. Bxf5 Rxf5 $11) 11... Nd4 12. Bb2 Bg4 13. Be2 Nxe2+ 14. Qxe2 f5 15. d3 (15. c5 fxe4 16. Qxe4 Bxf3 17. gxf3 Qg5+ 18. Kh1 Qxd2 $15) 15... Qf6 (15... Qf7 16. Rae1 $17) 16. h3 (16. c5 Qg6 $17) 16... Bh5 17. g3 $4 {the position was bad, and this mistake simply hastens the end} ( 17. c5 $142 $19) 17... fxe4 18. dxe4 Bxf3 19. Qd3 (19. Qe1 {is not much help} Bg2 20. Qe2 Bxh3 $19) 19... Qg6 20. Bc1 (20. c5 {desperation} Bxe4 21. Qc4+ d5 22. Qe2 $19) 20... Qxg3# 0-1