C78 Spanish Game: Archangelsk and Möller Defences (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Bc5 4.O-O d6 5.c3 a6 6.Ba4 Nf6)

While the games I have lately shared are ones that have appeared in the blog before, I have mostly needed to do the commentary to the games completely from scratch due to the very lazy way I posted these games before. This is especially true with the games that were in the post called C64 Spanish Game: Classical Variation originally. So, all the games where it still says after the move 3...Bc5 Spanish Game: Classical Variation in the notation were in that post. This was played in a tournament called Roy Lopez Classical Tournament and it was held at Chess.com. The name of the tournament was misspelled already when the tournament director created this tournament by the way if anyone is interested to know. I played on group 9 on the first round and finished third, which was not enough to advance to the second round. I gathered 5.5 points in 10 games and the winner of the group gathered 7.5 points, so I was not even close to winning the group, even though I was the only one in the group that managed to get a positive result against the winner. I drew one game against DEEPERGRAY who won the group and the other I won, though only due to a timeout win. DEEPERGRAY went on to win the tournament, so congratulations to him!

The first moment of interest came to the board after my 7th move d4. NormanTaga played 7...exd4, which was a move that I would have likely played as well, had I controlled the black pieces. It is not, however, a good idea to open up the center when your own king is still there. Besides, it does not solve the problem with the central pawns. When White takes back with the c-pawn, the square c3 opens up for the knight, which is the most natural square for it. Indeed the move 7...Ba7 does not look promising either in view of 8.d5. That being said, the problem with the move 8.d5 does not go away with 7...exd4 because the player controlling the white pieces can capture on d4 with the c-pawn.

After the pawns were exchanged in the center, NormanTaga should have moved the bishop to a7. Instead my opponent went for the move 8...b5, which could have lost the game, had I been able to take full advantage of the mistake. This great start for the game should have meant an easy path to victory, but like the result of the game shows, I was able to mess this up. By the move 20...f5, my opponent had been able to make the game difficult for me to play. With my 21st move Qxd6 I went from being clearly better to being in a losing position.

NormanTaga played the obvious 21...Rg8 in reply and it became clear that I would be soon lost. I continued resisting the inevitable for a few moves, but I had to resign after 26...Qh3+ when I saw the forced mate.

[Event "Roy Lopez Classical Tournament - Round"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2014.09.07"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "NormanTaga"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C78"] [WhiteElo "1743"] [BlackElo "1795"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "52"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Bc5 {Thematic Game - This is the starting position. Spanish Game: Classical Variation} 4. O-O d6 (4... Nf6 5. c3 O-O 6. d4 Bb6 7. Bg5 {Spanish Game: Classical Variation. Modern Main Line}) 5. c3 a6 6. Ba4 Nf6 {C78 Spanish Game: Archangelsk and Möller Defences} 7. d4 exd4 8. cxd4 b5 9. dxc5 bxa4 10. Qxa4 (10. cxd6 Qxd6 11. Qxa4 O-O 12. Rd1 Qc5 13. Nc3 Bd7 14. Be3 Qe7 15. Qc4 Rfc8 16. Bg5 Be8 17. Nd5 Qe6 18. Bxf6 gxf6 19. Qc3 Kg7 20. Nh4 Qe5 21. Nf5+ Kh8 22. Nxf6 Qxc3 23. bxc3 Ne5 24. f4 Ng6 {Ramirez Medina,V (2038) -Martin Rodriguez,F Las Palmas 2014 1-0 (44)}) 10... Bd7 11. cxd6 cxd6 12. Bg5 $146 (12. Nc3 Ne5 13. Qd1 Bg4 14. Bg5 (14. Kh1 Bxf3 15. gxf3 Ng6 16. Rg1 O-O 17. f4 Kh8 18. f5 Ne7 19. Rg2 h6 20. Qg1 Rg8 21. Bd2 Qb6 22. b3 Qd4 23. f3 Qxg1+ 24. Rgxg1 Nd7 25. b4 Rab8 26. Rgb1 Ne5 27. Kg2 Nc4 28. Bc1 Rgc8 { Prochaczka,S-Stefanka,M Slovakia 2000 1-0 (55)}) 14... Nxf3+ 15. gxf3 Bh3 16. Qa4+ Qd7 17. Qxd7+ Kxd7 18. Rfd1 Rhe8 19. Rd2 Re6 20. Rad1 Rb8 21. Ne2 Nh5 22. Bh4 Rg6+ 23. Bg3 Nxg3 24. fxg3 Rb6 25. Nf4 Rh6 26. g4 g5 {Stachon,M (1922) -Jelinek,M (1762) Czechia 2011 1-0 (54)}) 12... O-O 13. Nc3 Ne5 14. Qd1 Bg4 15. Nd5 Nxf3+ $2 (15... Ned7 $142 $18) 16. gxf3 Bh3 (16... Be6 17. Nxf6+ gxf6 $18) 17. Re1 h6 (17... Be6 {does not save the day} 18. Nxf6+ gxf6 19. Bh6 $18) 18. Nxf6+ (18. Bxf6 {might be the shorter path} gxf6 19. Qd4 Re8 20. Nxf6+ Qxf6 21. Qxf6 Re6 $18) 18... gxf6 (18... Kh8 {does not win a prize} 19. Nh7 $1 { Discovered attack: f6, Bg5xd8} hxg5 20. Nxf8 Qxf8 21. f4 $18) 19. Bxh6 Kh7 ( 19... Re8 {is no salvation} 20. f4 Qd7 $18) 20. Bf4 (20. Bxf8 $142 {finishes off the opponent} Qxf8 21. Kh1 $18) 20... f5 $16 21. Qxd6 $4 {forfeits the clear win} (21. exf5 $142 Rg8+ 22. Bg3 Bxf5 23. Rc1 $16) 21... Rg8+ $19 22. Kh1 Bg2+ 23. Kg1 Bxf3+ 24. Kf1 Qh4 (24... Bg2+ $142 {seems even better} 25. Ke2 Qh4 26. Qh6+ Qxh6 27. Bxh6 Kxh6 28. exf5 Rab8 $19) 25. Rec1 $4 {sad, but how else could White save the game?} (25. Re3 $142 Rad8 26. Qh6+ Qxh6 27. Bxh6 Bg2+ 28. Ke2 Kxh6 29. exf5 $19) 25... Rad8 (25... Qh3+ 26. Ke1 Rad8 27. Qxd8 Rxd8 28. Rd1 Bxd1 29. Rxd1 Rxd1+ 30. Kxd1 Qf3+ 31. Kc2 Qxe4+ 32. Kd2 Qxf4+ 33. Ke2 Qe4+ 34. Kd1 f4 35. a3 f3 36. Kd2 Qd4+ 37. Kc2 Qxf2+ 38. Kc3 Qe3+ 39. Kc4 f2 40. Kd5 f1=Q 41. Kd6 Qf6+ 42. Kd7 Qfe6+ 43. Kd8 Q3b6#) 26. Qe5 (26. Qh6+ {the last chance for counterplay} Qxh6 27. Bxh6 Kxh6 28. e5 $19) 26... Qh3+ (26... Qh3+ 27. Ke1 Rg1#) 0-1