B92 Sicilian Najdorf: 6.Be2 (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.Be3 O-O 9.O-O Be6 10.f4 exf4 11.Bxf4 Nbd7 12.Kh1 Ne5)

The first game in this post was played at the Queen Alice Internet Chess Club. It is always nice to play at a site where your rating goes quite easily higher than you are used to seeing your rating at. My rating at Queen Alice Internet Chess Club is at the moment 2214, which is a lot higher rating than I have been able to get at any other correspondence chess site. If my memory serves me right, the only games I have played there have had a time control where you need to make your move within 7 days. For some reason that time control has worked out well for me. I do not know what my so called true rating should be, but it likely is not one that starts with a 2. Some people think that a player's real rating is what they have been able to get at over the board games. In my opinion, the rating you have is only relevant in the context the rating has been achieved at.

The game was played quite well by both players until the only real blunder of the game was played by me on move 24. It is a ridiculous mistake but when I ended up in this position I had no idea how should I continue and my other option was 24.c3 but I did not like that either all that much. I should have played that of course instead of playing like an idiot. Luckily as my opponent was still provisional, my rating did not drop from this loss.

I should have probably resigned already after the reply 24...Nxf3, but I continued my agony for a few moves and only resigned after the move 27...Rfe8.

[Event "Challenge"] [Site "http://www.queenalice.com/gam"] [Date "2015.04.14"] [Round "?"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "Jerzy"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B92"] [WhiteElo "2199"] [BlackElo "2189"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "54"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 {Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation. Opocensky Variation} e5 7. Nb3 Be7 8. Be3 (8. O-O Be6 { Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation. Opocensky Variation Modern Line} (8... O-O {Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation. Opocensky Variation Traditional Line})) 8... O-O 9. O-O Be6 10. f4 exf4 11. Bxf4 Nbd7 12. Kh1 Ne5 {B92 Sicilian Najdorf: 6.Be2} 13. Nd4 Qd7 14. Nxe6 (14. Bxe5 dxe5 15. Nxe6 Qxe6 16. Bf3 Rfd8 17. Nd5 Nxd5 18. exd5 Qd6 19. Be4 g6 20. c4 Rac8 21. b3 b5 22. Bd3 b4 23. Qe2 f5 24. Rad1 a5 25. Bb1 Rf8 26. Rde1 Bf6 27. Qf3 Bg7 28. Qg3 Kh8 {Swapnil,P (1369)-Harshad,S (1526) India 2016 1/2-1/2 (31)}) 14... Qxe6 15. Qd4 (15. Nd5 Nxd5 16. Qxd5 {1/2-1/2 (16) Krasnici, H (2249)-Breier,A (2308) Berlin 2000}) 15... Nc6 $146 {Attacking the isolated pawn on e4} (15... Rac8 16. Rae1 Rc5 17. b4 Nc6 18. Qd2 Rxc3 19. Qxc3 Nxe4 20. Qe3 d5 21. a3 a5 22. b5 Bc5 23. Qc1 Nf2+ 24. Rxf2 Bxf2 25. bxc6 bxc6 26. Rd1 Qxe2 27. Bd2 a4 28. Be1 Qf1# {0-1 (28) Hovanecz,L (2235)-Mincsovics,M (2139) Hungary 2000}) 16. Qc4 Qxc4 17. Bxc4 { White has an active position} Ne5 {Black threatens to win material: Ne5xc4. A comfortable square for the black knight} (17... Rac8 18. Rad1 $11) 18. Bb3 { White has an active position} Nh5 (18... Rac8 19. Rae1 $11) 19. Nd5 Bd8 20. Be3 (20. Bxe5 dxe5 21. Rad1 b5 $16) 20... Nf6 $14 21. Nxf6+ Bxf6 22. Rad1 {White threatens to win material: Rd1xd6} Rac8 23. Bd4 b5 24. Rf3 $4 {throwing away the advantage} (24. c3 $142 $14 {would hold out}) 24... Nxf3 $19 25. Bxf6 (25. gxf3 Bxd4 26. Rxd4 a5 $19) 25... Ne5 26. Bg5 (26. Bxe5 dxe5 27. c3 $19) 26... Nc4 27. Bc1 (27. h3 {a fruitless try to alter the course of the game} h6 28. Bf4 Rfd8 $19) 27... Rfe8 0-1