C14 French: Classical System, 4.Bg5 Be7 main line (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7)

This game was played at Red Hot Pawn on the second of a tournament called 2014 October Long Haul Split I. The second round was played between the two group winners of round one, me and caissad4. The second round was not enough to decide the winner of the tournament, since both players won with the black pieces, so third round was needed. I was only able to draw the game where I controlled the white pieces and lost the other game on round three, which meant that caissad4 was the winner of the tournament. The game started to go a bit wrong for me already on move 5, when I moved my queen to d3, which I thought to be a good move at the time...

Soon it became clear that I was going to lose a pawn. The game continued with the moves 5...Nxe4 6.Bxe7 Qxe7 7.Nxe4 dxe4. Then I realized that I maybe do not want to take back on e4 due to the answer Qb4+ and my position would collapse. I did get an opportunity to get back into the game when caissad4 played 9...c6. The move 9...c6 is bad because the bishop is best positioned at the long diagonal and the pawn would just block the path of the bishop.

I should have then moved my queen to e3 and attack the undefended pawn on e4. Instead I played 10.g3, thinking that my bishop would be best placed at g2 and attack the pawn on e4 from there. It is, however, a bit slow move and allowed my opponent to fix his or her pawn structure with the move 10...e5. After that I was going downhill again until I got another chance to get back into the game after the blunder 16...Bf7.

In order to use my chance, I should have played the obvious looking move 17.Qc7. I completely missed my chance, of course, I did add pressure to the knight on d7 with 17.Rhd1, but that was easily dealt with 17...Nb6. I lasted a few more moves, but I had to resign after the beautiful move 24...Na3+!! After that it was completely certain that I was going to lose eventually, so I did not want to prolong the agony.

[Event "Long Haul Split"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2016.01.23"] [Round "2"] [White "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Black "caissad4"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C14"] [WhiteElo "1934"] [BlackElo "1928"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "48"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 {C14 French: Classical System, 4.Bg5 Be7 main line} 5. Qd3 (5. Bxf6 Bxf6 6. e5 Be7 7. Qg4 {French Defense: Classical Variation, Richter Attack}) (5. e5 Nfd7 6. h4 a6 {French Defense: Alekhine-Chatard Attack, Maroczy Variation} (6... Bxg5 7. hxg5 Qxg5 {French Defense: Alekhine-Chatard Attack, Albin-Chatard Gambit})) 5... Nxe4 6. Bxe7 Qxe7 7. Nxe4 dxe4 8. Qb3 O-O $146 (8... c6 9. Ne2 Qd6 10. a3 b6 11. Rd1 O-O 12. Ng3 Qf4 13. Qe3 Qxe3+ 14. fxe3 f5 15. Bc4 Kh8 16. Rf1 Na6 17. Nxe4 Nc7 18. Ng5 h6 19. Nh3 Nd5 20. Ke2 Bd7 21. Nf4 Kh7 22. Bd3 g5 23. Nxd5 {Szalai,K (1704) -Labancz,J (1632) Hungary 2011 1/2-1/2 (43)}) (8... Nc6 9. O-O-O O-O 10. a3 b6 11. Qe3 f5 12. f3 e5 13. dxe5 Nxe5 14. fxe4 fxe4 15. Qxe4 Bf5 16. Qe3 Rae8 17. Qc3 Ng4 18. Nf3 Qe3+ 19. Qxe3 Nxe3 20. Rd2 c5 21. Bb5 Re4 22. Re1 Bg4 23. Rde2 {Medunova,V (2065)-Sykora,R (2265) Czechoslovakia 1992 1-0 (31)}) 9. O-O-O c6 ( 9... b6 10. f3 $17) 10. g3 (10. Qe3 $142 $5 $11 {is worth consideration}) 10... e5 $17 11. Bg2 exd4 12. Rxd4 Be6 13. Qa4 (13. Qe3 f5 $17) 13... b5 (13... f5 14. f3 Nd7 15. Qa5 $17) 14. Qa5 $2 (14. Qa3 $142 c5 15. Rxe4 $17) 14... f5 $19 15. Ne2 Nd7 (15... c5 16. Rd2 Nc6 17. Qa6 $19) 16. Nf4 (16. Qc7 $142 Bd5 17. Nc3 $17) 16... Bf7 $4 {weakening the position} (16... Ne5 17. Nxe6 Qxe6 18. Bf1 $17) 17. Rhd1 $4 {White is ruining his position} (17. Qc7 $142 {would save the game} Rfd8 18. Rhd1 $11) 17... Nb6 18. Kb1 $4 {leading to a quick end} (18. Qc3 g5 19. Ne2 $19) 18... g5 19. Ne2 (19. Nd3 {does not save the day} Rac8 20. Qd2 $19) 19... Bd5 (19... c5 $142 {and Black has reached his goal} 20. Rd6 Nc4 $19) 20. Nc3 $17 Be6 21. g4 $4 {another bit of territory lost} (21. b3 $142 $17) 21... c5 $19 22. Rd6 Nc4 23. Rxe6 Qxe6 (23... Nxa5 $4 {too greedy} 24. Rxe7 Rad8 25. gxf5 Rxd1+ 26. Nxd1 $18) 24. Qxb5 (24. Qc7 {there is nothing better in the position} Rac8 25. gxf5 Rxc7 26. fxe6 Rxf2 27. Bxe4 $19) 24... Na3+ $3 { this sacrifice makes everything clear} (24... Na3+ 25. bxa3 Rab8 $19) 0-1