C47 Scotch Four Knights and Four Knights with 4.g3 (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.a3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.d4)

The blog that continues to evolve and never stays the same forever, even the old posts change over time, features again a game I played at Red Hot Pawn. Up to the move 14...Nb6 both players made reasonable moves and neither side gained a significant advantage. Then on move 15 chessandcoffee moved his or hers rook to b1 in order to get the rook away from the same diagonal as the bishop on f6. Maybe a move like Na4 worried my opponent.

It admittedly may look bad for White, but replying simply with Bd4 would solve the problem with Na4. Moving the rook to b1 did not really solve anything, but it created another problem for my opponent, it left the pawn on a3 undefended, which made the move 15...Nc4 an annoying move for White to face. I did find the knight fork in the game and it was easy cruising after that because chessandcoffee had to first take the knight from c4 with his or hers bishop and when I captured it with my counterpart, the White king had to remain in the center for the time being. In fact, when my opponent finally castled on move 20, it cost him or her a pawn in the process. While the move 19.Ne2 was the final blunder that guaranteed the loss, the position looked very dire for my opponent even without that move. We played a few more moves, but my opponent finally ended the suffering and resigned after my 25th move Kf8.

[Event "Corr game 15.11.2010-5.12.2010"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2010.11.15"] [Round "?"] [White "chessandcoffee"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C47"] [WhiteElo "1538"] [BlackElo "1831"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "50"] [EventDate "2010.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 {King's Knight Opening: Normal Variation} 3. a3 (3. Bb5 a6 (3... a5 {Spanish Game: Bulgarian Variation}) 4. Ba4 b5 5. Bb3 Bc5 {Spanish Game: Morphy Defense. Graz Variation} (5... Na5 6. Bxf7+ {Spanish Game: Morphy Defense. Norwegian Variation Nightingale Gambit})) 3... Nf6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. d4 { C47 Scotch Four Knights and Four Knights with 4.g3} exd4 6. Nxd4 d6 7. Nxc6 (7. Be2 O-O 8. O-O Re8 9. f4 Nxd4 10. Qxd4 Bg4 11. Bd3 Be6 12. Qf2 c6 13. h3 g6 14. f5 Bc8 15. Bg5 gxf5 16. exf5 d5 17. Rae1 d4 18. Rxe7 Qxe7 19. Qh4 {1-0 (19) Terbe,J (2191)-Lewtak,D (2356) Krakow 2017}) 7... bxc6 8. h3 $146 {Secures g4} (8. Bd3 O-O 9. O-O d5 (9... a5 10. Qe2 Nd7 11. f4 Bf6 12. Be3 Rb8 13. Rab1 Re8 14. Qd2 Bb7 15. Rbd1 c5 16. e5 dxe5 17. Bb5 c6 18. Ba4 Nf8 19. Qf2 Qc8 20. Ne4 exf4 21. Nxf6+ gxf6 22. Bxf4 Ba6 23. Bxb8 Bxf1 24. Rxf1 {Ivanov,S (2356)-Lehti, J (2243) Helsinki 2008 1-0 (35)}) (9... Re8 10. h3 a5 11. f4 d5 12. e5 Nd7 13. Na4 Nb6 14. Nxb6 Bc5+ 15. Kh1 cxb6 16. Bd2 Ba6 17. Bxa6 Rxa6 18. Qf3 Ra7 19. Rae1 f5 20. b4 axb4 21. axb4 Bf8 22. Ra1 Ree7 23. Qd3 g6 24. Be3 {Marholev,D (2449)-Janev,T (2297) Plovdiv 2009 1-0 (41)}) 10. Kh1 Rb8 11. Rb1 Bc5 12. Bg5 Qd6 13. Bxf6 Qxf6 14. exd5 cxd5 15. Nxd5 Qh4 16. Qf3 Bd6 17. h3 Re8 18. Ne3 h5 19. Bc4 Re7 20. b4 Qd4 21. Rfd1 Qe5 22. Kg1 Qh2+ {Ewert,H (1678)-Schmidek,E (1957) Oberhof 2013 0-1 (48)}) (8. Bc4 O-O 9. O-O a5 10. Re1 Nd7 11. Rb1 Bf6 12. Bd2 a4 13. Na2 Nb6 14. Bd3 Be6 15. Nb4 Qd7 16. Qf3 Nc4 17. Bxc4 Bxc4 18. Bc3 Bxc3 19. Qxc3 Bb5 20. e5 Rae8 21. Rbd1 Re6 22. exd6 cxd6 {Egorov,E (2381) -Aleksandrov,A (2615) Pavlodar 2015 1/2-1/2 (50)}) 8... O-O 9. Bd3 Nd7 10. Be3 Ne5 11. Be2 Be6 12. b3 {Controls c4} (12. O-O Nc4 13. Bxc4 Bxc4 $11) 12... Nd7 (12... f5 13. exf5 Bxf5 14. O-O $11) 13. b4 {Black has a cramped position} (13. O-O a5 $14) 13... Bf6 {Black threatens to win material: Bf6xc3} 14. Qd2 { Black has a cramped position} Nb6 {White has an active position} 15. Rb1 (15. O-O $5 $11 {is noteworthy}) 15... Nc4 $17 16. Bxc4 Bxc4 17. Bd4 (17. Ne2 Qe7 $17) 17... Re8 18. Bxf6 (18. Kd1 a5 $17) 18... Qxf6 19. Ne2 $4 {the pressure is too much, White crumbles} (19. f4 $142 Rad8 20. Kf2 $19) 19... Rxe4 $19 20. O-O Rxe2 21. Qd1 (21. Qc1 {is not much help} Qg6 22. Qf4 Re4 $19) 21... Qc3 ( 21... Rae8 $142 $5 {and Black can already relax} 22. Rc1 $19) 22. Re1 Rae8 23. Rxe2 Rxe2 24. Qf1 (24. f3 {is not the saving move} Rxc2 25. Qe1 Qxe1+ 26. Rxe1 Kf8 $19) 24... Rxc2 25. Re1 (25. Qe1 {the only chance to get some counterplay} Qxe1+ 26. Rxe1 $19) 25... Kf8 (25... Kf8 26. Re3 Bxf1 27. Rxc3 Rxc3 28. a4 Bc4 29. f3 d5 30. Kf2 d4 31. b5 d3 32. Kg3 d2 33. b6 cxb6 34. Kh4 d1=Q 35. Kg4 Qd6 36. a5 Be6+ 37. Kh4 Qf4+ 38. g4 bxa5 39. Kh5 Qh6#) 0-1