A03 Bird's Opening with 1...d5 (1.g3 d5 2.f4)

This game was played in the first round of a tournament called Maximum ! at Chess.com. The tournament is currently on its second round. So far it has lasted over 3 years and it will likely last many more months. I played on group 4 and I was 5th in the final standings of the group with 13.5 points. It meant that I did not advance to the second round. My opponent in this game, ArcaniusDK, was on last place in the final standings of the group and alas could not get any points. Maybe the most important moment of this game was seen when my opponent played 9.h3.

The move 9.h3 weakened the pawn on g3 and it would have allowed me to play Nh5 and attack the pawn on g3 and maybe invited the move Kf2 in reply. That being said, it probably was not the correct move to make. 9...c4 is the engine's recommendation at depth 32 and Black should have a winning advantage. I played 9...b6 in the game, which was a good move, but not even close to being the strongest option. I made an inaccurate move on move 11 that gave my opponent better chances to hold the game.

ArcaniusDK then played the obvious and best move 12.Kh2, which protected the pawn on h3 in a sufficient way. Then I moved my pawn to d4 and my opponent replied with 13.e4. The move was a bit inaccurate, but nowhere close to being the losing move. However, after I took on e3 with my pawn, ArcaniusDK resigned, which was a bit premature in my opinion.

[Event "Maximum ! - Round 1"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2014.09.11"] [Round "?"] [White "ArcaniusDK"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A03"] [WhiteElo "1056"] [BlackElo "1804"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "26"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] {[%evp 9,26,-59,-14,-27,9,-25,-32,-57,-65,-181,-83,-106,-61,-120,-53,-56,-56, -68,-54]} 1. g3 {A00 Hungarian Opening} d5 2. f4 {A03 Bird's Opening with 1... d5} c5 3. Bg2 (3. Nh3 Nf6 4. Nf2 Nc6 5. Bg2 h5 6. c4 e6 7. e3 g6 8. b3 Bg7 9. Bb2 O-O 10. O-O b6 11. d3 Bb7 12. Na3 Qd7 13. Nc2 Rfe8 14. Rb1 Rad8 15. Qe2 e5 16. Bh3 Qe7 17. f5 g5 {Glienke,M (2305)-Gruenenwald,J (2330) Germany 1987 1-0 (49)}) 3... Nc6 (3... e6 4. d3 Nf6 5. Nf3 g6 6. O-O Bg7 7. Nbd2 O-O 8. e4 Qc7 9. c3 Nbd7 10. Nh4 Rb8 11. Nb3 b6 12. f5 dxe4 13. fxe6 fxe6 14. dxe4 e5 15. Nf3 Bb7 16. Ng5 Rbe8 17. Bh3 Qc6 18. Nd2 {Latreche,H-Mazouz,L (1599) Algier 2013 1/ 2-1/2}) {[%tqu "En","", "","","c2c4","",10]} 4. c4 $146 {[%mdl 512]} (4. c3 g6 5. d3 Bg7 6. Qb3 Nf6 7. e4 d4 8. Ne2 dxc3 9. Qxc3 O-O 10. Qxc5 Qxd3 11. Nbc3 e5 12. O-O Nd4 13. Nxd4 Qxd4+ 14. Qxd4 exd4 15. Ne2 d3 16. Nc3 Rd8 17. Bd2 Be6 18. b3 Ng4 {Jozwik, A-Brzostowska,M (2025) Augustow 1996 1/2-1/2 (49)}) (4. d3 Nf6 5. c3 e5 (5... e6 6. Nf3 Bd6 7. O-O O-O 8. d4 Ne4 9. e3 c4 10. a3 Na5 11. Nbd2 f5 12. Nxe4 fxe4 13. Nd2 Bd7 14. Bh3 b5 15. Rf2 Nc6 16. Qf1 Qe7 17. Qg2 a5 18. Nb1 b4 19. Bg4 bxc3 20. Nxc3 {De Barros E Silva,B (1881)-Vasconcelos,J (2143) Serra Talhada 2012 0-1 (73)}) 6. fxe5 Nxe5 7. Bg5 Be7 8. Bf4 Ng6 9. Nf3 Nxf4 10. Qa4+ Bd7 11. Qxf4 O-O 12. O-O Qb6 13. Qc1 Bd6 14. c4 Rae8 15. Ng5 Rxe2 16. Nc3 Rxb2 17. Rxf6 Rxg2+ 18. Kxg2 gxf6 {Koch,A-Jochem,H Germany 1992 1-0 (37)}) 4... Nf6 (4... dxc4 5. Na3) 5. d3 e6 {-0.14/28} (5... dxc4 $15 {-0.59/23 is more appropriate.} 6. dxc4 Qxd1+ 7. Kxd1 Bf5) 6. Nf3 Bd6 7. cxd5 exd5 {[%mdl 32]} 8. Qb3 O-O 9. h3 {-1.81/22} ({White should try} 9. O-O $15 {-0.65/24}) 9... b6 {-0.83/27} (9... Nh5 $19 {-1.81/22 and Black stays clearly on top.} 10. Kf2 Nf6) 10. O-O $17 Be6 {-0.61/24} (10... Re8 $17 {-1.06/22} 11. Bd2 Be6) 11. Qc2 {-1.20/21} ({White should play} 11. Qd1 $15 {-0.61/24}) 11... Qc8 {-0.53/25 } (11... Nh5 $17 {-1.20/21} 12. Kh2 Qf6) {[%tqu "En","", "","","g1h2","",10]} 12. Kh2 $1 $15 d4 13. e4 {[#] Hoping for e5. [%tqu "En", "","","","d4e3","",10] } dxe3 $1 {Accuracy: White = 21%, Black = 18%.} 0-1